The Best Picks From Kaia Gerber's Book Club (So Far)

While still relatively new on its feet, Kaia Gerber launched a book club with Alyssa Reeder. The literary group, called Library Science, kicked off in March 2024 and has been offering curated reading lists to fans ever since. The entire goal is to get young people reading again. With such a worthy goal, we wanted to explore the numerous offerings that Library Science presented. The grouping of texts is eclectic and varying, making it really enjoyable to peruse. From memoirs to short stories and fiction to poetry, the book club promotes a huge range of genres. Plus, Library Science has a totally curated vibe; the books are unique and unusual, setting itself apart from your ordinary list of best sellers or contemporary authors. 

Gerber and her book club are in good company, as there seems to be a trend of celebrities creating book clubs. Reese Witherspoon has Reese's Book Club, with an emphasis on female writers and female-driven texts. Fun fact: Reese's Book Club has a soft spot for romance novels, so if that's a thrill for you, it's a good club to join. Other book clubs, like Jenna Bush Hager's Read With Jenna, offer wonderful reading suggestions that'll spark thoughtful discussion. Gerber's reading list will surely do the same, and we've sourced our top five books from her ever-growing literary club.

Author Djuna Barnes lived from 1892–1982; born in New York State, she moved to Paris after World War I and later journeyed to London. She created a successful literary career working as a journalist and also writing plays, poetry, nonfiction, and fiction, and her novel "Nightwood" was lauded as a treasure of twentieth-century literature. Barnes moved to New York City, setting up residency in Greenwich Village. While all of Barnes' work was well received, it was her short fiction that spoke volumes. "I Am Alien to Life: Selected Stories" was a collection of short fiction that Barnes worked on and revised for many years. The stories are set in either Paris or New York, and capture the mundanity, as well as the will, to live.

Kaia Gerber chose Barnes's book as the November 2024 choice for Library Science. To facilitate a discussion on the text, she sat down with author and critic Merve Emre, who edited and composed the forward for the McNally edition of the collection. Both Gerber and Emre agreed that Barnes's work is challenging; there's nothing easy about reading her stories. "I think I'm terrified of her," Emre said of the author. Barnes is capable of such darkness and despair; while it's no beach read, both Gerber and Emre agreed that "I Am Alien To Life" was so grotesque and extreme that it was completely worth the read.

The curious, incredible, and semi-autobiographical novel "Astragal" by Albertine Sarrazin made an appearance on Kaia Gerber's book club, Library Science, in February 2024. The book club announced on Instagram that "Astragal" was the book of the week, and readers were intrigued. The novel is about a young woman, Anna, who breaks her ankle jumping from a jail cell in her desperate escape. She's helped by a man named Julien, a criminal himself, and the two fall in love. Published in France in 1965, the book caused a huge scene, and Sarrazin became a star. However, she had her own criminal history, frequently earning money as a sex worker, so Anna's plight wasn't so far off from her own. Both of Sarrazin's two novels were written in prison. She died at 29 during a surgery. 

The literary community has Patti Smith to thank for the resurrection of "Astragal." Smith encouraged the publishing company New Directions to reprint Sarrazin's novel, and the musician also wrote the introduction. Gerber has done her part too, in bringing the book to a new generation of readers by including it in her book club. It's certainly a unique choice, and a fan on Instagram asked what everyone else was thinking: "I find your reading selections quite intriguing and so different from other book clubs I have been a part of. How do you pick your recommendations?" But "Astragal" is such a gem, we're not complaining. 

Published in May 2023, Alexandra Auder's memoir "Don't Call Me Home" depicts her childhood in the Chelsea Hotel with her mother, Viva, a muse to Andy Warhol. Her moody, enigmatic, charismatic, and chaotic mother is at the center of the story, as Auder works through this coming-of-age tale in an undeniably unique setting. Kaia Gerber chose to feature the memoir on Library Science and sat down with Auder for a virtual interview in August 2023. 

Gerber smartly asked Auder about dealing with the pressure of "sugar-coating" memories for the sake of family members' feelings. Auder admitted that she didn't think about it, saying that she wrote the memoir first without thinking about other people's reactions. Auder said that her editor sat down with her near the end and they combed through anything that might come across as hurtful. Despite the fear of hurting anyone else's feelings, Auder did a brave and beautiful thing in writing "Don't Call Me Home." The tale is complex, as family dynamics so often are, and deeply feminist. Most of all, her love for her mother really shines through. The book has been hugely successful, and a fan on Goodreads hilariously summed up why. They wrote, "complicated, messy, unhinged mother/daughter relationship? i'm there baby." Ain't that the truth.

The novel "Martyr!" by Kaveh Akbar was published in January 2024 to rave reviews, and Kaia Gerber included it on her list of must-reads for Library Science. The novel centers around Cyrus Shams, the son of Iranian immigrants, who wants to learn the truth about his late mother. Delicately woven through trauma and death, "Martyr!" is all about finding the gritty heart of human experience. Gerber sat down with Akbar for an interview in February 2024 to talk about his writing process and what it's been like since publication. Akbar is first and foremost a poet, and Gerber asked him how his relationship to poetry shaped the writing of "Martyr!" Akbar explained that he's trained himself to see the world for its poetic use. He said that while he was writing his novel, he watched a movie a day to observe how the actors were using their hands, so that he could explain how his character, Cyrus, used his hands. 

The magic of "Martyr!" has taken over. On TikTok's literary iteration, BookTok, fans raved about it. One reader called it "gut-wrenchingly beautiful," and said that the experience of reading was a reverent one. Another reader on TikTok had a hard time putting into words how "Martyr!" made him feel but said that the novel was all about art providing meaning for our lives. "I just thought it was beautiful," the person ended. Gerber is not alone in loving the new novel. 

In May 2020, early into the existence of Library Science, Kaia Gerber announced on Instagram that the book of the week was "My Dark Vanessa" by Kate Elizabeth Russell. "i just started it and am already completely immersed ... it is so psychologically relevant," Gerber wrote of the novel. The novel was originally published in March 2020, and hit readers by storm. Focusing on fifteen-year-old Vanessa Wye, the novel grapples with her sexual experience with her 42-year-old English teacher. Later, as a grown woman, Vanessa must decide whether she'll speak out about this or stay silent. 

Gerber wasn't the only one left in shock by the power of "My Dark Vanessa." On Reddit, in the group r/books, one reader wrote a post entitled: "Was anyone else left reeling by My Dark Vanessa?" The comment section was flooded with responses from other readers who've had to read and re-read the book because of its sheer power. "I still think about this book a lot," one person began. "It's so good, and devastating — amazing that this was a debut novel." The novel really shook people up, but readers were quick to stress that Russell in no way romanticized what happened to Vanessa. Instead, she told the dark story and let the reader grapple with the web of emotions. Clearly, Gerber isn't hesitant to put tough reads on her book list.9

To create this list, we chose from an assortment of genres, particularly novels and memoirs, that Kaia Gerber included in her book club, Library Science. We chose from different periods of publication, with novels and memoirs that came out years ago, as well as contemporary publications. While we trust Gerber's literary instinct, we also combed through reviews on GoodReads, TikTok, Instagram, and other social media platforms to crowdsource feedback on the text. While each book is obviously meaningful to Gerber, we wanted to make sure that other readers also had profound experiences with these books. Lastly, we wanted each book to consider issues larger than itself. We curated our collection based on books that grappled with issues that most humans have to contend with, from sexual development to family dynamics as well as grief. We hope that this carefully selected list offers some insight into these fundamental experiences of human nature and also provides some enrichment and delight.