November 2026 Book Club

Nov 2026 Great Big Beautiful Life by Emily Henry

Alice Scott is an eternal optimist still dreaming of her big writing break. Hayden
Anderson is a Pulitzer-prize winning human thundercloud. And they’re both on balmy
Little Crescent Island for the same reason: to write the biography of a woman no one
has seen in years—or at least to meet with the octogenarian who claims to
be the Margaret Ives. Tragic heiress, former tabloid princess, and daughter of one of the
most storied (and scandalous) families of the twentieth century.

When Margaret invites them both for a one-month trial period, after which she’ll choose
the person who’ll tell her story, there are three things keeping Alice’s head in the game.
One: Alice genuinely likes people, which means people usually like Alice—and she has
a whole month to win the legendary woman over. Two: She’s ready for this job and the
chance to impress her perennially unimpressed family with a Serious Publication.
Three: Hayden Anderson, who should have no reason to be concerned about losing this
book, is glowering at her in a shaken-to-the core way that suggests he sees her as
competition.

But the problem is, Margaret is only giving each of them pieces of her story. Pieces they
can’t swap to put together because of an ironclad NDA and an inconvenient yearning
pulsing between them every time they’re in the same room. And it’s becoming
abundantly clear that their story—just like the tale Margaret’s spinning—could be a
mystery, tragedy, or love ballad . . . depending on who’s telling it.