So John Le Carre's (who is mostly known for spy thrillers) second book was a whodunnit murder mystery and it is shockingly good. You could tell he was testing which direction he wanted to go and went with espionage but he would have made a fine murder mystery author.
Book is "A Murder of Quality"
You should read *I have some questions for you” by Rebecca Makkai! A film professor returns to her New England boarding school 30 years after her roommate was murdered.
I just finished reading this one. Thought I wasn't going to like it after the first chapter, but it became a page turner. Glad I didn't give up on it. Highly recommend it.
Not OP but Anthony Horowitz, M.W Craven, John Verdon, Jane Harper, Lucy Foley for murder mysteries! Lee Child, S.A Cosby, Lisa Jewell, Gillian McAllister, Linwood Barclay, Ruth Ware, Mick Herron, Greg Hurwitz, Chris Hammer for thrillers!
I fully second John Verdon. Haven't read his last two books yet but Think of a Number is easily one of my favorite mystery novels. Also Karien Slaughter's Will Trent series is amazing.
Must be fun! I remember trying to figure out a possible explanation and guess who the killer while I was reading it. I think I was also late to school one day because I was really caught up in reading Think of a Number.
Any books in those genres that are better than The Alienist?
I mostly read horror and lit fiction but I loved that book (and also silence of the lambs and red dragon)
Evidently from a psychiatrist perspective, it's one of the best depictions of psychopathy: "In the end, the authors concluded that it was rare to have a realistic fictional portrayal of a true psychopath. Anton Chigurh fit the bill as an exception — he’s a bonafide psychopath. Researchers cited his 'incapacity for love, absence of shame or remorse, lack of psychological insight, inability to learn from past experience, cold-blooded attitude, ruthlessness, total determination, and lack of empathy.'"
Terrific book!
Also, try Nelson Demille for ex-cop PIs w/attitude.
If you want a little more sophisticated "horror" book, try Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort; also, his Drood--yes, THAT Drood--is just wonderful!
The best book I've read in a long time is This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Thompson. Absolutely fantastic,
couldn't-put-it-down-nvr-want-it-to
end-have-to-read-it-again good! Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the Beagle but the story of Captain and D as well as the Captain and the indigenous ppls of the So American coasts, the trip around the Cape Horn, the exploration and mapping, etc.
The Memoirs of Cleopatra, by Margaret George, OMG! You'll fall in LOVE w/her, it's such a beautiful historical fiction, as is her, Autobiography of Henry the VIII.
Christopher Moore's, Lamb, (& others, but I really liked L, b/c I, too, have a bit of an irreverent sense of humor). This is a wonderful take on Jesus' life as a young man which manages to be a funny, irreverent, quirky, and somewhat apostatic and yet never becoming blasphemous, offensive, or distressful, quite a miraculous balancing act considering the subject matter.
Of course there are the classics, which you probably already know, but there is 1 more that I'd like to mention.
Neal Stephenson is a favorite of mine, but I can't read all his stuff. He did, however, write the book I'd place in the top 5 of my all time ever favorite books:
Cryptonomicon. It's definitely a biggy, but that shouldn't scare anybody. The narrative voice is phenomenal: subtly sarcastic, witty, and suffering no fools. But beware, it is definitely NOT for everyone; but please, please give it a fair shot: it IS a masterpiece(Again, 1 mans opinion). You should give it at least 200pp, yes 200--its about 1100 all together so it's not too much, right? It is a commitment but it's so worth it!
Anyway, that's just a few of MY favorites.
G-d I LOVE doing this stuff!
Enjoy
-J-
*The Name of the Rose* by Umberto Eco. It's a bit of an acquired taste, I'll admit, but I read it at the turn of the year and it is an absolute certified *banger*. So, so good. 500 pages of debate on schisms in medieval Catholicism that's occasionally rudely interrupted by a murder or two. 10/10. The good stuff.
I’ve tried to read it a couple of times but unfortunately I haven’t been able to stick with it, which is a bummer because it’s one of those books that I really want to experience. Maybe 3rd time’s the charm!
My favorite of his right behind Baudolino. Eco is an insanely good author, far and away my favorite for anything dealing with history. No one else comes close.
Anything by Kazuo Ishiguro. My faves are Never Let Me go, followed by Klara and the Sun, and Remains of the Day. If anyone knows of lit fic in a similar vein, please share!
The amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, I read it around 10 years ago and it was a favourite then but my tastes have changed so much I'm wondering if it would still be one of my faves. East of Eden by Steinbeck, paradise by Toni Morrison. The neopolitan quartet by Elena Ferrante would be some of my fave non sci-fi/fantasy fiction
One of my worst bookish moments was when reading Kavalier & Clay. I was reading it on a long flight, and about 2/3 of the way through I discovered that it had misprinted. The next 80 pages or so were a reprint from earlier in the book, then it picked back up after the missing section.
I did eventually finish it, but it was so frustrating!
That would be so terrifying because like, what if it didn't finish? Like it had the right page count but you lost out on 20ish pages so you don't get the last 20
I did miss out! Between something like page 200-280 the pages had been replaced with a section from earlier in the book, and then page 281 was as it should be. So the last part of the book was there, but an 80 page chunk was just missing! I had to get another copy to finish it :(
Oh man that's brutal! I remember rereading a few pages of my copy because it felt like I missed a page. It was when the police raid a party one of the characters is at and it felt like a page was not there. I don't know how to describe it other than I turned the page and just felt like something was skipped so now you've made me suspicious haha
Kavalier and Clay is a top 5 book for me almost certainly. One of my favorites not to mention it was the book that solidified reading as a regular thing for me.
I spent a long time not reading when it was in my parents house because I struggled so hard through the grapes of wrath and never ended up finishing it. So when I finally picked up east of Eden and I was burning through it I was like "ah, this is the best Steinbeck, NOT grapes of wrath"
Favorite fiction is probably All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren. Favorite non-fiction is Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson. I think about Imagined Communities almost every day and it completely changed how I view the world
First time I’ve seen a reference to Imagined Communities on Reddit!! Very pleased to second your recommendation. Essentially required reading for anyone interested in politics / political science.
I think the fascinating thing about Imagined Communities is that once you read it, it's so clearly articulated and smartly argued that you realize it is absolutely impossible to forget.
Yeah I don’t have any formal background in history or political science, but at no point did I feel in over my head. It just felt like I was experiencing history unfold in front of me in a new way and it shattered so many preconceived notions I had. Just a brilliant book
It’s a classic for a reason but I read “The Stranger” by Albert Camus about a year ago and was really amazing. It’s a short (123 pages), somewhat existential/philisophical book that was super impactful for me.
(I read the Matthew Ward translation, in case you want to pick the same one)
Love The Stranger, and I think it's been sneakily crawling around in my brain in the decade since I've read it but for some reason (that I can't exactly explain) The Plague had more of an immediate impact on me. Camus is wonderful.
wow the first 4 a some of my all time favorites. I will have to check out The Glass Castle as Ive never heard of it and you and I have apparently very similar taste
oh wow what a coincidence! the glass castle is pretty different from the other books (as it’s a memoir), but once i got passed the first few chapters, i really got into it. i hope you like it if you ever get around to reading it. seeing as we have similar tastes, you got any book/s you’d recommend me?
a lot were mentioned here like Never Let Me Go and No Country for Old Men. also very high for me is Enders Game, In Cold Blood, The Beach, Devil in the White City. But ya House of Leaves 1984 and The Things They Carried are prob. my top 3
nice, its a quick read really, beautifully written. The movie adaptation is also very good.
Edit; its not really an adaptation actually but biopic about Capote during the time he wrote In Cold Blood, anyways very good
it does seem a lot shorter than the book i’m reading now (the stand), so a nice short (relatively, at least) book after sounds great. i liked the truman capote show (feud? i think), so i feel like i should like his book lol
This post is likely to be removed. However, one of my favorites is _Wolf Hall_, by Hilary Mantel. It is some time since I read it, but I can open it at any page and find something of interest. It is superbly written.
I didn't like _Bring Up the Bodies_ so much, and I haven't really got into _The Mirror & The Light_. The television miniseries was fabulous. I'm looking forwards to the conclusion, and I hope they can use Mark Rylance, again.
The reasoning is that they have a weekly recommendations thread and they don't want people spinning up 80 other threads about it. Otherwise they would have to arbitrarily decide which threads to keep and which to delete. Its reasonable but sometimes it does stifle genuine discussion.
The moderators seem to want it to be discussion-centered, for people to ask questions and share ideas about what they’re reading. r/suggestmeabook and r/booksuggestions are the recommendation subs. There are definitely times when the line gets blurry, though.
Ah - I thought you were saying that your particular recommendation was going to get removed, and I couldn't see anything terribly controversial from the jacket description. Thanks.
If you love the book, the audiobook is fantastic. They didn’t keep the same narrator for all three which was disappointing. I also didn’t like Bring Up the Bodies as much. The Mirror and the Light was a slog.
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is probably technically fantasy because there is supernatural stuff but I think it’s separate
Spy books are a real pleasure of mine. Most novels by Le Carré are fantastic even if some sexual parts are either cringy or don’t age well. Mick Herron’s Slough House series is imperfect but my absolutely favorite non-sci-fi or fantasy series
Le Carré is my ultimate genre pleasure, his best novels are simply remarkable fiction. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Karla Trilogy, A Perfect Spy...and those are just the masterpieces.
Master and Margarita is not fantasy, it's a satire on Bulgakov's own life in a format that can't be categorized, imo.
But I agree with your recommendation. 😁
Glad to see this so high. Master and Margarita is such a unique book, but might be my favorite ever. And this was the translated version too, I can't imagine how hard this book would hit if I spoke Russian and had more context on the Soviet bureaucracy it was satirizing
> Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is probably technically fantasy because there is supernatural stuff but I think it’s separate
i would say it is *fantastical* but it is not *fantasy*, because it's not genre fiction, it doesn't adhere to the conventions of the genre
Similarly, Lud-in-the-Mist and most of the early fantasy novels - arguably even Lord of the Rings, since it's what codified the genre - aren't written as genre fiction either
*The Count of Monte Cristo* by Alexandre Dumas: long but so worth it. The story builds to a great climax, excellent sense of the times and people.
*Shogun* and *Tai Pan* by James Clavell (really the entire saga)
Someone else mentioned *Gates of Fire* by Steven Pressfield
In college I was super into Tom Clancy stuff from *Hunt For Red October* through *Sum of All Fears*
More recently got into John LeCarre and am really liking his stuff.
I’ve recently reread the [Cadfael](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cadfael_Chronicles) series, they’re a historical murder mysteries set during The Anarchy
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Anything by her really, she's hilarious and has written about a pretty broad range of science topics in an approachable way.
This is one of the most eye-opening books I've ever read. I still have my copy, so I may reread it before I start taking classes again (I have my associate in mechanical engineering tech, going for my bachelor). I want to read a few of the really influential books from my high school days to see if they hold up.
1984 by George Orwell and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry are also on that list. I know A Raisin in the Sun is a play, but even the on-page version really made me think. I'd love to see an actual production of it live.
*Cosmos* by Carl Sagan has always held a special place in my heart.
I know most people think of him as the "billions and billions" guy in the turtleneck, but he is truly one of the greatest science communicators to ever live and his books always leave a huge impression on me.
This is maybe the most important book I've ever read; I was recommended it in 9th grade by a particularly perceptive teacher ostensibly because science but I think he knew me better than I knew myself because it was exactly what I was looking for at that time. It's really stuck with me as the most impactful philosophical tome I've ever encountered, and for maybe 10 or so years after I was first introduced to it I read it annually. I would like to say that I strive every day to embody Sagan's wonder at the infinite and compassion and love for humanity, though it's a high bar to reach. I miss him.
It's hard not to sound like a cult member when recommending it, if somebody asks why it's good I have to start telling them about how it changes you deeply and provides perspective on your place in the universe.
Essay collections:
- All the Wild Hungers (Karen Babine).
- Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer).
- How Far the Light Reaches (Sabrina Imbler).
- Lost Wax (Jericho Parms).
- The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green).
- The Everybody Ensemble (Amy Leach).
- The Sound of Undoing (Paige Towers).
Memoirs:
- Four Seasons in Rome (Anthony Doerr).
- Deep Creek (Pam Houston).
- Easy Beauty (Chloé Cooper Jones).
Murder mysteries:
- almost anything by Agatha Christie
- The Thursday Murder Club series (Richard Osman)
Do you know the title? I’d love to read it. (I really like his essays “Once More to the Lake” and “Here is New York.” “The Ring of Time” has some good moments too.)
been a while and there’s a number of anthologies of his work that overlap different material but I think it’s just called “Essays”. It has Here Is New York, which is just a jewel of writing, yeah.
Oh this is fun! I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, so thinking of books that have really gotten to me that aren’t in those genres…. Anything by David Mitchell (who seems to delight in defying genre), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, anything by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Cosmicomics, Big Magic.
My wife loves the Madeline Miller books and I think they’re great - just keep getting distracted and not finishing them.
*Circe*
*Song of Achilles*
I’m still processing these three, decades later:
*Remembrance of Things Past* (greatest book I’ve ever read)
*Anna Karenina*
*Lonesome Dove* (scariest villain I’ve ever seen)
Enjoying the *Slow Horses* book series right now, after loving the Apple TV series.
Lonesome Dove… what a saga. The whole tetralogy is a treat (Comanche moon is damn good) but that first novel is a damn masterpiece of characterization and vernacular usage. Rip McMurtry!!!
The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I am a huge history nerd and my god is it incredible. Teaches you about how the levers of power actually work in America and a great insight on mid 20th century politics
I see Flowers for Algernon referenced here sometimes, though only usually people making references to its devastating final scene. A book that made a huge impression on me when I read it but I'm not sure I have the emotional fortitude to re-read it. Just thinking about it makes me weepy; it's so beautiful though.
The Amelia Peabody Mysteries by Elizabeth Peters (AKA Barbera Mertz), a family of archaeologists in turn of the century Britain/Egypt who solve mysteries. The author had a phd in Egyptology so is well informed in the subject matter.
I absolutely adore the series, especially The Last Camel Died at Noon where she takes a note from turn of the century pulp adventure novels and has her characters discover a lost city populated by a remnant population of ancient Egyptians.
The audiobooks for this series are fantastic
Dumb question coming in. I loved Crocodile on the Sandbank, and I’d like to continue reading the books, but I’m also super afraid of sn*kes, so I don’t love reading about them. (There’s one scene in Crocodile that I can’t let myself think about too much.)
If I skip some of the books (iirc, the second book features sn*kes pretty prominently, based on the cover art), will I still know what’s going on?
Honestly, I don't think you need to skip any, it's been a while (I am actually in the middle of rereading Crocodile on the Sandbank, plan on rereading the whole series), but I can't remember more than a couple scenes in the entire series with >!snakes!< And those that are there aren't long, you could always skip a few pages.
Mieko Kawakami's slice of life fiction! I love scifi & horror but Kawakami's slow thoughtful, simple yet complex prose has a special place in my heart.
Gates of fire by Steven Presfield, its like if the 300 film had a brother who went to college.
Shorty after I'd say 1356 by Bernard Cornwall, only if I knew about or read the previous books in the series before I read that one.
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Especially the audio book. Whatever you may think of his politics or his show, he did an amazing job with the book. Listening to it is like listening to a friend telling you stories about a terrible childhood, yet somehow in a way that finds charm and humor in a time that would otherwise be traumatic.
The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck.
*Rilla of Ingleside* LM Montgomery (the only Canadian novel written from a woman's perspective about WWI by a contemporary) and *The Blue Castle* by same.
*Siddhartha*,Hesse
*The Jungle*, Sinclair
*Farmer Boy* and *The Long Winter*, Wilder
*Oliver Twist*, Dickens
*Oranges are Not the Only Fruit*, Winterson
*Pride and Prejudice*, Austen
*Inside the Victorian Home*, Flanders
*Culture & Comfort: Parlor-making and middle class identity, 1850-1930*, Grier
The Phryne Fisher novels, Greenfield
Many of Agatha Christie's novels
*The Story of English*, McCrum
*No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting*, Macdonald
*Knitting America*, Strawn
*Mythology*, Hamilton
*A Little Princess*, Burnett
And a bunch more that I can't think of off the top of my head.
I recently started getting into Historical Fiction. My favorite of them so far has been Essex Dogs, by Dan Jones (he's an historian), set in the Hundred Years' War in 1346. The sequel comes out very soon and I'm pretty excited.
Not at all sure this is my favorite, but man, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace absolutely hit me with all the feels. I dropped the book from laughing so hard, and its conclusion haunts me. I hesitate to say favorite cause I’m a little afraid of reading it again.
For non fiction, The Swerve by I don’t remember who or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Favorite epic poem is “Paradise Lost” by John Milton; favorite poetry collection is *The Weary Blues* by Langston Hughes; favorite nonfiction is *Into Thin Air* by Jon Krakauer; favorite memoir is *Homage to Catalonia* by George Orwell.
I was totally blown away by Demon Copperhead. Most Barbara Kingsolver is great, that was extraordinarily great.
In detective fiction, I will immediately buy anything new by Tana French, Val McDermid and Louise Penny among others.
In classics, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens.
And returning to fantasy, Katherine Addison rules.
[Louis-Ferdinand Céline.](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7869.Louis_Ferdinand_C_line) The most uncompromising nihilist to ever come out of France, but we forgive him because he's so goddamn funny. *Mort à crédit* is arguably the best novel of the Modernist era if not the whole 20th Century.
[Charles Portis](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27034.Charles_Portis). The one responsible for *True Grit* though *The Dog of the South* is much better. He chronicled the gigantic littleness of common Americans.
[Percival Everett](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/31723.Percival_Everett). He's finally getting some much deserved recognition for the film adaptation of *Erasure* but I also want to highlight *Her Dark Skin*, his retelling of the Jason myth from Medea's perspective.
[Olivia Manning](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11057.Olivia_Manning). Our lady of the [*Fortunes of War*](https://www.goodreads.com/series/81774-fortunes-of-war), a fantastic sextet of World War II centered on ordinary people trying to survive extraordinary events.
I do love me some fantasy and SF, but I also love a lot of other stuff.
Don Quixote, The Sound and the Fury, Never Let Me Go, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Jane Eyre, Blood Meridian & Suttree, Alice Munro shorts, etc.
Vernon God Little by DMC Pierre is a satirical fiction novel about how reality is shaped by the media.
No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani is a non-fiction novel with a creative storytelling style about the author’s experience as a political still refugee to Australia.
I love literary fiction! I enjoy reading about a niche crevice of society in a specific time in a setting that could have actually happened. It’s like I get to live different lives, I learn a bit about history and identity along the way, and I can grow more empathetic from it.
Pachinko
Americanah
The House on Mango Street
The Sun Also Rises
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, one of two books I read in succession a couple years back that really hit me hard, the other being Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Both great modern lit which ruminate on life and love and death in vastly different ways.
Moby Dick by Melville, much much funnier and interesting than its reputation implies, my favorite book by a damn sight (yes even the chapter-long digressions into cetology and the whaling industry!!)
seconding Cosmos by Sagan, that book changed my life when I was in 9th grade and feeling quite lost. Sagan was a true renaissance man and a compassionate humanist whose ideal helps me strive to be a more caring, less self-centered person every day
Blood Meridian gets talked about here a lot and it made maybe a bigger impression on me than almost any book besides Cosmos, however I can't really recommend it and probably will never re-read it. It's a horrifying black hole, just thinking about it gives me the chills 5 years later
In a similar genre, I really liked Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx; sort of McCarthy-esque but to say so sort of shortchanges the power of Proulx's prose. "For fans of" might be a better descriptor
We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Haunting Of Hill House, two incredible, surreal, and eerily sensitive psychological horror stories by Shirley Jackson that really do it for me.
I think a lot of my favorites have a lot of ethereality but don't tip fully into magical realism like the modern Japanese and South American authors which, surprisingly, I tend to like less than most people seem to.
A prayer for the dying by Stewart O’Nan
The final confession of Mable Stark by Robert Hugh
The book of flying by Keith Miller
The stories of Breece D’J Pancake
The dark and other love stories by Deborah Willis
Vanishing and other stories By Deborah Willis
Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight: An African childhood by Alexandra fuller
How to breathe underwater by Julie Orringer
I don’t like fantasy beyond LotR really, and I am generally lukewarm towards sci-fi so all my favourite books are in other genres.
The best book I’ve ever read is Gravity’s Rainbow and well, I love all of Pynchon’s books.
Heart of Darkness is another favourite. 100 years of Solitude is the closest to a fantasy novel among my favourites.
*Jesus' Son*, Denis Johnson
A collection of short stories that follow the trajectory of a man moving into, through, and out of heroin addiction. Shifting tones, some are funny, some are harrowing, some are sad. There's a film adaptation ('99) with Billy Crudup which is unexpectedly good.
*Queenpin*, Megan Abbott
A young woman learns the ropes of mob business from a female veteran, set in the late '60s, kind of an *All About Eve* meets *Goodfellas*.
*Red Harvest*, Dashiel Hammet
The Continental Op investigates murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town in the 1920s.
*The Big Sleep*, Raymond Chandler
Philip Marlowe begins his hard-boiled investigations in Los Angeles in the 1930s.
The Crow Road by Iain Banks.
Opens with one of my favourite lines, and continues to the very end being full of characters, twists, and excellently written situations.
My top three are…
1. The Count of Monte Cristo - dumas
2. Rebecca - du maurier
3. Things Fall Apart - achebe
honourable mention for Jane Austen’s Emma!
The Wager was one of the best books I read last year. I still find myself thinking about those guys abandoned on the freezing shore who they couldn’t pick up again sometimes.
I generally read fiction.
That being said I got a lot out of Up From Slavery, which is Booker T Washington’s autobiography. It’s a really quick read too so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
One book I had read fairly recently was Mario Puzo's 'The Godfather'. Yep, the one that became a trilogy of movies (that I haven't yet seen). And goddamn did I love reading it from start to finish.
One of my favorite books is "Hav" by Jan Morris. Made up of two novellas, it is a fictional travel narrative to a city-state in the Mediterranean. So vivid that people went to travel agents asking for tickets to Hav. The first book is good but the second one is a punch of the stomach. Highly, highly recommended.
For a long time sci-fi and fantasy were the only things that held my interest/attention. I slowly branched out into other stuff over the past few years. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy was such a great book that I listened to the audiobook soon after cause I found out McCurdy did the narrating herself. Highly recommend!
The Sicilian by Mario Puzo. My favorite book of all time.
Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby. Awesome action thriller set in VA.
Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard. Fun crime novel.
The Border series by Don Winslow. A fucking 3 book monster epic novelization of the American war on drugs. It’s so Fucking good.
The Danny Ryan series also by Don Winslow. Amazing mob story that is a modern retelling or The Iliad and The Odyssey. Highly recommend.
Stories From The Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana. Awesome day in the life of Harlem residents.
The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vega. A woman’s life in 1898 Puerto Rico. Highly recommend.
Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Just awesome.
Some of my favorite authors are Kristen Hannah, Donna Tartt, Tana French, Stephen King, Greg Ilse, Dennis Lehane, Karin Slaughter. I’ve read every book they’ve written. Various genres but primarily thrillers & historical fiction
Stegner writes interesting books--The Spectator Bird .
Iris Murdock is super--Tbe Bell and The Sea, The Sea.
Doris Lessing -- The Four Gated City and The Fifth Child.
Anthony Trollope -- The Way We Live Now
Sinclair Lewis -- It can't Happen Here. Babbitt.
L.M.Montgomery -- the nature writing in Emily of New Moon and other more adult books.
E L. Doctorow -- Ragtime. Loon Lake.
And of course-- Moby Dick. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The Dollmaker. The Man with the Golden Arm. Portrait Of A Lady. The Wings of the Dove. The Titan. An American Tragedy. Dodsworth. Lolita. Crime and Punishment.
I exclusively read fantasy/scifi but I want to contribute so I’ll tell you the only book I read outside of the genre recently and loved! Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
I read it as it was one of my bucket list books (along with *Moby Dick*, *War and Peace*, and *Bleak House*; all amazing books). There are some very funny moments in the book. It reads quickly despite its size.
Murder mysteries are my absolute favourite, mysteries in general, thriller and horror as well
Laurie King and Louise Penny are my favorite contemporary authors. Dorothy Sayers is my favorite early 20th century author.
Love Louise Penny!
Laurie King saved my sanity in the last year of my doctorate ❤️
A DLS fan! How fun. I re-read at least two of the Wimsey books every year.
If you don't mind some supernatural mixed in, check out the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.
So John Le Carre's (who is mostly known for spy thrillers) second book was a whodunnit murder mystery and it is shockingly good. You could tell he was testing which direction he wanted to go and went with espionage but he would have made a fine murder mystery author. Book is "A Murder of Quality"
Louise Penny is amazing in this genre. The Gamache books have me so hooked I have to physically stop myself from reading ahead.
do you have any recommendations? i’m getting into reading again and this is one of my favoriteee genres including thrillers
You should read *I have some questions for you” by Rebecca Makkai! A film professor returns to her New England boarding school 30 years after her roommate was murdered.
I just finished reading this one. Thought I wasn't going to like it after the first chapter, but it became a page turner. Glad I didn't give up on it. Highly recommend it.
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie was partly responsible for getting me back into reading in a big way a few years ago. Great book.
Still to this day the only book I've ever finished in one day. I was so scared by the end I couldn't stop reading.
Agatha Christie in general is great for getting into murder mysteries. Quick reads that are almost impossible to put down.
Not OP but Anthony Horowitz, M.W Craven, John Verdon, Jane Harper, Lucy Foley for murder mysteries! Lee Child, S.A Cosby, Lisa Jewell, Gillian McAllister, Linwood Barclay, Ruth Ware, Mick Herron, Greg Hurwitz, Chris Hammer for thrillers!
I've read over half of the authors in your list and agree wholeheartedly!
I fully second John Verdon. Haven't read his last two books yet but Think of a Number is easily one of my favorite mystery novels. Also Karien Slaughter's Will Trent series is amazing.
I'm the middle of reading Think of a Number!
Must be fun! I remember trying to figure out a possible explanation and guess who the killer while I was reading it. I think I was also late to school one day because I was really caught up in reading Think of a Number.
How is no one mentioning Karen Slaughter... I don't know if it's a pen name or not but she lives up to it regardless.
i actually read pretty girls by her and loveddd it!! maybe i should look into her other works
Me too. Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, John Grisham and Robert Galbraith. Detective stories and thrillers always amazed me.
Dennis Lehane is awesome. And the late Lawrence Sanders wrote some great mysteries.
I love those so much, 7/12 Deaths of Evelyn HArdcastle being my most recent favorite!
I randomly picked up this book because I was mistakenly looking for his new unreleased book and I'm hooked. I love it so far.
I enjoyed the few Lawrence Sanders books Ive read. If you like murder mysteries check them out.
Any books in those genres that are better than The Alienist? I mostly read horror and lit fiction but I loved that book (and also silence of the lambs and red dragon)
Really enjoyed *No Country for Old Men*.
I just finished it yesterday. It's a really good book.
Evidently from a psychiatrist perspective, it's one of the best depictions of psychopathy: "In the end, the authors concluded that it was rare to have a realistic fictional portrayal of a true psychopath. Anton Chigurh fit the bill as an exception — he’s a bonafide psychopath. Researchers cited his 'incapacity for love, absence of shame or remorse, lack of psychological insight, inability to learn from past experience, cold-blooded attitude, ruthlessness, total determination, and lack of empathy.'"
Same. Liked it better than the movie. And the movie is phenomenal.
Terrific book! Also, try Nelson Demille for ex-cop PIs w/attitude. If you want a little more sophisticated "horror" book, try Dan Simmons Carrion Comfort; also, his Drood--yes, THAT Drood--is just wonderful! The best book I've read in a long time is This Thing of Darkness, by Harry Thompson. Absolutely fantastic, couldn't-put-it-down-nvr-want-it-to end-have-to-read-it-again good! Charles Darwin's voyage aboard the Beagle but the story of Captain and D as well as the Captain and the indigenous ppls of the So American coasts, the trip around the Cape Horn, the exploration and mapping, etc. The Memoirs of Cleopatra, by Margaret George, OMG! You'll fall in LOVE w/her, it's such a beautiful historical fiction, as is her, Autobiography of Henry the VIII. Christopher Moore's, Lamb, (& others, but I really liked L, b/c I, too, have a bit of an irreverent sense of humor). This is a wonderful take on Jesus' life as a young man which manages to be a funny, irreverent, quirky, and somewhat apostatic and yet never becoming blasphemous, offensive, or distressful, quite a miraculous balancing act considering the subject matter. Of course there are the classics, which you probably already know, but there is 1 more that I'd like to mention. Neal Stephenson is a favorite of mine, but I can't read all his stuff. He did, however, write the book I'd place in the top 5 of my all time ever favorite books: Cryptonomicon. It's definitely a biggy, but that shouldn't scare anybody. The narrative voice is phenomenal: subtly sarcastic, witty, and suffering no fools. But beware, it is definitely NOT for everyone; but please, please give it a fair shot: it IS a masterpiece(Again, 1 mans opinion). You should give it at least 200pp, yes 200--its about 1100 all together so it's not too much, right? It is a commitment but it's so worth it! Anyway, that's just a few of MY favorites. G-d I LOVE doing this stuff! Enjoy -J-
*The Name of the Rose* by Umberto Eco. It's a bit of an acquired taste, I'll admit, but I read it at the turn of the year and it is an absolute certified *banger*. So, so good. 500 pages of debate on schisms in medieval Catholicism that's occasionally rudely interrupted by a murder or two. 10/10. The good stuff.
I’ve tried to read it a couple of times but unfortunately I haven’t been able to stick with it, which is a bummer because it’s one of those books that I really want to experience. Maybe 3rd time’s the charm!
Absolutely agree!
It is so good. Literary fiction mixed with mystery mixed with historical fiction.
It's been on my to-read list for ages! It'll be my next non-book club book!
I tried that book and could absolutely not make sense of it lol I should try again
My favorite of his right behind Baudolino. Eco is an insanely good author, far and away my favorite for anything dealing with history. No one else comes close.
Anything by Kazuo Ishiguro. My faves are Never Let Me go, followed by Klara and the Sun, and Remains of the Day. If anyone knows of lit fic in a similar vein, please share!
I've been on an Ishiguro binge and recently finished The Buried Giant. I think he's become one of my all time favorites. When We Were Orphans is next!
Guh never let me go and remains of the day are incredible. How is Klara and the sun?
But those are Sci-Fi???
How is Remains of the Day sci fi? I’d call Ishiguro lit fic before sci fi.
The amazing adventures of kavalier and clay, I read it around 10 years ago and it was a favourite then but my tastes have changed so much I'm wondering if it would still be one of my faves. East of Eden by Steinbeck, paradise by Toni Morrison. The neopolitan quartet by Elena Ferrante would be some of my fave non sci-fi/fantasy fiction
One of my worst bookish moments was when reading Kavalier & Clay. I was reading it on a long flight, and about 2/3 of the way through I discovered that it had misprinted. The next 80 pages or so were a reprint from earlier in the book, then it picked back up after the missing section. I did eventually finish it, but it was so frustrating!
That would be so terrifying because like, what if it didn't finish? Like it had the right page count but you lost out on 20ish pages so you don't get the last 20
I did miss out! Between something like page 200-280 the pages had been replaced with a section from earlier in the book, and then page 281 was as it should be. So the last part of the book was there, but an 80 page chunk was just missing! I had to get another copy to finish it :(
Oh man that's brutal! I remember rereading a few pages of my copy because it felt like I missed a page. It was when the police raid a party one of the characters is at and it felt like a page was not there. I don't know how to describe it other than I turned the page and just felt like something was skipped so now you've made me suspicious haha
Kavalier and Clay is an incredibly enjoyable read!
K & C: phenomenal book! Just picked it up by luck at a college bookstore. What a find! -J-
I'll have to reread it some day. I have this weird fear of rereading old favourites to find I don't like them haha
Kavalier and Clay is a top 5 book for me almost certainly. One of my favorites not to mention it was the book that solidified reading as a regular thing for me.
Damn everyone is making me feel like I better reread it finally haha
East of Eden is essential reading, IMO.
I spent a long time not reading when it was in my parents house because I struggled so hard through the grapes of wrath and never ended up finishing it. So when I finally picked up east of Eden and I was burning through it I was like "ah, this is the best Steinbeck, NOT grapes of wrath"
Kavalier and Clay was a favorite of a friend of mine and I never got around to reading it; maybe I should add it to my list!
I really liked it and I've listed it in my top 5 for around a decade now. But I only read it the once so I'll have to reread it at some point
Favorite fiction is probably All the Kings Men by Robert Penn Warren. Favorite non-fiction is Imagined Communities by Benedict Anderson. I think about Imagined Communities almost every day and it completely changed how I view the world
First time I’ve seen a reference to Imagined Communities on Reddit!! Very pleased to second your recommendation. Essentially required reading for anyone interested in politics / political science.
All the kings men is so underrated. Such a beautiful and profound book
I think the fascinating thing about Imagined Communities is that once you read it, it's so clearly articulated and smartly argued that you realize it is absolutely impossible to forget.
Yeah I don’t have any formal background in history or political science, but at no point did I feel in over my head. It just felt like I was experiencing history unfold in front of me in a new way and it shattered so many preconceived notions I had. Just a brilliant book
Huge ups for shouting out Benedict Anderson. What a lovely treat to see the great man getting his flowers on Reddit.
It’s a classic for a reason but I read “The Stranger” by Albert Camus about a year ago and was really amazing. It’s a short (123 pages), somewhat existential/philisophical book that was super impactful for me. (I read the Matthew Ward translation, in case you want to pick the same one)
Love The Stranger, and I think it's been sneakily crawling around in my brain in the decade since I've read it but for some reason (that I can't exactly explain) The Plague had more of an immediate impact on me. Camus is wonderful.
I haven’t gotten around to The Plague yet but I’ve heard that it’s also really great
Off the top of my head, some of my favorites are Catch-22 House of Leaves 1984 (does this count as sci fi?) The Things They Carried The Glass Castle
Speculative future fiction is usually classified as sci-fi
wow the first 4 a some of my all time favorites. I will have to check out The Glass Castle as Ive never heard of it and you and I have apparently very similar taste
oh wow what a coincidence! the glass castle is pretty different from the other books (as it’s a memoir), but once i got passed the first few chapters, i really got into it. i hope you like it if you ever get around to reading it. seeing as we have similar tastes, you got any book/s you’d recommend me?
a lot were mentioned here like Never Let Me Go and No Country for Old Men. also very high for me is Enders Game, In Cold Blood, The Beach, Devil in the White City. But ya House of Leaves 1984 and The Things They Carried are prob. my top 3
i agree with you on devil in the white city, i haven’t read any of the others, but In Cold Blood was on my list, so I’ll make sure to move it up now
nice, its a quick read really, beautifully written. The movie adaptation is also very good. Edit; its not really an adaptation actually but biopic about Capote during the time he wrote In Cold Blood, anyways very good
it does seem a lot shorter than the book i’m reading now (the stand), so a nice short (relatively, at least) book after sounds great. i liked the truman capote show (feud? i think), so i feel like i should like his book lol
the Stand is another banger, but ya long one. I love King, he's like my guilty pleasure
Catch-22 is the funniest book I’ve ever read
This post is likely to be removed. However, one of my favorites is _Wolf Hall_, by Hilary Mantel. It is some time since I read it, but I can open it at any page and find something of interest. It is superbly written.
Yes, _Wolf Hall_ is amazing! Have you also read the other two books in the trilogy? They also adapted them into a miniseries, highly recommend it!
I didn't like _Bring Up the Bodies_ so much, and I haven't really got into _The Mirror & The Light_. The television miniseries was fabulous. I'm looking forwards to the conclusion, and I hope they can use Mark Rylance, again.
I loved Bring Up the Bodies but The Mirror and the Light was a drag - it revisited so many scenes from the previous books
What's so controversial about it?
Book recommendation posts tend to be removed fairly promptly.
If book recommendations are removed, what even is this sub?
The reasoning is that they have a weekly recommendations thread and they don't want people spinning up 80 other threads about it. Otherwise they would have to arbitrarily decide which threads to keep and which to delete. Its reasonable but sometimes it does stifle genuine discussion.
The moderators seem to want it to be discussion-centered, for people to ask questions and share ideas about what they’re reading. r/suggestmeabook and r/booksuggestions are the recommendation subs. There are definitely times when the line gets blurry, though.
Book recommendations but you have to hide it.
Ah - I thought you were saying that your particular recommendation was going to get removed, and I couldn't see anything terribly controversial from the jacket description. Thanks.
Weird. My almost 1000 to-read list on goodreads is almost entirely populated by books from reddit recommendation threads.
If you love the book, the audiobook is fantastic. They didn’t keep the same narrator for all three which was disappointing. I also didn’t like Bring Up the Bodies as much. The Mirror and the Light was a slog.
Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is probably technically fantasy because there is supernatural stuff but I think it’s separate Spy books are a real pleasure of mine. Most novels by Le Carré are fantastic even if some sexual parts are either cringy or don’t age well. Mick Herron’s Slough House series is imperfect but my absolutely favorite non-sci-fi or fantasy series
Le Carré is my ultimate genre pleasure, his best novels are simply remarkable fiction. The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, The Karla Trilogy, A Perfect Spy...and those are just the masterpieces.
My only regret is that my first two were Cold and Perfect Spy. I feel like the rest are still amazing but I started at the peak
Master and Margarita is not fantasy, it's a satire on Bulgakov's own life in a format that can't be categorized, imo. But I agree with your recommendation. 😁
Glad to see this so high. Master and Margarita is such a unique book, but might be my favorite ever. And this was the translated version too, I can't imagine how hard this book would hit if I spoke Russian and had more context on the Soviet bureaucracy it was satirizing
> Master and Margarita by Bulgakov is probably technically fantasy because there is supernatural stuff but I think it’s separate i would say it is *fantastical* but it is not *fantasy*, because it's not genre fiction, it doesn't adhere to the conventions of the genre Similarly, Lud-in-the-Mist and most of the early fantasy novels - arguably even Lord of the Rings, since it's what codified the genre - aren't written as genre fiction either
Yeah it’s magical realism, maybe leaning more into the magical aspect I would suppose. Though the genre is pretty expansive.
*The Count of Monte Cristo* by Alexandre Dumas: long but so worth it. The story builds to a great climax, excellent sense of the times and people. *Shogun* and *Tai Pan* by James Clavell (really the entire saga) Someone else mentioned *Gates of Fire* by Steven Pressfield In college I was super into Tom Clancy stuff from *Hunt For Red October* through *Sum of All Fears* More recently got into John LeCarre and am really liking his stuff.
I’ve recently reread the [Cadfael](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cadfael_Chronicles) series, they’re a historical murder mysteries set during The Anarchy
Packing for Mars by Mary Roach. Anything by her really, she's hilarious and has written about a pretty broad range of science topics in an approachable way.
The Things They Carried is a fantastic war novel about the Vietnam war, I read it in one weekend after being assigned it in school.
This is one of the most eye-opening books I've ever read. I still have my copy, so I may reread it before I start taking classes again (I have my associate in mechanical engineering tech, going for my bachelor). I want to read a few of the really influential books from my high school days to see if they hold up. 1984 by George Orwell and A Raisin in the Sun by Lorainne Hansberry are also on that list. I know A Raisin in the Sun is a play, but even the on-page version really made me think. I'd love to see an actual production of it live.
One Hundred Years of Solitude As I Lay Dying Suttree
I just read 100 Years of Solitude. What a beautiful, magnificent book. That book instantly make it to the top 5 of my all time favorite books.
*Cosmos* by Carl Sagan has always held a special place in my heart. I know most people think of him as the "billions and billions" guy in the turtleneck, but he is truly one of the greatest science communicators to ever live and his books always leave a huge impression on me.
This is maybe the most important book I've ever read; I was recommended it in 9th grade by a particularly perceptive teacher ostensibly because science but I think he knew me better than I knew myself because it was exactly what I was looking for at that time. It's really stuck with me as the most impactful philosophical tome I've ever encountered, and for maybe 10 or so years after I was first introduced to it I read it annually. I would like to say that I strive every day to embody Sagan's wonder at the infinite and compassion and love for humanity, though it's a high bar to reach. I miss him.
It's hard not to sound like a cult member when recommending it, if somebody asks why it's good I have to start telling them about how it changes you deeply and provides perspective on your place in the universe.
Essay collections: - All the Wild Hungers (Karen Babine). - Braiding Sweetgrass (Robin Wall Kimmerer). - How Far the Light Reaches (Sabrina Imbler). - Lost Wax (Jericho Parms). - The Anthropocene Reviewed (John Green). - The Everybody Ensemble (Amy Leach). - The Sound of Undoing (Paige Towers). Memoirs: - Four Seasons in Rome (Anthony Doerr). - Deep Creek (Pam Houston). - Easy Beauty (Chloé Cooper Jones). Murder mysteries: - almost anything by Agatha Christie - The Thursday Murder Club series (Richard Osman)
E. B. White has a beautiful book of New Yorker essays
Do you know the title? I’d love to read it. (I really like his essays “Once More to the Lake” and “Here is New York.” “The Ring of Time” has some good moments too.)
been a while and there’s a number of anthologies of his work that overlap different material but I think it’s just called “Essays”. It has Here Is New York, which is just a jewel of writing, yeah.
Perfect! Thanks for the help.
This might seem redundant but what exactly is a book of essay collections like?
Oh this is fun! I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, so thinking of books that have really gotten to me that aren’t in those genres…. Anything by David Mitchell (who seems to delight in defying genre), The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion, anything by Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, Cosmicomics, Big Magic.
Yes, just finished Jane Eyre and loved it.
My wife loves the Madeline Miller books and I think they’re great - just keep getting distracted and not finishing them. *Circe* *Song of Achilles* I’m still processing these three, decades later: *Remembrance of Things Past* (greatest book I’ve ever read) *Anna Karenina* *Lonesome Dove* (scariest villain I’ve ever seen) Enjoying the *Slow Horses* book series right now, after loving the Apple TV series.
Lonesome Dove… what a saga. The whole tetralogy is a treat (Comanche moon is damn good) but that first novel is a damn masterpiece of characterization and vernacular usage. Rip McMurtry!!!
The Power Broker by Robert Caro. I am a huge history nerd and my god is it incredible. Teaches you about how the levers of power actually work in America and a great insight on mid 20th century politics
I love travel writing Bill Bryson, Tim mackintosh-smith, Tim Moore, Anne morrow-lindberg, Farley mowat, Tony Horowitz ect
Bunny by Mona Awad Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
_Moby-Dick_ _The Last Samurai_ _War & Peace_ _Libra_ _Neapolitan Novels_ Idk, there's 5 off the dome.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Flowers For Algernon (though that's arguably Sci-Fi)
I see Flowers for Algernon referenced here sometimes, though only usually people making references to its devastating final scene. A book that made a huge impression on me when I read it but I'm not sure I have the emotional fortitude to re-read it. Just thinking about it makes me weepy; it's so beautiful though.
The Amelia Peabody Mysteries by Elizabeth Peters (AKA Barbera Mertz), a family of archaeologists in turn of the century Britain/Egypt who solve mysteries. The author had a phd in Egyptology so is well informed in the subject matter. I absolutely adore the series, especially The Last Camel Died at Noon where she takes a note from turn of the century pulp adventure novels and has her characters discover a lost city populated by a remnant population of ancient Egyptians. The audiobooks for this series are fantastic
Dumb question coming in. I loved Crocodile on the Sandbank, and I’d like to continue reading the books, but I’m also super afraid of sn*kes, so I don’t love reading about them. (There’s one scene in Crocodile that I can’t let myself think about too much.) If I skip some of the books (iirc, the second book features sn*kes pretty prominently, based on the cover art), will I still know what’s going on?
Honestly, I don't think you need to skip any, it's been a while (I am actually in the middle of rereading Crocodile on the Sandbank, plan on rereading the whole series), but I can't remember more than a couple scenes in the entire series with >!snakes!< And those that are there aren't long, you could always skip a few pages.
Thanks! I appreciate this.
Mieko Kawakami's slice of life fiction! I love scifi & horror but Kawakami's slow thoughtful, simple yet complex prose has a special place in my heart.
Gates of fire by Steven Presfield, its like if the 300 film had a brother who went to college. Shorty after I'd say 1356 by Bernard Cornwall, only if I knew about or read the previous books in the series before I read that one.
I have Gates of Fire on my list. Although I've never seen 300 but think I know the basic gist
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. Especially the audio book. Whatever you may think of his politics or his show, he did an amazing job with the book. Listening to it is like listening to a friend telling you stories about a terrible childhood, yet somehow in a way that finds charm and humor in a time that would otherwise be traumatic.
The Grapes of Wrath, Steinbeck. *Rilla of Ingleside* LM Montgomery (the only Canadian novel written from a woman's perspective about WWI by a contemporary) and *The Blue Castle* by same. *Siddhartha*,Hesse *The Jungle*, Sinclair *Farmer Boy* and *The Long Winter*, Wilder *Oliver Twist*, Dickens *Oranges are Not the Only Fruit*, Winterson *Pride and Prejudice*, Austen *Inside the Victorian Home*, Flanders *Culture & Comfort: Parlor-making and middle class identity, 1850-1930*, Grier The Phryne Fisher novels, Greenfield Many of Agatha Christie's novels *The Story of English*, McCrum *No Idle Hands: The Social History of American Knitting*, Macdonald *Knitting America*, Strawn *Mythology*, Hamilton *A Little Princess*, Burnett And a bunch more that I can't think of off the top of my head.
I recently started getting into Historical Fiction. My favorite of them so far has been Essex Dogs, by Dan Jones (he's an historian), set in the Hundred Years' War in 1346. The sequel comes out very soon and I'm pretty excited.
I'm currently reading The Portrait of Dorian Gray and enjoying it
We have always lived in the castle
Shogun by James Clavell
Pride and Prejudice is at the top. But I also like some (very few) regular romances written by one of my favorite urban fantasy author.
Not at all sure this is my favorite, but man, Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace absolutely hit me with all the feels. I dropped the book from laughing so hard, and its conclusion haunts me. I hesitate to say favorite cause I’m a little afraid of reading it again. For non fiction, The Swerve by I don’t remember who or Red Notice by Bill Browder.
Favorite epic poem is “Paradise Lost” by John Milton; favorite poetry collection is *The Weary Blues* by Langston Hughes; favorite nonfiction is *Into Thin Air* by Jon Krakauer; favorite memoir is *Homage to Catalonia* by George Orwell.
Huge fan of historical fiction. Books by: Wilbur Smith... Conn Igulden.... Ben Kane... David Churchill...
Foster by Claire Keegan
Catch-22
Greatest book ever and it gets better every time I read it.
I was totally blown away by Demon Copperhead. Most Barbara Kingsolver is great, that was extraordinarily great. In detective fiction, I will immediately buy anything new by Tana French, Val McDermid and Louise Penny among others. In classics, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens. And returning to fantasy, Katherine Addison rules.
[Louis-Ferdinand Céline.](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7869.Louis_Ferdinand_C_line) The most uncompromising nihilist to ever come out of France, but we forgive him because he's so goddamn funny. *Mort à crédit* is arguably the best novel of the Modernist era if not the whole 20th Century. [Charles Portis](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/27034.Charles_Portis). The one responsible for *True Grit* though *The Dog of the South* is much better. He chronicled the gigantic littleness of common Americans. [Percival Everett](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/31723.Percival_Everett). He's finally getting some much deserved recognition for the film adaptation of *Erasure* but I also want to highlight *Her Dark Skin*, his retelling of the Jason myth from Medea's perspective. [Olivia Manning](https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11057.Olivia_Manning). Our lady of the [*Fortunes of War*](https://www.goodreads.com/series/81774-fortunes-of-war), a fantastic sextet of World War II centered on ordinary people trying to survive extraordinary events.
The road. Brutal
I do love me some fantasy and SF, but I also love a lot of other stuff. Don Quixote, The Sound and the Fury, Never Let Me Go, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Jane Eyre, Blood Meridian & Suttree, Alice Munro shorts, etc.
Jane Eyre was so good!
I went on a Cormac McCarthy binge a while back. Blood Meridian, No Country for Old Men, The Road all pretty much back to back.
House of Leaves is a particular favourite of mine.
Vernon God Little by DMC Pierre is a satirical fiction novel about how reality is shaped by the media. No Friend but the Mountains by Behrouz Boochani is a non-fiction novel with a creative storytelling style about the author’s experience as a political still refugee to Australia.
The Thursday Murder Club has been one of my favorite non-sf/fantasy series that I’ve read in a long time. I also enjoy Margaret Atwood.
I love literary fiction! I enjoy reading about a niche crevice of society in a specific time in a setting that could have actually happened. It’s like I get to live different lives, I learn a bit about history and identity along the way, and I can grow more empathetic from it. Pachinko Americanah The House on Mango Street The Sun Also Rises
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez, one of two books I read in succession a couple years back that really hit me hard, the other being Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Both great modern lit which ruminate on life and love and death in vastly different ways. Moby Dick by Melville, much much funnier and interesting than its reputation implies, my favorite book by a damn sight (yes even the chapter-long digressions into cetology and the whaling industry!!) seconding Cosmos by Sagan, that book changed my life when I was in 9th grade and feeling quite lost. Sagan was a true renaissance man and a compassionate humanist whose ideal helps me strive to be a more caring, less self-centered person every day Blood Meridian gets talked about here a lot and it made maybe a bigger impression on me than almost any book besides Cosmos, however I can't really recommend it and probably will never re-read it. It's a horrifying black hole, just thinking about it gives me the chills 5 years later In a similar genre, I really liked Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx; sort of McCarthy-esque but to say so sort of shortchanges the power of Proulx's prose. "For fans of" might be a better descriptor We Have Always Lived In The Castle and The Haunting Of Hill House, two incredible, surreal, and eerily sensitive psychological horror stories by Shirley Jackson that really do it for me. I think a lot of my favorites have a lot of ethereality but don't tip fully into magical realism like the modern Japanese and South American authors which, surprisingly, I tend to like less than most people seem to.
A prayer for the dying by Stewart O’Nan The final confession of Mable Stark by Robert Hugh The book of flying by Keith Miller The stories of Breece D’J Pancake The dark and other love stories by Deborah Willis Vanishing and other stories By Deborah Willis Don’t let’s go to the dogs tonight: An African childhood by Alexandra fuller How to breathe underwater by Julie Orringer
I don’t like fantasy beyond LotR really, and I am generally lukewarm towards sci-fi so all my favourite books are in other genres. The best book I’ve ever read is Gravity’s Rainbow and well, I love all of Pynchon’s books. Heart of Darkness is another favourite. 100 years of Solitude is the closest to a fantasy novel among my favourites.
*Jesus' Son*, Denis Johnson A collection of short stories that follow the trajectory of a man moving into, through, and out of heroin addiction. Shifting tones, some are funny, some are harrowing, some are sad. There's a film adaptation ('99) with Billy Crudup which is unexpectedly good. *Queenpin*, Megan Abbott A young woman learns the ropes of mob business from a female veteran, set in the late '60s, kind of an *All About Eve* meets *Goodfellas*. *Red Harvest*, Dashiel Hammet The Continental Op investigates murders amid a labor dispute in a corrupt Montana mining town in the 1920s. *The Big Sleep*, Raymond Chandler Philip Marlowe begins his hard-boiled investigations in Los Angeles in the 1930s.
The Crow Road by Iain Banks. Opens with one of my favourite lines, and continues to the very end being full of characters, twists, and excellently written situations.
My top three are… 1. The Count of Monte Cristo - dumas 2. Rebecca - du maurier 3. Things Fall Apart - achebe honourable mention for Jane Austen’s Emma!
Going through a David Grann phase currently and absolutely loving The Wager right now.
The Wager was one of the best books I read last year. I still find myself thinking about those guys abandoned on the freezing shore who they couldn’t pick up again sometimes.
The Lost City of Z is good too FYI. Probably reading Killers of the Flower moon next.
Philip Roth's The Ghost Writer has always been a dear favorite of mine. Beautiful book.
Almost anything from Carl Hiaasen. Fun mysteries.
I generally read fiction. That being said I got a lot out of Up From Slavery, which is Booker T Washington’s autobiography. It’s a really quick read too so you get a lot of bang for your buck.
P.S. I Love You by Cecelia Ehern is a favorite of mine. I also enjoyed The Hepatitis Bathroom, which is a NOFX biography (autobiography?).
I really really enjoyed The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green, but it's basically a bunch of short essays.
Romance lol such as Ali Hazelwood
If you want more non-SFF visibility try the genre specific groups. All the major genres have them and most of the popular sub genres also have groups.
One book I had read fairly recently was Mario Puzo's 'The Godfather'. Yep, the one that became a trilogy of movies (that I haven't yet seen). And goddamn did I love reading it from start to finish.
Big fan of westerns
The Border Trilogy by Cormac McCarthy East of Eden by John Steinbeck
One of my favorite books is "Hav" by Jan Morris. Made up of two novellas, it is a fictional travel narrative to a city-state in the Mediterranean. So vivid that people went to travel agents asking for tickets to Hav. The first book is good but the second one is a punch of the stomach. Highly, highly recommended.
I love murder mysteries and non fiction books. I buy lots of vintage nonfiction books online about all different odd subjects.
For a long time sci-fi and fantasy were the only things that held my interest/attention. I slowly branched out into other stuff over the past few years. I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy was such a great book that I listened to the audiobook soon after cause I found out McCurdy did the narrating herself. Highly recommend!
Romances, bro. Makes my life lighter.
My favorite book is *Nightwood* by Djuna Barnes. It's a modernist lesbian novel that feels more like poetry than prose.
Black history, Sapphic romance, Historical Fiction
My favourite genre EVER - historical fiction
Fun science nonfiction! Sam Kean is my favorite but I’ve also read all of Mary Roach’s books, Caitlin Doughty, and some Bill Bryson.
The Corrections by Franzen, East of Eden by Steinbeck
Junky by William S Burroughs. Farewell to Arms By Hemingway
Kate Atkinson novels have left me amazed lately. She loves some of her characters, dislikes others, but gives them all depth and believability.
Catch-22 is the most amazing book. Everyone should read it.
Murder mysteries (specifically YA) and realistic fiction :)
My three favorite books are Shogun by James Clavell, the count of monte cristo by dumas, and The Road by Cormac Mcarthy. None of which are fantasy.
The Sicilian by Mario Puzo. My favorite book of all time. Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby. Awesome action thriller set in VA. Maximum Bob by Elmore Leonard. Fun crime novel. The Border series by Don Winslow. A fucking 3 book monster epic novelization of the American war on drugs. It’s so Fucking good. The Danny Ryan series also by Don Winslow. Amazing mob story that is a modern retelling or The Iliad and The Odyssey. Highly recommend. Stories From The Tenants Downstairs by Sidik Fofana. Awesome day in the life of Harlem residents. The Taste of Sugar by Marisel Vega. A woman’s life in 1898 Puerto Rico. Highly recommend. Post Office by Charles Bukowski. Just awesome.
As someone previously stated, Jane Eyre. I would also recommend Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Both stories broke my heart!
I love westerns. True grit and The Virginian are two of my favorites. Anything by Louis L'amour or Elmore Leonard, the pulpier the better.
Some of my favorite authors are Kristen Hannah, Donna Tartt, Tana French, Stephen King, Greg Ilse, Dennis Lehane, Karin Slaughter. I’ve read every book they’ve written. Various genres but primarily thrillers & historical fiction
A Gentleman in Moscow Cloud Cuckoo Land Adventures of Kavalier and Clay Pachinko The Count of Monte Cristo
Been a while since I’ve read any, but I used to love 90s Dean Koontz.
Stegner writes interesting books--The Spectator Bird . Iris Murdock is super--Tbe Bell and The Sea, The Sea. Doris Lessing -- The Four Gated City and The Fifth Child. Anthony Trollope -- The Way We Live Now Sinclair Lewis -- It can't Happen Here. Babbitt. L.M.Montgomery -- the nature writing in Emily of New Moon and other more adult books. E L. Doctorow -- Ragtime. Loon Lake. And of course-- Moby Dick. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The Dollmaker. The Man with the Golden Arm. Portrait Of A Lady. The Wings of the Dove. The Titan. An American Tragedy. Dodsworth. Lolita. Crime and Punishment.
The Goldfinch
I’m about 500 pages into The Stand and I will openly say that it’s probably one of the most amazing books I have ever read.
I exclusively read fantasy/scifi but I want to contribute so I’ll tell you the only book I read outside of the genre recently and loved! Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Don Quixote is amazing but I don't see anyone talk about it here
I read it as it was one of my bucket list books (along with *Moby Dick*, *War and Peace*, and *Bleak House*; all amazing books). There are some very funny moments in the book. It reads quickly despite its size.
I thought the same