Reading Recommendations
better reader = better writer.
Recently Read
Goodreads goodies
Novellas
short & sweet
Census | Jesse Ball
The Parade | Dave Eggers
The Wall | John Lanchester
Falling Out of Time | David Grossman
Classics
timeless & true
The Spire | William Golding
The Brothers Karamazov | Dostoyevsky
Dandelion Wine | Ray Bradbury
Martin Eden | Jack London
Grapes of Wrath | John Steinbeck
Microhistories
weird & wacky
Just My Type | Simon Garfield
Cod | Mark Kurlanksy
World in a Grain | Vince Beiser
Revenge of Analog | David Sax
On the Map | Simon Garfield
Bibliotech | John Palfrey
Rain | Cynthia Barnett
Nature
scientific & soothing
Underland | Rob MacFarlane
Pale Blue Dot | Carl Sagan
End of Night | Paul Bogard
Of Wolves & Men | Barry Lopez
Into the Wild | Jon Krakauer
Bad Blood | John Carreyrou
Suspense
scary & stilling
Dumb House | John Burnside
The Collector | John Fowles
Misery | Stephen King
Fantasy
exciting & endearing
City of Last Chances | A. Tchaikovsky
The Vanished Birds | Simon Jiminez
Jonathan Strange | Susanna Clarke
Bear & Nightingale | Katherine Arden
What Should Be Wild | Julia Fine
Snow Child | Eowyn Ivey
Mongrels | Stephen Jones
Social
provoking & passionate
Caste | Isabel Wilkerson
Eating Animals |Jon Foer
Educated | Tara Westover
Evicted | Matt Desmond
Nomadland | Jessica Bruder
Cringeworthy | Melissa Dahl
Publicly Shamed | Jon Ronson
Let There Be Night | Paul Bogard
Mystery
exciting & elaborate
Foe | Iain Reid
11/22/63 | Stephen King
Weight of Blood | Laura McHugh
Before I Go to Sleep | S. Watson
Endless Numbered Days | Claire Fuller
Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn
Romance
adorable & addictive
AJ Fikry | Gabrielle Zevin
Time Traveler's Wife | A. Niffenegger
Graphic Novels
beautiful & brilliant
Laika | Nick Abadzis
Ukrainian & Russian Notebooks | Igor
This One Summer | Mariko Tamaki
A Study in Pink | Jay BBC
Historical Fiction
educational & empathetic
Life After Life | Kate Atkinson
Lincoln in the Bardo | George Saunder
Tsar of Love & Techno | Antony Marra
Charmed Particles | Chrissy Kolaya
The Books of Jacob | Olga Tokarczuk
Self Help
helpful & humorous
Eat, Pray, Love | Liz Gilbert
Reclaiming Conversation | S. Turkle
Make the Beast Beautiful | S. Wilson
Short Stories
short & succinct
5 Russian Dog Stories | Various
The Moth Presents | NPR
Uncommon Type | Tom Hanks
Cosmicomics | Italo Calvino
Galatea | Madeline Miller
Exhalation | Ted Chiang
YA
young & youthful
Dig | AS King
Wolf in the Whale | Max Broadsky
Song of Achilles | Madeline Miller
The Book Thief | Mark Zusak
We Were Liars | E. Lockhart
The Lovely Bones | Alice Sebold
History
inventive & interesting
Destruction of Books | Fernando Baez
Catherine the Great | Robert Massie
Voices from Chernobyl | S. Alexievich
Poetry
feeling & free
Why God is a Woman | Nin Andrews
Chasers of Light | Tyler Knott Gregson
100 Love Sonnets | Pablo Neruda
Hobby
fun & fancy
Flea Market Style | Emily Chalmers
Wine Food | Dana Frank
Steal Like an Artist | Austin Kleon
Zen in the Art of Writing | Bradbury
Sci-Fi
futuristic & freaky
Children of Time | A. Tchaikovsky
Hitchhiker's Guide | Douglas Adams
Reincarnation Blues | Michael Poore
Good Morning, Midnight | Lily Dalton
Klara & The Sun | Kazuo Ishiguro
The Time Machine | HG Wells
Spaceman of Bohemia | J. Kalfar
Left Hand of Darkness | U. Le Guin
How High We Go in the Dark | S.N.
A Canticle for Leibowitz | Walter Miller
Bios
personal & playful
I Must Say | Martin Short
Not Quite | Larry Smith
Born to Run | Chris McDougall
Contemporary
literary & lovable
So Many Ways to Begin | Jon McGregor
Valentine | Liz Wetmore
Last Night at the Lobster | Stewart O'Nan
When God was a Rabbit | Sarah Winman
Exit West | Mohsin Hamid
The Immortalists | Chloe Benjamin
The Mothers | Brit Bennett
Lily & The Octopus | Steven Rowley
The Overstory | Richard Powers
Unbearable Lightness of Being | M. Kundera
If On a Winter's Night A Traveler | I. Calvino
The Push | Ashley Audrain
The Good Life Elsewhere | Vladimir Lorchenkov