Recommendations

I have a hard time giving book recommendations – it really depends on what you’re in the mood for! Below are books I’ve given a 4.5 or above (with a few exceptions), based on what you want.

Fiction

… and I want something light

• Less by Andrew Sean Greer

• Normal People / Conversations with Friends / Beautiful World Where Are You by Sally Rooney

• Circe by Madeline Miller (full review)

• Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (full review)

• Truly, Devious by Maureen Johnson (full review)

• Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson (top books 2021)

• The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid

… and I want something that makes me think

• Mother Night / Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

• The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson

• The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

• How Long ‘til Black Future Month? by N.K. Jemison (full review)

• Americanah (full review) / Half of a Yellow Sun (full review) / Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

• Detransition, Baby (full review) by Torrey Peters

… and I want something really beautifully written 

• Chronicle of a Death Foretold / One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez

• Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

• A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin

• Homegoing / Transcendent Kingdom (full review) by Yaa Gyasi

… and I want to be damaged emotionally 

• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

• The Underground Railroad / The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

• Beloved by Toni Morrison

Non-Fiction

… and I want to be inspired + happy

• Becoming by Michelle Obama

• Outside the Wire by Jason Kander

• Educated by Tara Westover

… and I want to be inspired + cry

• Heavy by Kiese Laymon (Jan 2022 recap)

• Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner (full review) (top books 2021)

• The Undocumented Americans by Karla Cornejo Villavicencio (full review)

… and I want to learn something new

• A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders (top books 2021)

• The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan (top books 2021)

• All About Love by bell hooks (Jan 2022 recap)

• The Broken Ladder by Keith Payne (full review)

• Disability Visibility by Alice Wong (full review)

• The Barbizon by Paulina Bren (full review)