* highly recommended when reviewed (rated 9 or above)

quirky (but good) books

*All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood
2 AM At The Cat's Pajamas by Marie Helene-Bertino
​Biloxi by Mary Miller
Dietland by Sarai Walker
French Exit by Patrick DeWitt
​Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
*Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
*How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Moshin Hamid
​Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J.  Ryan Stradal
Love, Nina by Nina Stibbe
Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flette-Giordano
*​Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett
​Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
​The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
*The Gunners by Rebecca Kauffman
​The Wangs vs. the World by Jade Chang
​Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

read and enjoyed before this site-
Where'd You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick
Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement

sweet stories

​A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman
Clock Dance by Anne Tyler
​​*Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
​Last Bus to Wisdom by Ivan Doig
The Storied Life of A.J. Fiery by Gabrielle Zevon
​*Less by Andrew Sean Greer
​Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
*Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
​*Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
*Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf 
​The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman
*The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennesy by Rachel Joyce
​The Jane Austen Society by Natalie Jenner
*The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
*This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Virgil Wander by Leif Enger
read and enjoyed before this site-
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Tower, The Zoo, and The Tortoise by Julia Stuart

light- beach books

All Adults Here by Emma Straub
Astonish Me by Maggie Shipstead
​Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whittemore
Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler
​​City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
​Forever is the Worst Long Time by Camille Pagan
Happy & You Know It by Laura Hankin
​​How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
In the Midst of Winter by Isabel Allende
​My Grandmother Said To Tell You She's Sorry by Frederik 
Bachman
Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Li
Our Little Racket by Angelica Baker
The Distance Home by Paula Saunders
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
​The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
​The Nest by Cynthia D''Aprix Sweeney
The Other's Gold by Elizavbeth Ames
​The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
The Swans of New York by Melanie Benjamin

mysteries

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin
The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
​*Lethal White by Robert Galbraith
​*Long Bright River by Liz Moore
Marry, Kiss, Kill by Anne Flette-Giordano
*My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh
So Say theFallen by Stuart Neville
​Still Life by Louise Penny
The Antiquarian by Gustavo Faveron Patriau
The Cairo Affair by Olen Steinhauer
The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton
​The Gone Dead by Chantelle Benz
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz 
The Kept by James Scott
​The Lake House by Kate Morton
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskins
The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney
The Secret Place by Tana French
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith
The Trespasser by Tana French
*These Women by Ivy Pochoda

read and enjoyed before this site-
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Norwegian by Night by Derek B. Miller

suspenseful (perhaps even creepy?)

​*American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson
​An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
Bearskin by James A. McLaughlin
Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
​Disclaimer by Renee Knight
Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh
Finders Keepers by Stephen King
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King 
​*My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
Summer House With Swimming Pool by Herman Koch
Tangerine by Christine Mangan
The Animals by Christian Kiefer
​The Caretaker by AX Ahmad
​*The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
The Girl on a Train by Paula Dawkins
​The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
The Hand That Feeds You by A.J. Rich
​The Last Flight by Julie Clark
​The Loney by Micahel Andrew Hurley
The Long Drop by Denise Mina
The Lost Night by Andrea Bartz
The Martian by Andy Weir (just suspenseful- not creepy)
​The One Man by Andrew Gross
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
*The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
​This is How I Lied by Heather Gudenkauf​

read and enjoyed before this site-
Night Film by Marisha Pessl 

literary fiction

A Burning by Megha Majumdar
*A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
*A Terrible Country by Keith Gessen
​*Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
*The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
*A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
*A Place For Us by Fatima Farheer Mirza
A Spool of Blue Thread by Anne Tyler
*A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
*All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
American Dirt by Jeanine Cummings
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
​An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
*And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
*Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
*Beartown by Frederik Backman
​**Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
​Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
Boy, Snow, Bird by Helen Oyeymii
Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak
​Circe by Madeline Miller
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His yeats of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
​Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
​*Deacon King Kong by James McBride
​Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
**​Dominicana by Angie Cruz
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
​Exit West by Moshin Hamid
Faithful by Alice Hoffman
Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Fly Me by Daniel Riley
​*Freedom by Jonathan Franzen
Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson
Girl At War by Sara Novic
Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
​Grief Cottage by Gail Goodwin
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
​Here I Am by Jonathan Safron Foer
​Hold Still by Lynn Steger Strong
​Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
*Hum If You Don't Know The Words by Bianca Marais
​**Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
If You Want To Make God Laugh by Bianca Marais
​Katerina by James Frey
​​Language Arts by Stephanie Kallos
​LaRose by Louise Erdrich
​Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
​*Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
​*Life Among Giants by Bill Roorbach
*Life Drawing by Robin Black
Lila by Marilynne Robinson
​**Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
​Lost Empress by Sergio De La Pava
Machines Like Me by Ian McEwan
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
​**My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
**Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
**​Normal People by Sally Rooney
**Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout
​*Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
​​Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin
​Redhead by the Side of the Road by Anne Tyler
​Rooftops of Tehran by Mahbod Seraji
*Ruby by Cynthia Bond
*Saints for All Ocassions by J. Courtney Sullivan
Self-Portrait With Boy by Rachel Lyon
Sharks in the Time of Saviors by Kawaii Strong Washburn
​​Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
*Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
​Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo​
​Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller
The All of It by Jeannette Haien
​The Bartender's Tale by Ivan Doig
The Buried Giant by Kazoo Ishiguro
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
**The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery
​The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
The Heart's invisible Furies by John Boyne
​The Hearts Of Men by Nickolas Butler
​The Immportalists by Chloe Benjamin
​The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
​The Invisible Life of Ivan Isaenko by Scott Stambach
The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
*The Map of Salt and Stars bt Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
The Mars Room by Rachel Kushner
*The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
​The Nix by Nathan Hill
​The Optimist's Daughter By Eudora Welty
​The Porpoise by Mark Haddon
​The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Temporary Gentleman by Sebastian Barry
The Tenth Muse by Catherine Chung
​The Travelers by Regina Porter
*The Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
​TheTurner House by Angela Flournoy
​The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinit
​The Unfortunates by Sophie McManus
​Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay by Elena Ferrante
To Keep the Sun Alive by Rabeah
Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore
Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
​​​We  Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
*Writers & Lovers by Lily King
Young God by Katherine Faw Morris

read and enjoyed before the site-
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield​We  Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy FowlerRules of Civility by Amor Towles
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
Skippy Dies by Paul Murray
Transatlantic by Colum McCann

way, way literary fiction...great writing

*Apeirogon by Colum McCann​
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
​Census by Jesse Ball​
*​Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
*Driftless by David Rhodes
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
Milkman by Anna Burns
​On Earth We're Breifly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Open City by Teju Cole
**​Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Sweet bitter by Stephanie Danler
The Animals by Christian Kiefer
The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
​The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
​*The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
​​The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes
The Sound of Things Falling by Juan Gabriel Vasquez
​The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
​Trust Exercise by Susan Choi
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
Women Talking by Miriam Toews
​

Memoirs

​And Now We Have Everything by Meaghan O'Connell
​Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
*Educated by Tara Westover
Everything Happens for a Reason and other Lies I have Loved by Kate Bower
​Fire Shut up In My Bones by Charles M. Blow
​Forty Autumns by Nina Willner
H is For Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance
*How We Fight For Our Lives by Saeed Jones
I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
​Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle
​My Brother Moochie by Issac J. Bailey
On the Move by Oliver Sacks
Out East by John Glynn
Shoe Dog by Phil Knight
*The Last Girl by Nadia Murad
​Things We Didn't Talk about When I Was a Girl by Jeannie Vanasco
Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur
​You're On An Airplane by Parker Posey
​
read and enjoyed before this site-
Just Kids by Patti Smith
All Over But the Shouting by Rick Bragg

dystopian novels

All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
On Such a Full Sea by Chang-Rae Lee
Ready Player One by Ernest Kline
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd
​The Circle by Dave Eggers
​The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey
*Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Power by Naomi Alderman

read and enjoyed before the site-
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

non-fiction

An American Summer by Alex Kotlowitz
*Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
Brain Food by Lisa Mosconi PhD , INHC
Furious Hours by Casey Dep
​*Ghettoside A True Story of Murder in America by Jill Leovy
*Gut by Giulia Enders
​Hollywood's Eve by Lili Anolik
Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
​Madame President by Helene Cooper
​Maeve in America by Maeve Higgins
​Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich
*One Summer by Bill Bryson
Reader, Come Home by Maryanne Wolf
Red Notice by Bill Browder
Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild
​**The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
*The Bully Pulpit by Doris Kearns Goodwin
*The Good Spy by Kai Bird
​The Lucky Years by David B. Agus M.D.
*The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
​*The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
The Splendid Things We Planned by Blake Bailey
​The Undoing Project by Michael Lewis
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
Think Like a Freak by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner

read and enjoyed before this site-
No Ordinary Time by Doris Kearns Goodwin
Empire of the Summer Moon by S.C. Gwynne

short stories

The Assassination of Margaret Thatcher by Hillary Mantel
*The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
​*There There by Tommy Orange
read and enjoyed before this site-
Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 

good but really different

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
Land of Love and Drowning by Tiphanie Yanique

historical fiction

A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson
​A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
​Abundance by Sena Jeter Naslund
​Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb
Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry
​Circling the Sun by Paula McLain
​*Days Without End by Sebastian Barry
​Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
Euphoria by Lily King
​*Georgia by Dawn Tripp
​House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure
​Lazaretto by Diane McKinney-Whetstone
​Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
​Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford
​*News of the World by Paulette Jiles
November Road by Lou Berney
Once Upon A River by Diane Setterfield
Orhan's Inheritance by Aline Ohanesian
​Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
​​Saints For All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Chritsty Lefteri
​The Bones of Paradise by Jonis Agee
​The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
​The Flight Portfolio by Julie Orringer
​The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
The Golem and the Jinni by Helena Wecker
The Good People by Hannah Kent
The Invention of Exile by Vanessa Manko
​The Japanese Lover by Isabel Allende
The Latecomers by Helen Klein Ross
^The Marriage of Opposites by Alice Hoffman
The Orphan's Tale by Pam Jenhoff
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
​The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye
​The Patriots by Sana Krasikov
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
The Removes by Tatjana Soli
​*The Second Mrs. Hockaday by Susan Rivers
The Shadow King by Maaza Mengiste
The Story of Land and Sea by Katy Simpson Smith
​The Taming of the Queen by Philippa Gregory
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
​*The Weight of Ink by Rachel Kadish
​The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
​The Wonder by Emma Donaghue
The Yellow Birds by Kevin Powers
​*Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
*Varina by Charles Frazier
​White Houses by Amy Bloom

read and enjoyed before the site-
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent
A Constellation of Vital Phenomenon by Anthony Marra
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson

world war two historical fiction

*All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Among the Living by Jonathan Rabb
Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan
Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
In Paradise by Peter Matthiessen
​Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly
Love & Treasure by Ayelet Waldman
The Book of Aron by Jim Shepard
*The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
​*The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman

a few favorite classics

Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

easy reads

The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant