Benable — create shareable lists of things you recommend!
E.g., products you love, local businesses, travel recs - you can add anything to a Benable list!
Books for People Who Claim They “Don’t Really Read”
22
items These books do not require patience, a literature degree, or seventeen pages describing a curtain. They grab quickly and reward generously.
McCurdy writes about child stardom, abuse, addiction, and her controlling mother with startling honesty and bone-dry humor. The chapters are short, the prose is conversational, and nearly every page creates the urge to read just one more. Dark, painf...
I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
A woman takes a live-in housekeeping job with a wealthy family and discovers that everyone in the house is hiding something. The writing is deliberately straightforward, the chapters end on tiny cliffhangers, and the plot twists arrive with the subtl...
The Housemaid: 9781538742570 - Freida McFadden
Trevor Noah recounts growing up as a mixed-race child under apartheid, when his very existence violated South African law. He turns an extraordinary and often dangerous childhood into a collection of funny, vivid stories that feel more like listening...
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
The narrator is a security android that has secretly hacked its programming and would rather watch entertainment shows than interact with humans. Unfortunately, its human clients keep wandering into danger. This witty, action-packed novella is brief ...
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries, #1) by Martha Wells
Four retirement-community residents investigate cold cases for fun, then find themselves tangled in a real murder. The mystery moves briskly, but the charming characters and warm, sharp humor are the true attraction. It is cozy without becoming sleep...
Thursday Murder Club Series by Richard Osman
This graphic novel follows classmates Charlie and Nick as friendship gradually becomes something more. The illustrations make it exceptionally approachable, while the warmth, humor, and emotional honesty prevent it from feeling slight. A welcoming ch...
Volume One (Heartstopper, #1) by Alice Oseman
This short, strange, deadpan novel quietly skewers society’s obsession with making people perform adulthood correctly. Funny, unsettling, and refreshingly compact.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Green reviews pieces of the human experience, including sunsets, Canada geese, the QWERTY keyboard, and Penguins of Madagascar, using a five-star scale. The essay format allows readers to dip in and out without remembering an elaborate plot, while th...
The Anthropocene Reviewed (Signed Edition)
A man lives in an immense, mysterious house filled with statues, tides, and seemingly endless halls. The early pages create an irresistible puzzle, gradually revealing that both the house and its narrator’s history are stranger than they appear. It i...
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke
An astronaut is accidentally abandoned on Mars and must improvise his way through one life-threatening problem after another. Despite the science, it reads like a survival thriller narrated by the funniest person at NASA. Ideal for people who enjoy a...
The Martian: Weir, Andy: 9780553418026
A famous painter shoots her husband and then refuses to speak, leaving a psychotherapist determined to uncover her motive. The chapters are brief, and the central mystery immediately supplies a reason to continue. Perfect for readers who want twists ...
The Silent Patient - Michaelides, Alex: Books
An aging Hollywood legend chooses an unknown journalist to hear the truth about her career, marriages, ambitions, and carefully protected secrets. It has the addictive machinery of celebrity gossip but develops into a moving story about identity, sac...
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo: A Novel
Inside a small Tokyo café, customers can travel into the past, but only under strict rules and only until their coffee cools. The book is structured as several connected stories, making it easy to read in manageable portions. Sentimental, imaginative...
Before the Coffee Gets Cold: A Heartfelt Novel
A disastrous would-be bank robber interrupts an apartment viewing and accidentally takes a collection of deeply awkward strangers hostage. The premise sounds like a crime novel, but the result is funny, humane, and full of clever reversals. Everyone ...
Anxious People: A Novel: Backman, Fredrik - Books
A therapist experiences a personal crisis and begins seeing a therapist herself while continuing to counsel her own patients. The case stories give the book the momentum of serialized television, while Gottlieb keeps the psychology warm, funny, and u...
Maybe You Should Talk To Someone: A Therapist ...
Westover recounts growing up in an isolated survivalist family without formal schooling and eventually pursuing an education far beyond the world she knew. The circumstances are extraordinary, but the book’s emotional engine is universal: what it cos...
Educated: A Memoir: Westover, Tara: 9780399590504
Charlie writes letters about friendship, music, family, trauma, and the bewildering machinery of adolescence. The letter format makes the novel intimate and easy to move through, while Charlie’s observant voice creates an immediate connection. A stro...
The Perks of Being a Wallflower
A former television star unexpectedly becomes responsible for his young niece and nephew after a family tragedy. The story balances grief with sharp humor, glamorous opinions, and chaotic caregiving. It is warm without becoming a bowl of motivational...
The Guncle by Steven Rowley: 9780525542308 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
Merricat Blackwood lives in near-total isolation with her sister and uncle after most of their family dies under suspicious circumstances. This short gothic novel is eerie from its opening lines and grows progressively stranger when an unwelcome rela...
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
A directionless woman is hired to care for two children who spontaneously burst into flames when upset. Wilson treats this absurd condition with complete emotional seriousness, creating a funny and surprisingly tender novel about neglect, loyalty, an...
Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
A small-time smuggler living in the first city on the moon accepts a lucrative job and becomes tangled in a much larger conspiracy. It is essentially a heist thriller with lunar gravity, technical ingenuity, and a fast-talking narrator who makes spec...
Artemis: A Novel: Weir, Andy: 9780553448122
Xiomara, an Afro-Dominican teenager in Harlem, begins using slam poetry to express the thoughts and desires she cannot safely say aloud. Written in verse, the novel has generous white space and can be read quickly, but its emotional impact is anythin...
The Poet X: Classic YA Novel in Verse (13+)