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Books I Can't Put Down: All Genres
24
items Books i bully my friends into reading so they can tell me “hey wow that was a good book”. This list is constantly updated, so check back regularly!
Sections
9
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
Philosophic
Creepy & Crime-ey
True Stories & Memoirs
YA
Poetry & Short Essays
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
for when you want to go on the adventure of a lifetime
i literally could not put this book down. a story within a story within a story that rivals (dare i say it) Lord of the Rings. Kote (or Kvothe, as his real name is) is hiding out as a humble innkeeper, as travelers are slowly being killed out on the ...
The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle Series)
2
the prophesized one is coming, and darkness will destroy all. i actually have to read the last book in this trilogy, but when i tell you i've never devoured anything faster, i mean it. Pool's narrative storytelling between character POVs is phenomena...
There Will Come A Darkness (The Age of Darkness Series)
with everything going on about Gaiman, I hesitated to leave this one up. i don't support rapists. however, this book changed me when I read it during COVID. I am a big believer of being able to read a work that's *informed* by its author/artist, not ...
American Gods
Philosophic
for when you want to think about the world a a new way
a story of the universe and how to listen to it. it charts us through the story of Santiago, and how he comes to trust the universe, who keeps telling him he's on a path that, to him, makes no logical sense. i finished this book in 2 days and cried the whole time – truly one the most impactful stor...
The Alchemist
do you believe in soulmates? do you feel like you were evil in a past life? do you believe your choices now affect the future? this book will make you ask all of this of yourself. told from the perspective of six different literary modes across six d...
Cloud Atlas
a broom is just a broom…but only if you call it that. incredibly hard, incredibly confusing, but well-worth the read. Wallace explores the absurdity of language and challenges it's system, telling his story similarly to Mitchell's Cloud Atlas: thorug...
The Broom of the System
“if your eyes could speak, what would they say?” this book absolutely rocks my world every time i read it. such a fantastic study of humanity and grief, and told through the eyes of Death himself. a classic and one i will always find comfort in.
The Book Thief
Creepy & Crime-ey
for when you want to be entranced, and maybe not sleep after. trigger warnings for violence, sexual assault & domestic violence.
deeply traumatic and so compelling. this book tells the story of a woman in an abusive relationship, who goes to great lengths to protect her sister, who saves her in return. the final scenes of this book still haunts my dreams even though i read it ...
Behind Closed Doors
move over, agatha christie, because elizabeth george is coming for your crown. this series of 10 (and counting) books charts two detectives at Scotland Yard, Detective Inspector Lynely and Seargant Barbara Havers, as they solve murders all throughout...
The Detective Inspector Lynely Series
i'm a horrible man, and i've done horrible things. or am i? this novel, in which a man recounts every horrible thing he's ever done or thought, does not plead for your mercy. he simply writes his life as is. and he is horrible. but is it true? is it ...
Diary of an Oxygen Thief Series
True Stories & Memoirs
the never ending-quest for The Big Wave. a memoir by New Yorker writer William Finnegan, he recounts his life as a surfer growing up in Hawaii and California, and his life's goal to find and ride the world's biggest wave as he navigates heartbreak, l...
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life
essays and memoir stories from feminist writer Rebecca Solnit. my favorite anecdote is one of the first in the book: she delightfully recounts how a man at a bar asks her if she's read the article *she* just published, and then proceeds to mansplain ...
Men Explain Things To Me
excerpts from this book have gotten me through some shit. Lorde's plain language of cancer and her struggle with care as a radical act have made accepting my disability status all the easier. rest in power.
The Cancer Journals
not all love is romantic, and nobody knows this better than bell hooks. explore the ways in which love touches everything in our lives through hooks' personal anecdotes and stories of family, friends, grief, and of course, love.
all about love: new visions
how much nature, and we, change in just one year. Renkl watches her life, the life of her backyard, and America's life, change during the pandemic in 52 weekly vignettes. also, her brother painted every chapter heading.
The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year
YA
if the movie Nerve was on like a thousand steroids. this one-off book about a huge end-of-senior-year game of dares had me in a chokehold the summer i read it. the concept is each day, for the whole schoolyear, each senior put $1 in the “pot”, and up...
Panic
her twin dies, and suddenly she's alone for the first time ever. but what REALLY happened? this YA murder mystery had me on the edge of my seat for longer than i'd care to admit.
Nowhere Girl
an Irish lighthouse that, during a storm, transports you to a magical land. these books are as wholesome as they are deep commentaries on grief, love, inheritance, and community. YA friendly, the main character is deaf/mute, and I cried multiple time...
The Lighthouse Trilogy
if the fault in our stars was somehow MORE tragic. two friends befriend a girl dying of cancer, and all teach each other something. this book, and movie, wrecked me.
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
covens, cults, sex, and witchcraft. this fifteen-mini-book, five novel series is a fantastical dive into the world of Wicca. ALL the good tropes – hurt/comfort, enemies-to-lovers, protector and protected, and of course, moon magic and smut.
Sweep Series
Poetry & Short Essays
fuck whales, and everything else while you're at it. nihilistic poetry and short stories, a collection of humorous hatred and observing. a delightful read for my cynical, cold heart.
F*ck Whales
Queer Identity
a book about the aging of queer artists, and age in general. this book is a one-off and is an incredibly compelling homage to the elder gay man experience. it captures so beautifully the struggle between loving art and loving another person, how thos...
Less
Romance
two wives, two daughters, two states. the daughters meet as college roomates, and guys, this story is MESSY. i bought this book in an airport layover on a whim while traveling with my family, and was NOT prepared for how emotionally riveting it would...
Family Pictures
Fiction
what REALLY happened when Bob Marley was almost assasinated at the Smile for Jamaica concert? Marlon James will tell you, and he'll tell you in twenty different characters, all with different speech dialects.
A Brief History of Seven Killings