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Books I LOVE
23
items Here are different books that I love based on hundreds I've read. From comforting to heart-breaking to quirky. From Greek mythology to sad love stories to emotional conversations to relaxing atmospheres, I've got em all!
Sections
5
Greek mythology
Japanese novels/mangas
Heavy novels
Adventures
Academia
Greek mythology
I love Greek mythology retelling books!
Another Greek Mythology retelling, Madeline Miller did a write job at telling the story of Greek's most infamous witch - Circe. She gave her a powerful, feministic spin. I really enjoyed this book.
Circe: 9780316556347: Miller, Madeline: Books
Beautiful written story of the Trojan War from the perspectives of Patroclus. I've read a lot of Greek mythology, and this book WILL make you cry. It contains deep yet heart-wrenching love.
The Song of Achilles: A Novel by Madeline Miller
A funny and modern look at the birth of the gods and their messy lives.
Mythos
A classic for a reason! The Odyssey follows Odysseus’s ten-year journey home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, facing perils and losing his crew. Meanwhile, his wife and son deal with suitors vying for Penelope’s hand.
The Odyssey - Homer, Robert Fagles, Bernard Knox
Japanese novels/mangas
Love me a good Japanese book.
Will make you cry. Emotional story between the journey between a man and his cat, how they enjoyed their presence without thinking much of the future ahead.
The Travelling Cat Chronicles - Hiro Arikawa
Warm, gentle, and quietly moving, this beloved Japanese bestseller is comfort food in book form — proof that a single dish can hold an entire life. The former detective and his daughter, in their unmarked diner with no menu in Kyoto, will make any me...
A Kamogawa Food Detectives Novel Series
Challeges the social norm in a stange yet humorous way. It sets in Japan, and tells a story of a woman so dedicated and happy at her convenience store job. This setting challenges the social norm of how humans are expected to work up the social ladde...
The Convenience Store
SO COMFORTING. When Takako's boyfriend casually announces he's marrying someone else, her life collapses. Heartbroken and adrift, she reluctantly accepts her eccentric uncle's offer: a free room above his cramped secondhand bookshop in Jimbocho, Toky...
Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: Cozy Japanese Tale
The sequel to “Days at the Morisake bookstore”, but with a deeper ache. Takako's life is finally on steady ground — a good job, a budding romance, and always, the beloved bookshop in Jimbocho where she first put herself back together. But when illnes...
More Days at the Morisaki Bookshop: A Novel
Witty, magical, and endlessly inventive, the beloved classic that inspired the Miyazaki film — even better on the page.
Howl's Moving Castle: A Spellbinding Fantasy Adventure of Magic ...
Such an underated manga and anime!
They can't die. That's what makes the Ajin so terrifying — and so valuable. Rare, immortal beings hidden among humans, they're hunted by governments and dissected in secret labs. Kei Nagai is a model student who thinks Ajin are just headlines — until...
They can't die. That's what makes the Ajin so terrifying — and so valuable. Rare, immortal beings hidden among humans, they're hunted by governments and dissected in secret labs. Kei Nagai is a model student who thinks Ajin are just headlines — until...
Ajin 1: Demi-Human: 9781939130846: Sakurai, Gamon
Literally the best anime ever! For a hundred years, humanity has lived caged behind massive walls — the last defense against the Titans, giant man-eating creatures who roam outside. Inside, life is safe. Small, but safe. Then the day comes when a col...
Attack on Titan 1: 9781612620244: Isayama, Hajime: Books
Heavy novels
These books will make you cry/ internalize your emotions.
Eddie thinks his life meant nothing — a broken old man fixing rides at a seaside pier. Then, on his 83rd birthday, he dies saving a little girl. In heaven, five people are waiting for him. Some he loved. One he never knew existed. Each reveals how hi...
The Five People You Meet in Heaven - Albom
This book is so interesting. I read this in one go; it tells about a past-life regression hypnotist's conversations with his clients about how your soul chose this current life, what could be your life lessons, and the universe. It does not mention a...
Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives
Probably the saddest book about a man I've read. It sets in Japan about a man who's never feel belong, and uses his humorous facade to not raise suspicion, then turns to alcholism and drug abuse later in life before his disppearance. It's really heav...
No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai
Written as a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read it, this is Little Dog's story — a Vietnamese American boy raised in Hartford by a mother scarred by war and a grandmother haunted by it. Reaching back through generations, from Saigon to Ame...
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Adventures
Let's go on an adventure!
Such a comforting book! Every time I want to reread something, I always come back to it. It still engulfs you in the magical world every single time.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Books
I still remember so much details from this book. Phileas Fogg, a wealthy and precise British gentleman, bets £20,000 that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days, departing London on October 2, 1872.
Around the World in 80 Days
Such good bedtime stories! Hanan al-Shaykh retells nineteen stories from One Thousand and One Nights, weaving them into a captivating collection. Her modern English retelling preserves the tales’ humor and allure.
One Thousand and One Nights
I loved this book as a kid! Mèo Gấu is a cat with a problem: he's a poet at heart, hopelessly in love with a she-cat named Áo Hoa who vanished from his life. Then fate hands him something even stranger — a friendship with Tí Hon, a tiny mouse. A cat ...
Two Cats Sitting at a Window: A Fable - Books
Academia
Academia setting? Horrifying already.
Dark academia vibes! The Secret History, an inverted detective story narrated by one of the six students, Richard Papen, recounts the events that led to the murder of their friend Edmund “Bunny” Corcoran years later. The novel unfolds sequentially, r...
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
This book is horrifying in a funny way and has such witchy vibes! Bunny is a hilarious campus novel by Mona Awad. It was published in Canada in 2019 by Hamish Hamilton. The story follows Samantha, a creative writing student at a fancy New England uni...
Bunny: A Novel: Awad, Mona - Books
The main character is so funny. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde. Young, beautiful, and utterly captivating, Dorian Gray has his portrait painted — and makes a reckless wish: that the painting age instead of him. The wish comes true. While D...
The Picture of Dorian Gray