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!
My Top Book Recs per Genre
102
items I read over 50 books a year across all genres for my book blog, Notes from the Shelf. This is my ultimate, filtered-down masterlist of 5-star recommendations (divided by genre) that are actually worth your time. **contains afilliate links**
Sections
12
Fantasy
Romance
Mystery/Thriller
Horror
Science Fiction
Contemporary Fiction
Fantasy
Read this if you want a FMC who deconstructs her biases and brings about the end of the world
Blood Over Bright Haven
Read this if you want to see what happens when you have to continually reincarnate to learn life's lessons, while also falling in love with Death
Reincarnation Blues
Read this if you want a fun, fast-paced series about librarian spies who travel through parallel dimensions to steal rare books for a mysterious institution
The Invisible Library series
Read this if you want a female-led novel about a divided world uniting across cultures to prevent an ancient evil from destroying humanity
The Priory of the Orange Tree
Read this if you want a slow-burn romantic fantasy novel with fierce underdog discovering hidden powers
An Heir Comes to Rise series
Read this if you want a whimsical, fairytale-style novel about an ordinary cup-collecting girl who stows away on a pirate ship to cross a deadly, spore-filled ocean and rescue the boy she loves
Tress of the Emerald Sea
Read this if you want a dark academia fantasy novel about six uniquely talented magicians who compete for five coveted spots in a powerful secret society, knowing that not all of them will survive the year
The Atlas Six series
Read this if you want an epic fantasy series about broken people who discover lost magic and honor in a harsh world torn apart by violent storms and endless war
The Way of Kings (Stormlight Archive Series)
Read this if you want a cozy fantasy novel about a socially awkward professor who travels to a remote Arctic village to study elusive faeries, only to have her work disrupted by her handsome and infuriating academic rival
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries series
Read this if you want a fast-paced novella that feels like John Wick meets Dungeons & Dragons
The Dead Cat Tail Assassins
Read this if you want a fantastical, Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery where an eccentric, blindfolded senior investigator and her memory-enhanced assistant solve impossible crimes in a biopunk empire threatened by colossal sea monsters
The Tainted Cup
Read this if you want a dark academia story where etymology and translation become a literal, powerful form of magic tied to the gears of the British Empire
Babel
Romance
Read this if you want a genre-bending, philosophical novel that follows secret agents who carefully orchestrate seemingly random everyday occurrences, like spilled drinks or missed trains, to subtly nudge humanity toward destiny, love, and scientific...
The Coincidence Makers: A Novel - Yoav Blum
Read this if you want a fun romantic comedy about a woman who volunteers at a local Renaissance Faire and unexpectedly falls for the strict coordinator she previously clashed with
Well Met series
Read this if you want a good cry
The Light We Lost: Reese's Book Club
Read this series if you want a clever Victorian romance filled with witty banter, secret identities, and an inventive "story-within-a-story" structure
The Lady and the Highwayman series
Read this if you want a cozy, witty, and slow-burn romance about an artistic hand-letterer and a pattern-obsessed mathematician in New York City
Love Lettering
Read this if you want a festive, enemies-to-lovers small-town romance where a determined woman fights a handsome CEO to save the magical Christmas town her grandmother built, only to reignite an old, undeniable spark
Welcome To Winterville series
Read this if you want a light, charming romance about a traditional southern woman in New York who falls for a sharp, suit-wearing female attorney and redefines her entire view of love
When Katie Met Cassidy
Read this if you want to witness a passionate, deeply human story about a woman daring to choose her own creative and intellectual freedom over the rigid rules of early 20th-century society
Loving Frank
Read this if you want a fiery, slow-burn historical romance that mashes up the sharp, intelligent banter of Pride and Prejudice with the high stakes of the 19th-century women's suffrage movement
Bringing Down the Duke series
Read if you want a witty romance about two collateral-damage exes who become accidental roommates and start fake-dating out of pure spite
Funny Story
Read if you want a paranormal romance about a sharp-tongued female vampire forced into a marriage of convenience with a massive, fiercely protective alpha werewolf
Bride
Mystery/Thriller
An emotional novel about a woman who inherits her late uncle's struggling bookstore and pieces together hidden family secrets through a series of literary scavenger hunts
The Bookshop of Yesterdays
Longtime college friends hiding deep resentments meet during a remote New Year's holiday in the Scottish Highlands, and it ends in murder
The Hunting Party
Ray McMillian is a young Black classical musician who overcomes systemic racism and familial disapproval to achieve stardom, only to embark on a desperate quest when his priceless family heirloom, a Stradivarius violin, is stolen right before an inte...
The Violin Conspiracy: A GMA Book Club Pick
Read if you want a fantastical, Sherlock Holmes-style murder mystery where an eccentric, blindfolded senior investigator and her memory-enhanced assistant solve impossible crimes in a biopunk empire threatened by colossal sea monsters
The Tainted Cup
Read this if you want a cozy, modern-day National Treasure that mashes up ancient secret societies with Silicon Valley tech
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore
Read this if you want a lightning-fast, high-stakes political thriller where the protagonist's own professional skills are weaponized against him
Hour of the Assassin
Read this if you want a high-octane revenge thriller that pairs brutal, non-stop action with a deeply emotional story about two flawed fathers trying to redeem themselves for their dead gay sons
Razorblade Tears
Read this if you want a quick page-turner with strong family feelings and surprising twists
The Last Thing He Told Me
Read this if you want a fast-paced, addictive thriller about buried small-town secrets and a serial killer confession that suddenly falls apart
Heart of Glass
Read this if you want an explosive, non-stop action thriller that reads like an Indiana Jones movie on maximum speed
Seven Deadly Wonders series
Read this if you want a book that will make you question the nature of time, memory, and reality itself
Dare to Know
Read this if you want Indiana Jones mixed with The X-Files
The Anomaly
Read this if you want a propulsive, high-stakes survival story that balances the absolute terror of a natural disaster with sharp humor and profound emotional heart
Tilt
Horror
Read this if you want a Indiana Jones mixed with The X-Files
The Anomaly
Read this if you want a haunted house story, but the house is a knock-off Ikea
Horrorstor
Read this if you want a Gothic fairytale with found family
Gallant
Read this if you want a dark story about maternal love and breaking free from the patriarchy
The Book Eaters
Read this if you want a retelling of Edgar Allen Poe's The Fall of the House of Usher, but with sentient fungus
What Moves the Dead
Read this if you want a mix of campy humor and genuine horror
Bury Your Gays
Read this if you want a book that constantly keeps you guessing
We Used to Live Here
Read this if you want a forbidden romance and a FMC who embraces her feminine rage
The Possession of Alba Díaz
Read this if you want a summer camp horror that's a mix of Yellowjackets and The Craft
The Honeys
Read this if you want a quick, atmospheric, ten-hour midnight horror about five night-shift workers who stumble upon an unexpected open grave in a campus cemetery
Graveyard Shift
Read this if you want a found-footage style ghost story
Widow's Point
Science Fiction
Read if you want a genre-bending, philosophical novel that follows secret agents who carefully orchestrate seemingly random everyday occurrences, like spilled drinks or missed trains, to subtly nudge humanity toward destiny, love, and scientific brea...
The Coincidence Makers: A Novel - Yoav Blum
Read this if you want a book that will make you question the nature of time, memory, and reality itself.
Dare to Know
Read this if you want a funny, inventive time-travel story about messing up reality, finding your true self, and learning to love the messy world you live in
All Our Wrong Todays
Read this if you want a mind-bending read about infinite realities
Dark Matter
Read this if you want a tense, psychological book about a woman forced to go to the past to reflect on her own reality and free will
Hazards of Time Travel
Read this if you want a survival story that pairs the high-stakes tension of Mad Max with the raw, devastating maternal drive of The Road
After the Flood
Read this if you want a heart-wrenching sci-fi story about a father trying to save his daughter
Here and Now and Then
Read this if you want a character-driven story that turns the classic multiverse story into a critical look at identity, class, and survival
The Space Between Worlds
Read this if you want a retelling of Pinocchio about an eccentric family of misfit robots trying to rescue their human creator
In the Lives of Puppets
Read this if you want a sci-fi adventure about a street-smart criminal who gets paired with a living, sentient alien spaceship
Honor Among Thieves
Contemporary Fiction
Read this if you want an unforgettable, fiercely hopeful story about a young girl who refuses to be silenced by poverty and abuse
The Girl with the Louding Voice: A Read with Jenna Pick
Read this if you need to be reminded that everyone is quietly panicking and no one knows what they're doing
Anxious People
Read this if you want a deeply moving story about seeing your parents as real people with wild, romantic pasts before you were born
Tom Lake: Reese's Book Club Pick
Read this if you want a touching story on taking care of a parent with dementia, with a dash of magical realism
Before I Forget
Read this if you want an emotionally resonant epistolary novel that makes you want to hand-write a letter to a friend
The Correspondent
Read this if you want a rebellion story against banning books
Suggested Reading
Read this if you want a cozy, emotional story about finding peace with your past instead of trying to change it
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Read this if you want a cozy, magical story about outcasts finding a place where they finally belong
Other Birds
Read this if you want to read about a dysfunctional family forced to spend Christmas together, featuring a divorced couple, their new partners, an imaginary giant rabbit, and a holiday where absolutely everything goes wrong
The Adults
Read this if you want an interconnected story about a small town navigating grief, illness, and the everyday beauty of survival
A Little Hope
Literary Fiction
Read this if you want a darkly funny, cynical look at existential dread and modern work culture
Discontent
Read this if you want a deeply atmospheric survival story about a young servant girl fleeing a colonial settlement into the freezing North American wilderness
The Vaster Wilds
Read this if you want to see a high-profile "tradwife" social media influencer wake up trapped in the brutal, unglamorous reality of 1855
Yesteryear: A GMA Book Club Pick
Read this if you want an atmospheric, lyrical story about how nature and history silently remember the tragedies we try to map over
Land
Read this if you want a deeply moving, beautifully written story about lifelong female friendship and what it truly means to be family
Kin: Oprah's Book Club
Historical Fiction
Read this if you want to witness a passionate, deeply human story about a woman daring to choose her own creative and intellectual freedom over the rigid rules of early 20th-century society
Loving Frank
Read this if you want a documentary transcript-style fiction of a 70's rock band
Daisy Jones & The Six: Reese's Book Club
Read this if you want an emotional, sweeping American adventure that feels like a modern mix of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Odyssey
This Tender Land
Read this if you want lyrical exploration of queer Black love that finds hope and humanity inside the brutal machinery of an antebellum plantation
The Prophets
Read this if you want to discover the hidden true story of Hedy Lamarr, the 1930s Hollywood glamour icon who was secretly a brilliant scientist and invented the frequency-hopping technology that laid the groundwork for modern Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
The Only Woman in the Room
Read this if you want an emotional, true-to-life story about a family's unbreakable will to survive the Holocaust against all odds
We Were the Lucky Ones
Read this if you want to experience the harsh, real-life struggles of the 1930s Great Depression and relentless dust storms
The Four Winds
Read this if you want an atmospheric historical mystery about a female spiritualist who uses seances to help solve murder investigations in Victorian England
The London Séance Society
Read this if you want a fast-paced crime thriller where a New Orleans mob enforcer flees a hitman after the JFK assassination and uses a fleeing housewife and her kids as a low-profile disguise on Route 66
November Road
Dark Academia
Read if you want a dark academia fantasy about six uniquely talented magicians who compete for five coveted spots in a powerful secret society, knowing that not all of them will survive the year
The Atlas Six
Read this if you want a dark academia story where etymology and translation become a literal, powerful form of magic tied to the gears of the British Empire
Babel
Read this if you want an atmospheric, gothic thriller about toxic academic ambition, medieval art, and a mysterious 15th-century tarot deck that blurs the line between fate and free will
The Cloisters
Read this if you want a rivals-to-lovers romantic dark academia where two rivals travel to literal hell to save their professor
Katabasis (Deluxe Limited Edition)
Read this if you want a FMC who deconstructs her biases and brings about the end of the world
Blood Over Bright Haven
Romantasy
Read if you want a slow-burn romantic fantasy novel with fierce underdog discovering hidden powers
An Heir Comes to Rise
Read if you want a cozy fantasy novel about a socially awkward professor who travels to a remote Arctic village to study elusive faeries, only to have her work disrupted by her handsome and infuriating academic rival
Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries
Read if you want a rich, ancient Arabia-inspired fantasy featuring a slow-burn enemies-to-lovers romance and a high-stakes quest for lost magic
We Hunt the Flame
Read this if you want a high-stakes, deadly fantasy tournament combined with a slow-burn, enemies-to-lovers vampire romance
The Serpent & the Wings of Night series
Read this if you want an epistolary romance built on anonymous, magical letters between two rival co-workers
Divine Rivals duology
Read this if you want lyrical writing and a magical atmosphere
The Night Circus
Nonfiction
Read this if you want a funny, witty travel memoir that explores why some parts of the world are happier than others
The Geography of Bliss
Read this if you want a raw, honest look at how real communities survive an unthinkable catastrophe
Ghosts of the Tsunami
Read this if you want to read about breaking free from a predictable life and facing your deepest fears
To Shake the Sleeping Self
Read this if you want a short, sharp guide on how ordinary people can spot and stop the quiet erosion of democracy
On Tyranny
Read this if you want to see how a top scientist uses the vast, cold wonder of outer space to process the intimate, devastating grief of losing her husband
The Smallest Lights in the Universe
True Crime
Read this if you want a firsthand, real-life thriller about how an elite friendship turned into a $62,000 betrayal
My Friend Anna
Read this if you want an empathetic, community-focused look at a tragedy rather than a sensationalized true-crime puzzle
Down the Hill
Read this if you want a deep-dive into the disappearance of IU student Lauren Spierer in 2011
College Girl, Missing
Read this if you want a thoughtful true-crime account that restores dignity to Elizabeth Short instead of reducing her to a sensationalized pulp-fiction victim
Black Dahlia: Murder, Monsters, and Madness in Midcentury Hollywood
Read this if you want an expert, myth-busting breakdown that separates decades of true-crime fiction from actual forensic fact
The Zodiac Killer