Below you’ll find every book I’ve recommended on this site, categorized by author. Starred books are my top favorites. Happy reading!
A
- Abbott, Megan – Dare Me
- Abbott, Megan – Give Me Your Hand
- Abbott, Megan – You Will Know Me
- Acuff, Jon – Finish: Give Yourself the Gift of Done
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – Americanah *
- Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi – We Should All Be Feminists
- Anderson, Carol – White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide *
- Anderson, Laurie Halse – The Impossible Knife of Memory
- Armstrong, Heather B. – The Valedictorian of Being Dead: The True Story of Dying Ten Times to Live
- Attenberg, Jami – All Grown Up
- Attenberg, Jami – All This Could Be Yours
B
- Baker, Peter – Days of Fire: Bush and Cheney in the White House
- Baldwin, James – The Fire Next Time
- Baldwin, James – Go Tell It on the Mountain *
- Baldwin, James – If Beale Street Could Talk
- Bauer, Carlene – Frances and Bernard
- Benedict, Elizabeth (editor) – Me, My Hair, and I: Twenty-seven Women Untangle an Obsession
- Bennett, Britt – The Mothers *
- Bessey, Sarah – Jesus Feminist: An Invitation to Revisit the Bible’s View of Women
- Bessey, Sarah – Miracles and Other Reasonable Things: A Story of Unlearning and Relearning God
- Bessey, Sarah – Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith
- Beyda, Emily – The Body Double
- Bogel, Anne – I’d Rather Be Reading: The Delights and Dilemmas of the Reading Life
- Bogel, Anne – Reading People: How Seeing the World Through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything
- Bourne, Edmund J. – The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook
- Boyle, Erin – Simple Matters: Living with Less and Ending Up with More
- Bradbury, Ray – Fahrenheit 451
- Brands, H. W. – Reagan: The Life
- Brennan-Jobs, Lisa – Small Fry
- Brower, Kate Andersen – Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump *
- Brown, Austin Channing – I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
- Brown, Brené – Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
- Brown, Brené – Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead *
- Brown, Brené – The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
- Brownstein, Carrie – Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl
- Brunt, Carol Rifka – Tell the Wolves I’m Home *
- Bush, Laura – Spoken from the Heart
- Butler, Halle – The New Me
C
- Carty-Williams, Candice – Queenie
- Carver, Raymond – Cathedral *
- Cep, Casey – Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud, and the Last Trial of Harper Lee
- Cline, Emma – The Girls
- Clinton, Hillary Rodham – What Happened
- Coates, Ta-Nehisi – Between the World and Me
- Coetzee, J. M. – Disgrace
- Coulter, Kristi – Nothing Good Can Come from This
- Crosley, Sloan – Look Alive Out There
- Cullen, Dave – Columbine *
D
- Danler, Stephanie – Sweetbitter
- Demick, Barbara – Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea
- Denfeld, Rene – The Child Finder
- Dicks, Matthew – Twenty-One Truths About Love
- Didion, Joan – The White Album
- Douglass, Frederick – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass
- Dryer, Benjamin – Dreyer’s English: An Utterly Correct Guide to Clarity and Style
- Duhigg, Charles – The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business
E
- Edvardsson, M. T. – A Nearly Normal Family
- Egan, Jennifer – A Visit from the Goon Squad
- Eggers, Dave – The Circle
- Elden, Roxanna – Adequate Yearly Progress
- Ellis, Helen – Southern Lady Code
- Enns, Peter – How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How an Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Books Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers–and Why That’s Great News
- Ephron, Nora – I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman
- Esther, Elizabeth – Girl at the End of the World: My Escape from Fundamentalism in Search of Faith with a Future
- Eugenides, Jeffrey – Middlesex *
- Evans, Rachel Held – A Year of Biblical Womanhood: How a Liberated Woman Found Herself Sitting on Her Roof, Covering Her Head, and Calling Her Husband “Master”
F
- Fey, Tina – Bossypants *
- Finn, A. J. – The Woman in the Window
- Flanders, Cait – The Year of Less: How I Stopped Shopping, Gave Away My Belongings, and Discovered Life Is Worth More Than Anything You Can Buy in a Store
- Flynn, Gillian – Dark Places
- Flynn, Gillian – Gone Girl *
- Flynn, Gillian – Sharp Objects
- Foer, Jonathan Safran – Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
- Foley, Lucy – The Guest List
- Foley, Lucy – The Hunting Party
- Frankel, Laurie – This Is How It Always Is
- Frazier, Jean Kyoung – Pizza Girl
- French, Tana – In the Woods *
- French, Tana – The Likeness *
- French, Tana – The Witch Elm
G
- Gaines, Joanna – The Magnolia Table
- Gay, Roxane – Bad Feminist *
- Gay, Roxane – Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body
- Gay, Roxane – An Untamed State
- Gibbs, Nancy and Michael Duffy – The Presidents Club: Inside the World’s Most Exclusive Fraternity
- Green, John – Looking for Alaska
- Greene, Andy – The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s
- Greene, Bob – Fraternity: A Journey in Search of Five Presidents
- Gyasi, Yaa – Homegoing *
H
- Haig, Matt – Notes on a Nervous Planet
- Haig, Matt – Reasons to Stay Alive *
- Hanff, Helene – 84, Charing Cross Road
- Hari, Johann – Chasing the Scream: The First and Last Days of the War on Drugs
- Harper, Jane – The Dry
- Harper, Jane – Force of Nature
- Harper, Jane – The Lost Man
- Henríquez, Cristina – The Book of Unknown Americans
- Hill, Nathan – The Nix *
- Hornby, Nick – Funny Girl
- Hornby, Nick – State of the Union: A Marriage in Ten Parts
- Hornby, Nick – Ten Years in the Tub: A Decade Soaking in Great Books
- Hunt, Margot – For Better and Worse
I
- Irby, Samantha – Wow, No Thank You
- Ishiguro, Kazuo – Never Let Me Go
- Ishiguro, Kazuo – The Remains of the Day *
J
- Jackson, Shirley – The Lottery and Other Stories
- Jamison, Leslie – The Empathy Exams
- Jamison, Leslie – Let It Scream, Let It Burn
- Jamison, Leslie – The Recovering: Intoxication and Its Aftermath *
- Jerkins, Morgan – This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America
- Jewell, Lisa – The Family Upstairs
- Jewell, Lisa – The Girls in The Garden
- Jewell, Lisa – I Found You
- Jewell, Lisa – Then She Was Gone
- Jewell, Lisa – Watching You *
- Johnson, Lindsey Lee – The Most Dangerous Place on Earth
- Joyce, Rachel – The Music Shop
K
- Kaling, Mindy – Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
- Kantor, Jodi and Megan Twohey – She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
- Kendi, Ibram X. – How to Be an Antiracist
- Kepnes, Caroline – Providence
- Kondo, Marie – The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
- Koul, Scaachi – One Day We’ll All Be Dead and None of This Will Matter
- Krakauer, Jon – Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town *
L
- LaForce, Thessaly and Jane Mount – My Ideal Bookshelf
- Lahiri, Jhumpa – Interpreter of Maladies
- Lamott, Anne – Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
- LaMarche, Una – Unabrow: Misadventures of a Late Bloomer
- Lamott, Anne – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
- Lamott, Anne – Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
- LaPlante, Eve – American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
- Larsen, Nella – Passing
- LeBlanc, Adrian Nicole – Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx
- Levin, Ira – The Stepford Wives
- Lewis, C. S. – Till We Have Faces *
- Lewis, Matthew – The Monk
- Locke, Attica – Bluebird, Bluebird
- Lockhart, E. – We Were Liars
- Lockwood, Patricia – Priestdaddy
M
- Macy, Beth – Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America
- Makkai, Rebecca – The Great Believers *
- Maren, Mesha – Sugar Run
- Martin, Steve – Born Standing Up: A Comic’s Life
- Martin, Steve – The Pleasure of My Company
- McAllister, Tom – How to Be Safe
- McKoy, Knox – All Things Reconsidered: How Rethinking What We Know Helps Us Know What We Believe
- McKoy, Knox – The Wondering Years: How Pop Culture Helped Me Answer Life’s Biggest Questions
- McTiernan, Dervla – The Ruin
- Meacham, Jon – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
- Medina, Meg – Burn Baby Burn
- Michaelides, Alex – The Silent Patient
- Miller, Kelsey – I’ll Be There for You: The One about Friends
- Moreno-Garcia, Silvia – Signal to Noise
- Moriarty, Liane – Big Little Lies
- Moriarty, Liane – Nine Perfect Strangers
- Morrison, Toni – Jazz
- Moshfegh, Ottessa – My Year of Rest and Relaxation *
- Mount, Jane – Bibliophile: An Illustrated Miscellany
- Murakami, Haruki – 1Q84
- Murakami, Haruki – Norwegian Wood
- Murakami, Haruki – The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle
- Murato, Sayaka – Convenience Store Woman
N
- Ng, Celeste – Everything I Never Told You
- Ng, Celeste – Little Fires Everywhere *
- Niffenegger, Audrey – The Time Traveler’s Wife
- Noah, Trevor – Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood
- Notess, Hannah Faith (editor) – Jesus Girls: True Tales of Growing Up Female and Evangelical
- Nouwen, Henri J. M. – The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom *
- Novak, B. J. – One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories
O
- Obama, Michelle – Becoming
- O’Connor, Flannery – The Complete Stories *
- O’Connor, Flannery – The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O’Connor
- O’Connor, Flannery – Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose
- Offill, Jenny – Dept. of Speculation
- Oliver, Mary – Devotions
- Olzmann, Matthew – Mezzanines
P
- Patchett, Ann – This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
- Paul, Pamela – My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues
- Pessl, Marisha – Night Film *
- Pessl, Marisha – Special Topics in Calamity Physics
- Phillips, Arthur – The Song Is You
- Pinborough, Sarah – Behind Her Eyes
- Potok, Chaim – My Name Is Asher Lev
- Pressfield, Steven – The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Creative Battles
Q
- Quatro, Jami – The Fire Sermon
- Quatro, Jami – I Want to Show You More
R
- Rankine, Claudia – Citizen
- Reichl, Ruth – Garlic and Sapphires: The Secret Life of a Critic in Disguise
- Reid, Kiley – Such a Fun Age
- Reid, Taylor Jenkins – Daisy Jones & the Six *
- Rilke, Rainer Maria – The Poetry of Rilke
- Robinson, Marilynne – Gilead *
- Rooney, Sally – Normal People
- Rose, Phyllis – The Shelf: From LEQ to LES: Adventures in Extreme Reading
- Rowell, Rainbow – Fangirl
- Runyan, Tania – Second Sky
- Russell, Kate Elizabeth – My Dark Vanessa *
S
- Sager, Riley – Final Girls
- Sager, Riley – The Last Time I Lied
- Sager, Riley – Lock Every Door
- Sales, Nancy Jo – American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers
- Satrapi, Marjane – The Complete Persepolis
- Saunders, George – Tenth of December
- Sedaris, David – Calypso *
- Sedaris, David – Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim
- Sedaris, David – Me Talk Pretty One Day
- Sedaris, David – Theft by Finding: Diaries 1977-2002
- Shelley, Mary – Frankenstein
- Shields, Sharma – The Cassandra
- Silver, Josie – One Day in December
- Sims, Laura – Looker
- Sittenfeld, Curtis – Rodham
- Slimani, Leila – The Perfect Nanny
- Smith, Alexis M. – Glaciers *
- Smith, Myquillyn – Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff
- Smith, Tracy K. – Life on Mars
- Souza, Pete – Obama: An Intimate Portrait
- Stanley, Jessamyn – Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get on the Mat, Love Your Body
- Stead, Rebecca – When You Reach Me *
- Strayed, Cheryl – Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life by Dear Sugar
- Strayed, Cheryl – Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
- Summers, Courtney – Sadie
- Swanson, Peter – Before She Knew Him
- Swanson, Peter – Eight Perfect Murders
- Swanson, Peter – Her Every Fear
T
- Takiff, Michael – A Complicated Man: The Life of Bill Clinton as Told by Those Who Know Him
- Tartt, Donna – The Goldfinch
- Tartt, Donna – The Secret History *
- Taylor, Barbara Brown – An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith *
- Thomas, R. Eric – Here For It: Or, How to Save Your Soul in America *
- Thorpe, Rufi – Dear Fang, With Love
- Tolstoy, Leo – Anna Karenina
- Tung, Debbie – Book Love
- Tur, Katy – Unbelievable: My Front-Row Seat to the Craziest Campaign in American History
V
- Van Ness, Jonathan – Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love
- Vuong, Ocean – On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
W
- Walker, Alice – The Color Purple
- Walker, Karen Thompson – The Dreamers
- Ward, Jesmyn (editor) – The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks About Race
- Ward, Jesmyn – Salvage the Bones
- Ward, Jesmyn – Sing, Unburied, Sing *
- Ware, Ruth – The Woman in Cabin 10
- Way, Camilla – The Lies We Told
- Weber, Carolyn – Surprised by Oxford
- Weir, Megan MacLean – The Book of Essie
- Westover, Tara – Educated *
- Whipple, Chris – The Gatekeepers: How the White House Chiefs of Staff Define Every Presidency
- Whitehead, Colson – The Nickel Boys
- Wilde, Oscar – The Picture of Dorian Gray
- Williams, John – Stoner *
- Wilson, Andrew – Mad Girl’s Love Song: Sylvia Plath and Life Before Ted
- Wiman, Christian – My Bright Abyss: Meditation of a Modern Believer *
- Wolitzer, Meg – The Female Persuasion
- Woodward, Bob – Fear: Trump in the White House
- Wright, Lawrence – Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief
Y
- Yanagihara, Hanya – A Little Life *
Z
- Zarr, Sara – What We Lost
- Zusak, Markus – The Book Thief
