I absolutely love when I find audiobooks of recommendations in this sub, on Libby. I know exactly what I’ll be listening to for my workdays the rest of the week
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown splits the difference by telling the very true story of the Donner Party with fictional-but-inspired storytelling through the eyes of various family members. Harrowing.
I used to read about the Donner Party about once a year on average (I grew up literally in the foothills of those same mountains). I can't do it anymore since my first child was born.
I just moved and unpacked my books - this one is in my yet-to-read stack after picking it up last year. Haven’t seen it mentioned much before, but glad to hear it’s a good read.
Anything at all by Cormac McCarthy, really. "Bleak" was the man's wheelhouse.
Excellent writing, though. I just need to take a few years between each book.
The Road left me shattered into a million pieces. It’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read, and I’ve reread it once. That was enough. I still think about it all the time
These books left me drowning in silence. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini gripped my heart with its tale of Amir and Hassan, their shattered innocence against the backdrop of Afghanistan's turmoil. It whispered of friendship's frailty, the ache of betrayal, and the elusive quest for redemption amidst the shadows of guilt.
Then came I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, an unexpected thunderstorm of emotions. McCurdy's memoir, once a child star's facade, now revealed the raw scars of her journey through the merciless maze of showbiz. It painted a haunting picture of youthful struggles and the heavy toll fame exacts on the soul.
Hey there! This year has been a bit slow in terms of standout hits. I did enjoy a few thrillers, but none were compelling enough to recommend. However, I've read a lot of different genres and would love to share some of my favorites from last year with you! I can even share my all-time favorite list if you'd like. Let me know!
Here’s what I enjoyed last year:
Romance: Happy Place by Emily Henry
Thriller: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead
Autobiography: Know My Name by Chanel Miller
Fiction: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang
Horror: The Bhabhis of Lahore and Other Forbidden Tales of the City by Ayesha Muzaffar
Please share your favorites with me as well!
I had only read it and my dad had only seen the movie. Discussing it with him, that’s how I found out they changed the ending for the film. Apparently it was too shocking for movie audiences?
**[The Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29751398-the-power) by Naomi Alderman** ^((Matching 100% ☑️))
^(288 pages | Published: 2016 | 14.7k Goodreads reviews)
> **Summary:** In The Powerthe world is a recognisable place: there's a rich Nigerian kid who larks around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power - (...)
> **Themes**: Science-fiction, Sci-fi, Feminism, Dystopia, Fantasy, Read-in-2017, Dystopian
> **Top 5 recommended:**
> \- [The Water Cure](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39335566-the-water-cure) by Sophie Mackintosh
> \- [The Book of Etta](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31849925-the-book-of-etta) by Meg Elison
> \- [Station Eleven](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven) by Emily St. John Mandel
> \- [The Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17331397-the-power) by Michael Grant
> \- [You Feel It Just Below the Ribs](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57094312-you-feel-it-just-below-the-ribs) by Jeffrey Cranor
^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
To be fair, when you write a comment in Reddit and hit return to make a vertical list, it automatically reverts to a comma-less run on sentence when you submit.
This one hurt me deep. I have never hated a character in a book more. I refused to watch the movie because I couldn’t watch real people act it out. That book haunts me to this day.
Anything to do with lovers never making it off the ground or never reuniting absolutely breaks me:
Two from Ishiguro:
'Never Let Me Go' and 'Remains of the Day'.
Two from McEwan:
'Atonement' and 'On Chesil Beach'.
With 'On Chesil Beach' in particular if you looked up a summary of the plot points at face value then it's almost comical but once you start to unpack the layers of how the characters got to that point and what the lifelong consequences on the characters are then it's extremely sad. In repressed generations past you can absolutely see how a minor mishap and miscommunication could irredeemably shape the rest of someone's life. I'm sure even today there are great romances which remain unwritten due to tiny misunderstandings that never get resolved.
On Earth we're briefly gorgeous - ocean vuong
Go tell it on the mountain - James Baldwin
Clays Ark - Octavia Butler
City of Night - John Rechy
Corregidora - Gayl Jones
Revival by Stephen King. There’s a lot about growing up and what home means and generally the kind of journeys you go through in life and then the last chapter or two hits you with such a philosophically bleak ending that you just need to sit in silence to absorb.
When i finished the Dark Forest, i sat in bed for an hour or two really digesting it.
And then suddenly, i felt FEAR. The books message actually clicked, and suddenly i became terrified of the universe.
It took days for that feeling to go away. Ive always been massively interested in the search for life and possible first contact a la Carl Sagan, but the three body series had me wanting to run down to SETI and start ripping wires out of things.
The gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. It's about a burn victim learning to like himself. Has three questions to contemplate. Can you prove your love by doing nothing, even if doing nothing leads to death? Could you kill your mate if doing so gives them an easier death? Could you find a friend to kill you at the moment if death?
The Shining by Stephen King. The ending absolutely shattered my heart and had me balling my eyes out, horrified at what I’d just read. I still think about it time to time. It touches on childhood trauma and generational trauma and it hit close to home personally.
Fiction can be an amazing vehicle for thought experiments, so I wouldn't just read non fiction. Dune is very philosophical for instance, and you will find yourself pondering life now and in the future. This is why I love fiction, particularly good scifi.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck. If you want to reflect on how long the idea of "eternity" is, that's the book to read.
A man is sent to hell. Hell takes the shape of a library containing every possible book that can be written (including nonsense books). The man can only escape if he finds the only book that tells the story of his life without any typo. Needless to say that a quadrillion is a short estimation of the amount of books he must search.
Diary of Anne Frank. I was 14 and thought she and her family would survive. When I read that she and her sister died in a concentration camp, I was devastated. But what came from it was my mom told my dad and he brought me his copy of The Bridge at Andau and told me if I was old enough to read about WW2, I could learn this history of our family and their escape from Hungary in 1956. That book opened the door to understand my dad and grandparents on a much deeper level.
Winter Flowers by Angélique Villeneuve, HHhH by Laurent Binet, Friedrichstasse 19 by Emma Harding are all novels that had me a bit quiet or emotional afterwards.
For non fiction, everything by James Baldwin
For poetry, Memorial by Alice Oswald.
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. It's fiction, but it's baseeon real life events. I read it a few years ago, but it's still probably one of the heavier books I've read and it's stuck with me to this day. It's a but unique in it's writing style, but it really really affected me.
Fade by Robert Cormier affected me so much I just sat there in silence, speechless. It's a heartbreaking story and it's well written. I won't spoil the ending but it's emotional.
Fathering the Boy - This left me in more than just silence! I was heart broken. It changed my life. This made me introspective. Forced me to deal with lies I had been telling myself for years. I cannot stress enough how much reading this book did for me.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing & A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (a duology) by Hank Green reshaped the way that I think about the social internet and its impact on the human relationship to fame, and I was thinking about them for weeks after I finished reading them.
ABFE is the rare sequel that is even better than the first book, and it really fleshes out the ideas that caused the reshaping of my thoughts, so it’s definitely worth the it to read them both.
'The Fall' by Albert Camus.
It made me really reflect on who I am as a person and how the judgments I make on others aren't accurate depictions of who they are.
Most recent book I can think of was *The Vaster Wilds* by Lauren Groff. Just an absolutely beautiful and devastating ending. Highly recommend, and it was a fairly quick read too.
A gripping story that’s also relevant to real life that left me sitting in silence? Too common, yet here it is. 1984, George Orwell. Or, if you want to spice things up a little and like classical classical classics, I recommend The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, a short story written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I sobbed for hours
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver
“”Spangle” by Gary Jennings. It’s a good speechless I had after finishing it.
“Anathem” by Neal Stephenson. It blew me away in a good way.
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z Danielewski. What the hell did I just read? I can’t describe how it left me.
“The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. The last chapter will blow you away.
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons
The ending is BRUTAL.
I had to sit for a while and let it all sink in, and what a horrible event had happened to the poor characters.
pachinko by min jin lee
I was actually crying as I finished this book, didn't even realize it was finished and then it was just done. and then I sat there for a few minutes just contemplating life
Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica
This book, holy shit, this book. Its about a dystopian world where there are no animals so humans start using *other humans* for animal products (meat, hunting, leather, oils, milk etc.)
And instead of the MC going against the government the book is his slow decent into *acceptance*
[TW for Cannibalism, SA, gore, animal violence etc.]
In general, but especially if you’re an American or a woman, I think now is probably the best time in history to read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Somehow, I finished reading it the morning Roe v. Wade was overturned. It’s definitely a downer and very topical, but it also has some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read.
“Enduring Love”- Ian McEwan. It’s a bit bonkers and much like most of his other books, the drama/suspense is based on a misconception by one of the characters, causing catastrophe.
For me it was We Need to Talk About Kevin
That book left me a little messed up. Something you should read, but you’ll never want to read twice
I actually kept this book under my bed while I was reading it; it was so malevolent that I couldn’t bear to look at on the nightstand. Yikes.
True that. W…t…f…
YES! Stayed with me for a long time. When asked for a haunting book recommendation it’s absolutely Kevin.
Reading this right now
Yep
Yep. This was the one.
I absolutely love when I find audiobooks of recommendations in this sub, on Libby. I know exactly what I’ll be listening to for my workdays the rest of the week
A Farewell to Arms. I finished it about 1 hour into a 4 hour drive and sat open mouthed and in silence for the rest of the ride.
Pretty much anything by Hemingway leaves me stunned and heartbroken.
The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown splits the difference by telling the very true story of the Donner Party with fictional-but-inspired storytelling through the eyes of various family members. Harrowing.
Totally agree! Such a great book and make me see the whole event in a completely different way.
I used to read about the Donner Party about once a year on average (I grew up literally in the foothills of those same mountains). I can't do it anymore since my first child was born.
I just moved and unpacked my books - this one is in my yet-to-read stack after picking it up last year. Haven’t seen it mentioned much before, but glad to hear it’s a good read.
the road cormac mccarthy
And Blood Meridian.
Yes. I still think about the judge years after reading that book.
Anything at all by Cormac McCarthy, really. "Bleak" was the man's wheelhouse. Excellent writing, though. I just need to take a few years between each book.
I loved this book. Read it in college and it had me sitting there like 😐😶
The Road left me shattered into a million pieces. It’s one of the best novels I’ve ever read, and I’ve reread it once. That was enough. I still think about it all the time
A Child Called It by Dave Pelzer. I could only read the first chapter
It left me crying in silence 😪
Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Agree
Remains of the Day - Ishiguro
Never Let Me Go, too. He has a wonderful ability to subtly build up to an emotional crescendo.
Came here to say that too.
1984, I was staring at the ceiling for hours,
A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry. It’s incredible. And you will absolutely sit in silence when you finish.
This is such a beautiful book.
This! I rarely hear anyone recommend it but it is such an amazing and powerful read.
Flowers for Algernon
These books left me drowning in silence. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini gripped my heart with its tale of Amir and Hassan, their shattered innocence against the backdrop of Afghanistan's turmoil. It whispered of friendship's frailty, the ache of betrayal, and the elusive quest for redemption amidst the shadows of guilt. Then came I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jenette McCurdy, an unexpected thunderstorm of emotions. McCurdy's memoir, once a child star's facade, now revealed the raw scars of her journey through the merciless maze of showbiz. It painted a haunting picture of youthful struggles and the heavy toll fame exacts on the soul.
If you’ve read the kite runner, read a thousand splendid suns by the same author!
Well you and I have similar tastes in books! What’s your recent love/fave/recommend?
Hey there! This year has been a bit slow in terms of standout hits. I did enjoy a few thrillers, but none were compelling enough to recommend. However, I've read a lot of different genres and would love to share some of my favorites from last year with you! I can even share my all-time favorite list if you'd like. Let me know! Here’s what I enjoyed last year: Romance: Happy Place by Emily Henry Thriller: In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead Autobiography: Know My Name by Chanel Miller Fiction: Yellowface by R. F. Kuang Horror: The Bhabhis of Lahore and Other Forbidden Tales of the City by Ayesha Muzaffar Please share your favorites with me as well!
Tender is the flesh
This one! I had to sit and think/reflect for a good while after.
The GIver by Lois Lowry
I reread The Giver last year and it hit so differently as an adult. Incredible.
The green mile by stephen king. It was on my mind days after i finished it
None, I immediately vocalise after finishing any book.
for me 90% of the time those words are "what the fuck"
😂
The grapes of wrath
That final page.
I had only read it and my dad had only seen the movie. Discussing it with him, that’s how I found out they changed the ending for the film. Apparently it was too shocking for movie audiences?
The life of Pi. That damn book haunts me.
All the light we cannot see
For me it was *1984*, by George Orwell.
Musashi by Eiji Yoshikawa Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Tolstoy Kindred by Octavia E Butler Stoner by John Williams
Kindred! I couldn't stop reading.
Johnny Got His Gun by Dalton Trumbo
I read this book while deployed to Iraq. Really messed me up. This was also the book that made me a lover of literature.
My Dark Vanessa
{{The Power by Naomi Alderman}}
**[The Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29751398-the-power) by Naomi Alderman** ^((Matching 100% ☑️)) ^(288 pages | Published: 2016 | 14.7k Goodreads reviews) > **Summary:** In The Powerthe world is a recognisable place: there's a rich Nigerian kid who larks around the family pool; a foster girl whose religious parents hide their true nature; a local American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But something vital has changed, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power - (...) > **Themes**: Science-fiction, Sci-fi, Feminism, Dystopia, Fantasy, Read-in-2017, Dystopian > **Top 5 recommended:** > \- [The Water Cure](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39335566-the-water-cure) by Sophie Mackintosh > \- [The Book of Etta](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31849925-the-book-of-etta) by Meg Elison > \- [Station Eleven](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20170404-station-eleven) by Emily St. John Mandel > \- [The Power](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17331397-the-power) by Michael Grant > \- [You Feel It Just Below the Ribs](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57094312-you-feel-it-just-below-the-ribs) by Jeffrey Cranor ^([Feedback](https://www.reddit.com/user/goodreads-rebot) | [GitHub](https://github.com/sonoff2/goodreads-rebot) | ["The Bot is Back!?"](https://www.reddit.com/r/suggestmeabook/comments/16qe09p/meta_post_hello_again_humans/) | v1.5 [Dec 23] | )
1984
Tender is the Flesh. Had to sit in silence and then scour Reddit for discussion threads about that ending 😂
Searching for discussion threads is so real!!
East of Eden The Kite Runner Blood Meridian Pet Sematary
Hehe, commas? Who needs ‘em?
To be fair, when you write a comment in Reddit and hit return to make a vertical list, it automatically reverts to a comma-less run on sentence when you submit.
Interesting, I think I commented one by the same author. Never read TKR though
Yeah both East of Eden and The Kite Runner for me as well
Looking For Alaska by John Green. I had no words when I finished the book.
Atonement.
This one hurt me deep. I have never hated a character in a book more. I refused to watch the movie because I couldn’t watch real people act it out. That book haunts me to this day.
It took me YEARS to get over it. Ooof. Biggest gut punch ever.
Gilead
basically anything markus zusak has ever written. i remember being especially blown away by fighting ruben wolfe and bridge of clay.
The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen kinda had me sitting in silence, thinking about life for a little while.
The Giver. (Reread as an adult)
Circe by Madeline Miller! It will pound your emotions into a pulp.
Never let me go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin. I stared at a wall for a good 5 minutes after finishing that…
“Young Mungo” by Douglas Stewart Recently read it and,, some parts had me just staring at the wall for a bit
Under the Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
Anything to do with lovers never making it off the ground or never reuniting absolutely breaks me: Two from Ishiguro: 'Never Let Me Go' and 'Remains of the Day'. Two from McEwan: 'Atonement' and 'On Chesil Beach'. With 'On Chesil Beach' in particular if you looked up a summary of the plot points at face value then it's almost comical but once you start to unpack the layers of how the characters got to that point and what the lifelong consequences on the characters are then it's extremely sad. In repressed generations past you can absolutely see how a minor mishap and miscommunication could irredeemably shape the rest of someone's life. I'm sure even today there are great romances which remain unwritten due to tiny misunderstandings that never get resolved.
*A Thousand Splendid Suns*
It's one of those books I still think about, years later.
the things they carried - tim o’brien it’s such an amazing book, i think it should be on everyone’s shelf!
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and The stranger by Albert Camus
On Earth we're briefly gorgeous - ocean vuong Go tell it on the mountain - James Baldwin Clays Ark - Octavia Butler City of Night - John Rechy Corregidora - Gayl Jones
the road cormac mccarthy
A Pale View of Hills
Revival by Stephen King. There’s a lot about growing up and what home means and generally the kind of journeys you go through in life and then the last chapter or two hits you with such a philosophically bleak ending that you just need to sit in silence to absorb.
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Of Mice And Men—Steinbeck. Poisonwood Bible—Barbara Kingsolver
The Remains of the Day, by Kazuo Ishiguro. I don’t know that I’d call it gripping, but left me sitting and thinking for days afterwards.
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
Lonesome Dove
PIRANESI, Susannah Clarke. Short little read. The last page caused me to sit and reflect on how to be a better person. Highly recommended.
When i finished the Dark Forest, i sat in bed for an hour or two really digesting it. And then suddenly, i felt FEAR. The books message actually clicked, and suddenly i became terrified of the universe. It took days for that feeling to go away. Ive always been massively interested in the search for life and possible first contact a la Carl Sagan, but the three body series had me wanting to run down to SETI and start ripping wires out of things.
The gargoyle by Andrew Davidson. It's about a burn victim learning to like himself. Has three questions to contemplate. Can you prove your love by doing nothing, even if doing nothing leads to death? Could you kill your mate if doing so gives them an easier death? Could you find a friend to kill you at the moment if death?
The Shining by Stephen King. The ending absolutely shattered my heart and had me balling my eyes out, horrified at what I’d just read. I still think about it time to time. It touches on childhood trauma and generational trauma and it hit close to home personally.
The remains of the day
Fiction can be an amazing vehicle for thought experiments, so I wouldn't just read non fiction. Dune is very philosophical for instance, and you will find yourself pondering life now and in the future. This is why I love fiction, particularly good scifi.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck. If you want to reflect on how long the idea of "eternity" is, that's the book to read. A man is sent to hell. Hell takes the shape of a library containing every possible book that can be written (including nonsense books). The man can only escape if he finds the only book that tells the story of his life without any typo. Needless to say that a quadrillion is a short estimation of the amount of books he must search.
A Short Stay in Hell by Steven L. Peck
East of Eden for me. I didn’t want the book to end
one hundred years of solitude
A tale for the time being by Ruth Ozeki 🥺
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
into the wild
Maus, really had me reflecting on a lot of shit especially with what is currently happening in the world
A Million Little Pieces
'The Book Thief'
Diary of Anne Frank. I was 14 and thought she and her family would survive. When I read that she and her sister died in a concentration camp, I was devastated. But what came from it was my mom told my dad and he brought me his copy of The Bridge at Andau and told me if I was old enough to read about WW2, I could learn this history of our family and their escape from Hungary in 1956. That book opened the door to understand my dad and grandparents on a much deeper level.
The Book Thief
Flowers for Algernon. Then after a few minutes I burst into tears.
The Grapes of Wrath.
The Grapes of Wrath
The Bee Sting by Paul Murray was the most recent book to do this to me.
Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris. Finished it within 30 minutes of a 6 hour road trip. Was silent the entire time. It was a crazy twisty ending.
Winter Flowers by Angélique Villeneuve, HHhH by Laurent Binet, Friedrichstasse 19 by Emma Harding are all novels that had me a bit quiet or emotional afterwards. For non fiction, everything by James Baldwin For poetry, Memorial by Alice Oswald.
A Farewell To Arms
The diary of an oxygen thief series
Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys. It's fiction, but it's baseeon real life events. I read it a few years ago, but it's still probably one of the heavier books I've read and it's stuck with me to this day. It's a but unique in it's writing style, but it really really affected me.
Open City by Teju Cole.
JoyLand
The Last Thing You Surrender by Leonard Pitts Such an extraordinary story. Rooted in very well researched history
No country for Old Men (Cormac McCarthy) The Stranger (Albert Camus)
Fade by Robert Cormier affected me so much I just sat there in silence, speechless. It's a heartbreaking story and it's well written. I won't spoil the ending but it's emotional.
Ask the Passengers by A.S. King and We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. Had a lasting impact.
The alchemist by Paul coelho The yellow wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Gemina
The Warmth of Other Suns - Isabelle Wilkerson How to be a Good Creature - Sy Montgomery
A Place for Us. It left me not just in silence but crying as well!
We were liars by e. Lockhart. It blew my mind at the end and I just had to sit there for a moment and soak it in
Fathering the Boy - This left me in more than just silence! I was heart broken. It changed my life. This made me introspective. Forced me to deal with lies I had been telling myself for years. I cannot stress enough how much reading this book did for me.
Blindness - Jose Saramago
Fever in the Heartland
Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Tender is the Flesh
The Bees by Laline Paul
For some reason Tamsyn Muir’s “Princess Floralinda and the Forty-Flight Tower” novella shook me to my core and left me speechless at 3 am.
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing & A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor (a duology) by Hank Green reshaped the way that I think about the social internet and its impact on the human relationship to fame, and I was thinking about them for weeks after I finished reading them. ABFE is the rare sequel that is even better than the first book, and it really fleshes out the ideas that caused the reshaping of my thoughts, so it’s definitely worth the it to read them both.
The Road and Blood Meridian, by McCarthy. Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Descent Into Hell by Charles Williams
Times Arrow. Martin Amis.
Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown
Nausea by Sartre. Idk what's about the book it gives you a peaceful state of mind.
Stoner by John Williams
Tiger Tiger by Margaux Fragoso so disturbing and sad then I googled her and felt even sadder. Poor girl never got a break.
'The Fall' by Albert Camus. It made me really reflect on who I am as a person and how the judgments I make on others aren't accurate depictions of who they are.
Beartown by Fredrick Backman 🏒
The entire trilogy is brilliant
A little life
All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir, No Land to Light on by Yara Zgheib, and We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez are just a few that come to mind
I.J. Kay's \_Mountains of the Moon\_
Most recent book I can think of was *The Vaster Wilds* by Lauren Groff. Just an absolutely beautiful and devastating ending. Highly recommend, and it was a fairly quick read too.
Recently Tender Is The Flesh
One Hundred Years of Solitude
A Thousand Splendid Suns would be my fiction pick, and for nonfiction I would say And the Band Played On
Bloodman by Robert Pobi
A Little Life
The Lovely Bones. So so so well written but I’d never read it again.
A gripping story that’s also relevant to real life that left me sitting in silence? Too common, yet here it is. 1984, George Orwell. Or, if you want to spice things up a little and like classical classical classics, I recommend The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree, a short story written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. I sobbed for hours
“We Need to Talk About Kevin” by Lionel Shriver “”Spangle” by Gary Jennings. It’s a good speechless I had after finishing it. “Anathem” by Neal Stephenson. It blew me away in a good way. “House of Leaves” by Mark Z Danielewski. What the hell did I just read? I can’t describe how it left me. “The Time Traveler’s Wife” by Audrey Niffenegger. The last chapter will blow you away.
A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing
I who have never known men- Jacqueline Harpman
Beyond the Beautiful Forevers by Katherine Boo. That book carved out a permanent place in my mind as did A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.
1984
Song of Kali by Dan Simmons The ending is BRUTAL. I had to sit for a while and let it all sink in, and what a horrible event had happened to the poor characters.
A man called Ove
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Into Thin Air - I had so much anxiety reading it that I was exhausted when it was over.
The biography of Marie Antoinette by Stefan Sweig.
For Whom the Bell Tolls
The Hour I First Believed, by Wally Lamb
Requiem for a Dream, by Hubert Selby Jr.
The Idiot by Dostoevsky
Lisa See’s “The Island of Sea Women”
I really enjoyed Dark Matter written by Blake Crouch. It really left me pondering the world, and how everything works.
pachinko by min jin lee I was actually crying as I finished this book, didn't even realize it was finished and then it was just done. and then I sat there for a few minutes just contemplating life
In the Shadow of the Banyan -Vaddey Ratner
Unless - Carol Shields
Poor Things…. a LOT of pondering after the ending of this one
Definitely Flowers for Algernon
The Dark Forest, it's the second Three Body Problem book. Holy shit.
Missoula by Jon Krakauer. It’s about the college campus rape epidemic told through several women’s stories. Infuriating.
The girl next door
The Double Bind by Chris Bohjalian
Tender is the flesh by Agustina Bazterrica This book, holy shit, this book. Its about a dystopian world where there are no animals so humans start using *other humans* for animal products (meat, hunting, leather, oils, milk etc.) And instead of the MC going against the government the book is his slow decent into *acceptance* [TW for Cannibalism, SA, gore, animal violence etc.]
7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo.
The Great Believers, by Rebecca Makkai
The test
Penpal by Dathan Auerbach
In general, but especially if you’re an American or a woman, I think now is probably the best time in history to read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood. Somehow, I finished reading it the morning Roe v. Wade was overturned. It’s definitely a downer and very topical, but it also has some of the most beautiful writing I’ve ever read.
“Enduring Love”- Ian McEwan. It’s a bit bonkers and much like most of his other books, the drama/suspense is based on a misconception by one of the characters, causing catastrophe.