When people ask me for book recommendations, I find myself recommending the same books over and over again…especially when I’m not overly familiar with the requester’s reading taste. My best all-around, go-to book recommendations are versatile, in that they’re likely to appeal to a broad range of readers, and are some of the most frequently purchased books through my Amazon affiliate links.
If you’re new to asking me for recommendations, these are probably the first books I’ll shove into your hands!
Audio
Tiny Beautiful Things
Advice columns that are wise, non-judgmental, and completely necessary…
Beach Reads
A Hundred Summers
My all-time favorite beach read…
Bittersweet
Extremely wealthy family behaving badly at a vacation compound…
Dead Letters
The twisted twins book that has everything (page-turning plot, snarky writing, a dysfunctional family, and a mystery)…
Siracusa
A trip to Italy gone bad…
Historical Fiction
11/22/63
What if someone could travel back in time and stop JFK’s assassination?
The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
Fiction based on true crime about a NY State Supreme Court Justice gone missing in 1930.
Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald
The glamorous life of the Prohibition-era literary elite and the Fitzgerald marriage through Zelda’s eyes…
Literary Fiction
Black Chalk
The Hunger Games
My Sunshine Away
Southern coming of age story with a bit of suspense…and one of my top books of 2015.
The Dinner
A dark tale with biting social commentary…
The Interestings
Sweeping New York story about friendship…
*I think Commonwealth
Memoirs
All Over but the Shoutin’
Heart-breaking, but also hilarious memoir about growing up poor in the deep South…
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness
Medical mystery that could turn you into a hypochondriac…
*I think Hillbilly Elegy
Narrative Nonfiction
The Boys in the Boat
Story of an underdog team of Olympic rowers that will captivate you even if you have no interest in sports or rowing…
Under the Banner of Heaven
Truth is stranger than fiction in this investigation into fundamentalist Mormonism…
Page Turners
Bull Mountain
A Grit Lit style thriller about a redneck, mountain version of the Mafia…
The Fever
High school drama, a mysterious epidemic…
Recovery Books
The Royal We
Satirical (and fictional) take on Prince William and Kate Middleton’s courtship that isn’t afraid to poke fun at the monarchy…
The Swans of Fifth Avenue
Delicious “fictional” story about real people…author Truman Capote and his swans.
This Is Where I Leave You
Hilarious dysfunctional family story, which I read while in labor with my daughter…
What are some of your best all-around, go-to book recommendations?
I always recommend 11/22/63 in the audio category.
I didn’t listen to it, but good to know! I get audiobook rec requests all the time and I’m pretty new to audio and have a small niche that works for me, so I feel like I come up short with recs.
I think our tastes in reading are very similar. So happy to see Black Chalk on your list. I loved that book and no one I told about it seemed to like it as much. The Boys on the Boat was also a favorite of mine. The Interestings, Bull Mountain, 11/22/63…..I could go on! Great list!
Yes – I actually just told another blogger that I had found a new-to-me blogger (you) with very similar tastes to mine! And that’s interesting about Black Chalk…I’ve recommended it to so many friends outside of the book world and almost all said they loved it. It hasn’t gotten much love in the blogging world, though. I feel like I’m the only one always talking about it…and now you!
I knew clicking through to this post would be dangerous. So many books to add to my TBR pile, ha! Great list. 🙂
Haha – thank you!
There is no maybe, Brain on Fire definitely turned me into a hypochondriac 🙂 I forgot how much I loved This is Where I Leave You and the movie too surprisingly. I’m also going to have to check out The Swans of Fifth Avenue!
I haven’t seen the movie..need to!
This is a fantastic idea! I might have to steal it.
Please do! I’m sure someone else did it before me…
I need to get cracking on some of these. Brain on Fire has been on my to-read list for forever, but I *still* haven’t gotten ’round to it. I have watched Cahalan’s TEDx talk though, so that counts for something, right?
Yes – I think so! I read her current work in the NY Post and it’s always amazing to think back on where she’s been.
It’s always good to read these lists as there are always books I’ve meant to read but have forgotten about. Like Bull Mountain and Under the Banner of Heaven. I love your category ‘Recovery books’. 🙂
Thanks! It seems I need them often…
I flew through Siracusa due to your recommendation. Looking forward to reading these books.
Yay – I’m so glad to hear that! It was a great one.
Yay, nothing to add to my TBR pile, because all the books are already on there. 😉 (Well, except for Z, which I have already read and didn’t like all that much because I had just read The Paris Wife and were firmly on the side of Hemingway and his wife, not Zelda and F. Scott.)
Interesting – I’d forgotten about the Hemingway/Fitzgerald rivalry. I think I liked it because I realized there was more to Zelda than I’d thought…and it kind of took on the topic of women’s role in marriage and women’s careers.
Great list! I really need to read Z and 11/22/63 still. And a few more! I love that you have The Royal We as a recovery book -it really is perfect for that.
Royal We is the best recovery book ever!
Loved Tiny Beautiful Things and The Boys in the Boat!
I love this! I don’t think I have a set list of go-to recommendations, but now I feel I should make one! What a useful thing to have on hand. 😀
You should definitely make one! I think it’s interesting to see what everyone would have on that list.
You’ve got some great recommendations in here! I’ve never read Hundred Summers, so will add it to my list now. And weren’t you supposed to get after Yates to write a follow-up to Blakc Chalk?! I just recommended that and 11/2263 to my brother- great minds thinking alike!
Haha – I tried…he shot me down, but I did hear he’s working on something else. Just not Black Chalk related.
And I think you’d love A Hundred Summers if you’re looking for brain candy…it’s my favorite of her books, but sadly none of her later ones has lived up to that one for me.
Oh, Bull Mountain! Yes! That was amazing.
I really liked Eligible, but it’s pretty tongue in cheek–some people might not get it!
I’ve heard some good things about Eligible! And I remember staying up so late to finish Bull Mountain.
I love that you read This Is Where I Leave You while you were in labor! I didn’t read while in labor, but I did get some done that day after my daughter was born but before we could go home.
This is a great post and now I’m thinking about the books I recommend most often.
I’d love to see other people’s lists on this topic! And glad you got some reading done during your hospital stay while having your daughter!
I still pick up Tiny Beautiful Things every once in awhile. She’s so raw in her writing. Really powerful read.
Yay – I’m glad it’s serving it’s purpose 🙂
11/22/63 is on my list of go-to audios as well. I spy some other favorites on this list as well!
I didn’t listen to 11/22/63, but feel like I’ve heard it’s great on audio.
I definitely have the a similar taste in books as you do. Your blog is such a “find” for me. And I’m now going to read Z after reading your review. When I was going thru my F. Scott Fitzgerald obsession (many years ago) I read a number of books about him, his wife and the Murphy’s so I didn’t think Z was worth reading. Zelda A Biography by Nancy Milford was one of my favorites. It will be interesting to get another perspective. During that time I also read: Living Well Is the Best Revenge by Calvin Tomkins and Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, A Lost Generation Love Story by Amanda Vaill so I have a more positive feeling toward Zelda and Scott and a more negative view of Hemingway (not his writing but his personality).
Thank you so much! It’s so nice to hear! I really loved Z b/c it was from Zelda’s point of view and didn’t idolize Scott. Also – have you read Villa America by Liza Klaussmann? It’s fiction, but based on Gerald and Sara Murphy…I haven’t read it, but remember seeing it when it came out.
I’m not sure about Villa America, it sounds familiar but I think I will get a sample and try it.
I now have three top favorites: Oil and Marble by Stephanie Storey, These Is My Words by Nancy E Turner, and The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. I hope you’ll give them a try.