My family and friends always always always asking me for book recommendations and I always blank so here it is, for my reference and yours, the ultimate list of really good things (from memoirs to graphic novels) that I've read:
REALISTIC/HISTORICAL FICTION (adult)
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
- Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer
- The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides
- Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
- This Is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
- Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk
- In The Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien
- If on a winter's night a traveler by Italo Calvino
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
- The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
- The Last Temptation of Christ by Nikos Kazantzakis
- Saturday by Ian McEwan
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera
- Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
- The Color Purple by Alice Walker
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
- Remember Me by Sophie Kinsella
- The Basic Eight by Daniel Handler
- To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
- Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- This Is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper
- A Mercy by Toni Morrison
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
- The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon
- The Princess Bride by William Goldman
- The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
- Why We Broke Up by Daniel Handler
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak
- A Separate Peace by John Knowles
- Mick Harte Was Here by Barbara Park
- The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen
- Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
- Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- Crank by Ellen Hopkins
- Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
- The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp
- Let's Get Lost by Adi Alsaid
- A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
- The Disenchantments by Nina LaCour
- How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
- Maggot Moon by Sally Gardner
- The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
- The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
- Love Letters to the Dead by Ava Dellaira
- The Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger
- Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins
- My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
- Since You've Been Gone by Morgan Matson
- Amy & Roger's Epic Detour by Morgan Matson
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
- A Wrinkle In Time by Madeleine L'Engle
- His Dark Materials (trilogy: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) by Phillip Pullman
- The Grisha (trilogy: Shadow & Bone, Siege & Storm, Ruin & Rising) by Leigh Bardugo
- The Diviners (trilogy) by Libba Bray
- The Gemma Doyle Trilogy (A Great and Terrible Beauty, Rebel Angels, The Sweet Far Thing) by Libba Bray
- Divergent (trilogy: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant) by Veronica Roth
- Jinx by Meg Cabot
- Avalon High by Meg Cabot
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Uglies (series: Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras) by Scott Westerfeld
- The Hunger Games (trilogy: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay) by Suzanne Collins
- Inkheart (trilogy: Inkheart, Inkspell, Inkdeath) by Cordelia Funke
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
- The Lunar Chronicles (series: Cinder, Scarlet, Cress) by Marissa Meyer
- Across the Universe by Beth Revis
- The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer (trilogy) by Michelle Hodkin
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion (essays)
- The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
- The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
- I Feel Bad About My Neck by Nora Ephron
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
SHORT STORIES/COLLECTIONS
- Will You Please be Quiet Please? by Raymond Carver (collection of short stories)
- Pastoralia by George Saunders (collection of short stories)
- A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor (collection of short stories)
- Twelve Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Jane Yolen (collection of short stories)
- "A Temporary Matter" by Jhumpa Lahiri (from Interpreter of Maladies)
- "On Seeing the 100% Perfect Girl One April Morning" by Haruki Murakami
- "We Didn't" by Stuart Dybek
- St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell
- Crush by Richard Siken (collection of poems)
- "Sonnet XVII" by Pablo Neruda
- "somewhere I have never travelled, gladly beyond" by E. E. Cummings
- "for women who are 'difficult' to love" by Warsan Shire
- "Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing" by Margaret Atwood
- "Every Thing On It" by Shel Silverstein
- "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" by T. S. Eliot
- "Lies I've Told My 3 Year Old Recently" by Raul Gutierrez
- "Scars" by Rudy Francisco
- "Having a Coke With You" by Frank O'Hara
- "Mrs. Dahmer" by Sierra DeMulder
- "Mad Girls Love" by Sylvia Plath
- "Come Closer" by Anis Mojgani
- "The Shipfitter's Wife" by Dorianne Laux
- "Not Doing Something Wrong Isn't the Same as Doing Something Right" by Cristin O'Keefe
- "Unrequited Love Poem" by Sierra DeMulder
- "The Second Coming" by W.B. Yeats
- "Hurling Crowbirds at Mockingbars" by Buddy Wakefield
- "Beginning in an Ice Cream Truck and Ending in a Court Room" by Megan Falley
- Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
- Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
