48 Must-Read
Modern Classics
The Name of the Rose
Umberto Eco
Set in an Italian abbey in 1327, the book follows Brother William as he investigates seven cryptic murders.
1980: Historical Mystery
The Color Purple
Alice Walker
Presented as letters between two sisters The Color Purple is a harrowing account of their struggles with racism, domestic violence, and sexual abuse as African American women in the early 20th century.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award.
1982: Historical Feminism
Look At Me
Anita Brookner
When an art historian falls in love with her married colleague, she becomes infatuated with the couple.
1983: Contemporary Romance
Bright Lights, Big City
Jay McInerney
A young man desperately rebels against his mortality by indulging in Manhattan’s nightlife, then grapples with the consequences of his immoral actions.
1984: Contemporary
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
Milan Kundera
The entangled story of a woman in love with a promiscuous man and one of his other mistresses loyal suitors.
1984: Contemporary Romance
Perfume
Patrick Suskind
A talented perfume maker becomes obsessed with recreating the scent of a young virgin in this tale of lust and murder.
1985: Historical Thriller
A Prayer for Owen Meany
John Irving
An 11-year-old Owen accidentally kills his best freidn’s mother in a baseball mishap and comes to mistakenly believe he was excuting God’s plan.
1989: Contemporary
American Psycho
Bret Easton Ellis
This iconic cult classic follows Patrick Bateman’s descent into depravity and psychosis.
1991: Thriller
Sophie's World
Jostein Gaardner
Set in a small Norwegian village, a young Sophie begins receiving mysterious letters that teach her the history of philosophy.
1991: Philosophical Surrealism
Wild Swans
Jung Chang
This compelling memoir captures the lives of women in Communist China over the course of three generations.
1991: Memoir
Doomsday Book
Connie Willis
A woman time travels back to the 14th century for an Oxford research team, but gets trapped in the era of the Black Plague.
1992: Science Fiction
Jazz
Toni Morrison
A traveling cosmetic salesman shoots his teenage lover. The Sequel novel to Morrison’s well-renowned Beloved.
1992: Historical Fiction
The Secret History
Donna Tartt
Inspired by Ancient bacchanal rituals, a group of Greed students at Oxford create a ceremony of their own that ends with them sacrificing all morality.
1992: Thriller
The Bird Artist
Howard Norman
Beginning with an artist’s murder confession, this novel slowly unfolds revealing his motives.
1994: Mystery
Blindness
Jose Saramago
A city is infected by a “white blindness” epidemic that brings out the most barbaric aspects of human nature.
1995: Dystopian
I Who Have Never Known Men
Jacqueline Harpman
A group of women have been confined underground for as long as they can remember, but will a new arrival be the key to their escape?
1995: Dystopian Feminist
Fight Club
Chuck Palahniuk
A cultural icon, Fight Club follows a man as he abandons his stereotypical life to participate in an underground boxing cult.
1996: Thriller
Infinite Jest
David Foster Wallace
This epic written by one of my favorite authors is a satirical commentary on the American obsession with entertainment narrated by a man in an addict’s halfway house.
1996: Satire
The Red Tent
Anita Diamant
Featuring a lesser known female character from Genesis, thisretelling of biblical events centers around the struggles and triumphs of women in biblical times.
1997: Religious Contemporary
The Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
One of my favorite novels of all time, The Poisonwood Bible tells the story of a family dragged to the COngo by their Baptist missionary father and the tragic repercussions of his religious fanaticism.
The Pulitzer Prize Winner for Fiction.
1998: Religious Contemporary
The Human Stain
Phillip Roth
Forced to retire as a result of false racism allegations, a professor’s darkest secrets come to light when a writer begins to investigate his past.
2000: Contemporary
Atonement
Ian McEwan
A young girl’s misinterpretation of a flirty exchange with her older sister leads to a heinous crime.
A Booker Prize Winner.
2001: Historical Fiction
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Lionel Shriver
A mother grapples with the belief that her dislike for her son drove him to commit an atrocious attack on his high school classmates.
2003: Contemporary Thrillers
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
Narrated by Death, who recounts his fascination with a young Jewish girl who takes to stealing books as a way to cope with her life in Nazi Germany.
2005: Historical Fiction
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Steig Larrson
In this story of moral vengeance, an investigative journalist and a prodigious hacker are hired to uncover widespread corruption.
2005: Feminist Thriller
Still Alice
Lisa Genova
A middle-aged woman’s heartbreaking descent into early-onset Alzheimer’s.
2007: Psychological
2666
Roberto Bolano
Published post-humously, this modern classic was inspired by the real-life unsolved disappearances of women in a Mexican border city.
2009: Spanish Surrealism
A Brief History of Seven Killings
Marlon James
A fictionalized account of the most impactful assassinations and attempts from the 70’s and 80’s.
A Booker Prize Winner.
2014: Historical Crime Fiction
The Book of Strange New Things
Michel Faber
Appointed on a mission that takes him halfway across the universe from his beloved wife, Peter struggles with his religious faith and a powerful intergalactic corperation.
2014: Dystopian Religious Science Fiction
Everything I Never Told You
Celeste Ng
A teenage girl is found drowned in a lake and as her family is consumed by grief, they each try desperately to uncover the culprit.
2014: Contemporary
Fates And Furies
Lauren Groff
The story of a 24 year marriage filled with secrets and told from the perspective of both the husband and wife.
2015: Contemporary
The Nightingale
Kristen Hannah
One of the most popular books of the aughts, The Nightingale depicts two sisters who could not be more opposite, and their experiences of WWII in France.
2015: Historical Fiction
Tender is the Flesh
Augustina Bazterrica
A man works at a meat processing plant in a cannibalistic society, and begins to question the status quo when he begins to view a “live specimen” as a human being.
2017: Dystopian Science Fiction
Circe
Madeline Miller
Joining the ranks of the Greek Classics, this modern retelling of mythology centers around one of the lesser known goddesses, Circe.
2018: Mythology
Early Riser
Jasper Fforde
In a dystopian future affected by climate change, humanity hibernates to cope with the brutal winters, and this season a dream is spreading thought the sleeping masses, killing them.
2018: Science Fition Mystery
The Incendiaries
K.O. Kwon
“A young woman at an elite American university is drawn into acts of domestic terrorism by a cult tied to North Korea.”
2018: Religious Contemporary
Normal People
Sally Rooney
Two young adults on opposing sides of Ireland’s political spectrum fall in love.
2018: Romance
The Poppy War
R.F. Kuang
Taking inspiration from China’s violent history, this fantasy novel features a young girl’s escape from poverty by enrolling in a military academy, and her training to become a shaman.
2018: Historical Fantasy
Putney
Sofka Zinovieff
Presented from three perspectives: perpetrator, victim, and witness. Putney portrays a woman’s disillusionment about her teenage “relationship” with an adult man.
2018: Contemporary
We Do Not Part
Han Kang
Tasked with saving her hospitalized friend’s beloved pet bird, Kyungha plunges into a blizzard where she uncovers a forgotten part of Korean history.
Written by the 2024 Nobel Prize winner for Literature.
2021: Surrealist Historical Fiction
Cleopatra & Frankenstein
Coco Miller
This novel about an impulsive decision to enter into a Green Card marriage explores themes of mental health, love, and lust.
2022: Contemporary
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow
Grabrielle Zevin
Two friends design a video game together that thrusts them into fame and all that comes with it.
2022: Romance
Vladimir
Julia May Jonas
A professor contends with her husbands sexual assault allegations from his former students while she develops an obsession of her own for a young novelist.
2022: Dark Academia
Cursed Bread
Sophie Mackintosh
Based on the unsolved poisoning of an entire French village. Was it spoiled bread or government experimentation?
2023: Historical Horror
Julia
Sandra Newman
A modern spin-off of Orwell’s 1984 focusing on Winston Smith’s colleague at the Records Department, Julia.
2023: Dystopian Science Fiction
Rouge
Mona Awad
Following the death of her mother, a lonely woman falls victim to a cultish beauty spa.
2023: Gothic Horror
The Book of George
Kate Greathead
Incapable of making a commitment, George is the quintessential deadbeat boyfriend, full of potential but incapable of living up to it.
“If you haven’t had the misfortune of dating a George, you know someone who has.”
2024: Realistic Contemporary
There Are Rivers in the Sky
Elif Shafek
The interwoven story of three characters, each with their own unique set of circumstances, through their connection with the ancient Sumerian poem The Epic of Gilgamesh.
2024: Historical Contemporary