Table of Contents

If you like harry potter.... (magic/fantasy)

Soft romance books like Twilight
Whimsical
Historical fiction
Cultural fiction
Nonfiction
Thought provoking fiction
Contemporary fiction (almost always slightly depressing and usually some kind of award winner)
Mystery-ish
Stephen King Books (he has many but these are the best)

If you like harry potter.... (magic/fantasy)

- Percy Jackson series (7), The Lost Hero (new series after percy jackson), Kane Chronicles (same
author as percy jackson, focuses on egyptian mythology)
- Name of the Wind (first in a series, wise man's fear is the second, kind of fantasy/magic ish)
- Wise Man's Fear (2nd after Name of the Wind)
- Mistborn series (strong female lead, also kinda fantasy/magic)
- Way of Kings (same feel as Name of the Wind, fantasy/magic ish)
- zombie survival guide: recorded attacks (max brooks)
- Golden compass trilogy (really compelling, though with children as the main characters)
- Discovery of WItches (exactly harry potter + twilight) + Shadow of Night (2nd book in triology)
- Night Circus (magic, romance)

Soft romance books like Twilight

- These is my words (first in a trilogy, but the other 2 arent as good)
- Guernsey Literary and potato peel society
- The Host (trashy young adult)
- Eat Pray Love
- Discovery of Witches (and sequel, Shadow of night) - harry potter + twilight EXACTLY
- For Darkness Shows the Stars (a Jane Austen homage, a play on Persuasion set in a dystopian world)
Whimsical
- Sweetness at the bottom of the pie (and other books in the series)
- Chocolate Chip Cookie Mystery (super light and fluffy, not a romance, but is a series)

Young Adult/Dystopian
- Hunger Games (+ Catching Fire, Mocking bird)
- Divergent trilogy (insurgent is sequel) - similar to Hunger Games in dystopian view, strong female lead
- Daughter of Smoke and Bone (more fantasy-esque, but def young adult)
- Knife of never letting go - part of the Chaos Walking trilogy (really fascinating idea of if everyone could
hear your thoughts... super interesting)
- For Darkness Shows the Stars (a Jane Austen homage, a play on Persuasion set in a dystopian world)
- Throne of Glass (fantasy-esque, young female criminal)
- The 5th Wave (dystopian/sci fi)

Historical fiction
- Hotel on the corner of bitter and sweet
- The Distant Hours
- The Forgotten Garden
- Snow flower and the secret fan
- Pillars of the earth (one of my favorite books, an epic storytelling in the time of building cathedrals)
- Sarahs Key
- Suite Francaise
- Cutting for Stone (super fascinating, set in East Africa)
- Water for Elephants
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
- The Oracle Glass (set in Paris around Louis the XIV)
- The Golem and The Jinni (set in turn of the century new york, part fantasy)

Cultural fiction
- The Help (South)
- Shantaram (India - semi autobiographical)
- State of Wonder (amazon rain forest)
- The Orphan Masters Son (set in north korea, really well written - 2013 pulitzer winner)

Nonfiction
- Unbroken (incredible survival story, world war ii era)
- Zeiton
-Paradise Built in Hell (looks at several natural disasters and how people treat each other based on how
they think about each other. In the aftermath of disasters people are basically nice and take care of each
other because all the social barriers are temporarily taken down versus elite panic i.e. gov/army views
certain people as bad and dangerous and order shoot to kill type laws (think katrina) instead of rescue
missions)
- Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! (biography of a brilliant and fascinating physicist)
- A Short History of Nearly Everything (loved the look at history of this)
- Immortal life of Henrietta Lacks (fascinating look at how weve come to understand DNA and vaccines)
- Collapse or Guns Germs and Steel
- Legacy of Ashes (you may feel ashamed to be associated with the US after reading this account of the
CIA)
- World without us
- The Glass Castle (autobiography)
- I love yous are for white people (Vietnamese boat people assimilating into life in LA)
- Half-Broke Horses
- Man in the rockefeller suit (super interesting look at a guy who impersonated a rockefeller for
DECADES)
- The Female Brain

Thought provoking fiction and Dystopian

- Defending Jacob
- Room
- Still Alice (interesting look from the eyes of someone who has alzheimers)
- We need to talk about Kevin (told from the perspective of a mom of a teen mass murderer)
- Art of racing in the rain (told from a dog's perspective)
- The Good Son (interesting look at muslim/american tension)
- The Handmaids Tale (dystopian)
- Wool (dystopian future, actually 5 small books in one omnibus, then a prequel called first shift)
- Little Brother (interesting idea of domestic terrorism, government surveillance, and a guantanamo set in
san francisco)
- The unbearable lightness of being
- The Glass Castle (a memoir)
- Brilliance (part mystery, part Sci-Fi/dystopian)
- Shine shine shine (interesting story about astronauts, aspergers and being different)
- Oryx & Crake Trilogy
- The Handmaids Tale

Contemporary fiction (almost always slightly depressing and usually some kind of award winner)
aka Cristins books
- Brief and wondrous life of oscar wao
- Freedom
- Unaccustomed earth
- Olive Kittridge
- Middlesex
- Shopgirl
- Let the Great World Spin
- Gilead
- The Story of Edgar Sawtelle
- A Visit from the Goon Squad
- Sing You Home
-ROOM
- Ten Thousand Saints
- The sense of an ending

Mystery-ish and suspense

- A Dangerous Fortune
- Caught
- Devil in the White City
- Girl with a dragon tattoo (and other 2 books in the trilogy)
- Gone Girl
- A Kiss before Dying
- Ready Player One (a shrine to the 80s, a video game dystopian society, interesting)
- The Snowman (another swedish author, similar style to girl with a dragon tattoo)
- Black Stiletto (not a must-read, but interesting idea of a woman who becomes a superhero)
Stephen King Books (he has many but these are the best)
- The Stand - his best best book
- Carrie - first book, read last
- The Dark Tower (7 book series - Gunslinger, the drawing of the three, the wastelands, etc) New book in
2012
- The Running Man (more true today then when it was written) as Richard Bachman
- The Shinning (his best book but try not to remember the movie - if you know what Im even talking
about)
- The Dead Zone - one of my favorite when I was a kid
- Misery - best film adoption and creepy book
- 11/22/63 (really interesting idea of if you could time travel and change history)