My Favorite Books
50 Books. Stats.
Women authors: 60%
Scifi: 20%
Fantasy: 26%
Children’s: 20%
Non-white authors: Yikes, I need to expand my reading! Recommendations welcome
I agree with almost none of the books on “greatest books of all time” lists. I may have read them, but they aren’t MY favorites. Books made this list if: they’re MY favorite, I’ve read the book more than once, there is a physical copy on my shelf, and I think about it on a regular basis. Series are represented by the first book.
*There are a number of books that floored me with their beauty and intensity, and that are culturally important an thought-provoking, like The Bluest Eye and Midnight’s Children, but are not on my list because while I learned a lot, I didn’t exactly enjoy them.
A Court Of Mist And Fury
Bat-boy and traumatized unskilled pretty lady get their rocks off
A Horse Called Wonder
Teenager has super speschul bond with sickly foal and they go on to triumph in everything. Also the unintentional unresolved romantic tension with the main villain is chef’s kiss
A Little Princess
Bitches get what’s coming to them
A Wrinkle In Time
Teenager saves her father and brother from aliens, tries to describe light without using the word “photon”
Black Beauty
Gorgeous horse lives a beautiful and tragic life
Children Of Time
Humans figure out how to get along with aliens
Dealing With Dragons
Annoyed princess becomes a dragon’s librarian; the dragon is kind of sexy
Ender’s Game
Child soldier with really good grades made to commit xenocide
Fourth Wing
College kid forced into a major she doesn’t want, unexpectedly excels AND gets The Sexiest Man At School to bang her
Good Omens
An angel and a demon with excellent sexual tension prevent the apocalypse
Here One Moment
Predictive modeling is scary; friends make life good
Jonathan Livingston Seagull
If you ever want to understand the unique mental profile of a trail ultramarathoner, read this book
Modoc
Boy grows up with elephant and it’s hella cute
My Side Of The Mountain
Boy runs away to the mountains and befriends a falcon
Pride And Prejudice
The OG romance; all other books are posers
Small Great Things
Racism is endemic; individual courage matters
Station Eleven
Most of the population of Earth is killed by a flu pandemic, but it’s not actually about that
The Fifth Season
Causing earthquakes, giving and receiving trauma
Hatchett
Teenager survives plane crash in remote wilderness and has to keep surviving for a while until rescued
The Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
Only man to survive destruction of Earth travels the galaxy; somehow it’s the funniest thing I’ve ever read
The Invisible Life Of Addie LaRue
Woman bargains with the Devil to live forever; it actually goes pretty well
The Magician’s Guild
Ooo an MMC so dark and villainous and sexy and an FMC that is the Very Best at magic
The Name Of The Wind
Lyrical, ridiculous fantasy about a guy who is the opposite of humble; the series will never be finished
The Sisterhood Of The Traveling Pants
Teenagers try on (pants!) adulthood
The Witch Of Blackbird Pond
Teenage girl thinks thus is accused of witchcraft
Where The Crawdads Sing
Neglected and smart woman commits justified murder and lives a great life afterwards
A Memory Called Empire
Colonialism is insidious; rise anyway
Alanna: The First Adventure
Magical teenager cross-dresses to join the army
Charlotte’s Web
Spider saves the life of a farm pig
Dead Until Dark
Telepathic waitress gets a vampire boyfriend
Dragonflight: The First Chronicle Of Pern
Pissed off lady bonds with a dragon; saves an entire planet of people
Foundation
Predictive modeling says humanity is doomed; no one cares
Going Postal
Con artist forced to revive post office to avoid punishment of death
Goodnight Moon
Go the fuck to sleep
Island Of The Blue Dolphins
Girl is stranded on an island and survives
Little Women
Life under patriarchy
Matilda
Girl uses her mental powers to fuck shit up
Night
The Holocaust sucked
Shadow And Bone
The dark and mysterious magical leader turns out to be a villain and it’s terribly delicious
Spin
Earth is put in a bubble of slo-time by aliens and everyone is like oh shit!
The Clan Of The Cave Bear
The most speschul perfect woman to have ever lived almost dies a bunch of times but is rewarded for surviving with a horse, a lion, a wolf, a matriarchal society, and a dude with an absolutely ginormous dong
The Lord Of The Rings
The OG fantasy, no notes (well, okay, add women)
The Handmaid’s Tale
What if Republicans win everything?
The Hunger Games
Teenager volunteers to compete in death tournament to save her sister; also has to deal with two boys whining for her attention
The Joy Luck Club
Chinese immigrant mothers and daughters, nuances of being human and whatnot
The Martian
Matt Damon gets stranded on Mars and makes boob jokes
The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo
Sapphic love story of old-school Hollywood celebrities
The Three-Body Problem
A scientist and an oil tycoon invite aliens to invade Earth and wipe out humanity; weirdly some people have a problem with this
What Alice Forgot
Temporary amnesia prevents a divorce
World War Z
A zombie outbreak happened but we totally won!