Book Club & Contemporary Fiction48
The wheelhouse — warm, emotionally alive novels built for talking about afterward.
Margo's Got Money Troubles
Rufi Thorpe
★★★★★
Beach Read
Emily Henry
★★★★☆
Small Great Things
Jodi Picoult
★★★★★
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow (Special Edition)
Gabrielle Zevin
★★★★★
Happy Place
Emily Henry
★★★★☆
Big Magic
Elizabeth Gilbert
★★★★☆
The Lion Women of Tehran
Marjan Kamali
★★★★☆
The Midnight Library
Matt Haig
★★★★★
Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone
Benjamin Stevenson
★★★★☆
Commonwealth
Ann Patchett
★★★★☆
The Midnight Train
Matt Haig
★★★★☆
The Storyteller
Jodi Picoult
★★★★☆
Real Americans
Rachel Khong
★★★★☆
The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
★★★★☆
The Four Winds
Kristin Hannah
★★★★☆
Did You Hear About Kitty Karr?
Crystal Smith Paul
★★★★☆
Malibu Rising
Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★★
The Comfort Book
Matt Haig
★★★★☆
Lessons in Chemistry
Bonnie Garmus
★★★★★
Heart the Lover
Lily King
★★★★☆
Big Fan (series)
Alexandra Romanoff
★★★★☆
State of Wonder
Ann Patchett
★★★★☆
The Patron Saint of Liars
Ann Patchett
★★★★★
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
★★★★☆
An Object of Beauty
Steve Martin
★★★★☆
People We Meet on Vacation
Emily Henry
★★★★☆
Eat Pray Love: One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia
Elizabeth Gilbert
★★★★☆
Funny Story
Emily Henry
★★★★☆
After I Do
Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★☆
Atmosphere
Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★★
The Covenant of Water
Abraham Verghese
★★★★☆
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
★★★★★
Daisy Jones & The Six
Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★★
The Vanishing Half
Brit Bennett
★★★★☆
11/22/63
Stephen King
★★★★★
Whistler
Ann Patchett
★★★★★
Oona Out of Order
Margarita Montimore
★★★★★
Remarkably Bright Creatures
Shelby Van Pelt
★★★★★
This Time Tomorrow
Emma Straub
★★★★☆
Great Big Beautiful Life
Emily Henry
★★★★★
The Wedding People
Alison Espach
★★★★★
A Million Junes
Emily Henry
★★★★☆
Bel Canto
Ann Patchett
★★★★★
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Taylor Jenkins Reid
★★★★★
City of Girls
Elizabeth Gilbert
★★★★☆
Downtown Owl
Chuck Klosterman
★★★★☆
Tom Lake
Ann Patchett
★★★★☆
Hello Beautiful
Ann Napolitano
★★★★★
Faith & Christian memoir19
Doubt, belonging, and grace, mostly from women writing their way through it.
The Whole Language: The Power of Extravagant Tenderness
Gregory Boyle
★★★★☆
Hallelujah Anyway: Rediscovering Mercy
Anne Lamott
★★★★☆
Almost Everything: Notes on Hope
Anne Lamott
★★★★★
Searching for Sunday
Rachel Held Evans
★★★★☆
How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith
Mariann Edgar Budde
★★★★☆
Mary Magdalene Revealed: The First Apostle, Her Feminist Gospel & the Christianity We Haven't Tried Yet
Meggan Watterson
★★★★★
Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship
Gregory Boyle
★★★★☆
Bird by Bird
Anne Lamott
★★★★☆
Dusk, Night, Dawn: On Revival and Courage
Anne Lamott
★★★★★
Present Over Perfect: Leaving Behind Frantic for a Simpler, More Soulful Way of Living
Shauna Niequist
★★★★★
The Gospel of Mary Magdalene
Jean-Yves LeLoup
★★★★☆
Small Victories: Spotting Improbable Moments of Grace
Anne Lamott
★★★★☆
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith
Barbara Brown Taylor
★★★★☆
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith
Anne Lamott
★★★★☆
Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion
Gregory Boyle
★★★★★
Shameless: A Case for Not Feeling Bad About Feeling Good (About Sex)
Nadia Bolz-Weber
★★★★☆
All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir
Beth Moore
★★★★☆
Stitches: A Handbook on Meaning, Hope and Repair
Anne Lamott
★★★★★
Grief memoir18
Loss, illness, and mortality, written from close up.
The Friday Afternoon Club: A Family Memoir
Griffin Dunne
★★★★☆
The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing
Bronnie Ware
★★★★☆
All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation
Elizabeth Gilbert
★★★★★
Always By My Side: Life Lessons from Millie and All the Dogs I've Loved
Edward Grinnan, Debbie Macomber
★★★★☆
How Did You Get This Number
Sloane Crosley
★★★★☆
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
★★★★★
Joyful, Anyway
Kate Bowler
★★★★★
Briefly Perfectly Human: Making an Authentic Life by Getting Real about the End
Alua Arthur
★★★★☆
Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age
Bruce Feiler
★★★★☆
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Walls
★★★★★
The End of Your Life Book Club
Will Schwalbe
★★★★☆
When Breath Becomes Air
Paul Kalanithi
★★★★☆
Bomb Shelter: Love, Time, and Other Explosives
Mary Laura Philpott
★★★★☆
Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
Suleika Jaouad
★★★★☆
The Next Day: Transitions, Change, and Moving Forward
Melinda French Gates
★★★★☆
Being Mortal
Atul Gawande
★★★★★
Grief Is for People
Sloane Crosley
★★★★☆
No Cure for Being Human (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
Kate Bowler
★★★★☆
Prestige literary fiction17
The novels that show up on prize lists and best-of shelves.
Demon Copperhead
Barbara Kingsolver
★★★★☆
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts
★★★★☆
The Heart's Invisible Furies
John Boyne
★★★★★
The Robber Bride
Margaret Atwood
★★★★☆
A Confederacy of Dunces
John Kennedy Toole
★★★★☆
Breakfast at Tiffany's and Three Stories
Truman Capote
★★★★☆
All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
★★★★☆
Hamnet
Maggie O'Farrell
★★★★★
Small Things Like These
Claire Keegan
★★★★☆
Cloud Cuckoo Land
Anthony Doerr
★★★★☆
The Underground Railroad
Colson Whitehead
★★★★☆
All the King's Men
Robert Penn Warren
★★★★☆
The Book Thief
Markus Zusak
★★★★★
The Kite Runner
Khaled Hosseini
★★★★☆
The Blind Assassin
Margaret Atwood
★★★★☆
Life of Pi
Yann Martel
★★★★☆
Racial justice & American reckoning15
Histories and memoirs that won't let the record stay comfortable.
The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration
Isabel Wilkerson
★★★★★
King: A Life
Jonathan Eig
★★★★★
The Small and the Mighty: Twelve Unsung Americans Who Changed the Course of History
Sharon McMahon
★★★★☆
A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them
Timothy Egan
★★★★☆
Just Mercy
Bryan Stevenson
★★★★★
Muck City: Winning and Losing in Football's Forgotten Town
Bryan Mealer
★★★★☆
The Temple Bombing
Melissa Fay Greene
★★★★☆
A Renaissance of Our Own: A Memoir & Manifesto on Reimagining
Rachel E. Cargle
★★★★☆
Hidden Figures: The Untold Story of the African American Women Who Helped Win the Space Race
Margot Lee Shetterly
★★★★☆
Where Peachtree Meets Sweet Auburn: A Saga of Race and Family
Gary M. Pomerantz
★★★★☆
Tightrope: Americans Reaching for Hope
Sheryl WuDunn, Nicholas D. Kristof
★★★★★
Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
Nelson Mandela
★★★★☆
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
Matthew Desmond
★★★★☆
Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents
Isabel Wilkerson
★★★★★
And the Dead Shall Rise: The Murder of Mary Phagan and the Lynching of Leo Frank
Steve Oney
★★★★☆
Business & leadership systems14
How teams, companies, and the people running them actually function.
Radical Candor: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity
Kim Scott
★★★★☆
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap...and Others Don't
Jim Collins
★★★★☆
The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups
Daniel Coyle
★★★★☆
The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business
Erin Meyer
★★★★★
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
Patrick Lencioni
★★★★☆
Never Search Alone: The Job Seeker's Playbook
Phyl Terry
★★★★★
Get on Track: How to Build, Run, and Level Up Your Program Management Office
Paula Dieli
★★★★☆
Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect
Will Guidara
★★★★★
Creativity, Inc.
Amy Wallace, Ed Catmull
★★★★★
The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World
Jacqueline Novogratz, Jacqueline Novogratz
★★★★★
Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success
Adam Grant
★★★★★
The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success
Diana Chapman, Jim Dethmer, Kaley Klemp
★★★★★
Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time
J. J. Sutherland, Jeff Sutherland
★★★★☆
Orchestrating Experiences: Collaborative Design for Complexity
Nick Madden, Chris Risdon, Patrick Quattlebaum
★★★★☆
Social critique & the examined culture14
Sharp-eyed nonfiction on attention, self-delusion, and modern life.
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Rebecca Skloot
★★★★★
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams
Matthew Walker
★★★★☆
To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife
Caitlin Flanagan
★★★★☆
The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human-Centered Planet
John Green
★★★★★
How to Change Your Mind
Michael Pollan
★★★★☆
Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
Sherry Turkle
★★★★☆
Magic Pill: How the New Weight Loss Drugs Will Change Your Life - and the World
Johann Hari
★★★★☆
The Noonday Demon: An Atlas of Depression
Andrew Solomon
★★★★☆
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other
Sherry Turkle
★★★★☆
So You've Been Publicly Shamed
Jon Ronson
★★★★★
Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention—and How to Think Deeply Again
Johann Hari
★★★★☆
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
Amanda Montell
★★★★☆
Everything is Tuberculosis
John Green
★★★★★
The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry
Jon Ronson
★★★★☆
Celebrity Biography or Memoir14
Famous people, funny people, telling it in their own voice.
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
Cheryl Strayed
★★★★☆
Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life
Steve Martin
★★★★★
Brave Enough
Cheryl Strayed
★★★★★
Furiously Happy: A Funny Book about Horrible Things
Jenny Lawson
★★★★☆
All in: An Autobiography
Billie Jean King
★★★★☆
Best Wishes, Warmest Regards: The Story of Schitt's Creek
Dan Levy, Eugene Levy
★★★★☆
Yes Please
Amy Poehler
★★★★☆
Be Ready When the Luck Happens
Ina Garten
★★★★☆
Cher: The Memoir, Part One
Cher
★★★★☆
Open Book
Jessica Simpson
★★★★☆
Just Kids
Patti Smith
★★★★☆
Gold Dust Woman: The Biography of Stevie Nicks
Stephen Davis
★★★★☆
Productivity & self-optimization13
Systems for attention, habit, and getting the right things done.
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World
Cal Newport
★★★★★
Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World
Cal Newport
★★★★☆
Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Oliver Burkeman
★★★★★
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking
Oliver Burkeman
★★★★★
The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
Mark Manson
★★★★☆
Fail, Fail Again, Fail Better: Wise Advice for Leaning into the Unknown
Pema Chödrön, Seth Godin
★★★★☆
Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less
Greg McKeown
★★★★☆
The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
Seth Godin
★★★★☆
Meditations for Mortals: Four Weeks to Embrace Your Limitations and Finally Make Time for What Counts
Oliver Burkeman
★★★★☆
The Good Enough Job
Simone Stolzoff
★★★★★
From Strength to Strength: Finding Success, Happiness, and Deep Purpose in the Second Half of Life
Arthur C. Brooks
★★★★★
The Song of Significance: A New Manifesto for Teams
Seth Godin
★★★★★
Drop the Ball: Achieving More by Doing Less
Tiffany Dufu
★★★★☆
Fantasy & fable13
Myth, magic, and modern fairy tale, outside the romance aisle.
The Book of Flying
Keith Miller
★★★★☆
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
V.E. Schwab
★★★★★
Circe
Madeline Miller
★★★★☆
The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
★★★★☆
Practical Magic (series)
Alice Hoffman
★★★★☆
A Darker Shade of Magic (series)
V.E. Schwab
★★★★☆
Lady Tremaine
Rachel Hochhauser
★★★★★
Illusions: The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah
Richard Bach
★★★★★
The Alchemist
Paulo Coelho
★★★★★
The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches
Sangu Mandanna
★★★★☆
The Starless Sea
Erin Morgenstern
★★★★☆
Vulnerability, courage & self-liberation13
Brené Brown's shelf, and the memoirs that share its DNA.
Love Warrior
Glennon Doyle
★★★★★
Atlas of the Heart
Brené Brown
★★★★☆
The Gifts of Imperfection
Brené Brown
★★★★★
Untamed
Glennon Doyle
★★★★☆
We Can Do Hard Things: Answers to Life's 20 Questions
Amanda Doyle, Abby Wambach, Glennon Doyle
★★★★★
Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts.
Brené Brown
★★★★★
Strong Ground: The Lessons of Daring Leadership, the Tenacity of Paradox, and the Wisdom of the Human Spirit
Brené Brown
★★★★★
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
Brené Brown
★★★★☆
My Life in Full: Work, Family, and Our Future
Indra Nooyi
★★★★★
WOLFPACK: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game
Abby Wambach
★★★★☆
Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy
Adam Grant, Sheryl Sandberg
★★★★★
Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone
Brené Brown
★★★★☆
Rising Strong
Brené Brown
★★★★★
Presidents & the White House12
The view from inside the highest office, across a dozen administrations.
Dark Horse: The Surprise Election and Political Murder of President James A. Garfield
Kenneth D. Ackerman
★★★★☆
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy
Eric Metaxas
★★★★☆
Team of Five: The Presidents Club in the Age of Trump
Kate Andersen Brower
★★★★☆
First: Sandra Day O'Connor
Evan Thomas
★★★★★
Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?: And Other Questions You Should Have Answers to When You Work in the White House
Lauren Oyler, Alyssa Mastromonaco
★★★★★
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Doris Kearns Goodwin
★★★★☆
The Making of the President 1960
Theodore H. White
★★★★☆
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption
Laura Hillenbrand
★★★★☆
The Presidents Club: Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity
Nancy Gibbs
★★★★★
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz
Erik Larson
★★★★☆
Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President
Candice Millard
★★★★☆
The Forgotten 500: The Untold Story of the Men Who Risked All For the Greatest Rescue Mission of World War II
Gregory A. Freeman
★★★★★
Rewiring the self & modern self-help12
Boundaries, nervous systems, and becoming someone new on purpose.
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
Susan Cain
★★★★☆
The Courage to Be Disliked: The Japanese Phenomenon That Shows You How to Change Your Life and Achieve Real Happiness (series)
Fumitake Koga, Ichiro Kishimi
★★★★★
Platonic: How the Science of Attachment Can Help You Make and Keep Friends
Marisa G. Franco
★★★★☆
Beyond Anxiety: Curiosity, Creativity, and Finding Your Life's Purpose
Martha Beck
★★★★★
Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Kids, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive
Marc Brackett
★★★★☆
Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
Susan Cain
★★★★★
Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life
Susan David
★★★★☆
The Other Significant Others: Reimagining Life with Friendship at the Center
Rhaina Cohen
★★★★☆
Real Self-Care: A Transformative Program for Redefining Wellness
Pooja Lakshmin
★★★★★
Insight: Why We're Not as Self-Aware as We Think, and How Seeing Ourselves Clearly Helps Us Succeed at Work and in Life
Tasha Eurich
★★★★☆
Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why It Matters, and How to Harness It
Ethan Kross
★★★★☆
The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity
Esther Perel
★★★★☆
Contemplative wisdom essays12
Short-essay wisdom writing in the Nepo/Rohr/Palmer register.
This Is the Story of a Happy Marriage
Ann Patchett
★★★★★
Silence In the Age of Noise
Erling Kagge
★★★★★
A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life
Parker J. Palmer
★★★★☆
The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
Mark Nepo
★★★★★
World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
★★★★☆
Man's Search for Meaning
Viktor E. Frankl
★★★★☆
Falling Upward
Richard Rohr
★★★★☆
The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse
Charlie Mackesy
★★★★☆
The Course of Love
Alain de Botton
★★★★★
The School of Life: An Emotional Education
Alain de Botton
★★★★★
On Love
Alain de Botton
★★★★☆
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation
Parker J. Palmer
★★★★★
Trauma, nervous system & healing12
The body's memory of what happened, and how it lets go.
Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents: How to Heal from Distant, Rejecting, or Self-Involved Parents
Lindsay C. Gibson
★★★★★
My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: A Memoir
Mark Lukach
★★★★☆
No Bad Parts: Healing Trauma and Restoring Wholeness with the Internal Family Systems Model
Richard C. Schwartz
★★★★☆
Altogether You: Experiencing personal and spiritual transformation with Internal Family Systems therapy
Richard C. Schwartz, David Kopp, Jenna Riemersma
★★★★☆
When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress
Gabor Maté
★★★★☆
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma
Bessel van der Kolk
★★★★★
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed
Lori Gottlieb
★★★★★
My Grandmother's Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies
Resmaa Menakem
★★★★★
The Fix: How the Twelve Steps Offer a Surprising Path of Transformation for the Well-Adjusted, the Down-and-Out, and Everyone In Between
Ian Morgan Cron
★★★★☆
The Wisdom of Anxiety: How Worry and Intrusive Thoughts Are Gifts to Help You Heal
Sheryl Paul
★★★★★
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness, and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Gabor Maté
★★★★★
The Best Minds: A Story of Friendship, Madness, and the Tragedy of Good Intentions
Jonathan Rosen
★★★★☆
Poetry12
Verse and essay-adjacent verse, read as its own category.
What Kind of Woman: Poems
Kate Baer
★★★★☆
And Yet: Poems
Kate Baer
★★★★☆
The Book of Delights: Essays
Ross Gay
★★★★☆
A Bit Much
Lyndsay Rush
★★★★☆
Modern Love, Revised and Updated: True Stories of Love, Loss, and Redemption
Daniel Jones
★★★★★
I Hope This Finds You Well: Poems
Kate Baer
★★★★☆
You Better Be Lightning
Andrea Gibson
★★★★★
Lord of the Butterflies
Andrea Gibson
★★★★☆
Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change
Maggie Smith
★★★★☆
The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows
John Koenig
★★★★☆
You Could Make This Place Beautiful
Maggie Smith
★★★★☆
How About Now: Poems
Kate Baer
★★★★☆
Buddhist & meditation practice11
Attention as a discipline — Chödrön, Salzberg, Kornfield, and the teachers around them.
Real Happiness: The Power of Meditation
Sharon Salzberg
★★★★☆
Insight Meditation
Joseph Goldstein
★★★★★
The Zen of Therapy: Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life
Mark Epstein
★★★★☆
Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life With the Heart of a Buddha
Tara Brach
★★★★★
Real Happiness at Work: Meditations for Accomplishment, Achievement, and Peace
Sharon Salzberg
★★★★☆
Wholehearted: Slow Down, Help Out, Wake Up
Koshin Paley Ellison
★★★★☆
Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart: A Buddhist Perspective on Wholeness
Mark Epstein, Mark Epstein
★★★★☆
Unwinding Anxiety
Judson Brewer
★★★★★
When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
Pema Chödrön
★★★★☆
Welcoming the Unwelcome: Wholehearted Living in a Brokenhearted World
Pema Chödrön
★★★★☆
10% Happier
Dan Harris
★★★★★
Fitzgerald & Hemingway obsession10
Zelda, Scott, Ernest, and the whole 1920s Paris cast — read from every angle.
Fitzgerald And Hemingway: A Dangerous Friendship
Matthew J. Bruccoli
★★★★☆
Z
Therese Anne Fowler
★★★★☆
The Romantic Egoists: A Pictorial Autobiography from the Scrapbooks and Albums of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald
★★★★☆
The Paris Wife
Paula McLain
★★★★☆
Love and Ruin
Paula McLain
★★★★☆
Zelda Fitzgerald
Nancy Milford
★★★★☆
Everybody Was So Young: Gerald and Sara Murphy, a Lost Generation Love Story
Amanda Vaill
★★★★☆
The Great Gatsby
F. Scott Fitzgerald
★★★★☆
Sometimes Madness Is Wisdom: Zelda and Scott Fitzgerald: A Marriage
Kendall Taylor
★★★★☆
Beautiful Little Fools
Jillian Cantor
★★★★★
Romantasy and Some Spice9
Fated mates, fae courts, and series read in a single sitting.
Lady of Darkness (series)
Melissa K. Roehrich
★★★★★
Rain of Shadows and Endings (series)
Melissa K. Roehrich
★★★★☆
The Idea of You
Robinne Lee
★★★★★
House of Sky and Breath
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★☆
Red, White & Royal Blue
Casey McQuiston
★★★★☆
Quicksilver (series)
Callie Hart
★★★★☆
Fourth Wing (series)
Rebecca Yarros
★★★★★
Throne of Glass (series)
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★☆
A Court of Thorns and Roses (series)
Sarah J. Maas
★★★★☆
Politics, polarization & campaigns9
Why the public is stuck, and what it would take to get unstuck.
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion
Jonathan Haidt
★★★★★
Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America
Lee Drutman
★★★★☆
I Think You're Wrong (But I'm Listening): A Guide to Grace-Filled Political Conversations
Beth A. Silvers, Sarah Stewart Holland
★★★★★
Hope for Cynics: The Surprising Science of Human Goodness
Jamil Zaki
★★★★☆
Democracy in Retrograde: How to Make Changes Big and Small in Our Country and in Our Lives
Emily Amick, Sami Sage
★★★★☆
High Conflict: Why We Get Trapped and How We Get Out
Amanda Ripley
★★★★★
American Nations
Colin Woodard, Colin Woodard
★★★★☆
The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom
Jonathan Haidt
★★★★☆
The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting up a Generation for Failure
Greg Lukianoff, Jonathan Haidt
★★★★☆
Watergate & the Nixon years8
One scandal, exhaustively re-read from every participant's angle.
All the President's Men
Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein
★★★★★
The Brethren: Inside the Supreme Court
Bob Woodward, Scott Armstrong
★★★★☆
Shadow: Five Presidents and the Legacy of Watergate
Bob Woodward
★★★★☆
Blind Ambition: The White House Years
John W. Dean
★★★★★
The Secret Man: The Story of Watergate's Deep Throat
Bob Woodward
★★★★★
Watergate: A New History
Garrett M. Graff
★★★★★
The Final Days
Carl Bernstein
★★★★☆
Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers
Daniel Ellsberg
★★★★☆
Tech & Silicon Valley6
How the platforms and the people who built them actually work.
Steve Jobs
Walter Isaacson
★★★★☆
Trillion Dollar Coach: The Leadership Playbook of Silicon Valley's Bill Campbell
Alan Eagle, Jonathan Rosenberg, Eric Schmidt
★★★★★
Uncanny Valley
Anna Wiener
★★★★☆
The Worlds I See: Curiosity, Exploration, and Discovery at the Dawn of AI
Fei-Fei Li
★★★★☆
Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making
Tony Fadell
★★★★★
Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism
Sarah Wynn-Williams
★★★★☆
YA & dystopian coming-of-age6
Coming of age under pressure — dystopia, grief, first stakes.
The Hunger Games (series)
Suzanne Collins
★★★★☆
Turtles All the Way Down
John Green
★★★★★
Anna K: A Love Story
Jenny Lee
★★★★☆
The Fault in Our Stars
John Green
★★★★★
The Change
Kirsten Miller
★★★★☆
American Royals (series)
Katharine McGee
★★★★☆
Enneagram6
One framework, worked from every entry point.
The Unfiltered Enneagram: A Witty and Wise Guide to Self-Compassion
Elizabeth Orr
★★★★☆
The Road Back to You: An Enneagram Journey to Self-Discovery
Suzanne Stabile, Ian Morgan Cron
★★★★☆
The Path Between Us: An Enneagram Journey to Healthy Relationships
Suzanne Stabile
★★★★☆
The Sacred Enneagram: Finding Your Unique Path to Spiritual Growth
Christopher L. Heuertz
★★★★☆
The Enneagram Symbol: Mapping the Journey of Personal, Social, and Spiritual Evolution
Jennifer Joss
★★★★☆
Enneagram Transformations: Releases and Affirmations for Healing Your Personality Type
Don Richard Riso
★★★★☆
Joan Didion & literary California5
Didion's own books, plus everyone still writing about her.
The Last Love Song: A Biography of Joan Didion
Tracy Daugherty
★★★★☆
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
★★★★★
Slouching Towards Bethlehem
Joan Didion
★★★★☆
Blue Nights
Joan Didion
★★★★★
Didion and Babitz
Lili Anolik
★★★★☆
Armenian genocide4
Memoir and history bearing witness to 1915.
The Forty Days of Musa Dagh
Franz Werfel, Peter Sourian
★★★★☆
My Grandmother: A Memoir
Fethiye Çetin
★★★★☆
Four Years in the Mountains of Kurdistan: An Armenian Boy's Memoir of Survival
Aram Haigaz
★★★★☆
Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide
Eric Bogosian
★★★★★
Gladwell & pop social science4
Malcolm Gladwell's own shelf.
Revenge of the Tipping Point: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering
Malcolm Gladwell
★★★★☆
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don't Know
Malcolm Gladwell
★★★★★
The Bomber Mafia: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War
Malcolm Gladwell
★★★★☆
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking
Malcolm Gladwell
★★★★☆
Pop social science & decision-making2
Why we believe what we believe, and act on it anyway.
Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts
Carol Tavris
★★★★☆
The Confidence Game: Why We Fall for It . . . Every Time
Maria Konnikova
★★★★☆
Money & investing2
Personal finance and markets, read for the plain-English version.
Buffett: The Making of an American Capitalist
Roger Lowenstein
★★★★☆
Principles: Life and Work
Ray Dalio
★★★★★
Health & the body2
Sleep, hormones, and the biology of feeling okay.
Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle
Amelia Nagoski, Emily Nagoski
★★★★☆
The New Perimenopause: An Evidence-Based Guide to Surviving the Zone of Chaos and Feeling Like Yourself Again
Mary Claire Haver
★★★★☆
Katrina & New Orleans2
One storm, one city, told from ground level.
The Good Pirates of the Forgotten Bayous: Fighting to Save a Way of Life in the Wake of Hurricane Katrina
Ken Wells
★★★★☆
Katrina: After the Flood
Gary Rivlin
★★★★☆
Politics and History1
The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11
Garrett M. Graff
★★★★☆
