I freaking love books. I love reading and the way that a well written story can transport you away from yourself for a little bit. I also think that reading is a very underrated way to learn new things and generally expand your vocabulary.
The only thing I love more than reading is talking about the books I’ve read and giving recommendations. Below are a few of my favorite books that I think everyone should read.
Favorite Book of All Time: World War Z, by Max Brooks
If you’ve seen the movie that was loosely based on this book (starring Brad Pitt), you’ll know that it’s trash. If you haven’t seen the movie, save yourself 2 hours and don’t watch it. The book is a completely different story than the movie, and it’s a masterpiece. While the movie is a typical zombie horror, where things get scary, the characters have to find a solution, and there is a tidy resolution at the end of the movie, the book goes far beyond that.
The premise of World War Z (the book) is that the “zombie war” has already concluded 10 years ago. The book is based around a journalist traveling around the globe, collecting accounts of how the epidemic started, how countries responded and battled against it, and how they rebuilt their nations. The book is written to resemble a collection of stories or interviews.
The book is one of the most detailed and well thought out novels I’ve ever read. It’s not very “scary” for a thriller type of novel, but there are certain sections that’ll make your heart race.
Favorite Series: Beartown, by Fredrik Backman
I’ve almost read Fredrik Backman’s entire catalog, just an amazing author, but this trilogy (Beartown, Us Against You, and The Winners) sticks out to me.
Beyond psychological thrillers and sci-fi, I have a tendency to read melancholic (I like to call them “sad-ish”) books that tell very human stories and make the reader feel something. Everything Backman writes fits this bill, and the Beartown Series especially.
This series centers around a tiny forest town (Beartown) in Sweden where everything revolves around the local hockey club. When a shocking incident rocks the community to its core, it forces residents to confront uncomfortable truths about loyalty, justice, and the price of silence.
Over the course of three books, Backman paints a story that focuses on the people of the town. Each character is a fully-fleshed out, relatable person. Even un-named characters are full people and are better developed than some named characters in other books I’ve read.
The series is about hockey… but also really not about hockey at all. Rather it uses hockey as a backdrop to tell a story about what binds people together and what tears them apart.
I did cry many times while reading all three books.
Book That Felt Most Like Therapy: A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
I don’t remember who recommended this book to me, but I hate you.
A Place for Us is a novel about struggling between two identities: the one you grow up with and are taught at home, and the one shaped by the world outside. This is a battle that all immigrants and children of immigrants face, and one that doesn’t always have a resolution.
The novel felt especially relatable to me because of two reasons. Firstly, it was centered around a Muslim family. Secondly, one of the major themes of the book is a character not living up to his potential, which I feel very deeply from time to time. While not all the elements of the story are things that I’ve experienced in my own life, there were a lot of parts of the novel that were specific enough to make me stop reading for the day or I would’ve teared up.
Favorite Non-Fiction Book: The Wager by David Grann
I don’t really read a lot of non-fiction, but I have this habit of buying books from airport shops whenever I’m traveling. While on my way to Colombia, this one stuck out to me for some reason. I’m glad it did.
The Wager tells the true story of an 18th-century British naval ship that wrecks under mysterious and harrowing circumstances. What follows is a wild, almost unbelievable tale of survival, mutiny, and truth versus narrative.
What I loved most is how Grann tells the story. It never feels like a dry textbook. Everything is historically accurate, but the characters are given so much depth and narrative weight that it reads like a novel.
Favorite Thriller: Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
One of my highest rated books on Goodreads, I loved this book.
Gone Girl is a dark, twisty psychological thriller that delves into the complexities of marriage, media, and the masks people wear—even with those closest to them.
What I loved is the sharp writing and the alternating perspectives. The twists and turns the book takes are soft enough where they don’t feel like whiplash but also unexpected enough that you don’t really know what’s going on until 3/4s of the way through.
Honorable mention to Dark Places and Sharp Objects, two other really good thrillers by Gillian Flynn.
Favorite Sci-Fi: Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
This book combined the sci-fi and psychological thriller genres into one book. Dark Matter follows a physicist who’s kidnapped into an alternate version of his own life—and has to fight to return to the world (and family) he knows.
It’s got action, suspense, mind-bending science, and some genuinely terrifying ideas about identity and choice. It’s a fast-paced, high-stakes story that still finds time to explore deeper questions.
I know there is an Amazon series based on the book, but I haven’t seen it. I’m scared that they did a bad job and it’s going to ruin the book for me and I’m not willing to take that risk.
Shout-out to Recursion, another amazing sci-fi/thriller combo by Blake Crouch.
I get most of my books from public library districts. Libraries provide essential services and educational programs for both children and adults. Please consider donating to https://www.library-project.org/ or your local library district.
