Tell Me What to Read: Fall 2017 Edition
Tell Me What to Read might be my very favorite book posts.
I LOVE seeing all your recommendations and over the past 8 years I’ve been doing this, I’ve found so many amazing new authors and titles.
This summer’s edition was particularly good, with three total winners – I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed a set so much!
With those three books done, it’s time for a new round and I cannnnnnnot wait.
You know the drill – suggest something fun (although that doesn’t need to mean chick-lit – I’m up for non-fiction, memoirs, young adult, middle grade, AND chick-lit), and I’ll pick three to read in September, October, and November!
Your job: Comment with the title of a book you think I should read.
My job: Choose three from the suggestions and announce which ones I’ll be reading.
I’ll read one a month (ish) between now and the end of November (hopefully). Feel free to read along and check back every month for my reviews.
And, as always, even if I hate the book, I will not hate you.
And go!
The Marble Collector by Cecelia Ahern. Rad this book in 2 days. It’s about a woman whose father has memory loss. Then a box of his stuff is delivered to her and among it she finds a big marble collection. She never knew her dad had any interest in marbles and then goes on a hunt to find out more about the marbles, in the process learning so much about her mother, her father and even herself.
I’ve had this on my list for awhile, but haven’t found an easy way to get it in the US. Any suggestions!?
Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas. I adore it.
I second this! I really enjoyed it and keep meaning to get back into the series!
If you’re not a fan of sex scenes, by book 5 it starts getting graphic. Much too graphic for a designated YA book IMHO.
I’ve heard lots of good things but haven’t read it yet!
“Daring to Drive” by Manal al-Sharif
“The Crossover” by Kwame Alexander. It’s such a departure from what I usually read, but is a quick and delightful middle grade novel written in verse. You could read it easily in an evening.
I listened to the audio of that last year and LOVED it. I need to pick up the companion book.
Along the infinite sea by Beatriz Williams
I concur. Also by Beatriz Williams and very enjoyable: A Hundred Summers and The Secret Life of Violet Grant.
I read A Hundred Summers and really enjoyed it, so I’ll have to try out some of her other books!
That’s one of my very favorite books!
“Well, That Was Awkward” by Rachel Vail. Cute, sweet, funny middle grade novel. I picked it up for the cover and then loved the story.
Lassoing the Sun by Mark Woods.
One of my surprising favorites this year was “I Will Always Write Back: How One Letter Changed Two Lives” by Martin Ganda and Caitlin Alifirenka. Such a sweet and unbelievable true story about 2 pen pals (1 in America, 1 in Zimbabwe). I think you’d enjoy it, too! 🙂
Yes! Such a great read. I read it with my family book club last year, and I was so surprised by how much I loved it.
I’ve never even heard of this one!
Miss You, by Kate Eberlen. I picked it up at the library on a whim and I just loved it.
I recommend How to Write a Novel by Melanie Sumner (a novel, not a guide to writing), The Hopefuls, Station Eleven, and The Yellow Envelope.
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
I loved this one as well, and it’s so relevant right now.
Third vote for this one! Afterwards I told my whole family to read it (which, despite how much I read, really doesn’t happen often). It’s very thought-provoking!
I’ll have to give this one a shot!
Yep – it’s worth the read! High recommended as it is well written and you get into three different heads surrounding one circumstance.
Short by Holly Goldberg Sloan-An amazing beautiful and sweet middle grade novel! I just adored it.
The Shark Club by Ann Kidd Taylor-I read this one in a day!
Beartown by Fredrik Backman – I read it this summer, and it’s up there with the best books I’ve ever read.
I liked his other two books better overall, but i thought this one was the most thought provoking and I found myself continuing to contemplate it long after I was done reading.
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield. I’m not kidding when I say that 20 pages into the book, I knew it was going to be the best book I’ve ever read. I was not wrong. I also recommend What Alice forgot and Station Eleven. But first and foremost. The Thirteenth Tale. 🙂 You won’t regret it.
I recently finished “The Thirteenth Tale” and it wasn’t my favorite. But I know several other fans (including my aunt who recommended it!) so I might be an anomaly.
I did like the Thirteenth Tale. Great Book!
Have you read This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel yet? I read it in January and it’s still my favorite book I’ve read this year… maybe even favorite from the last few years.
I also just finally got around to The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd; I don’t read a lot of civil war historical fiction but it was so fantastic it’s all I want to read now.
I’m in the middle of this book right now. I usually don’t like character driven books, but I am enjoying this one. It’s so good to step into someone else’s shoes sometimes.
I second This is How it Always is and Beartown!! Both books are SO MUCH BETTER than their synopses, so keep that in mind too!! Janssen, I feel like you will love the family dynamic in This is How it Always Is.
Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan!
Hmm. Here are a couple: The Yellow Envelope (travel memoir), Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson (contemporary fiction), The Things We Wish Were True or We Were Worthy by Marybeth Whalen Mayhew (both contemporary fiction but super compelling), or Reading People by Anne Bogel (non-fiction about personality types).
Because I read that today is the anniversary of the day Pluto got demoted, I’ve been thinking about How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown. He’s the guy who discovered the dwarf planet that forced the issue on Pluto, plus he discovered two of the other dwarf planets, all in the year his first child was born. He also writes about the newborn days and being exhausted from the learning curve of parenting while also trying to decide if he’d really discovered a new planet. It’s funny, a quick read, and made me feel very knowledgeable about Pluto and dwarf planets.
The best book I’ve read this year is a YA novel – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. It has a very well deserved 4.62 rating on Goodreads! I think you’d really love it, too.
I’m reading A Gentleman in Moscow right now and really enjoying it!
I LOVED that one! I think Count Rostov is now one of my all-time favorite literary characters! ❤️
I’m reading L. M. Montgomery’s The Blue Castle right now. It’s so different from her Anne books, but I’m LOVING it. If you haven’t read it, that’s my recommendation!
If you like The Blue Castle you will love The Ladies of Missalonghi by Colleen McCullough
I’m reading this right now, too, and it is SO charming! I’m loving it.
Oops, that was meant for A Gentleman in Moscow
LOVE the Blue Castle. Definitely one of my lifetime favorites.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine or Be Frank With Me. Both are must-listen to audiobooks as it helps flesh out their characters having their voices “acted out.” Similar veined books but both really good. It’s Okay to Laugh (Crying is Cool Too) is a great memoir about loss and discovery. And the title is fitting. Laughter and tears will occur.
At Home in the World by Tsh Oxenreider. One of the best travel memoirs I have ever read.
Yes! This was so excellent! And I loved that she narrates the audio herself.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine and the Alice Network.
The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis was one of my favorite books that I read this past year. Also Caraval by Stephanie Garber was such a fun read, but I love books that have a bit of magic to them.
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
I’ve really enjoyed The Dry by Jane Harper (a crime fiction novel set in Australia – superb writing with a plot that sucks you right in) and This is How it Always Is by Alyssa Mastromonaco (a lighthearted look into the Obama administration).
Whoops – that Alyssa Mastromonaco book should be Who Thought This Was a Good Idea?
Into the Water by Paula Hawkins, The Lying Game by Ruth Ware (these two have some language, but the plots kind of call for it), The Worlds We Think We Know by Dalia Rosenfeld.
I just finished Good As Gone. It was a quick read, drew me in immediately, and very unpredictable. Bonus (for me): it takes place in Houston, where I live, and I recognized so many of the places mentioned!
“Girl in Translation” by Jean Kwok. Can’t remember if you’ve read it already, though . . .
I just read Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah. It’s a WWII historical fiction, and it’s told in a way that’s a little bit different than my usual read which I enjoyed. I also recently read Jackie’s Girl by Kate McKeon who was Jackie Kennedy’s personal assistant and it was nice to read a book about her that didn’t paint her as a terrible and mean rich woman.
Winter Garden is just about my favorite book ever! I buy extra copies when I see it to give to friends.
The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin is one of my very favorite books, but it came out a couple years ago. My favorite 2017 release so far has been Midnight Without A Moon by Linda Williams Jackson. Both are middle grade books.
If you like fantasy, The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. It’s really long but INCREDIBLE.
A great YA/middle grade book is Every Soul a Star by Wendy Mass. It’s a really great, feel-good book–and it’s about a solar eclipse!
This isn’t a suggestion, I just can’t help but remark that The Bright Hour was such a good book!
Actually, now that I think about it, read Happiness, by Heather Harpam. As far as excellent writing goes, I put it up there with When Breath Becomes Air, and that is a HIGH standard. It was absolutely incredible. And bonus, her family lived in Durham for a little bit too. You will love it!
The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson
The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan; The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald; Kisses From Katie by Katie Davis; Paperboy by Vince Vawter
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman — I just finished it today and loved it! It’s one of my favorites of the year so far!!
You May Already be a Winner by Ann Dee Ellis. Heartbreaking a day funny. I want to be friends with the main character. Loved it.
On Edge by Andrea Petersen, Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman (he narrates the audio and it’s excellent!), and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng.
Have you ever read A Study in Charlotte by Brittney Cavallaro? I saw it recommended in a little bookstore, rented it from the library, and proceeded to be totally charmed by it. It’s a fun take on Sherlock Holmes, featuring Holmes’s and Watson’s great-great-great grandchildren. It could have been cheesy, but I thought it was clever and fun.
I’m reading Sorcery and Cecelia: or the Enchanted Chocolate Pot, by Patricia Wrede. 5 stars! It’s so much fun! A cross of Georgette Heyer/Jane Austen’s Victorian London and Harry Potter.
We Are Called to Rise, by Laura McBride. Great on audio too!
I was surprised by how much I enjoyed The Crown’s Game. Two competing magicians in Russia and their duel.
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
I’ve been reading your blog for years and honestly I pretty much only read books you recommend. BUT as far as I can tell on your Goodreads you’ve never read any of Betty Macdonald’s adult books. She wrote the mrs. Higgle Piggle kids books (which are great!) but she’s more famous for The Egg and I and a few other memoirs. She was such an important author during the 1950s, her celebrity status was incredible and I think it’s crazy how little known she is now. So anyway, I just really really think you should get to know this hilarious and brave and intensely interesting woman.
Wonderland Creek by Lynn Austin A fun read about a girl who is missing out on life because she is always lost in a book
Tallgrass by Sandra Dallas about a town in Colorado where the goverment opens a Japanese internment camp during WWII (even better if you also read it with Red Berries, White Clouds and Blue Sky by Sandra Dallas . A story told from inside an internment camp)
The Lost Girls by Jennifer Baggett, Holly Corbett & Amanda Pressner – amazing travel memoir that I picked up at the library on a whim but about life, expectations and friendship through traveling the southern hemisphere for a year!
10% Human- Alanna Collen.
It is non- fiction, about the microbes in your gut and how your diet can affect your microbiome and your health. An eye opening read about conscious decisions for our health. I couldn’t put it down.
The Vanishing American Adult by Ben Sasse. I’m only about halfway through, but I am loving it. My kids are young yet but I am getting so many great ideas to be more intentional in my parenting to ensure that thy are prepared for “real life” when they’re adults.
You should read Dealing with Dragons, which is the first book in he enchanted forest chronicles by Patricia C. Wrede. My family and I loved this series when I was growing up. It is so fun! We would listen to the audiobook on road trips and driving around with my mom. The audiobook is so fun because it is read by multiple people and each character gets a different voice which makes it a little easier to follow. I hope you love it as much as we did!
Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia. A YA book that hits on fandom and mental illness. It was a read that really stayed with me.
I just read You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie and highly recommend it. It’s the first book of his I have read but now I want to read more.
Words in Deep Blue was a YA novel that I recently really enjoyed. What to Say Next, the newest by Julie Buxbaum, is also WONDERFUL YA and I feel that you would probably like it. It’s very cute. Other books I’ve enjoyed this year include Born a Crime by Trevor Noah (on audible!), Maud, by Melanie Fishbane, a fictional but semi-biographical account of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s adolescent years, and Salt to the Sea.
“Hour of the Bees” is a wonderfully unique middle grade fiction that has some magical realism in it. A YA nonfiction: Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War by Steve Sheinkin. So fascinating. An adult fiction but part non fiction because the story is based on her ancestor’s incredible survival story in WWII is “We Were the Lucky Ones” by Georgia Hunter.