Reading List

Read / Currently Reading

πŸ’―: I loved this!
πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ: contains LGBTQ+ characters
πŸ§‘πŸΎ: written by authors of color
⚠️: started but not finished, will come back to it at some point

memoirs / nonfiction / essays

  • A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
  • A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemingway
  • Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India, Sujatha Gidla πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Becoming, Michelle Obama πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood, Trevor Noah πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Cosmos, Carl Sagan
  • Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life, Ali Wong πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Educated, Tara Westover
  • How We Fight For Our Lives, Saeed Jones πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ ⚠️
  • I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • I’m Afraid of Men, Vivek Shraya πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • In the Dream House, Carmen Maria Machado πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • It’s Not About the Burqa, Mariam Khan πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Long Walk To Freedom, Nelson Mandela πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Malevolent Republic: A Short History of New India, K.S. Komireddi πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Men Explain Things to Me, Rebecca Solnit
  • Small Acts of Freedom, Gurmehar Kaur πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm X and Alex Haley πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank πŸ’―
  • The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer, Siddhartha Mukherjee πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
  • Thick: And Other Essays, Tressie McMillan Cottom πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie πŸ§‘πŸΎ

sci-fi / fantasy

  • A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket
  • A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin ⚠️
  • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
  • American Gods, Neil Gaiman
  • Artemis Fowl series, Eoin Colfer
  • Between Earth and Sky Series, Rebecca Roanhorse
  • Dune, Frank HerbertΒ 
  • Earthsea Cycle, Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Exhalation: Stories, Ted Chiang πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
  • Gods of Jade and Shadow, Silvia Moreno-Garcia πŸ§‘πŸΎπŸ’―
  • Good Omens, Neil Gaiman
  • Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, Susanna Clarke
  • Kindred, Octavia E. Butler πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Lockwood & Co. Series, Jonathan Stroud
  • Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman
  • Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
  • Remembrance of Earth’s Past Series, Liu Cixin πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Stardust, Neil Gaiman ⚠️
  • The Bartimaeus Trilogy, Jonathan Stroud πŸ’―
    • The Ring of Solomon, Jonathan Stroud πŸ’―(prequel)
  • The Broken Earth Trilogy, N. K. Jemisin πŸ’―πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆπŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Chronicles of Narnia, C. S. Lewis
  • The City We Became, N. K. Jemisin πŸ§‘πŸΎπŸ’―
  • The Dark Tower series, Stephen King
  • The Empress of Salt and Fortune, Nghi Vo πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Faraway Tree Series, Enid Blyton πŸ’―
  • The Harry Potter Series, J. K. Rowling Β πŸ’―
  • The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
  • The Inheritance Cycle, Christopher Paolini
  • The Inheritance Trilogy, N. K. Jemisin πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆπŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien πŸ’―
    • The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkie πŸ’―(prequel)
    • The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien (Prequel)
    • The Children of HΓΊrin, J. R. R. Tolkien / Christopher Tolkien (Prequel) ⚠️
  • The Lunar Chronicles, Marissa Meyer
  • The Mortal Instruments series, Cassandra Clarke
  • The Ocean at the End of the Lane, Neil Gaiman ⚠️
  • The Time Travelers Wife, Audrey Niffenegger
  • This Is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Wild Seed, Octavia E. Butler πŸ§‘πŸΎ

graphic novels

  • Batman: Knightfall
  • Batman: The Killing Joke, Alan Moore
  • Batman: The Long Halloween, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale πŸ’―
    • Batman Dark Victory, Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale (sequel) πŸ’―
  • Batman Arkham Asylum, Grant Morrison and Dave McKean
  • Batman Year One, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli πŸ’―
  • Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, Frank Miller & John Romita Jr.  πŸ’―
  • Daredevil: Born Again, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli
  • Kingdom Come, Mark Waid and Alex Ross
  • Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
  • Saga, Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
  • The Complete Maus, Art Spiegelman πŸ’―
  • The Sandman Series, Neil Gaiman
  • Thor: The God of Thunder, Jason Aaron and Esad RibiΔ‡
  • Whatever Happened to the Caped Crusader?, by Neil Gaiman πŸ’―
  • Watchmen, Alan Moore
  • Gotham by Gaslight, Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola
  • V for Vendetta, Alan Moore and David Lloyd
  • Injustice: Gods Among Us
    • Year One πŸ’―
    • Year Two πŸ’―
    • Year Three
    • Year Four
    • Year Five

young adult

  • A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L’Engle
  • Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
  • Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
  • Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
  • Looking For Alaska, John Green
  • Matilda, Roald Dahl
  • Paper Towns, John Green
  • The Book Thief, Markus Zusak πŸ’―
  • The Call of the Wild, Jack London
  • The Fault in Our Stars, John Green
  • The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Perks of being a Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • They Both Die at the End, Adam Silvera πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ

classics

  • 1984, George Orwell
  • Animal Farm, George Orwell
  • Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
  • Anne Of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
  • Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
  • Catch-22, Joseph Heller
  • Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
  • Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
  • Jane Eyre, Charlotte BrontΓ«
  • Kafka on the Shore, Haruki Murakami
  • Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
  • Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov
  • Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
  • Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel GarcΓ­a MΓ‘rquez
  • Monday or Tuesday, Virginia Woolf
  • Murder on the Orient Express, Agatha Christie
  • Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
  • One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
  • One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel GarcΓ­a MΓ‘rquez
  • Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
  • Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
  • The Bell Jar, Sylvia Plath
  • The Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger
  • The Color Purple, Alice Walker πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
  • The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Victor Hugo
  • The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling
  • The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-ExupΓ©ry πŸ’―
  • The Old Man and the Sea, Ernest Hemingway
  • The Picture of Dorian Gray, Oscar Wilde πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • This Side of Paradise, F. Scott Fitzgerald ⚠️
  • To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee πŸ’―
  • Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
  • Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne

poetry

  • Ariel, Sylvia Plath
  • Collected Poems, W. B. Yeats
  • Crush, Richard Siken πŸ’― πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • Clap When You Land, Elizabeth Acevedo πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Even This Page Is White, Vivek Shraya πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Femme in Public, Alok Vaid-Menon πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Songs of Innocence and Experience, William Blake
  • Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth, Warsan Shire πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Emily Dickinson
  • The Iliad, Homer
  • The Odyssey, Homer
  • The Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
  • The Poet X, Elizabeth Acevedo πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Prelude, William Wordsworth
  • The Princess Saves Herself in This One, Amanda Lovelace
  • Night Sky with Exit Wounds, Ocean Vuong πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆπŸ§‘πŸΎ

fiction / contemporary

  • A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry πŸ’―πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • A Place for Us, Fatima Farheen Mirza πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
  • And the Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Angels & Demons, Dan Brown
  • Beloved, Toni Morrison πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Chowringhee, Sankar πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Circe, Madeline Miller πŸ’― πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • Coyote Songs, Gabino Iglesias πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, Gail Honeyman
  • Em and the big Hoom, Jerry Pinto πŸ§‘πŸΎ ⚠️ TW
  • English, August, Upamanyu Chatterjee πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Family Matters, Rohinton Mistry πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Friday Black, Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Gone Girl, Gillian Flynn
  • Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Istanbul: Memories and the City, Orhan Pamuk
  • Life of Pi, Yann Martel
  • Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Love Story, Erich Segal 
  • Malgudi Days, R.K. Narayanan πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Maurice, E.M. Forster πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • Maximum City, Suketu Mehta πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
  • Midnight’s Children, Salman Rushdie πŸ§‘πŸΎ ⚠️
  • Nefertiti, Michelle Moran 
  • Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous, Ocean Vuong πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ πŸ§‘πŸΎ ⚠️
  • Pachinko, Min Jin Lee πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Red Clocks, Leni Zumas
  • Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts
  • Tales from Firozsha Baag, Rohinton Mistry πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Thackeray Mansion, Sankar ⚠️ πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Blue Umbrella, Ruskin Bond πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown
  • The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy πŸ’―πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
  • The Heretic Queen, Michelle Moran
  • The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
  • The Inheritance of Loss, Kiran Desai πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Lives of Others, Neel Mukherjee πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Lowland, Jhumpa Lahiri
  • The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Other Americans, Laila Lalami πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Other One: Stories, Hasanthika Sirisena πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Quilt and other stories, Ismat Chugtai πŸ’―πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆπŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • The Song of Achilles, Madeline Miller πŸ’― πŸ³οΈβ€πŸŒˆ
  • The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Heather Morris
  • The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Milan Kundera
  • The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • There There, Tommy Orange πŸ§‘πŸΎβš οΈ
  • Train to Pakistan, Khushwant Singh πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri πŸ’― πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Untouchable, Mulk Raj Anand
  • When I Hit You: Or, A Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife, Meena Kandasamy πŸ§‘πŸΎ
  • Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens

recommendations? let me know below

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