Reading List

Dickens was my first literary love and as an English major I was drawn to 19th- and early 20th-century British literature. I’ve always had a soft spot for historical fiction — favorites are Tracy Chevalier and Ken Follett — and I love the Laurie R. King Mary Russell-Sherlock Holmes series (first book: The Beekeeper’s Apprentice). I’m also always up for a good fantasy series!

This list was begun in September 2010, when I started my Peace Corps service in Ukraine. The middle of the list is wacky because I took the Literature GRE in April 2012 and so spent eight months making my way, slowly and painfully, through as much of the canon as possible. I did an MA in “Issues in Modern Culture” (20th-century literature) in ’14-’15 – that reading list has moved here.

Please contribute your thoughts and recommendations in the comments! (* = recommended reads)

Currently Reading:

• Maggie O’Farrell, This Must be the Place
• Kristen Ghodsee, Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism

What I’ve read so far (most recent at the bottom; * = recommendation):

• *Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
• Milan Kundera, The Joke
• *Ernest Hemingway, The Old Man and the Sea
• *Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
• Matthew Gallaway, The Metropolis Case (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Charles Dickens, Nicholas Nickleby (featured in my essay, “On Escapism: Nicholas Nickleby” for Full Stop)
• *Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters to a Young Poet
• *E.L. Doctorow, All the Time in the World (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse
• *E.M. Forster, Maurice
• *J.W. von Goethe, Faust (featured in my essay, “Goethe’s Faust in Music” for Full Stop)
• J.W. von Goethe, The Sorrows of Young Werther
• Ernest Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls
• *Alice Walker, The Color Purple
• Joanne Harris, Chocolat
• Pete Hamill, Snow in August
• William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair
• Myrlin A. Hermes, The Lunatic, the Lover, & the Poet
• E.L. Doctorow, The March
• *Beowulf
• *Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales (selections)
• *Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur (selections)
• Anonymous, Everyman
• Christopher Marlowe, Dr. Faustus
• *John Milton, Paradise Lost (not the full text, but a big chunk that was in the Norton Anthology)
• John Dryden, All For Love
• *Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels
• Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism
• *Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock
• *Jonathan Swift, A Modest Proposal
• [parts of] Samuel Johnson, The Preface to Shakespeare
• *Sarah Gruen, Water for Elephants
• Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
• *George Gordon, Lord Byron, Don Juan (not the full text, but a big chunk that was in the Norton Anthology)
• *Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest
• Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
• Andriy Kurkov, The Case of the General’s Thumb (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
• Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary
• *Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
• *Amy Tan, The Bonesetter’s Daughter
• Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
• *Michelle Fillion, Difficult Rhythm: Music & the Word in E.M. Forster
• *Jennifer Egan, A Visit from the Goon Squad
• D.H. Lawrence, Sons & Lovers
• Phyllis Weliver, The Musical Crowd in English Fiction, 1840-1910
• Gabriel Garcia Marquez, One Hundred Years of Solitude
• *Ken Follett, Fall of Giants
• Jhumpa Lahiri, Interpreter of Maladies
• Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
• *Wendy Moffat, A Great Unrecorded History: A New Life of E.M. Forster
• *Tracy Chevalier, Remarkable Creatures
• *J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit (re-read before seeing the film)
• *Ken Follett, Winter of the World (sequel to Fall of Giants)
• Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching (for CELTA course)
• *Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool), The Etymologicon: A Circular Stroll Through the Hidden Connections of the English Language
• *Toni Morrison, Beloved
• *Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
• *Christopher Isherwood, The Berlin Stories
• Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
• *Mark Forsyth (The Inky Fool), The Horologicon: A Day’s Jaunt Through the Lost Words of the English Language
• Robert Louis Stevenson, New Arabian Nights
• *John Adams, Hallelujah Junction: Composing an American Life
• *Daniel Bergner, What Do Women Want?: Adventures in the Science of Female Desire (every woman AND man should read this)
• *Tracy Chevalier, The Last Runaway
• Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
• *André Aciman, Call Me By Your Name
• *Geraldine Brooks, March
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Game of Thrones
• *Mary Sharratt, Illuminations: A Novel of Hildegard von Bingen
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Clash of Kings
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Storm of Swords
• George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Feast for Crows
• *Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
• *George R.R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire: A Dance with Dragons
• Andrew Ladd, What Ends (reviewed for Full Stop)
• *Ian McEwan, Atonement
• *Frances Hodgson Burnett, A Little Princess
• Nikolai Gogol, Diary of a Madman
• Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden
• *P.D. James, Death Comes to Pemberley
• *Louisa May Alcott, Little Women
• Laurie R. King, The Beekeeper’s Apprentice
• *Ken Follett, Edge of Eternity (Book 3 of the Century Trilogy)
• *Laurie R. King, A Monstrous Regiment of Women
• *Laurie R. King, A Letter of Mary
• Damon Galgut, Arctic Summer
• Chrissy Wellington, A Life Without Limits: A World Champion’s Journey
• *Elie Wiesel, Night
• *Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth
• Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
• Monica Ali, Brick Lane
• Alice Becker-Ho, The Essence of Jargon (reviewed for Full Stop)
• Jennifer Worth, Call the Midwife
• Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep
• George MacDonald, The Princess and the Goblin
• *Caitlin Moran, How to Build a Girl
• Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South
• *Laurie R. King, The Moor
• *Paula McLain, Circling the Sun
• Laurie R. King, O Jerusalem
• *Diane Chandler, The Road to Donetsk (reviewed for Blackbird Digital Books)
• *Mona Eltahawy, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution
• *Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games
• *Suzanne Collins, Catching Fire
• *Suzanne Collins, Mockingjay
• *Erin Morgenstern, The Night Circus
• *Anthony Doerr, All the Light you Cannot See
• Mark Haddon, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time
• *Ken Follett, World Without End
• Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathizer
• Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace, tr. Louise and Aylmer Maude, Amy Mandelker
• *Leila Aboulela, The Kindness of Enemies
• Stephanie Burgis, Masks and Shadows
• *Laurie R. King, Justice Hall
• *Kristin Cashore, Graceling
• Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita, tr. Mirra Ginsburg
• *Karen Kondazian, The Whip
• *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Americanah
• *Alexander Chee, The Queen of the Night
• *Zadie Smith, White Teeth
• 2017 (or so):
  • *Kristin Cashore, Bitterblue
  • Tahmima Anam, A Golden Age
  • *Rose Tremain, The Gustav Sonata
  • Jo Anne Normile, Saving Baby (recommended by Sarah)
  • *Tracy Chevalier, At the Edge of the Orchard
  • *Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White
  • Philippa Gregory, Changeling (I like an easy YA historical fiction novel once in a while)
  • *Laurie R. King, The Game
  • *Laurie R. King, Locked Rooms
  • *Walter Moers, Die 13 1/2 Leben des Käpt’n Blaubär (F and I took 1.5 years to read this together, swapping paragraphs to improve my German)
  • Dave Boling, Guernica
  • *Jessie Burton, The Muse
  • Elizabeth Chadwick, The Summer Queen
  • *Zadie Smith, Swing Time
  • *Robin Hobb, The Rain Wild Chronicles (4-book series)
  • *Tracy Chevalier, New Boy
  • *Danielle Steel, The Duchess
  • *Rachel Sieffert, A Boy in Winter
  • *Karen Köhler, Wir haben Raketen geangelt
  • *Darragh McKeon, All that is Solid Melts into Air
  • Toni Morrison, Jazz
  • 2018:
  • *Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach
  • *Jesmyn Ward, Sing, Unburied, Sing – for Now Read This: the inaugural PBS NewsHour-New York Times Book Club
  • Alison Weir, Six Tudor Queens: Katherine of Aragon, The True Queen
  • *Dave Eggers, The Monk of Mokha
  • *Ken Follett, A Column of Fire
  • *Philippe Sands, East West Street
  • *Tamora Pierce, Song of the Lioness Quartet
  • John Boyne, The Absolutist (for mini book club with friends)
  • Ada Palmer, Too Like the Lightning
  • *VE Schwab, A Darker Shade of Magic
  • Sebastian Faulks, Where My Heart Used to Beat (for mini book club)
  • *Laurie R. King, The Language of Bees
  • Philipp Meyer, American Rust
  • Andrew Sean Greer, Less
  • *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun
  • Jan Weiler, Maria, ihm schmeckt’s nicht!
• 2019:
  • Robin Hobb, The Liveship Traders trilogy
  • Marc-Uwe Kling, Die Känguru-Chroniken (aloud with F)
  • *Volker Kutscher, Der nasse Fisch
  • Marina Lewycka, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
  • *Pat Baker, The Silence of the Girls
  • *Deborah Frances-White, The Guilty Feminist
  • *Madeline Miller, Circe
  • *Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
  • Patrick Rothfuss, The Wise Man’s Fear
  • Scarlett Peckham, The Duke I Tempted
  • *Brandon Sanderson, The Final Empire (“Mistborn” series #1)
  • *Elin Hilderbrand, Summer of ’69
  • *LM Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables
  • *Laurie R. King, The God of the Hive
  • Laurie R. King, The Pirate King
  • Tracy Chevalier, A Single Thread
  • Adam Fletcher, Make Me German: Wie ich einmal loszog, ein perfekter Deutscher zu werden, tr. Oliver Thomas Domzalski
  • Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension (“Mistborn” series #2)
  • *Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages (“Mistborn” series #3)
  • Aja Gabel, The Ensemble
  • *Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid’s Tale
  • Zoe Castile, Stripped (Happy Endings Book 1)
  • *Mark Sullivan, Beneath a Scarlet Sky
  • *Margaret Atwood, The Testaments
• 2020:
  • Erin Morgenstern, The Starless Sea
  • *Diana Gabaldon, Outlander
  • *Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein, Notes from a Young Black Chef: A Memoir
  • *Lynne Murphy, The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English
  • *Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists and Dear Ijeawele, Or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions
  • *Benedict Wells, Vom Ende der Einsamkeit
  • *Deborah Feldman, Unorthodox
  • Tara Westover, Educated – well-written but painful to read
  • *Jojo Moyes, The Giver of Stars
  • *Tamora Pierce, Tempests and Slaughter: The Legend Begins (The Numair Chronicles, Book 1)
  • *Dodie Smith, I Capture the Castle
  • *Sarah Waters, Fingersmith
  • *Paulette Jiles, News of the World
  • *Delia Owens, Where the Crawdads Sing
  • *Tamora Pierce, Protector of the Small Quartet
  • *Laurie R. King, Garment of Shadows
  • *Laurie R. King, Dreaming Spies
  • Frances Cha, If I Had Your Face
  • *Ken Follett, The Evening and the Morning
  • Grimms Märchen
• 2021:
  • *Ken Follett, The Kingsbridge Novels (3 books – re-read – 2 in 2020 and 1 in 2021)
  • *Isabel Allende, Island Beneath the Sea, tr. Margaret Sayers Peden
  • Alexi Pappas, Bravey: Chasing Dreams, Befriending Pain, and Other Big Ideas
  • *Candice Carty-Williams, Queenie
  • Courtney Milan, The Duke Who Didn’t (Wedgeford Trials Book 1)
  • *Walter Moers, Wilde Reise Durch die Nacht
  • *Alix E. Harrow, The Once and Future Witches
  • Kevin Kwan, Sex and Vanity
  • *Louise Penny, Still Life (Chief Inspector Gamache Series Book 1)
  • Kaitlyn Greenidge, Libertie
  • *Louise Penny, A Fatal Grace (Chief Inspector Gamache Series Book 2)
  • Leigh Bardugo, Shadow and Bone (The Grisha Book 1)
  • *Laurie R. King, The Murder of Mary Russell
  • Elin Hilderbrand, The Identicals
  • *Pip Williams, The Dictionary of Lost Words
  • Michael Greger, How Not to Diet: The Groundbreaking Science of Healthy, Permanent Weight Loss (skimmed/scanned it)
  • *Mary E. Pearson, Dance of Thieves
  • *Jacqueline Winspear, Maisie Dobbs
  • *Michelle Obama, Becoming
  • *Mary E. Pearson, Vow of Thieves
  • *Anthony Doerr, Cloud Cuckoo Land
  • Monica Hesse, The Girl in the Blue Coat
  • *Amitav Ghosh, The Sea of Poppies
  • Rabih Alameddine, The Wrong End of the Telescope
  • *Christy Lefteri, The Beekeeper of Aleppo
  • Eloisa James, Wilde in Love
• 2022:
  • Alice Hoffmann, Magic Lessons: A Prequel to Practical Magic (The Practical Magic Series Book 1)
  • Louise Penny, The Cruellest Month (Chief Inspector Gamache Series Book 3)
  • Toni Morrison, Sula
  • *Sarah Penner, The Lost Apothecary
  • *Namina Forna, The Gilded Ones (The Gilded Ones Book 1)
  • Leïla Slimani, The Country of Others
  • Miriam Grace Monfredo, Seneca Falls Inheritance
  • *Miriam Grace Monfredo, North Star Conspiracy
  • *Maggie O’Farrell, Hamnet
  • *Diana Gabaldon, Dragonfly in Amber (Outlander Book 2)
  • Harini Nagendra, The Bangalore Detectives Club
  • Namina Forna, The Merciless Ones (The Gilded Ones Book 2)
  • *Brendan Slocumb, The Violin Conspiracy
  • *Diana Gabaldon, Voyager (Outlander Book 3)
  • *Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn (Outlander Book 4)
  • *Diana Gabaldon, The Fiery Cross (Outlander Book 5)
  • Marina Lewycka, Two Caravans
• 2023:
  • *Rachel Hartman, Tess of the Road
  • *Laurie R. King, Island of the Mad (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes Book 15)
  • *Laurie R. King, Riviera Gold (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes Book 16)
  • *Sarah Winman, Still Life
  • Laurie R. King, Castle Shade (Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes Book 17)
  • Joanna Faber, How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen
  • *Freya Marske, A Marvellous Light
  • Juno Dawson, Her Majesty’s Royal Coven (The HMRC Trilogy Book 1)
  • Elizabeth Graver, Kantika
  • Brittany N. Williams, That Self-Same Metal (The Forge & Fracture Saga, Book 1)
  • *H.G. Parry, The Magician’s Daughter
  • *Victoria Hislop, The Island
  • *Moniquill Blackgoose, To Shape a Dragon’s Breath: The First Book of Napeshiweisit
  • Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Thorns and Roses
  • Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury
  • *Christopher McDougall, Running with Sherman: The Donkey with the Heart of a Hero
  • *Becky Chambers, A Psalm for the Wild-Built (Monk & Robot Book 1)
  • *Becky Chambers, A Prayer for the Crown-Shy (Monk & Robot Book 2)
  • *Ken Follett, The Armour of Light (The Kingsbridge Novels Book 5)
  • *Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry
  • *Diana Gabaldon, A Breath of Snow and Ashes (Outlander Book 6)
  • *Emma Törzs, Ink Blood Sister Scribe
• 2024
  • *Diana Biller, Hotel of Secrets
  • Vanessa Chan, The Storm We Made