Bookish people who know I’m a fellow bibliophile, writer, and bookseller are often asking me for book recommendations. I ask the same of my librarian and literary friends. I have compiled a list of the best books that I’ve read in the last 7 months, plus a few everyone should read. I keep a list of everything I’ve ever read for posterity, not for myself, but for my sons. I want them to know what their mother loved…almost as much as she loved them.
Suicide Casanova by Arthur Nersesian
Gladyss of the Hunt by Arthur Nersesian
The Fuck-Up by Arthur Nersesian
The Traveling Death and Resurrection Show by Ariel Gore
1Q84 by Haruki Murakami
The Petting Zoo by Jim Carroll
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Colorless Tsukuru Tszaki and His Years of Pilgrimage
by Haruki Murakami
Joe by Larry Brown
Fay by Larry Brown
The Underworld by Don DeLillo
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
My Name is Red by Orham Pamuk
Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
Spring Snow by Yukio Mishima
After the Quake by Haruki Murakami
Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman by Haruki Murakami
Euphoria by Lilly King
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
The Little Friend by Donna Tartt
On the Road by Jack Kerouac
Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by
Haruki Murakami
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami
California Raisins by Seb Doubinsky
The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami
Perfume the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind
Sputnik Sweetheart by Haruki Murakami
Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
South of the Border, West of the Sun by Haruki Murakami
The Elephant Vanishes by Haruki Murakami
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Dance Dance Dance by Haruki Murakami
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
Seymour an Introduction by J.D. Salinger
Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters by J.D. Salinger
Whole New Religion by Bob Jakubovic
The Night Market by D.R. Wagner
…These titles appear in no particular order, I love them all. You may have noticed no Catcher in the Rye. Why? Because that book is shit and Salinger thinks so too. The Scarlet Letter and The Bell Jar? If you haven’t read those yet, you aren’t trying. No Infinite Jest? David Foster Wallace didn’t love you…or himself. If you want to regret three months of your life, Infinite Jest in the quickest way.
Happy Reading