Before my debut novel is ready for its close-up, I wanted to share the library that inspires me! Below is a gallery of my all-time favorite books (in no particular order).
Tell me what you read, and I'll tell you who you are.
- François Mauriac
The book that inspired my senior thesis, an internship in Nairobi and basically my entire life.
The book that made me move to the suburbs in search of trees, glorious, wise, trees.
One of my most beloved books, a dual POV about a sixteen-year-old in Japan and a novelist in British Columbia featuring teen Tokyo culture, a kitty, and Buddhism.
A love story about work and friends (and video games)
Love story about friends and land (Maine) and writing
Best & most bittersweet friendship, feminism, 90s NYC music scene book
The book that inspired me to adopt my first dog (and dream of living on a farm in Wisconsin)
Prequel to Edgar - a love story about people and dogs (and living in northern Wisconsin)
Dual timeline with one story set in Chicago during the early AIDS epidemic - heartbreakingly beautiful story of friendship, loss and betrayal
So beautiful, Minneapolis bookseller during 2019-2020, first book I read after Covid that talked about Covid and George Floyd, and one of the few books I started re-reading as soon as I finished.
A friendship love story about being young and broke and ambitious.
Amazing story about a wealthy woman unraveling, featuring mental health challenges and Birkins, two of my fave things!
Forbidden love and possession and dual timelines and Africa and adventurers = heaven.
Victorian tale with the trippiest twists I've ever read and stayed up all night to finish. Cannot say more and cannot stop thinking about it!
The absolute best slow-burn King Lear-inspired farm family drama!
The most lyrical writing, requiring many re-reads to savor the prose.
An epic family and continental saga, originally read in a post-colonial literature class and later, re-read to try to learn magic.
Chicago! Time Travel! Heart-breakingly beautiful love story!
Gorgeously spiritual, a meditation on Iowa, fathers and sons, and existence itself.
Stunning WWII story about a blind French girl and a German boy - can't stop thinking about, can still see every scene!
Run-down Midwestern town setting, loneliness and a terrific female protagonist
Dominican-American family saga, brilliant use of footnotes, an incredible mix of heartbreaking sadness and humor
Unforgettable 9/11 story - one of the first I had read when published in 2006 and still go back to from time to time
Three women's lives interwoven across eras, connected by Virginia Woolf - beautiful multi-POV
On social media and real life, written in fragments (a la Twitter) and made me cry harder than maybe any other book on this list besides Edgar Sawtelle!
Apocolyptic, closed room drama of two families trapped in vacation house during a blackout. Haunting!
Hostages taken at a party in an unnamed South American country, featuring an opera singer. (Annotated version by the author published in 2024 looking back on the 2001 novel is the biggest treat for any aspiring author!)
Saga of a family in the Belgian Congo with themes of post-colonial salvation and an unforgettable setting primed with tension
Country house, marriage, and a famous ex - loved it all!
Perfect structure, tone, themes, writing, voice, all the things.
I love all of Kevin Kwan's books and eat them up like candy but this one is a structural masterpiece! Rich people, weddings, British royalty mixing with Hong Kong royalty - give me more!
Cover of the book 'The True Story of Raja the Gulluibe' by Rabi Alameddine, featuring a tea cup with a quote and awards on a decorative background.
Huge fan of Plum Sykes (OG Vogue writer) including her debut featuring insider New York deliciousness!
Deep and serious subject matter but fast and pacey execution plus a terrific study of female friendship
Cranky lady lawyer uplit - charming and surprising.
OG Dark Academia
Haunting family saga with exquisite structure
Elegant novel about two couples in rural 1960s England
A western US family saga