The rules: There’s only one. You can only name books you’ve actually read. So there goes a huge chunk of the literary canon. I graduated with an English degree but was never assigned anything by Dickens, Austen, either of the Brontes, none of the Russians… There was some Faulkner and Hemingway in there, but I never read more than a few paragraphs. The rest of the stuff held little to no appeal.
Unless you’re teaching, an English degree’s little more than a license to bullshit, and in five years of studies, I got really good at it. I did get around to reading Austen at some point; ain’t no way she’s making this list, but God love her for paving the way. I spent freshman and sophomore year at a small women’s college in the middle of nowhere. Sure, we read. We read smut. And as I got older I graduated to good love stories and discovered I liked writing those as much as I enjoy reading them, so yeah… there’s gonna be a lot of love on this list.
Thanks to the obsessive-compulsive streak my father gave me the list is alphabetized by author; if there’re multiple works by an author, they’re either listed by preference or series order.
Of the books I have read, these are the ones that I think are the best. Those in bold are the best of the best.
- Love Rosie. Ahern.
- P.S. I Love You. Ahern.
- Thirteen Reasons Why. Asher.
- A Man Called Ove. Backman
- A School for Unusual Girls. Baldwin.
- Dandelion Wine. Bradbury.
- Fahrenheit 451. Bradbury.
- Best Kept Secrets. Brown.
- French Silk. Brown.
- The Good Earth. Buck.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Chbosky.
- Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Cohn and Levithan.
- More than Friends. Delinsky.
- Coast Road. Delinksy.
- Suddenly. Delinsky.
- For My Daughters. Delinsky.
- Our Mutual Friend. Dickens.
- The Language of Flowers. Diffenbaugh.
- If I Stay. Forman.
- Where She Went. Forman.
- Just One Day. Forman.
- The Saving Graces. Gaffney.
- Caraval. Garber.
- Something Borrowed. Giffin.
- Something Blue. Giffin.
- I See You Everywhere. Glass.
- The Princess Bride. Goldman.
- One Wore Blue. Graham.
- One Wore Gray. Graham.
- And One Rode West. Graham.
- Straight Talking. Jane Green.
- Bookends. Jane Green.
- Jemima J. Jane Green.
- The Fault in Our Stars. John Green.
- The Rainmaker. Grisham.
- The Maltese Falcon. Hammett.
- Red Dragon. Harris.
- The Silence of the Lambs. Harris.
- Splintered. Howard.
- The Duff. Keplinger.
- The Secret Life of Bees. Kidd.
- A Separate Peace. Knowles.
- A Wrinkle in Time. L’engle.
- A Wind in the Door. L’engle.
- We Are Okay. Lacour.
- Love Only Once. Lindsey.
- Tender Rebel. Lindsey.
- Gentle Rogue. Lindsey.
- The Truth About Alice. Mathieu.
- Whitney my Love. McNaught.
- Once and Always. McNaught.
- Paradise. McNaught.
- Something Wonderful. McNaught.
- Almost Heaven. McNaught.
- Gone with the Wind. Mitchell.
- One Day. Nicholls.
- The Time Traveler’s Wife. Niffenegger.
- All the Bright Places. Niven.
- 1984. Orwell.
- Wonder. Palacio.
- Finding Paris. Prebel.
- Redeeming Love. Rivers.
- Daring to Dream. Roberts.
- Holding the Dream. Roberts.
- Finding the Dream. Roberts.
- Born in Fire. Roberts.
- Born in Ice. Roberts.
- Seaswept. Roberts.
- Rising Tides. Roberts.
- Inner Harbor. Roberts.
- Tears of the Moon. Roberts.
- Heart of the Sea. Roberts.
- Honest Illusions. Roberts.
- The MacGregor Brides. Roberts.
- The MacGregor Grooms. Roberts.
- The MacGregors: Alan and Grant. Roberts.
- Landline. Rowell.
- Eleanor and Park. Rowell.
- Attachments. Rowell.
- Fangirl. Rowell.
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Rowling.
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Rowling.
- The Lovely Bones. Sebold.
- Right Before Your Eyes. Shanman.
- Love is a Mix Tape. Sheffield.
- The Notebook. Sparks.
- A Walk to Remember. Sparks.
- The Gamble. Spencer.
- Separate Beds. Spencer.
- The Help. Kathryn Stockett.
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Thompson.
- The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien.
- In Her Shoes. Weiner.
- The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. Wells.
- Refuge. Williams.
- The Book Thief. Zusak.
Originally published May tenth, ‘seventeen.
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