99 Books For When You Don’t Know What To Read Next
I’ve always been of the belief that you can never have too many books in your TBR pile — also that you can never be reading too many books at once. Our moods and feelings change, and so it’s nice to have a hefty stack of novels, essays, or poetry collections on the nightstand to meet us where we’re at.
Whether you’re looking to bulk up your TBR pile or you simply cannot decide what to read next, we hope this list can be a helpful starting place. It is far from comprehensive and includes titles our editors have read and loved. We hope you’ll add your own suggestions in the comments so we can keep the list growing. Happy reading! 📚
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Classics
- The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston
- Hiroshima by John Hersey
- Housekeeping by Marilynn Robinson
- I Know Why The Caged Birds Sing by Maya Angelou
- Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
- A Room Of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
- Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- Beloved by Toni Morrison
- Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
- The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
- Women Who Run With Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
- My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
Nonfiction
- All About Love by bell hooks
- How To Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
- Cultish by Amanda Montell
- On Our Best Behavior by Elise Loehnen
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Pilgrim At Tinker Creek by Annie Dillard
- Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price
- Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art by James Nestor
- Wintering by Katherine May
- Carrying The Heart by F. Gonzalez-Crussi
- Braving The Wilderness by Brené Brown
- Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
- The Way Of Rest by Jeff Foster
- Maybe You Should Talk To Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
- Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
Memoir
- Memorial Drive by Natasha Trethewey
- Sempre Susan: A Memoir of Susan Sontag by Sigrid Nunez
- Know My Name by Chanel Miller
- Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
- Motorcycles I’ve Loved by Lily Brooks-Dalton
- Hunger by Roxane Gay
- Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford
- Carry by Toni Jensen
- Long Live The Tribe Of Fatherless Girls by T Kira Madden
- In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
- The Fixed Stars by Molly Wizenberg
- The Year Of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
- Priestydaddy by Patricia Lockwood
Essay Collections
- Tonight I’m Someone Else by Chelsea Holden
- A Woman Looking At Men Looking At Women by Siri Hustvedt
- Girlhood by Melissa Febos
- How Far The Light Reaches by Sabrina Imbler
- Thin Places by Jordan Kisner
- Bluets by Maggie Nelson
- Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
- I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
- Leaving Isn’t The Hardest Thing by Lauren Hough
Novels
- Big Swiss by Jen Beagin
- Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
- Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar
- The Guest by Emma Cline
- Now Is Not The Time To Panic by Kevin Wilson
- The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
- Writers and Lovers by Lily King
- We The Animals by Justin Torres
- Biography of X by Catherine Lacey
- When We Were Sisters by Fatimah Asghar
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
- Girl With The Louding Voice by Abri Daré
- There There by Tommy Orange
- Want by Lynn Steger Strong
- With Teeth by Kristin Arnett
- Excavations by Kate Myers
- Godshot by Chelsea Bieker
- How Should A Person Be? by Sheila Heti
Short Story Collections
- Heartbroke by Chelsea Bieker
- Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
- Filthy Animals by Brandon Taylor
- Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Mantiez
- Bliss Montage by Ling Ma
- Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan
- Everything Inside by Edwidge Danticat
- Mouthful of Birds by Samanta Schweblin
- Daddy: Stories by Emma Cline
- Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Poetry
- I Do Everything I’m Told by Megan Fernandes
- Judas Goat by Gabrielle Bates
- Frank: Sonnets by Diane Seuss
- Couplets: A Love Story by Maggie Millner
- Goldenrod by Maggie Smith
- No Sweet Without Brine by Cynthia Manick
- The Symmetry Of Fish by Su Cho
- Citizen Illegal by José Olivarez
- Time is A Mother by Ocean Vuong
- I Hope This Finds You Well by Kate Baer
- A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver
- Citizen, An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
- One Big Self: An Investigation by C.D. Wright
- My Trade Is A Mystery by Carl Phillips
Bonus: TGT Team Favorites
- Trust by Hernan Diaz – AmyAnn, CEO & Founder
- Daybook: The Journal Of An Artist by Ann Truitt – Emily, Editorial Director
- The Wallcreeper by Nell Zink- Ashley, Senior Editor
- Hold Still: A Memoir in Photographs by Sally Mann – Stephanie, Copywriter, Content Producer, and Contributing Editor
- Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver – Kate, Contributing Editor and Social Media Coordinator
- A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas – Silsila, Contributing Editor
Kayti Christian is a Contributing Editor at The Good Trade. She has a Master’s in Nonfiction Writing from the University of London and is the creator of Feelings Not Aside, a newsletter for sensitive people.