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Forget Goodreads. Forget the New York Times Summer Reading Bucket List (okay, fine, that is actually a compelling list).
Are you looking for those stories that become part of your internal furniture? Books that you come back to again and again, recommend, or just really want to talk about?
These are the five books I consistently recommend, cheerlead, applaud, and just want everyone to read. If you haven’t given them a chance yet, I hope you find your next favorite book on this list!
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman:
One of the marks of a good book is if I’m still thinking about it days, weeks, months later. I Who Have Never Known Men is one of those transportive stories. I was gripped despite the sparse details and open questions of this novella. It’s short but haunting, odd but compelling. The protagonist exists outside of everything we know about what it is to be human; she doesn’t exist in a defined culture or family, her perception of time and self is wholly alien.
Read this if you want something completely different. The perfect palate cleanser when you need to shock your literary habits into something new. You’ll love this book if you don’t require neat arcs and spoon-fed exposition.
Originally written in French by Belgian author Jacqueline Harpman, the English translation by Ros Schwartz is wonderful. The original English translation was called “Mistress of Silence” which is a terrible name, and I am so glad they restored a literal translation of the work’s original name (Moi qui n'ai pas connu les hommes).
Short, haunting, fascinating, wonderful.
2. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Brilliantly crafted and heartbreaking, this masterpiece by Ichiguru broke my heart and crept into my thoughts for weeks. Cathy reflects on her childhood in a secluded British boarding school and the futile path laid for her and her peers.
This is a subtle story, Gothic and pensive, where most of the drama and tension occurs in memories and Cathy’s meditations on her life, her future, and the moral surrender around her.
It’s a decent length - not too long - and the rest of Ishiguro’s books are terrific. But this one’s my favorite.
3. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
I’ve been reading and rereading Jane Eyre for twenty years, which sounds insane, but this story gives me something different every time I return to it.
It’s about agency. It’s about faith. Love. Belief in yourself and your own north star.
As a teenager, I found Mr. Rochester devastatingly compelling, psychologically complex, and the archetype of a romantic hero. Now, this dude is the personification of red flags and I love how he is humbled and formed into Jane’s equal.
4. Count of Monte Crisco by Alexandre Dumas
The original, the GOAT, the paragon of action, adventure, vengeance, redemption, and meticulous plotting. Remember how the internet came alive with theories and collective gasps after every Game of Thrones episode?
That was France for YEARS during the serial release of CoMC, when every new chapter was devoured by the entire country.
The plot is simple: An innocent man is wrongfully imprisoned; upon his escape, he comes into a vast fortune and begins an elaborate plan to destroy everyone who betrayed or abandoned him.
This book has everything. Love. Vengeance. Geopolitical intrigue. Hefty but phenomenal; this is a reading experience you won’t forget.
What’s the story, Wishbone? He has an as-expected wonderful Count of Monte Cristo adaptation.
Read this book if you want to dig into something big and beautiful. It’s long, yes, but worthwhile and moves quickly. Plus, you can always watch the Wishbone special!
5. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
I laughed, I cried, I understood why everyone consistently recommends Lonesome Dove. Pulitzer Prize winner McMurtry takes on an epic cattle drive from Texas to Montana, introducing us to the cowboys and women who made the American West alive and compelling.
Reducing Lonesome Dove to “the ultimate bromance” is reductive, but captures so much of what makes these characters so vivid and their stories, absolutely breathtaking. I finished it and wondered if I should just immediately read it again; instead, I devoured McMurty’s entire catalog.
Warning: many of us find the first 100 pages or so a slog, but it’s all worth it. Once the cowboys get on the road north, the action picks up and it becomes an absolute page-turner.
The miniseries is good (Robert Duvall! baby Tommy Lee Jones! Diane Lane! Anjelica Huston!), but the book is better.
Want more deeply held book opinions, rereading obsessions, and recommendations worth adding to your TBR? Subscribe for future reading lists, classics revisited, and the occasional case for a book everyone else has forgotten.
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