September 2025
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    12 Comments

    1. Mountain-Mix-8413 on

      Station Eleven, Demon Copperhead, Homegoing, My Brilliant Friend, Atonement, Never Let Me Go, Americanah, Pachinko, Life After Life, The Great Believers.

    2. Any Cormac McCarthy novel (I would say a specific one but he has so many greats it’s hard to pinpoint just one)

      The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro (ah honestly anything by him too, with maybe 1-2 exceptions)

      On Earth Were Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong

      Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami

      Stoner by John Williams

      Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry

      The Overstory by Richard Powers

      And tbh I think When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut could make that list as well

    3. Complex-Froyo5900 on

      I think the definition of “modern classics” can vary a bit depending on who you ask, but in my opinion some great modern classics are:

      Beloved by Toni Morrison

      Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

      The Road by Cormac McCarthy

      The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

      The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova

      The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy

      Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

      The Wedding by Dorothy West

      The Secret History by Donna Tartt

      On Beauty by Zadie Smith

      And then, modern books which I think will *become* classics:

      Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

      Pachinko by Min Jin Lee

      James by Percival Everett

      Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell

      Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan

      North Woods by Daniel Mason

      The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

    4. There will always be that one comment that mentions Cormac McCarthy on every book sub post lol.

      Some good recs already, not sure I have any others to add tbh.

    5. Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

      Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

      Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

      Mrs Frisbee and the Rats of NIHM by Robert O’Brien

      In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

      The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

      Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

      Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery

      Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari

    6. perversion_aversion on

      Barbara Kingsolver (poisonwood bible, demon copperhead) and Margaret Atwood (the handmaid’s tale, the blind assassin) both jump to mind. How to talk to a widower by Jonathan Tropper is also excellent, though perhaps less well regarded than the others I’ve mentioned.

    7. To add to what’s already been mentioned:

      Ordinary People.

      Bastard Out of Carolina.

      The Bluest Eye.

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