It’s always hard for me to find books that I really like — as opposed to just, “eh, it was okay” or “mostly good, but I really didn’t like ending,” or “I’m mad at myself that I wasted time reading that.”
Part of the reason is that **I don’t really have a clear genre or description of what I like**, like people who say, “I love cozy mysteries!” and then happily devour tons of them.
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**Here are some books that I’ve read over the years and really, truly liked**, enough that I could at least imagine reading them a second time (a few of them I already have):
* *Circle of Friends* by Maeve Binchy (and her other ***early*** books only)
* *Gone With the Wind* by Margaret Mitchell
* *To Kill a Mockingbird* by Harper Lee
* *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* by Betty Smith
* *Catcher in the Rye* by JD Salinger (and, to a lesser extent, his other books)
* *Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated* by Allison Arngrim
* *Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed* by Lori Gotlieb
* Books by Liane Moriarty (although there is always at least one thing in each of them that bugs me, I enjoy her writing style and characters enough to forgive it)
* Jen Lancaster’s first 3 books
* Non-fiction books by Dave Barry (dated, but they still make me laugh a lot)
* *The Help* by Kathryn Stockett
* *You’ll Grow Out of It* by Jessi Klein
* *Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine* by Gail Honeyman
* Books by Sophie Kinsella (although I have to be in the right mood, and I’ve hated any other chick lit I’ve tried)
* *Nobody’s Fool* by Richard Russo
* *How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big: Kind of the Story of My Life* by Scott Adams
* *Watership Down* by Richard Adams (I read this decades ago and don’t really remember it, but I remember that I liked it)
* *Rebecca* by Daphne Du Marier (same as above)
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**Books that I’m Mad at Myself for Reading:**
* *You Need to Know* by Nicola Moriarty
* *The Wrong Family* by Tarryn Fischer
* *Little Fires Everywhere* by Celeste Ng
* *Into the Darkest Corner* by Elizabeth Haynes
* *Outlander* by Diana Gabaldon
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Any thoughts or recommendations based on my “profile”? Thanks!
by ApprehensiveLink6591
5 Comments
the liars club and lit, by Mary Karr.
Bill Bryson’s travel books may make you laugh.
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
have a look at your list and try and figure out why/what you liked or disliked in each book. for instance, does one book have really unique similies and metaphores, does _____ chapter suck because the author included unncessary detail, do you enjoy books with a smaller cast of characters, does a book have a really good mythology setup, do you like how the names of characters in a specific book sound, do you like books where you related to at least one of the characters, do you like longer or shorter books? etc.
How about’Thr secret history’ by Donna Tartt
The Mother in Law by Sally Hepworth is very Liane Moriarty esq. I loved it!