…except fantasy and romance, since I’m acquainted with those two.
I want to diversify what I read, but I’m not sure what I would enjoy, so I’d like to try a whole lot of different genres to get a sense of that.
I’m looking for good prose and storytelling, and interesting characters. However, I can’t read stuff with a lot of description since I’m unable to envision it and so it puts me off.
I’d like minimal romantic/sexual content.
I’m okay with literary fiction and classics as well, even though they’re not ‘genres’, as long as they’re not too difficult to read.
Please do mention the genre in your comments. Also, I’d like as much variety as possible.
Looking forward to a lot of great recs. Thanks in advance!
by ppcurve
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Check out Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith.
‘Michael Marshall Smith’s surreal, groundbreaking, and award-winning debut which resonates with wild humour interlaced with dark recollections of an emotional minefield. May we introduce you to Stark.
Oh, and by the way — good luck.
Stark is the private investigator who goes to work when Something Happens to you’
The Blind assassin by Margaret Atwood.
Historical fiction. Beautiful prose and a story within a story.
My Dark Vanessa. It’s contemporary/literary fiction, heavy though as it deals with grooming and abuse
Jack of spades, Joyce Carol Oates, noir/thriller
Colson Whitehead’s Nickel Boys, Underground Railroad, Harlem Shuffle
Jane Harper: All of her books
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
The Famished Road – Ben Okri (magical realism) gorgeous writing I’m still thinking about lines from this book
Jane Eyre, classic and fantastic. Defintiely romance involved but not what I’d call a romance book and not sexual content
*Piranesi* and *The Secret History*, both great literary fiction.
*Bone Clocks* – I guess horror elements, supernatural but in our world. I think of it as literature tbh. Some elements of romance (can’t remember if explicit) but not what books about, just when you look at people’s lives they involve relationships.
Jane Eyre, classic and fantastic. Defintiely romance involved but not what I’d call a romance book and not sexual content.
*Piranesi* and *The Secret History*, both great literary fiction.
*Bone Clocks* – I guess horror elements, supernatural but in our world. I think of it as literature tbh. Some elements of romance (can’t remember if explicit) but not what books about, just when you look at people’s lives they involve relationships.
*Circe* is based around Greek mythology and one of thr most effective female+feminist voices in literature.
Ray Bradbury short stories are great, mostly sci fi but about social impacts not tech – collections like *the Illustrated Man* or *Golden Apples of the Sun*. Great writing and incredibly prescient at times (he predicts a lot of the social impact of mobile phones long before they existed)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (historical fiction, Nazi Germany)