42 Must-Read Books for All Interests, According to Successful Authors

A House for Mr. Biswas by V.S. Naipaul

“The title character, based on Naipaul’s own father, born inauspiciously with a sixth finger in colonial Trinidad, struggles against ignorance, superstition, and bullying in-laws to scratch a tenuous living as a yellow journalist, in this heartbreaking and excruciatingly funny story that speaks of the universal longing for self-expression and freedom.”

—Pauline Chen, author of The Red Chamber

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

“It’s hard to say what anyone should or shouldn’t read, let alone everyone, but The Great Gatsby is a book I find myself continually going back to, and I always seem to find something new. If you’ve read it once, it rewards a second look. If you haven’t read it yet, well, I’m jealous of anyone who gets to read it for the first time.”

—Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds and A Shout in the Ruins

A Tale for the Time Being by Ruth Ozeki

“Everyone—and I mean everyone—should read Ruth Ozeki’s new book, A Tale for the Time Being, which is smart, insightful, revelatory, and uncompromising while remaining gripping, accessible, and often very, very funny.”

—Laurie Frankel, author of This Is How It Always Is, among other novels

Bleak House by Charles Dickens

“Bleak House is, to my mind, one of the most finely crafted works of literature ever written. The story lines and characters still feel fresh and alive today, 160 years after Dickens created them.”

—J. Courtney Sullivan, author of The Cliffs, among other novels

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White

“If everyone on earth read Charlotte’s Web, preferably once a year, the world would be a better place—more generous, more patient, and more receptive to the unlikely.”

—Annie Barrows, author of The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, among other books

Love in Color by Bolu Babalola

"A cosmic collection of shorts setting classic love stories on their ear, Love in Color is provocative, sexy, and, at times, moving. What does it mean to retell mythologies that circulate in the popular imaginary like Cupid and Psyche and place them firmly in modern times with modern constraints and with black and brown bodies to boot? Its revolutionary is what it is. Love, in color, is still political."

—Nikki Payne, author of Sex, Lies and Sensibility

The Wisdom of No Escape by Pema Chödrön

“I think almost everyone could benefit from having a copy of Pema Chödrön’s The Wisdom of No Escape lying around somewhere to pick up if needed. She’s a Buddhist nun writing about various teachings, but she’s also a true writer, and the book is suffused with the work she has done on herself. You can feel it in the prose. This is a book that can feel ordinary on an ordinary day, but at the right moment (usually a difficult moment), it has the potential to turn into liquid and pour into a person.”

—Aimee Bender, author of The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake, among other books

Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain

“Forget that this is an important book, one that captures our country in a moment in time like none I’ve ever read. Fountain’s real accomplishment is his dizzying prose, fabulous dialogue, and wonderful characters.”

—Maria Semple, author of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Today Will Be Different

True Grit by Charles Portis

“Many older folks recall the ’60s movie with John Wayne, and a few years ago, Jeff Bridges played the role of the gruff, true-hearted, one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn. But the book, in which Mattie Ross, a very old woman, tells Jesse James’s brother the story of how she set out at 14 to avenge her father’s murder, is pure genius.”

—Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of Two If By Sea, among other books

The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman

“On tiny, isolated Janus Rock, off the perilous Western Australian coastline, a childless lighthouse keeper and his grief-stricken wife are swept into a series of life-changing decisions when an infant washes onto their shores in a rowboat. Every character is insightfully drawn, morally complex, and so very human, I was absolutely riveted.”

—Paula McLain, author of The Paris Wife and Love and Ruin

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy

“Everyone should read Anna Karenina. When I reread it in 2010, I learned two things: When I was 19, I clearly hadn’t any idea what parts of the text were important—and so I presumed everything was. I think I underlined half the sentences in the novel. (And when a novel is 800 pages long, that’s a lot of sentences.) Second, Tolstoy was a spectacularly astute chronicler of the demons and dreams that really drive human nature. Despite the carriages and oysters and all that fur, the story felt achingly contemporary and I just loved it.”

—Chris Bohjalian, author of The Flight Attendant and others

The Information by James Gleick

“Here we have a biography of the idea of information, which might have been boring, except for two crucial things: (1) Gleick is a great writer, and (2) The idea of information has had a huge crazy life! I mean, who knew? The life of a poet, a rock star, a conquering king! Put down that celebrity bio. Pick up The Information.”

—Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and Sourdough

St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves by Karen Russell

“Vampires in the Lemon Grove was a huge hit this year and deserved every accolade. Which makes me think that we should all go back and read her first collection, St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves. I love the exuberance in these stories. Reading them you feel as if the writer is having as good as time as you and the characters, running around hunting for turtles or mapping the stars. When the sadness hits, as sadness so often does in all very good fiction, it’s startling but earned, a slow bolt of lightning to the heart. A book that sticks with you for life.”

—Leigh Newman, author of Still Points North

Conjure Women by Afia Atakora

“In elegant, lyrical prose, Afia Atakora crafts a rich tale of the lives of enslaved people before and after the Civil War. This debut has all the markings of an instant classic—what a thrill to read a young writer who has astonishingly just begun to develop her already extraordinary powers of storytelling!”

—Dolen Perkins-Valdez, author of Take My Hand and more

Beloved by Toni Morrison

“It helps us understand the pernicious effects of slavery and how we are still grappling with America’s Original Sin.”

—Thrity Umrigar, author of The Secrets Between Us, among other novels

Kindly Bent to Ease Us by Longchenpa (translated by Herbert V. Guenther)

“A three-volume Buddhist classic filled with poetic, profound—and profoundly simple—wisdom.”

—J.I. Baker, author of The Empty Glass

The Eight by Katherine Neville

“It may be 600-plus pages long, but this historical thriller has a cult following for a reason: The story hurtles along, following two women protagonists in different times—an 18th-century ex-nun hiding the pieces to a dangerous chess set during European revolution and a 20th-century American banker whose life depends on unraveling the secrets to the very same chess set.”

—Nancy Bilyeau, author of the Joanna Stafford series, the first of which is The Crown

Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala

“This is a book about unimaginable loss, but it’s also about not waiting to recognize the kinds of everyday happiness most of us are lucky enough to experience. It’s a stunning memoir that will change you.”

—Will Schwalbe, author of The End of Your Life Book Club, among others

Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence by Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson

“Fascinating, accessible, and endlessly revelatory, this pop-science book literally changed my life, helping me come to terms with the human compulsion to fight by understanding its evolutionary roots.”

—Jane Bordon, author of the memoir I Totally Meant to Do That

The Middlesteins by Jami Attenberg

“The Middlesteins is about a Jewish Midwestern family whose matriarch is eating herself to death, but it has the universal appeal of a classic American novel.”

—Kate Christensen, author several novels, including The Last Cruise

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

“This book, based on psychologist Csikszentmihalyi’s pioneering work, describes the state of mind we should all seek to attain as often as possible: the state of flow, when you’re so absorbed by an activity that you forget both yourself and time.”

—Susan Cain, author of Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green

“This story of two teens with terminal cancer is heartbreakingly honest and charmingly funny.”

—Jamie Ford, author of Songs of Willow Frost and other books

Howards End by E.M. Forster

“Time and again, I recommend Howards End by E.M. Forster. It’s all about our need to connect with our fellow humans, no matter how different they might appear on the surface.”

—Melanie Benjamin, author of several books, including The Aviator’s Wife and The Girls in the Picture

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey

“Oregon State Hospital, where the adaptation of this brilliant novel was filmed, was recently converted to the Museum of Mental Health. What better way to commemorate this moment than by rereading Kesey’s classic? Moving, jarring, gut-wrenching, yes. But Kesey’s novel is also expertly crafted and superbly written.”

—Garth Stein’s novels include The Art of Racing in the Rain

A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra

“This haunting, unforgettable novel about an orphaned 8-year-old girl, the neighbor who rescues her, and the bitter female doctor who hides her is set in Chechnya over a few days in 2004, but manages to reveal that country’s history as well as the characters’ pasts and futures.”

—Ann Hood, author of The Obituary Writer and The Book That Matters Most

My Stroke of Insight by Jill Bolte Taylor, PhD

“A woman’s devastating stroke forces her to think from the right side of her brain, and she not only recovers but becomes happier and more fulfilled.”

—Jeannette Walls, author of The Glass Castle and The Silver Star, among others

Telegraph Avenue by Michael Chabon

“Everyone should read Telegraph Avenue, not just for the stylistic fireworks (such as a breathtaking 12-page sentence) but for the heart and soul Michael Chabon infuses into every character in this multiracial, multi-everything tale of people getting by in 1990s California.”

—Emma Donoghue, author of Room and other books

In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway

“This collection of Hemingway’s short stories and interstitial episodes represents some of the finest, most spare writing of the twentieth century, including my all-time favorite short story, ‘Hills Like White Elephants,’ which distills to perfection the writerly art of not saying. He never tells you what’s going on, but you know, exactly.”

—Erik Larson, author of In the Garden of Beasts, Devil in the White City, and more

Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

“I think everyone should read Virginia Woolf for her sparkling writing and for her profound insight into the experience of everyday life.”

—Karen Thompson Walker, author of the The Age of Miracles

Girls Like Us: Fighting for a World Where Girls Are Not for Sale by Rachel Lloyd

“Not only is this a riveting, inspirational memoir about a profoundly troubled youth, but it also exposes the epidemic of human trafficking that’s thriving in our own country. It’s a life-changing book.”

—Joanna Hershon, author of A Dual Inheritance and more

The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas

“An oldie but always satisfying is The Count of Monte Cristo. This one has it all—suspense, romance, adventure—and it played a major role in inspiring me, as a child, to attempt to write fiction.”

—Jonathan Kellerman, author of more than three dozen novels, including A Measure of Darkness

The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame

“While this is ostensibly a children’s book, for me it’s an ode to friendship. Funny, poignant, and beautifully illustrated, it radiates kindness and understanding of the imperfect human heart.”

—M.L. Stedman, author of The Light Between Oceans

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang

"This modern classic is an electrifying, funny read that scrutinizes timely and timeless issues, like diversity, race, and cultural appropriation, while spinning a propulsive story."

—Jean Kwok, bestselling author of The Leftover Woman

Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad

"Isabella Hammad’s superb portrait of an exiled Palestinian actor returning to her homeland to stage a production of Hamlet is destined to become a modern classic. Vivid, moving, and timely."

—Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train and The Blue Hour, among others

Last Days of Summer by Steve Kluger

"It's 1940s Brooklyn in this epistolary novel, and 12-year-old Joey Margolis needs someone to stop the neighborhood boys from beating him up on the regular. Why he thinks his hero will be Charlie Banks, star third baseman for the New York Giants, is anybody's guess, but he badgers Charlie into an unlikely friendship that is the making of both of them. Be prepared to laugh until you cry, and then cry for real."

—Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton book series and other novels

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

"I recommend this book so much and so often that my tombstone should probably just read "All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews!" But it's such a powerhouse of a novel—so funny, so sad, so warm. Plus, it's semiautobiographical and just utterly, ringingly true about love and family and grief."

—Catherine Newman, author of the novel Sandwich and many other books

Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

"This wonderful book is a fictional account, but it reads as narrative nonfiction about the battle of Gettysburg. It’s a riveting read and a stark, brutal reminder of what happens when a nation turns on itself. Shaara won the Pulitzer for it."

—Louise Penny, author of mystery novels, including A World of Curiosities and The Grey Wolf

The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Amos Tutuola

"I’m not sure about a universally prescriptive must-read, but my sense of creative possibility would be diminished in every direction for not having discovered this book. Tutuola's delicious ambivalence about the European gaze still feels to me radical, humbling. Like Woolf’s The Waves or June Jordan’s Civil Wars, The Palm-Wine Drinkard has fundamentally enriched the way I read books, which is to say, it’s clarified my vision and allowed me to move through the world with greater lucidity."

—Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!, among other books

City of Orange by David Yoon

"You think you know what an apocalyptic book is, and you think you know how this one will end, but I promise that you don’t. As intricate, honest, and beautiful a mapping of the human heart as I’ve ever read. Truly, I can’t say enough good things about it. (And yes, I’m married to this author, and yes, it is one of my favorite books of all time. Part of the reason I married him is that he writes like this.)"

—Nicola Yoon, author of One of Our Kind, among other books

Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

"This is a conversation my family of four have at the dinner table all the time—and the books change constantly. At the moment, my younger daughter would tell you Hamlet, my older daughter would say Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri, and my husband would say anything by George Saunders. I would agree with all of those and add Demon Copperhead, which is the perfect example of fiction having the power to change someone's worldview. Bonus that it's also a page-turner."

—Jenny Rosenstrach, author of The Weekday Vegetarians Get Simple, among other cookbooks, and creator of the website Dinner: A Love Story

The Fatal Shore by Robert Hughes

"This is the book I give friends more than any other. It's the story of Australia's founding, from the earliest discovery of the continent by Dutch explorers to its use by Great Britain as a penal colony. One takeaway: The human toll required to found a country, both to its Indigenous people and its conquerors, is astonishing. The book contains multitudes—it is 10 novels in one remarkable tale—from high seas adventures to human travails and triumphs, written by one of the great stylists of the last 50 years."

—Adam Ross, author of Mr. Peanut and Playworld

Cassandra at the Wedding by Dorothy Baker

"This 1960s gem takes place over the course of a June weekend in California as the eponymous heroine drives home from Berkeley, where she is at college, to attend— or rather prevent—her twin sister’s wedding. The girls’ relationship has always been intense and codependent, and one of them is not ready to move on. The battle of wills that ensues between clingy, manipulative Cassandra and independent, level-headed Judith is positively Shakespearean in its dramatic intensity."

—Clare Chambers, author of Small Pleasures and Shy Creatures