Reading Lists
Lists for what to read next
23 curated reading lists across must-reads, bestsellers, gift guides, and seasonal picks. The lists we send to friends when they ask what to read.
Must-Read
7 listsThe lists we point people at when they ask us what to read first.
Best Memoirs & Biographies for the Long Form
Bill Clinton's 957 pages. James R. Hansen's authorized Armstrong. James Haller's Loire Valley summer. Books that reward the long form and earn their length.
6 books
Must-ReadBooks About Books, Writers, and the People Who Read Them
The Encyclopedia of Fantasy. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction. Microserfs as the working-life novel about people who make things. Plus the canonical anthologies. For readers who want their reading to be about reading.
6 books
Must-ReadBooks That Are Actually Funny
Genuinely comic novels with real moral architecture. Rita Mae Brown's revelation comedy. Douglas Coupland's deadpan Microsoft journal. Janet Evanovich's pre-Plum forced-proximity comedy. Comic novels that earn their laughter and earn their stakes.
6 books
Must-ReadLate-Career Masters at Their Most Strange
The books the great writers wrote when nobody was making them compromise anymore. Heinlein in 1985. Clarke and Baxter in 2000. Christie in 1970. Block across a career. The strangest, freest work from writers who had nothing left to prove.
6 books
Must-ReadLiterary Fiction That Rewards Slow Reading
Novels that ask you to slow down. Michael Cunningham's structural triple-helix through one day in three women's lives. Rita Mae Brown's Charlottesville comedy of class and self-destruction. Douglas Coupland's Microsoft-era love letter to a dot-com that did not exist yet.
6 books
Must-ReadModern Classics Every Reader Should Know
Six titles from the last fifty years that have already earned the word "classic." These are the books that reshape how a reader thinks once they have closed the cover. Start anywhere. Finish all of them.
6 books
Must-ReadMust-Read Non-Fiction of the Decade
The non-fiction books that actually changed how people think, work, and live. These are not just bestsellers - they are books with staying power.
3 books
Bestseller
4 listsThe titles dominating shelves this year. Worth your attention even when you do not normally chase the bestseller list.
The Airport Bookstore Top Shelf
Six titles that earn their spot at the cash wrap. Reacher walking off a train. A Patterson collaboration that punches above its weight. A 2007 medieval thriller that sneaks more research in than the cover suggests. A late Dick Francis dual-profession barrister-jockey mystery. The kind of book you finish before your connection.
6 books
BestsellerRomance & Cozy Bestsellers for Comfort Reading
When the news cycle is too much and you need a book that knows what it is doing. Stephanie Plum running through Trenton, a Salem chocolatier-adjacent Wiccan, a windjammer captain who is not what he seems, and a Fox & O'Hare caper through Hawaii.
5 books
BestsellerThriller Bestsellers Worth the Hype
Some thrillers earn the bestseller list. Others earn the airport book table. These are the ones that earn both. Reacher running a town to ground. A defense attorney walking his oldest friend through a trial. An FBI analyst stalking a serial arsonist nobody else can see.
6 books
BestsellerBest Fiction for Book Clubs 2024
Novels that spark conversation, linger after the last page, and work equally well for solo readers and groups.
2 books
Genre
7 listsDeep cuts and entry points across the genres we cover.
Best Hard Science Fiction for Adults
Late Clarke, late Heinlein, late Banks. Cassutt at the ISS. Harrison in 1999 New York at 35 million people. The hard SF that has aged into being more relevant rather than less.
6 books
GenreBest Historical Mysteries Worth Your Time
1876 Moscow with Erast Fandorin. 1928 Melbourne with Phryne Fisher. 1930s royal London with Lady Georgiana Rannoch. Post-WWI England with John Madden. The best historical mysteries in print, period.
6 books
GenreBest Cozy Mysteries on the Shelf
Phryne Fisher in 1928 Melbourne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch in 1930s royal London, Bex Levy in the figure-skating broadcast booth. Six cozy mysteries that earn the genre.
6 books
GenreBest Nordic Noir & European Crime
Department Q Copenhagen, Erast Fandorin Moscow, John Madden interwar England. Six picks from the most patient and most psychologically careful European crime fiction in print.
6 books
GenreSpy & Action Thrillers for the Long Flight
Action-driven thrillers that earn their pages. James Bond returns to Japan, Isaac Bell chases a saboteur across 1907 California, a special-forces team finds something they were not supposed to find in Antarctica, and a Briggs Tanner novel that put Grant Blackwood on Clancy's radar.
6 books
GenreThe Best Mysteries on the Shelf
Whodunits we keep going back to. Phryne Fisher chasing two cases through 1928 Melbourne, Lady Georgiana Rannoch slipping through Kensington Palace, a Depression-era sign painter solving a banker's murder, a Glasgow journalist tracking a Stradivarius across Moscow.
6 books
GenreBest Science Fiction Backlist Worth Going Back For
Six science-fiction novels that earned their reputations and have aged well into 2026. Late Heinlein at his most autobiographical, late Clarke at his most ambitious, a near-future ISS thriller a decade before The Martian, and one Orson Scott Card anthology that nobody talks about anymore.
6 books
Gift Guide
2 listsGift recommendations for readers who already have a stack.
Gift Ideas for the Romance Reader
Six romance novels you can gift confidently. Rita Mae Brown when they want comic Virginia, Elizabeth Adler when they want Paris in winter, Warren Adler when they want morally complicated, Janet Evanovich pre-Plum when they want forced proximity on a sailboat.
6 books
Gift GuideBest Books for Ambitious People
Perfect gifts for the person in your life who is always looking to grow. These books deliver real, lasting value.
3 books
Seasonal
3 listsBooks for the time of year. Beach in July, dread in October, fireplace in January.
Best Books for October (the Dread Month)
Haunted toymakers. Mythos extensions. Megan Abbott's suburban menace. Stephen Dobyns's upstate New York unraveling. October is the month for books that take dread seriously. These do.
7 books
SeasonalBooks for a Six-Hour Flight
Books engineered to finish in flight time. Reacher pacing, Cussler set pieces, Patterson-collaboration short chapters, Phryne Fisher whodunit machinery. Six picks our team has actually flown with.
6 books
SeasonalBooks to Pack for Vacation
Six books that hold up at altitude. Paris-Loire Valley grief romance, Cote d'Azur kitchen mystery, schooner cruise that gets complicated, fraternity-president pursuit through New Jersey, and Reacher arriving at a Mother's Rest, South Dakota train stop for a single name on a sign.
5 books