If you told me last year that I would be ordered to “stay at home” for weeks on end, I would have told you I would get so much reading done. Erhm … not so. I know I’m not the only reader who is finding it hard to focus on books during this time, so I’ve compiled a list of more than 100 books (actually 113 titles including the bonus suggestions I snuck into my annotations) that might actually keep you engaged. As always, the books in this post cover a wide range of genres, so hopefully you’ll find something that intrigues you. Enjoy!
If you’re looking for something in particular, feel free to jump straight to that category:
• Middle Grade Novels
• Twisty Thrillers & Mesmerizing Mysteries
• Heartwarming Reads
• Weird AF Books
• Compact Reads
• Short Stories
• Chunky Page-Turners
• Magical Escapes
• Rage-Inducing Nonfiction
• Cathartic Cry Reads
• Steamy Reads
• Widely Loved on Goodreads
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Middle Grade Novels
Every time I read a middle grade novel, I think, “I need more middle grade in my life.” There is something about the vulnerability in a well-written novel for older children that makes things seem so clear. No pretense, no ostentation: just darn good storytelling. These are some of my favorites.
Other Words for Home by Jasmine Warga
Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster (this book is even better to read as an adult; so snarky)
City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (and if you have a lot of free time to fill, consider reading along with the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text, which produces one episode per chapter of the series)
Twisty Thrillers & Mesmerizing Mysteries
I would guess a good thriller (or mystery) is one of the top two genres people are reaching for right now. When I need to cleanse my reading palette after a particularly difficult read or get out of a slump, I know I reach for a quick page-turner. When done well, thrillers and mysteries are nearly impossible to put down, which is exactly what I need when I have trouble focusing! (Full disclosure: I often struggle with differentiating between the two genre identities, but here’s my best shot.)
More of a thriller:
Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter (very graphic but one of my all-time favorites; Pretty Girls is another great thriller by Slaughter)
Until You’re Mine by Samantha Hayes (I personally think this book is much better than The Girl on the Train and many other popular read-a-likes, but I never see it get any love!)
Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
Sadie by Courtney Summers (highly recommend on audio, as half the book is told through a true crime podcast)
More of a mystery:
In the Woods by Tana French (and The Likeness, and probably the rest of the Dublin Murder Squad series but I’ve only read the first two so can’t promise anything)
The Dry by Jane Harper (and its sequel, Force of Nature; and Harper’s standalone from last year, The Lost Man)
Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
(Note: The following novels are definitely more literary fiction that feature a mystery than a traditional/procedural mystery, but I love each of them!)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Heartwarming Reads
This is the other genre (in addition to thrillers/mysteries) I’m guessing is very popular right now. When the world is so uncertain, there’s something comforting about curling up with a feel-good read. Also called “lighter” fiction or “uplit,” here are nine books to make you smile and believe in the goodness of humanity again. (Some might also make you cry before you reach the end; don’t @ me. Also when looking through my “lighter” reads, I was pleasantly surprised to see how many featured booksellers, bookstores and/or books!)
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory (like most romance series, you can read this as a standalone, but it’s technically the third book in The Wedding Date series)
Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence (a collection of letters from a librarian to her favorite–and not–books)
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Weird AF Books
Need a book that will distract you from real life, period? Here are nine ideas for “WTF” reads to spin your head around.
The Bees by Laline Paull (dystopian tale set in a beehive)
Lakewood by Megan Giddings (contemporary horror for fans of Get Out)
The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley (modern retelling of Beowulf, which I have not read)
The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (warning: very dark!)
The Merry Spinster: Tales of Everyday Horror by Daniel Mallory Ortberg (dark fairytale collection)
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin (it’s just how it sounds)
The Unfortunate Importance of Beauty by Amanda Filipacchi (I found listening to the audio made the ridiculousness of this book more entertaining)
The Regional Office is Under Attack! by Manuel Gonzales (don’t read anything about this book; just dive in and be boggled like I was)
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (not so much “weird” as satirical and uncomfortably hilarious)
Compact Reads
Personally, I have a lot of free time to read right now (if I could just focus), but I realize your stay-at-home time may look much different than mine. (Or you might not even be able to stay at home due to work or other obligations.) If your leisure time is limited, try one of these books with fewer than 200 pages.
The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (64 pages)
Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (90 pages)
And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman (97 pages, may will cause tears)
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde (104 pages, HILARIOUS classic play)
If They Come For Us by Fatimah Asghar (128 pages, poetry)
The Red Notebook by Antoine Laurain (159 pages)
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata (163 pages)
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong (196 pages)
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson (196 pages)
Short Stories
Need something even shorter than the above options? Grab a short story collection and try to read one a day (or every other day, or whatever works for you). Even with a very short attention span (or limited time to devote to reading), a short story can transport you in just a few pages.
Sour Heart by Jenny Zhang
Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
Training School for Negro Girls by Camille Acker
All the Names They Used for God by Anjali Sachdeva
Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
Through the Woods by Emily Carroll (graphic/illustrated collection)
So We Can Glow by Leesa Cross-Smith
Chunky Page-Turners
Prefer to get lost in something a bit longer? These books are all more than 500 pages but I found that their pages flew by. Hopefully they will provide entertainment for you over several days (or weeks)!
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (644 pages)
Night Film by Marisha Pessl (640 pages)
The Valley of Amazement by Amy Tan (589 pages)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (552 pages)
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (546 pages)
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (543 pages)
The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo (532 pages)
Magical Escapes
Mentally get out of this world (or at least get to a magical-realism-adjacent world) with one of these magical reads:
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (and the rest of The Winternight Trilogy)
When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
Circe by Madeline Miller (okay this one is more mythological than magical but there is a witch and spells and transfigurations!)
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel (This is the third time I’ve included this title on a Tristao Travels booklist. Should I stop? Me thinks the limit does not exist.)
The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
The Book of Speculation by Erika Swyler
Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (the first novella in The Wayward Children series; I also highly recommend the second and third books)
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (I almost didn’t include this one because it took me about 50 pages to get into this book, but if you’re not having trouble focusing right now, it ended up being one of my all-time favorites!)
P.S. – I have quite a few magical books high on my TBR (including but not limited to Sorcerer to the Crown, The Golem and the Jinni, Spinning Silver, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell …), so if you’ve read and loved any, please let me know so I can prioritize!
Rage-Inducing Nonfiction
Want to capitalize on all those tough feelings you’re having right now and just get MAD at something else for corruption, lies, greed and generally shitty behavior? Boy, do I have books for you! (Most are also great on audio.) Also, if you have the time and/or funds to become involved in a social cause now or in the near future, reading some of these might help you pinpoint where your passion truly lies and give some ideas for how to contribute to a solution.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander
A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide by Samantha Power
Black Edge: Inside Information, Dirty Money, and the Quest to Bring Down the Most Wanted Man on Wall Street by Sheelah Kolhatkar
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas (I definitely recommend the audio for this one because it’s autobiographical and Vargas reads it himself)
Cathartic Cry Reads
I used to be (justifiably) accused of only recommending books that made people cry, and I have to say, I am much better about reading happy books now, too! But I’ll always have a soft spot in my heart for those books that had me sobbing on my couch, or in the break room at work, or on an airplane. So if all the stress and uncertainty in the world actually has you needing a cathartic cry, one of these books just might open the floodgates for you. (And if you think I’m unstable for even suggesting this, please see Heartwarming Reads above.)
Whiskey & Ribbons by Leesa Cross-Smith
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
My Name is Memory by Ann Brashares
Beartown by Fredrik Backman (honestly it wasn’t the sad parts in this book that made me cry; it was the touching moments of community and solidarity! I cried even more reading the sequel, Us Against You)
This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson (and if you like this one, also read Nelson’s The Sky is Everywhere)
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Peony in Love by Lisa See
Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh (graphic memoir based on a popular webcomic; mostly hilarious but also very poignant)
Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (I read this book when I was 10 years old. I remember my dad coming into the living room and telling me to get in the shower; I only had a few pages left so I stayed to finish the book, and when he came in a few minutes later to check on me I was sobbing on the couch. He took one look at me and said, “Geez, Megan. It’s just a shower.”)
The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams Bianco
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
P.S. – A few more tearjerking books already mentioned in other categories: The Most Fun We Ever Had, The Time Traveler’s Wife, And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer, The War That Saved My Life.
Steamy Reads
And for something totally different (smirk), here are just a few books that may make you blush but will DEFINITELY take your mind off things, if you get my drift. 😉 I’m still pretty new to the romance genre, so I’m sure there are plenty of great open-door romances I don’t know about, but here are four suggestions (mostly romance but also one very popular historical fiction novel) to get you started.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang (let’s just say I was very careful when listening to this one at work …)
Hate to Want You by Alisha Rai (honestly not one of my favorite romance books, but it is one of the steamier ones I’ve read; just look at the cover!)
Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (okay I guess it’s obvious now that the Outlander series is very sexy, but I did NOT know that until I listened to the audiobook and suddenly there was a sex scene every 10 minutes; I was immediately embarrassed about all the times I had recommended this book to elderly ladies at the library, but it’s because elderly ladies were always telling me I had to read it!!)
A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole (I love the whole Reluctant Royals series so far, but the banter in this one is particularly good)
Widely Loved on Goodreads
Finally, I sorted my Goodreads “read” list by highest average rating and picked the top six books that I also loved (and weren’t already mentioned above). That means not only do these books have a personal endorsement from me, but also they have popular appeal. Hopefully, at least one will work for you! (Although I must say–most of these are quite sad or otherwise difficult reads. So approach with caution.)
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson (when people ask me what book I would recommend if I could only recommend one book–this is always it)
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman
Becoming by Michelle Obama
A Storm of Swords by George R.R. Martin (this is the third book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, but if you have a lot of time on your hands, now is a good time to start this monster saga)
Dear Ijeawele, or a Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (I like to say the subtitle of this compact book should be “How Not to Be an Asshole” because the advice is so widely appropriate)
Happy (or sad) reading! What books would you add to the list?
Featured image: The Hidden Elephant Books & Coffee in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
