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I read MANY different types of books. I’ve never been one to limit myself to a single genre, and I often find myself bouncing back and forth between several different favorites. Today, I decided to share some of my favorite books across the genre spectrum, because I’m sure that’s what you 100% definitely want to read right now.
Today’s post was inspired by booktube, specifically this video from Merphy Napier (I love her channel)
I’m going to be recommending one book for each of my favorite/most-read genres: historical fiction, sci-fi (soft, hard, and dystopian), mystery (cozy and thriller) and contemporary (no-romance and romance)
Historical Fiction
(takes place during a historical time period before the 21st century, no supernatural occurrences)
All The Light We Cannot See by ANthony Doerr
Rating: 4/5 stars
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: A blind girl fleeing Paris with her father, a lost engineering prodigy recruited by the German army, a terminally ill Nazi in search of a legendary healing jewel: during the throes of WW2, the paths of these fundamentally different people will collide.
Sci-Fi (Hard)
(takes place in the future, focuses on technical and scientific details, technology is feasible)
The Martian by Andy Weir
Rating: 5/5 stars
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: After a catastrophic storm aborts his mission, an astronaut finds himself stranded alone on Mars with no way to contact Earth, few resources and even fewer opportunities for rescue.
Sci-F (Soft)
(takes place in the future, science is more speculative than realistic with current technology, fewer technical details)
Flowers for ALgernon by Daniel Keyes
Rating: 5/5 stars and on my list of all-time favorite books
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: After participating in an experimental study, a mentally disabled man has his IQ tripled and must grapple with the ethical implications of this revolutionary technology… and its steep price.
(Warning: this one may plunge you into a state of deep depression)
Sci-fi (Dystopian)
(takes place in the future, usually in an imagined nightmare society)
1984 by George Orwell
Rating: 5/5 stars and on my list of all-time favorite books
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: In an oppressive society where citizens are kept under constant surveillance by “Big Brother”, history is erased and “the Party” is always right, a government worker named Winston begins to question the life he has always known.
(Warning: this one may plunge you into an even deeper depression)
Mystery (Cozy)
(mystery to be solved, usually focuses on a detective investigating a crime, violence is more tame, set up like a puzzle)
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by AGATHA Christie
Rating: 5/5 stars and on my list of all-time favorite books
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: After a man named Roger Ackroyd is mysteriously murdered, detective Hercule Poirot is called upon to solve a seemingly impossible case.
(Pretty much any Agatha Christie book fits this category… this one is just my favorite)
Mystery (Thriller)
(mystery to be solved, relies on lots of suspense, usually more violent)
The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
(this one is also soft sci-fi, but I’m putting it here)
Rating: 5/5 stars
Audience: general/adult
One-sentence summary: After waking up with no recollection of his past or his identity, a man realizes he is stuck in a time loop from which he can’t escape unless he can solve a perplexing murder… before anyone else gets to him first.
Contemporary (No Romance)
(takes place in approximately present-day society, no supernatural occurrences, light/no romance)
Turtles All the WaY Down by JOHN GREEN
My rating: 5/5 stars
Audience: YA
One-sentence summary: A teen struggling with OCD investigates the disappearance of the town millionaire and ends up learning a lot more about herself.
Contemporary (Romance)
(takes place in approximately present-day society, no supernatural occurrences, plot focuses on a romance)
Tweet Cute by Emma Lord
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
Audience: YA
One-sentence summary: Two teens with rival family business find themselves embroiled in a Twitter war, before realizing they have feelings for one another.
Those are all of the genres I’m going to do today.
And yes I know I keep talking about the same books, because they’re my favorite books… I’m going to be trying to make more “refreshing” lists this summer….
Let me know if you’d want to read more of these kinds of posts. Thanks for stopping by my blog!
Have you read these books? What did you think of them?
Find me elsewhere:
Frappes and Fiction 
There is so much in this post that I love!! Merphy’s channel is so entertaining, and she’s just an awesome person. All The Light We Cannot See and 1984 are on my TBR, they look so good!! I didn’t really like Turtles All the Way Down, but I’m glad you did. And Tweet Cute was amazing!
And I’d love to see more of these posts š
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Thanks! Yes, I love Merphy’s channel, she just has super interesting videos and I loved the recent “unecessary rant” video she did about the word undulate; I don’t know if you saw that video but it was funny. Ooh, I hope you get to read All the Light We Cannot See, it was pretty good. 1984 was amazing. Some people seem not to like it, but it’s been 1.5 years since I read it and I still think about it. One of my favorite books ever but it’s very depressing
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ooh i really want to read all the light we cannot see, so iām glad you liked it! iāll definitely bump it up on my tbr. great post!
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Thanks! I hope you are able to read it soon!
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thanks for these reccomendations! i’ve heard 1984 is an amazing dystopia and i can’t wait to read it! flowers for algernon is on the top of my tbr!
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I hope you get to them soon! Flowers for Algernon was the #1 best book I read in 2020 and 1984 was also in the top 3!
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i haven’t read any of these but a few are on my tbr!! The Martian is actually on my list of books i have to read in 2021 so i better get to it soon lol
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Nice, I would definitely recommend all of them!
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I loved All The Light We Cannot See
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It was great!
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loved this post!! i loved tweet cute, it was so fun to read ahhhh. 7 1/2 deaths of evelyn hardcastle is on my tbr hehe
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Thanks! I hope you get around to reading it soon!
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Lovely recs, emily!! š Evelyn Hardcastle and 1984 are on my tbr, so Iām glad you liked them!! Turtles all the way down sounds amazing, I really need to check out John Green!! Great post āØš
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Thanks! Yeah, Turtles All the Way Down is my favorite John Green book; I haven’t read his new essay collection thing yet though!
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There are so many excellent books on this list! I loved All the Light We Cannot See, The Martian, and 1984. Iāve been meaning to read an Agatha Christie book for a while, and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd sounds really interesting!
Great post!
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Ooh, yes I would definitely recommend Agatha Christie! The books often start slow, but once they get going… woww
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I love Merphy Napier’s channel too. It’s so insightful and always really fun at the same time. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd and Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle are two mysteries I really enjoyed as well, so much so Agatha Christie and Stuart Turton are now going to be authors I’ll read from all the time. Although, saying that, I did more easily get into and prefer The Devil in the Dark Water by Stuart Turton.
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Her channel is great! And thanks for the recommendation too!
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Yes, Yes, Yes! To all of these! The only one that I havenāt read is āTweet Cuteā, and Iām thinking that I really should do as we clearly have the same taste in books. Iāll be reading your posts closely!
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Wow, yeah we must have similar taste!
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I loved this! Thank you for sharing. š
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Thanks for reading!
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