Recs if you like No Country for Old Men...
Bleakness Is My Weakness
For when you need to wallow in melancholy and misery: a collection of pessimistic, cynical, downbeat, depressing, doom and gloom fiction for my disillusioned friends.
More to come!
Got the holiday blues? Check out my list Christmas with the Cranks!
Disturbing Novel Iceberg - Tier 1
Tier 1 from the disturbing novels iceberg. Iceberg was created in response to the disturbing movie iceberg. These are the 'beginner' books with difficult themes and some gore.
Everythingโs Bigger in Texas
Books that take place in the Lone Star State
The 50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century
The New York Times published a list on August 5th, 2026, of the 50 best thrillers published since 2000 as voted on by hundreds of writers of every kind of crime fiction, from legal thrillers to spy novels to cozy mysteries, as well as librarians, editors, critics and Bookstagrammers.
Oscar Winning Books
These books have been turned into movies that went on to win an Oscar
Made for the Movies, Vol. II
a collection of recommendations from the Made for the Movies forum
Criterion Films Based on Novels
Because good movies appreciate good stories first. Adding more to this all the time!
R/Truelit's 100 Best Books of the Quarter Century
Reddit's R/Truelit user voted best books of 2000-2026. They included a full series as one pick, like the Neopolitan novels. I only include the first to keep it at 100.
your dad has most likely watched the live actions
(bonus points if he made you watch them with him!)
Read The States Challenge - Texas
This is a list of books for the Read The States Challenge. Read any on each of the state lists and be awarded the pride of knowing you have read all across the US!
academy award for best adapted screenplay books!
books that have been adapted into successful movies and have also won an oscar for their screenplay
Blank Check Podcast Adaptations
Every book that has been adapted into a movie covered by the Blank Check podcast
Top Rated Books of the 21st Century
Goodreads Published List of Consistently > 4 โญ๏ธ(by year published)
2000: Plain Truth - House of Leaves โ01: Other Boleyn Girl - Secret Life of Bees โ02: Fingersmith - Lamb โ03: Shutter Island - Time Travelerโs Wife โ04: Shadow of the Wind - Cloud Atlas โ05: No Country for Old Men - Book Thief โ06: Sharp Objects - Road โ07: Terror - Thousand Splendid Suns โ08: City of Thieves - Hunger Games โ09: Maze Runner - Cutting for Stone
Ran out of room.. See Comments for full list!
The Folio Society Collection
A list of all the books that the Folio Society has made special editions of.
50 Best Thrillers of the 21st Century (NYT)
August 2026 List of the best thrillers of the 21st century as nominated by mystery/thriller authors
Cormac McCarthy
Cormac McCarthy
books my english professor would tell you to read
from a (recent) graduate
Atmospheric Neo-Noir
The best of atmospheric, descriptive, setting-centred neo-noir. Some are better than others.
NYT Readerโs Choice: Top 100 Thrillers of the Cent
August 2026 Readerโs choice of the best 100 thrillers All I gotta say is the definitely didnโt ask me. ๐คท๐ปโโ๏ธ
TikTok to Faulkner
I saw a Josh Johnson tiktok about getting through the American Literary tradition and wanted to make this list to track the 14 recommended readings in order.
Link to the order to read in: https://compendiumshow.substack.com/p/a-readers-guide-from-tiktok-to-faulkner
