Recs if you like My Brilliant Friend...

books about the beauty and heartbreak of lifelong, ever-evolving female friendships. oh, to have been children together! to have grown up together, or to have grown apart!

Books recommended by musician Lucy Dacus, a solo artist and member of the band boygenius. Pulled from her goodreads list.

Think of this as your reading glow up! These books will teach you to slow down, look closer, and find what authors are hiding underneath a great sentence. The goal isn't to ace an exam - it's to get more out of every book you read, feel more confident in the forums or at book club, and learn to trust your instincts as a reader. One rule: Start with the book that excites you the most, not the one that sounds the most impressive. Your future self, thriving in the forums, will thank you!!

A mix of reader favorites and editorial picks from The New York Times—100 books that defined the 21st century.

If we are going to do Qwordy's the Hardest Reading Challenge You'll Ever Do 3.0 - we should probably get some Pagebound badges along the way! I'm specifically going to be adding books from Quests and readalongs that I think matches at least one of these cover prompts: craft, food, motion, biomes/landscapes, animals, weather.

NYT Top 100 of the 21st Century: Reader's Choice. In order as published in 2024

bildungsroman if ya nasty

Introspective books by people who observe a lot, ponder a lot, feel a lot, and write about it. Creative memoir, self-indulgent navel-gazing, or "wan little husks" (as Joyce Carol Oates once put it)... whatever you personally think about autofiction, including whether or not it really is a genre, this somewhat experimental form of writing most definitely gives both writers and readers a chance to engage in narratives in a different way.

In order from #1 (My Brilliant Friend) to 100 (Tree of Smoke)

ladies love to write all around the world!

sunny settings, or books that feel sunny and offer escapism from the winter blues in an eclectic blend of genres.

Editing to add: okay some of these books are SAD, my dudes, just like my seasonal affective disorder. But at the same time, they are soft and kind and a safe place for the big sad, if that makes sense?

classic & modern classic literature by women. limiting myself to one book per author. please let me know who i've missed!

Maybe the one piece was the friendships we made along the way.

These are all the suggestions the community graciously provided after I asked for friendship book recs (plus some of my own).

This list include all types of friendship dynamics from wholesome and life-affirming to toxic and obsessive. Enjoy!

Books where envy or jealousy are central themes.

from multi-generational tales to sibling sagas!

novels that track friendships throughout time. full of complex childhood comparison trauma, friend break ups and perhaps reconciliations, shifting friend group dynamics, and the impact of age on our most foundational relationships.

A list published in 2024 by the New York Times, as voted on by 503 novelists, poets, critics, and other book lovers—with a little help from the staff of The New York Times Book Review

A list published by The Guardian on 5/16/2026, as voted on by authors, critics, and academics worldwide.

These books are historical fiction from different area and time periods. I did not add WW2 books as they are already highly popular and I wanted to focus on lesser known time periods or countries in the genre. Please suggest similar books.