Recs if you like The Vanishing Half...

Need a gift for your extremist family member, but they already have a red baseball cap AND a Don't Tread on Me shirt? Were you told "Don't bring up politics at family dinner" and need some safe books to discuss instead? Well we have a full menu for you to choose from! Each just for fun book comes with our guarantee: No real world political messages under the 100% fictional plot! 😉 (Taking Recommendations!)

All of his picks since 2008, both summer reading lists and yearly round-ups.

this is your reminder to read books by Black authors all month, all year, every year— not just during Black History Month. it’s crucially important to be able to diversify your reading and your bookshelves. expand your mind, your perspectives, your knowledge, and your taste. if you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations!

Fiction featuring sisters, because sisters are the best. (Note that not all sister relationships are easy, they are complex and layered and sometimes difficult.)

Please leave your additions in the comments!

Aka Dua Lipa’s reading list. Everyone’s fave popstar on permanent holiday with a massive list of books to read, and she always seems to have incredible recommendations.

I am not part of Service95 or affiliated with Dua Lipa. I am just a fan curating this list based on the @service95bookclub IG account 💋

Fiction has always been where truth hides. Across horror, thriller, literary fiction, fantasy & mystery every book on this list has something to say about power, who holds it, who destroys it, and how it reproduces itself.

Intergenerational Stories

Books that take place across and tell the stories of at least two generations, exploring history, politics, culture, generational patterns, and trauma. Mostly focusing on families.

Please give more recs if you have any! (Twenty-three fiction, two non-fiction so far)

Here's every book so far from BOTM's monthly shortlist since February 2015 for anyone who wants to read them all like I do!

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

books where sisters’ love, hatred, or general angst towards each other is a main factor in [making you cry]/furthering the plot. Including classics/popular fiction, but particularly taking recc’s for standalone/underrepresented genres/nonfiction!!

Texts that teachers at Texas Tech have been warned not to teach

Dua Lipa’s book clip picks

Don't let the poor zombies starve, feed your brain, make it plump and ripe with knowledge and critical thinking skills. It might also be useful if the zombies never come, who knows. You better be ready.

A few lovely books written by Black women spanning every genre!

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

Goodreads 80 of the Past Decade’s Very Popular Fiction from 2016 - 2025

2025 Broken Country - Isola 2024 The Women - Real Americans 2023 Tom Lake - Weyward 2022 Demon Copperhead - Diamond Eye 2021 Reading List - Cloud Cuckoo Land 2020 My Dark Vanessa - Vanishing Half 2019 Giver of Stars - Girl, Woman, Other 2018 Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell - Where the Crawdads Sing 2017 Stay with Me - 7 Husbands of Evelyn Hugo 2016 Lilac Girls - Behold the Dreamers

Literary and contemporary fiction with Black FMCs that will make your heart break into a million pieces and then knit itself back together (hopefully). Specifically wanted to curate books that all also come with tough topics and hefty doses of warnings for major possible triggers. Check the comments for specific warnings tagged to individual books (mostly major stuff, recommend doing some research before diving in if there are other things you don't want to read about no matter how minor).

from multi-generational tales to sibling sagas!