Recs if you like The Tea Dragon Society...

JK Rowling is a bigot who uses her platform to hurt transfolks and other marginalized groups (plus she literally just quoted Mein Kampf on the bird site). If you're still supporting her in 2025, don't bother talking to me.

For when things seem hopeless. We can always try again and again ❤️

This list is a community project, I asked in the club and received multiple suggestions which I then added onto a list: fiction and nonfiction, fantasy, contemporary, sci-fi, the main theme is just hope. Some people said their recommendation might not fit very well but I added it anyways.

Also, in the og post, I mentioned The Good Place and if people have recommendations tending to that, so some books are related to that.

books to get for the middle grade readers in your life that have similar vibes but are NOT Harry Potter (and are in fact better)

Intersectionality, baby! Disability includes many conditions, including - but not limited to - physical disabilities, chronic illnesses, psychiatric disabilities, sensory disabilities, and neurodivergence.

You liked Harry Potter but you’re angry at the author for being a huge transphobe and you would like some alternatives because you don’t want to give money to her so she can finance transphobia and you have enough of Harry Potter’s racist stereotypes like Cho Chang and other problematic themes in this saga? You’re in the right place! I haven’t read all, if some are misplaced, let me know! Also, if you want more fantasy recs, I have a queer fantasy list! It is addressed to different ages.

Shorter books (under 200 pages) that are part of at least one quest. Many are also in the public domain, making them easily accessible when you want to grind for that next badge.

Books that inspired or are similar to Studio Ghibli films

books set in tea shops, with a tea shop as a primary location, or centered around tea.

LGBT*+ graphic novels / comics / manga +

Fluff to smut, including 18+ etc aka not exclusive to anything specific other than being queer content (queer & queer-rep inclusive stories). I have read a good handful of the ones now at the bottom of the list. Includes intended middle-grade-ish-level youth content to adult audience content.

In progress / updated over time

(recs highly welcome) Attempting a highly exhaustive list.

fantasy books where cooking and baking or some other form of culinary art are the main focus, a large part of the plot, or part of the magic system!

This is like literary sorbet, books that are simple, sweet, and pretty easy to digest when you want to turn your brain off, decompress after a big, intense book, or break out of a reading slump.

Books in this list are in at least two quests. Thus helping to earn more badges. Books will span different genres. Once I scan through all the quests, I plan to further organize the list. I am thinking of creating a seperate list and moving the books with three or more quests to the new list and keeping the two badge books in this list. Are there other ways you would organize a list this big?

A list of cozy fiction for when the world is heavy and the Book Club book is too much.

Books are cozy based on other lists or cute-munity reccs. Your milage may vary.

At the request of @moss-mylk 😊🫶 I will keep updating this list, and as always, recs are welcome.

This list is a comfort-reads pantry of low-stakes fantasy where food and drink are the magic. Every pick centers a kitchen, café, tea room, coffee bar, bakery, cocktail or anything food as the heart of the story, with conflicts that stay gentle, community-minded plots, and endings that leave you soothed rather than stressed. Cozy, sensory escapes and character growth over battles!

aka my "i just love pretty and cool art and especially when it's lesbian/sapphic" list

Alternatively, these are books I’d recommend to each Dropout cast member if given the opportunity to do so! I’ll be including a legend in the comments to clarify which book goes with each person. I know I’m missing people, so if you have a good suggestion for a book recommendation that goes with someone I haven’t already mentioned, please share!

I have spent years curating a list of graphic novels for myself on goodreads and I thought this place would be great to share it and share my love for graphic novels. I’m not picky about the plot or topics of the graphic novels I read so the list is pretty much any graphic novel I have heard of regardless of topic. Many are middle grade or young adult as is the general trend of the format but recommendations for more (especially adult) would be greatly appreciated.

Also manga is not included.

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.

Beautiful books for when your monthly reading roundup needs a little facelift 😉