Recs if you like A Gentleman in Moscow...

These are books that don't rush to impress you. They simmer while the author adds in the layers. They may confuse you or bore you at first - but if you give them time to cook you'll end up with a delicious meal of a book!

Always taking recommendations! If you are recommending a series - the layers need to come together by the end of the first book (not half way through the series).

For all the multitaskers on here (including myself): books featured on 2+ quests! Go get those badges everyone

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

This list brings together fiction from around the world that documents historical events or periods of time. Titles in this list aren't necessarily "historical fiction" but do have an important historical element to them.

I find fiction is an easy media to help educate me about world history I never learned in school. These titles aim to bring to light historical events that may not be taught in schools!

As always, I'm open to any and all suggestions! 🤠

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?

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.

You've built up your skills as an engaged reader - now it's time to start reaping the benefits! Every book on this list was chosen because it's genuinely enjoyable AND hiding something underneath the surface worth finding. The goal isn't to find the "right" answer, but to trust your own instincts as a reader and see where that takes you. Start in your favorite genre - it makes close reading feel like a game, not homework. Happy Reading Boundlings!!

the texture of sun-warm sheets, time alone with a book, the lattice of light through the trees in the early evening, the comfort of an ordinary routine, a fleeting exchange, an everyday kindness.

these works of fiction observe, preserve and venerate the beautiful mundane, the small things of life.

recs very much welcome :)

I think more books should be about old people getting into shenanigans. There is this small part of the book space with the stories of people who find the meaning of their life or mess others up because they don't care anymore. These are their stories , hilarious, emotional, heartwarming and heartbreaking, each unique...

Hope they make you feel alive!

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

recommendations from the wife worm herself (source: naddpod)

: of, relating to, or suggestive of Franz Kafka or his writings especially: having a nightmarishly complex, bizarre, or illogical quality

Kafka’s books examine themes of anxiety, alienation, and the powerlessness of the individual. This list includes titles with similar subject matter.

(mostly fiction) books that deal with the experience, repercussions, and cultural memory of repressive regimes in the former warsaw pact countries + former yugoslavia. see pinned comment for further notes!

How many have you read?

Keeping up with the 700+ books featured on Overdue since 2013

Books across all genres taking place almost entirely in hotels, motels, inns, B&Bs, boarding houses, retreats, you get the point. Whether it’s a single night or an extended stay, you’re an employee or an owner, the transitory element of hotels can provide us with great stories. Sometimes it’s about getting lost, finding yourself, taking a break, healing, investigating or trying to find a way out… Recommendations encouraged

Books about our mundane jobs. We'll explore: our role in society, conformity, routine, labor, and more. Leave your recs!

Books of various genres that make you feel "oooof" but also "we'll work out a way to get through, even if its not perfect"