Recs if you like Death Takes Me...

For pretentious academics, by pretentious academics, against pretentious academics.

This list features books with covers designed by New York-based, Houston-born designer Cassie Vu. She is a Senior Designer for Penguin Random House's art department. Her covers boast loud, bold lettering and striking colour gradients. Her website features a "cover graveyard", showcasing different iterations of covers that were ultimately chosen, which I highly recommend perusing.

Mind you not just about academics or authors with a random abandoned PhD—more like the unbelievable people who manage to write bestsellers on a hundred notes stuck to their research paper drafts. Or at least worked long enough in the field to create believable fictional academics and niche academia jokes.

Unbound by fiction subgenres or personal ratings—feel free to propose more books in the comments!

Celebrate women in translation month all year round with this list of fabulous books

Fiction books from The New York Times' "100 Notable Books of 2025" list

Note: I will be deleting my PB account within the next two weeks, and I believe this list will be erased. Feel free to screenshot it if you see anything that interests you! ☺️ 3/17/2026

Books published in translation to English in 2025 with original languages including Catalan, Swedish, Amharic, Hindi, and more.

according to the new york times' november list

translated literature across different cultures

books i'm currently reading, have read, or want to read 📼

Catching up on some new dark academia books