Recs if you like How to be Both...

Sometimes the main character is into fiber arts, sometimes a side character is hand embroidering a jean jacket for her wife. All recs and craft types welcome.

Romance, Genre Fiction, or Literary Fiction novels for Childfree folks where its explicit that a main character is Childfree (and they aren't teenagers) and starting a family/having kids is not mentioned as a goal. For those of us who don't always want to read about a happy ending involving kiddos (even thought we love them!). Please feel free to add suggestions 😊

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

Books by queer Scottish writers.

I just finished who will be remembered here and am now keen to try out other works of the writers who collaborated. Thought I’d make a list in case someone else is interested :)

Suggestions for anything queer and Scottish are welcome, as are comments if you see something on the list you think doesn’t fit. I’m not Scottish and have read exactly none of these books, so I am obviously not the leading authority on anything.

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

kids are great. however as a person who doesn’t want kids, I have fatigue around how many novels position motherhood as the epicenter of women’s lives. i’m gathering books here about women in their late twenties and older that don’t focus on motherhood or children. I haven’t read all these fyi!! plz share recs; i’m mostly looking for lit fic.

according to the New York Times

The Women's Prize for Fiction was started in 1996 as a way to highlight exceptional women writers and to balance out the coverage that male writers received. The Women's Prize is awarded every year to the best novel written in English and published in the UK. There is also a Women's Prize for Nonfiction, created in 2023.

The list of the 100 best books of the 21st century from the New York Times

stories of excess, sensuality, pleasure, adventure, reactivity, and eros, as well as stories that reflect the feeling of a summer holiday or the lethargy and fatigue of late summer

Books that have won the Women's Prize for Fiction

All the winners of the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

This list will showcase the vast amount of Scottish Literature available, from the late medieval period to the present day. Partly inspired by there only being a few Scottish books on the 'British Classics' quest. Alba gu bràth!

(This is not exhaustive! Just 100 or so books that vaguely trace the development of Scottish Literature.)

Winners

Nobel, Pulitzer, National Book Award, Booker Prize, International Booker Prize, Women’s Prize, Lambda Literary Award, etc. winners

The Observer published a list of the “25 best books of the century so far” on December 18, 2025, as decided by their critics and editors. (Note: the inclusion of The Odyssey is specifically for the translation by Emily Wilson.)

A goal to read the 100 books rated in the 21st century (so far) as published by the New York times in 2024, list in order from 100-1 but you can find the original list on the NYT website.

you know that feeling when you leave the cinema and you've been changed as a person? these reads are that in book form: emotional blows, devastating and healing