If you're a writer and you are familiar with the Google machine, no doubt you've been exposed to at least three or four hundred "Must Read" lists, usually published by either an online lit mag or even a general interest mag like New Yorker or Rolling Stone. And these lists tend to have at least one of two things in common.
1. They suck.
2. They all look the same.
It seems like all these lists also hit the same beats:
- The Great Gatsby
- Lord of the Flies
- The Old Man and the Sea
- 1984
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Moby Dick
- I Read This in High School and Hated It
- College Requirement
- You Name It
- Etc.
- Ad Naseum
- Snoresville
- Blah, Blah, Blah
Sometimes, many of the often-mentioned authors have much better books just waiting to be discovered. (Fitzgerald's Jazz Age short stories, for example, far outshine his Gatsy if you ask me.) Not only that, a lot of these classics are just plain dated and/or boring (yes, I'm a Literature teacher and I said that!)
So, with that in mind, I figured my list couldn't be any worse. Now, I won't say everybody needs to read all these because that's too big a blanket statement, but I do think most everybody could benefit by including these tomes in your TBR pile.
I wanted to build a better list, a list that took the last 50 years into account a bit, a list that wasn't just full of dead white guys, a list that, dare I say it, puts those other lists to shame. (Yes, I'm that vain.)
The rules and such:
- This list contains a mix of novels, short story collections, graphic novels, and creative non-fiction.
- Not only that, it also contains a mix of genres, from literary to sci-fi to pulpy action and even detective stories.
- I've only allowed one title per author, but in the case of close seconds, I've put that title in parentheses so you know just how close the race was).
Without any more ballyhoo, it's time to throw my proverbial hat in the ring and present to you a better list of must-reads.
Let the wonderment begin. Here they are, 35 books you, yes you, need to read.
Short Story Collections
1. The Lottery and Other Stories, Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House)
Shirley Jackson is the master of the creepy. She can bring it into Gothic structures and into the suburbs. While The Haunting of Hill House is a masterpiece of modern ghost storytelling, it's this collection that tips it out as her best work. Jackson knows her craft, particularly as it relates to making a reader care about slightly odd and broken people who exist just off the edge of normal.
2. Innocent Eréndira, and Other Stories, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
This collection is the master of Magical Realism at his best. In addition to the title story, two of my favorite stories are contained in this volume "Eva Is Inside Her Cat" and "Eyes of a Blue Dog." If all you've read is "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this. Yes, skip the overblown One Hundred Years of Solitude and start with his amazing short stories instead.
3. Constancia and Other Stories For Virgins, Carlos Fuentes
This is the second-best collection featuring Magical Realism you'll ever read. And Fuentes is a master of the short story. This is a master class in magical realism and includes stories about a man who discovers his life maybe wasn't what he thought he experienced, youths who "adopt" a mannequin and well, get rather intimate with it, and other tales that explore what it means to be human by pitting human reason against inhuman spiritual and supernatural experience. Outside of Marquez, nobody does Magical Realism like Fuentes.
4. Jazz Age Stories, F. Scott Fitzgerald
I know The Great Gatsby is the go-to for Fitzgerald and is considered above and beyond any other THE great American novel. I know that. I teach 11th-grade American Literature. I'm paid to know that. But, for my money, ol' Fitzy's short stories collected in this volume are his true magnum opus. "Bernice Bobs Her Hair" alone is worth its place on this list, but if you throw in stories like "The Offshore Pirate" and "The Glass-Cut Bowl," this is his superlative work.
5. Night Shift Stephen King (Cujo)
This book of short stories is responsible for more Stephen King movies than any other of his works. 'Salem's Lot. Lawnmower Man. Sometimes They Come Back. Maximum Overdrive. "Quitter's, Inc" and "The Ledge" from Cat's Eye. They all came from this collection. But my favorite is the somber, violent, and yet romantic "The Man Who Loved Flowers," and it remains my second favorite King story to this day. In my opinion, Stephen King is an okay novelist but a damn fine short story writer. These quick bites of horror and terror are King at his best.
6. The King in Yellow, Robert W. Chambers
Sure, H.P. Lovecraft is usually the go-to guy for otherworldly, esoteric horror. But, if you ask me, Robert W. Chambers out-Lovecrafts him in this collection about a mysterious play that drives those who read it insane. "The Mask" is a particular stand-out, and another of my favorite short stories of all time. The stories in this book will stick with you for a long, long time, particularly those from the opening pages. Chemicals that turn people to stone, ghastly stalkers, creepy painters -- it's all here.
7. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love, Raymond Carver
If Raymond Chandler wrote about relationships falling apart instead of murder, he'd write this book. Take the terse, straightforward style of the pulps and add a few literary techniques like characterization and talking around things instead of about them, and you have this book, one of the finest short story collections ever, and well worth your time. This is the book that shows how to learn from Hemingway's strengtha without having to copy Hemingway.
8. Dandelion Wine, Ray Bradbury
It is difficult to pick any single short story collection from Bradbury because they are all amazing. This volume is a bit of a departure from the average short story collection because the stories weave in and out of the lives of a town experiencing the seasons. One of the first to combine the novel with the short story effectively, Dandelion Wine is a must-read for any serious reader of short stories.
9. The Ways of White Folks, Langston Hughes
The Ways of White Folks is perhaps the finest volume of stories from the post-slavery United States. Each tale relates the culture shock when blacks and whites try to co-exist in a world that won't let them without shying away from the implications. But best of all, Hughes tells his stories with the ear of a poet, making each tale a feast for the ears and eyes.
10. The Final Martyrs, Shusaku Endo
This is one of the most accessible books that deals with religion you'll ever read (except for maybe Wise Blood below). This collection features the themes of loneliness, nostalgia (and the ultimate emptiness of it), faith, apostasy, spiritual doubt, and sexual longing. It's a thoroughly human and humane work by one of Japan's greatest writers.
Novels
11. The Adventures of Monkey, Arthur Waley
I must have read this book about a hundred times before I was 12 years old. Adapted from Journey to the West, this focuses on Monkey and his hubris to be the god above gods. I couldn't help but admire Monkey in spite of his pride. He was my first exposure to the trickster caricature, long before I read about Ananzi the Spider or Coyote.
12. The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut (Player Piano)
People always tend to default to Slaughterhouse-Five for the best book by Vonnegut, but I continue to believe it's The Sirens of Titan. It's perhaps the most straightforward sci-fi romp the author wrote, and it's both accessible in format and style, far more than so many of his other, more trippy works. The Siren's of Titan is a simple story, actually, about a man on a direct route to his destiny whether he tries to avoid it or not. It actually shares a lot (in terms of plotting) with the story of Jonah from the Old Testament, but don't mistake that was any religious content. Right behind this one for me is another Vonnegut work with a similar theme -- Player Piano (and then we finally get to S-5).
13. Beloved, Toni Morrison
Beloved is all the right stuff in a novel as far as I'm concerned. Thoroughly literary, it identifies and calls out for cultural change (call it woke, it's okay). Thoroughly a ghost story, it tells of a home haunted by a former slave girl. Thoroughly romantic, it features several relationships that are beautiful, tragic, and optimistic all at once. A freed slave's home is haunted by what could be the ghost of a young slave woman killed to avoid a return to slavery, and that affects everything about the freed slave's family life. At times creepy, at times tragic, at times hopeful, there's a very good reason this novel by Toni Morrison is so, ahem, Beloved.
14. The Big Sleep, Raymond Chandler (Little Sister)
This is the quintessential Chandler. Period. Sure, all his books are amazing, but this one just lays out what makes the rest of them work so well. Any writer wanting to learn the trade can use this as a textbook for dialogue, pacing, character, action, theme, all the stuff that makes literature work. In this case, watch the movies, sure but read the books, all the books.
15. A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
I'll be honest. I love The Sun Also Rises (best closing line in any book, ever, and I'm looking at you, Gatsby), but when it comes to why I love Ernest Hemingway, it all boils down to this book. This book is why Hemingway continues to top my list of favorite writers year after year after year. Drama? Check. Romance? Yep. Danger? Intrigue? Sure. High-faluting literary art-stuff? Yep. That's there too. The best part of this book is that there are no doves set free to give it a Hollywood ending. That's just for the movie.
16. Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston (Mules and Men)
I consider myself fortunate that I get to revisit this book each year with my students. I can't think of a better character study for the pursuit of happiness than Janie as she grows to eventually understand she needs no others to define her but herself. She can be loved and she gave give love, but it must be on her terms. And the way ZNH slings words around?! Holy shit! This is one of the most poeticly heartbreaking and yet life-affirming book I have and will every read.
17. Fat Ollie's Book, Ed McBain
Fat Ollie is a prejudiced, fat cop who ticks all the boxes for "that guy." But that somehow doesn't keep him from being one of the fan faves in Ed McBain's 87th Precinct series. That's a testament to McBain's writing. Trust me. This time out, Fat Ollie has his only copy of his first novel manuscript with him, but it gets stolen. Now he must not only do his job as a cop but also find his missing manuscript so he can prove to the world at large he's more than just a "pretty face" with a badge.
18. Wise Blood, Flannery O'Connor
There once was a story about a preacher who walked with rocks in his shoes to create his own type of penance, all the while preaching about "the church without Christ." This is that story. This is about a Flannery O'Connor as a story can get, with memorable characters, even more memorable quirks, and enough moral shortcomings to create a new reason to invoke Old Testament judgments.
19. Ethan Frome, Eudora Welty
I once wrote an essay comparing this wonderful short novel to Kate Chopin's The Awakening. My take was that the awakening isn't just a feminist feeling. Men can feel it too. Of course, both are written by women, so that has a lot to do with the depth of emotion that Edith Wharton writes into her characters who are trapped in a loveless marriage born of a medical need to stay together. Enter one younger cousin who brings life into a gray world of death, and they begin a journey toward tragedy worthy of Shakespeare's best.
20. Devil in a Blue Dress, Walter Mosely
Picking any single Walter Mosley Easy Rawlins tale for this list is nigh impossible. Rawlins is the African American's Philip Marlowe, but not just that, because he's created from the authenticity of the post-WWII world blacks experienced, he's as much a revolutionary hero as he is a private eye. He crosses the worlds of Pulp, Noir, Hard-Boiled, and Literary Fiction with ease and blends them into a new kind of P.I. Fiction that didn't exist before Mosley.
21. One-Shot Harry, Gary Phillips
Gary Phillips is my kind of writer, and I'm thrilled to be able to say I've shared a short story collection or two with him. He's a sort of spiritual follow-up to Walter Mosley without being a pastiche, and he has a unique voice among African American pulp writers. In this one, a photographer gets caught up in a mystery during the racial unrest of the early 1960s. Harry is a Korean War vet who just wants to help out a friend, only to be pulled fully into violence and danger. It's also filled with lots of fun historical cameos, so that's a plus that makes it feel very, very real-world.
22. Money Shot, Christa Faust
This is probably the most recently published book on the list. It's another Hard Case Crime book, and it's the one that introduced me to Christa Faust. It's as gritty as they come and as viscerally raunchy as it needs to be without crossing the line into needing to be sold in a brown paper bag. Angel Dare is a porn actress wrapped up in a murder. The premise is simple and Noir. The storytelling is classic Hard-Boilded Pulp.
23. I Will Fear No Evil, Robert Heinlein (Job)
Yeah, I know this one is a weird choice for a Heinlein book to include on this list. Most folks who put Stranger in a Strange Land (and to be fair, this covers many of the same themes), but even if I had to choose a different Heinlein, I'd probably choose Job. Still, this one remains my favorite, hands down. The story of a man who gets a second shot at life in the body of his dead secretary, this book crossed so many cultural lines in the sand I'm surprised it was even published. It's as countercultural and straight-up hippy as anything Heinlein wrote, and it's perhaps the most superb M2F transformation book ever written. It's trippy and sexual and goes into several uncomfortable places, but that's what makes it so fantastic.
24. A Princess of Mars, Edgar Rice Burroughs
This book was Star Wars before Star Wars was Star Wars. Seriously. As far as I'm concerned if you read only one Planetary Romance it should be A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs. Sure, there are some bits in it that stand as identifiers of their time, but none of it reaches a level that interferes with the heroic story of a man shunted to another planet. It's a space isekai that influenced everything from sci-fi movies to animated movies to sci-fi and fantasy books.
25. Neverwhere, Neil Gaiman (American Gods)
Every reader it seems has a favorite Neil Gaiman novel. This one happens to be mine. The thing I've enjoyed about Gaiman's work is his refusal to write series (outside of comic book series) and to create new worlds with each new novel. I've always loved the idea of worlds co-existing, and this one continues that genre of fantasy story better than about all others (including the famous land under London novel). Plus, Door is perhaps the most fascinating character I've come across in modern fiction. (Some readers may have strong opinions about NG now after the allegations against him, so tread wisely.)
26. The Hitch-hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
If I have to explain this one, then you've been sleeping under a rock. This is the quintessential sci-fi comedy romp. It's also where several of our favorite geek sayings come from. "Mostly harmless." "42." "Life, the universe, and everything." "Don't forget your towel." "Don't panic." It's all here. Some novels have filler, but not this one. It doesn't let up with the out-there.
27. She, A History of Adventure, H. Rider Haggard
This is probably the lowest-brow book you're going to find on this list. Yes, it's a straight-up adventure yarn, and not just that, it's a "men's adventure" yarn that was a dime a dozen back in the early days of 1900s fiction. Still, don't let that deter you. This is a fun romp through the tropes that have stood the test of time for adventure and fantasy writing and sometimes is good to go back and see where the stuff we enjoy nowadays came from. It also features a female antagonist able to wipe the floor with any man who dares to stand against her.
28. The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
This is the novel that introduced me to the amazing Amy Tan. I was even fortunate enough to attend a writers' convention at my college where she did a reading from the book. (And yes, that was amazing too.) This book captures the feelings about being American-born in a culture that prides itself on keeping its traditions. How much does the past, and not just your own but that of your family, determine who you are, and how much of that is a person allowed to shape for themselves? The way Tan answers that question is what puts this awesome book on this list.
29. Borderline, Lawrence Block
This is my favorite tale from the former Edgar Award Winner and Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America. It's raw, sensual, gritty, and violent, and that makes it pure Block. Originally published under the pseudonym Don Holliday as Border Lust, it was republished by Hard Case Crime under the current title, Borderline with all credit going to the author's real name. Written like a five-pointed star converging in upon itself, it features five people whose lives are about to intersect in the most dangerous way possible.
30. Johnny Got His Gun, Dalton Trumbo
You may have seen Metallica's music video that features footage from the film Johnny Got His Gun, but do yourself a favor and read the book. This is the kind of story you'd expect from someone with the guts to stand up to McCarthyism and even get blacklisted as a screenwriter. Trumbo knocks it out of the park (sorry for the cliche) in this tragic tale of a soldier who loses everything but his life and still manages to lose it all. Trapped in a body without arms, legs, vision, or any ability to communicate with his doctors, our "hero" relives his experience in the war that led to his living lifelessness. It's a downer for sure, but it's probably one of the most important downers you'll ever read.
Non-Fiction
31. A Grief Observed, C.S. Lewis
This may be the most personal book I've ever read. It's also the most religious book on this list -- and that's for a good reason. It's a religious book only in the since of one man's account of his faith (in God, in humanity, in fate, in goodness, in love) falling apart after the death of his wife. It's also the story of a rebuilding and a rejoining with the sand of humanity (to paraphrase John Donne's "No Man Is an Island"). It is a universal story, never a sectarian one.
32. A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
There is no better natural essayist than Annie Dillard. She has a gift for taking the last breaths of a dying moth, a mottled snakeskin, or any number of other discards and cast-offs from nature that one might find in the woods, and turning them into parables that resonate with all of us. She takes the universal and makes it personal. She is simply the best as what she does. And this book is the proof of that.
Graphic Novels
33. Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi
Persepolis deserves every award it has ever won. It is quite possibly the finest example of autobiography in graphic novel form ever created. Yes, that even includes American Splendor. The author related her own move to the United States in a way that never distances readers of any nationality, race, or faith. You can't read this book without identifying with Marjane Satrapi in her struggles and confusions.
34. American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang
Forget about the weird little streaming series. This book ties together Journey to the East and the story of a second-generation Chinese student trying to figure out who he is. Does he keep his family's culture or treat it as trash to be thrown away? Does he embrace Americanism even if it means he ignores generations that have come before him? And just what does the Monkey King have to do with all of this? This is not only fun. It's profound.
35. Bone, Jeff Smith
Yes. Bone is a fun little fantasy book. Well, not so little. This baby takes two trees per copy, I'd be willing to bet. Yeah, it's massive. But, for all the fun and adventure this fantasy romp contains, it's every bit as complex as anything by Tolkien, Herbert, L'Engle, or Le Guin. Don't let the cute art and easy-to-follow story fool you. This is epic storytelling at its best. You'll be hard-pressed to find any other fantasy book -- prose or graphic novel -- that matches it in quality.
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