These are the twelve books we hand to friends first. Not the newest or the most hyped, just the ones we keep coming back to, and the ones people thank us for.
About this shelf
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. The book we recommend most often. Read the first chapter and try to stop.
- This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Under 200 pages, and most readers turn back to page one the moment they finish.
- Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson. The Sanderson for people who aren't sure they want a Sanderson.
- Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro. Don't read the reviews first. Let Kathy tell you in her own time.
- Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Our favorite first-contact novel, no Ender's Game required.
- The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle. A fairy tale for grown-ups who still want one.
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin. Slow to start, and the trek across the ice is unforgettable.
- The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova. Our favorite long book for autumn evenings.
- Replay by Ken Grimwood. The time-loop novel so much that came after borrowed from.
- Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. You'll read Charlie's last progress report twice.
- Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. Short, eerie, and impossible to shake.
- Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. If you only know the films, the creature gets the best lines.
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