111 Books to Read When You’re Stuck at Home
Having to spend more time at home is the perfect time to sit down with a book. I’ve created a list of books that either I’ve read and loved, or my friends have loved and told me to include them.
If paper copies aren’t available, trying getting an audiobook version from Libro.fm to support your independent bookstores. Also take advantage of your libraries, if they are open.
Fiction
Literary Fiction
- The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
- The Secret History by Donna Tartt
- Little Friend by Donna Tartt
- Hum if You Don’t Know the Words by Bianca Marais
- The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
- The Editor by Steven Rowley
- Mr. Pneumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
- Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
- Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
- After Kilimanjaro by Gayle Woodson
- A Little Life by Hayna Yangihara
- A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
Historical Fiction
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
- I recommend this one if you have already read and loved Where the Crawdads Sing
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- One of my favorite reads of 2020
- Lilac Girls by Martha Kelly Hall
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- Any book by Chanel Cleeton
- City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn
- The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
- Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Science Fiction
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
- Recursion by Blake Crouch
- Red Rising by Pierce Brown
- Dune by Frank Herbert
- Early Riser by Jasper Fforde
- Author: N.K. Jemisin
Mystery/Thriller
- Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
- The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
- Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
- My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing
- The Whisper Man by Alex North
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson
- The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
- The Lying Game by Ruth Ware
- In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
- The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
- The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld
- Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman
- The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
- The Chalk Man by C.J. Tudor
- The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton
Nonfiction
True Crime
- Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
- American Predator by Maureen Callahan
- Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
- Columbine by David Cullen
- The Stranger Beside Me by Ann Rule
- American Sherlock by Kate Winkler Dawson
- Adanan’s Story by Rabia Chaudry
- Chase Darkness With Me by Billy Jensen
- I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
- Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
Current Events
- She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
- Catch and Kill by Ronan Farrow
- Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
- Dopesick by Beth Macy
- Parkland by David Cullen
Historical
- Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett
- Author in Chief by Craig Fehrman
- The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone
- Midnight in Chernobyl by Adam Higginbotham
- The Cruelest Miles by Gay Salisbury and Laney Salisbury
- Denali’s Howl by Andy Hall
- Books by Erik Larson
- Splendid and Vile
- The Devil in the White City
- Thunderstruck
Memoir
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Endurance by Scott Kelly
- Know My Name by Chanel Miller
- Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness
- Dear Girls by Ali Wong
- Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
- Everything is Awful by Matt Bellassai
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
- The Parrot’s Perch by Karen Keilt
Science
- Spillover by David Quaman
- A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes by Adam Rutherford
- Living Downstream: A Scientist’s Personal Investigation of Cancer and the Environment by Sandra Steingraber
Romance
- Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
- The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
- Would Like to Meet by Rachel Winters
- The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
- Roomies by Christina Lauren
- Say You Still Love Me by K.A. Tucker
- The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker, plus the newly released sequel Wild at Heart
Classics
- And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
- Animal Farm and 1984 by George Orwell
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- The Handmaid’s Tale and the sequel The Testament by Margaret Atwood
- East of Eden by John Steinbeck
- Les Misérables by Victor Hugo
- For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
- Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
- Middlemarch by George Eliot
- North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell
If You Want to Start a Series
Here are some suggestions:
- Maggie Hope series by Susan Elia MacNeal (Historical Fiction)
- Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny (Mystery)
- A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin (Fantasy)
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon (Historical Fiction with Fantasy/Romance elements)
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series by Steig Larsson (Mystery)
- Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French (Thriller)
- Stillhouse Lake series by Rachel Caine (Mystery)
For more book suggestions, check out my Goodreads and my Instagram.
Leave a comment below for books you recommend or if you end up reading one of the ones listed of above.
Happy Reading!
