Anonymous Can you suggest some books for me because I am learning English recently? I am 20 years old thanks

I’ve been mulling over this question for a while, and from what I’ve found most sites seem to recommend best seller novels for English learners. I think you should choose a book that interests you. If you’re interested in the topic, then it won’t feel like “work” to get through it. I would recommend you read more contemporary reads, because the language in the romantics or classics gets very complicated and difficult even for native English speakers. I’ve given out a lot of recommendations for novels, which you can check out for some help as well.

Does anyone else have specific novels that could help?

Anonymous Do you know of any good collections of short stories? Like a bunch of short stories put together into a book?

Hi, yes I do. I happen to really adore short stories. These are the collections I own and love dearly:

• Great American Short Stories: from Hawthorne to Hemingway edited by Crinne Demas,
• New Sudden Fiction edited by Robert Shapard & James Thomas,
• Contemporary American Short Fiction selected by Joyce Carol Oates and Christopher R. Beha,
• Great Tales of Horror by H. P. Lovecraft,
• The Jazz Age Stories by F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I reviewed,
• The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty,
• Say You’re One of Them by Uwem Akapn,
• The Faith Healer of Olive Avenue by Manuel Munoz,
• The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie,
• Three Famous Short Novels by William Faulkner,
• The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe,
• Dubliners by James Joyce,
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Collected Stories of Amy Hempel, &
• High Lonesome by Joyce Carol Oates

Does anyone else have any recommendations?

Anonymous You wouldn't happen to know any good books about angels/people with wings? I keep looking for it, but I mostly just find these twilight-ish romance books and that's not really what I'm after. Any tip?And while I'm at it, your blog is awesome :)

This was really difficult for me to find books for. It seems most books that have angels are romance. These are the ones I found:

• Dreams and Shadows by C. Robert Cargill
• Broken Wings by Shannon Dittemore 
• Fallen by Lauren Kate
• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
• Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

My followers suggest:

• Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
• Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
• The Icarus Project by Laura Quimby
  
• Angelology by Danielle Trussoni
• Maximum Ride series by James Patterson

christolstasis Any Joyce Carol Oates to start off with? I want to read her latest, The Accursed.

I absolutely love Joyce Carol Oates’ writing. She’s among my favorite authors. Though, I’ve never read her novels. I’ve read most of her short stories. I’d say to High Lonesome. It’s a collection of her short stories from 1966 to 2006, which has a lot of the short stories I love.

Anonymous any recs for books like anna and the french kiss or my life next door?

I actually haven’t read either of these books. (Sorry! I’m not a big YA reader.) I’d suggest this list for more recommendations. I did look through some lists online and the ones that seem to be recommended would be:

• Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Chohn & David Levithan
• If I Stay by Gayle Forman 
• The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson 
• Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta
• 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

My followers suggest:

• The Fine Art of Truth or Dare by Melissa Jensen
• Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins

Anonymous Can you rec books about magic, kinda like HP?

Magic and YA? Firstly, I’d also suggest this list for more books. Secondly, I’d recommend:

• Earthsea series by Ursula K. Le Guin
• The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini
• Septimus Heap series by Angie Sage
• Artemis Fowl series by Eoin Colfer
• Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan
• Time Quintet series by Madeleine L’Engle

My followers recommend:

• The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
• The Bartimaeus trilogy by Jonathan Stroud
• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
• The Alanna series by Tamora Pierce
• The Magicians by Lev Grossman
• The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel by Michael Scott

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature brought to you by the folks over at The Broke and the Bookish. This week’s theme is top ten books I recommend the most. You can see what I choose and why here!

aeoxyl-deactivated20130407 hi, ive got to do an essay on three books all related to the "loss of innocence" topic. ive already read two ("a long way gone" and "flowers for algernon") but im lost as to what i should read for my third book. any suggestions? thanks so much!

Hi! First of all, Flowers for Algernon is one of my favorites. I think it will work perfectly with that topic. I’d suggest this list for more than the ones I’ll mention. The first few books that come to mind would be:

• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• Lord of the Flies by William Golding
• I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou 
• A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
• The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank

My followers suggested:

• The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult
• The Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness
• The Giver by Lowis Lowry
• The Outsider by SE Hilton
• The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salindger
• The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

boredomeisoverrated Hello! I only just discovered your blog, but it is awesome, and I have noticed an abundance of Markus Zusak quotations... I also notcied that you say you are currently reading I am the Messenger! (He is my favourite author, and The Book Thief is my favourite book) I was wondering if you had any recommendations for similar reads? Or any other book recommendations? (I like almost anything...)

Yes, that’s because I just finished reading I Am the Messenger and I tend to reblog or write the quotes I enjoy out of what I’m currently reading. I feel like they are both very different kinds of books. I’ve answered an ask about WWII books, which I feel go well with The Book Thief. As for I Am the Messenger, I would suggest checking out this list. It has all of the books I would recommend. I hope that helps!

rainonyourface I love learning the history of a people or country by reading fiction, so I am looking for novels that contain many historical/cultural information. Examples are The Poisonwood Bible and Reading Lolita in Teheran. Do you have any suggestions? :)

Books that I’ve read or have heard good things about in the historical fiction area would be:

• The Shadow of the Wind by Carols Ruiz Zafon
• The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
• A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man by James Joyce
• Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
• The Other Boleyn Girlby Philippa Gregory
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

My followers suggest:

• The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini 
• Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
• Life: An Exploded Diagram by Mal Peet 
• Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides 

I hope that helps!

hazeltown hi, just wondering if you've read 'the unbearable lightness of being' by milan kundera and if you could recommend any other books like it?

Hi, thanks so much for asking. I haven’t read it, but it is now on my to read list. It sounds like an amazing book. After a lot of researching, I found that the rest of Milan Kundera’s work would be suggested reads, but I found these books as well which sounded interesting to the topic and time period:

• The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov
• Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal
• The Garden Party and Other Plays by Václav Havel
• Násilí bez předsudků by Jan Těsnohlídek ml. (which I did find English versions of)

I’d also suggest this list for more books. I hope that helped!

lefemdeeh Hey can you recommend me books about life? I mean about life lessons? :) Thanks much xx

So, I thought it easier to group these two questions together. They’re both very general. I feel like every fiction novel teaches the reader about life in some way or the other, so I don’t think I could make a list of five or more novels that do that. For that reason, I’m going to give the same links for general book recommendations for all.

First off, I tag every single recommendation ask/fan mail question on my blog so you can easily scroll through these and find books by different topic and genres at times. Secondly, I’d recommend books that I’ve already read and books that I want to read. 

If you guys have more specific recommendations that you’re looking for, then shoot me an ask. I love trying to find just exactly which books I think will work. Also, thanks for asking me for recommendations and generally being made of awesome!

Anonymous What other Agatha Christie books do you like, apart from Towards Zero?

All of them.*

No really. All of them. I’ve read almost every book she’s written. Not to mention I collect her books. As of right now I have 50 of the 66 novels she published and a collection of her short stories. 

*I have not read the romance books she wrote at first. That should be noted.

Anonymous favorite romance stories ever?

I don’t really read books of the romance genre. I have never been a fan of those types of books. The books that I’ve liked that are romantic in nature are Jane Eyre, Anna Karenina, The Sister of Travelling Pants series, and Tuck Everlasting. Sorry I can’t be of any real help to you! 

I did find these lists that have better suggestions then I could ever give.

Anonymous Any recommendations of good epistolary novels?

I do, but for those who don’t know epistolary novels are novels that are written in diary or letter format. My list is what I’ve read and what I’ve heard is really good. Here we go:

• Poor Folk by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Dracula by Bram Stoker
• Carrie by Stephen King
• The Color Purple by Alice Walker
• Bridget Jone’s Diary by Helen Fielding
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
• We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver
• World War Z by Max Brooks

A more extensive list can be found here.