Need a new book to read? Never enjoyed reading but want to start? You have come to the right place! No matter what genre you are into, you can find your next library checkout or Amazon purchase. 

Below, check out our recommended reads sorted by genre and check out a brief synopsis from Goodreads.* (If you don’t know your favorite story style, take this Genre Quiz I created on Buzzfeed to find out which category is the perfect fit for you!)

Fantasy

• “Light from Uncommon Stars” by Ryka Aoki 
  • “‘Good Omens’ meets ‘The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet’ in this defiantly joyful adventure set in California’s San Gabriel Valley, with cursed violins, Faustian bargains and queer alien courtship over fresh-made donuts.”
• “Child of Light” by Terry Brooks 
  • “An all-new fantasy series about a human girl struggling to find her place in a magical world she’s never known.”
• “A Master of Dijin” by P. Djeli Clark 
  • “Cairo, 1912: Though Fatma el-Sha’arawi is the youngest woman working for the Ministry of Alchemy, Enchantments and Supernatural Entities, she’s certainly not a rookie, especially after preventing the destruction of the universe last summer.”
• “Under the Whispering Door” by T.J. Klune
  • “When a reaper comes to collect Wallace Price from his own funeral, Wallace suspects he really might be dead.”
• “Lore Olympus” by Rachel Smythe 
  • “Experience the propulsive love story of two Greek gods—Hades and Persephone—brought to life with lavish artwork and an irresistible contemporary voice.”

Horror/Thriller

• “Silverview” by John Le Carré 
  • “Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish immigrant living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise.”
• “The Last Thing He Told Me” by Laura Dave
  • “We all have stories we never tell. Before Owen Michaels disappears, he manages to smuggle a note to his beloved wife of one year: Protect her. Despite her confusion and fear, Hannah Hall knows exactly to whom the note refers: Owen’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Bailey.”
• “We Were Liars” by E. Lockhart
  • “A beautiful and distinguished family. A private island. A brilliant, damaged girl; a passionate, political boy. A group of four friends—the Liars—whose friendship turns destructive. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth.”
• “Arsenic and Adobo” by Mia P. Manansala 
  • “The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer….”
• “The Last House on Needless Street” by Catriona Ward 
  • “​​This is the story of a serial killer. A stolen child. Revenge. Death. And an ordinary house at the end of an ordinary street. All these things are true. And yet they are all lies…”

Non-Fiction

• “Immune: A Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive” by Philipp Dettmer 
  • “A gorgeously illustrated deep dive into the immune system that will forever change how you think about your body, from the creator of the popular science YouTube channel ‘Kurzgesagt—In a Nutshell.’”
• “Underwater Wild: My Octopus Teacher’s Extraordinary World” by Craig Foster, Ross Frylinck and Jane Goodall 
  • “In the heart-wrenching stories that make up this unforgettable book, we swim alongside Ross as he grows from skeptic to student of the underwater wild…We realize that a whole world of wonder, and an innate wildness within us all, emerge anew when we simply observe.”
• “The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story” by Nikole Hannah-Jones
  • “‘The elements of the book reveal a new origin story for the United States, one that helps explain not only the persistence of anti-Black racism and inequality in American life today, but also the roots of what makes the country unique.”
• “All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake” by Tiya Miles
  • “In a display case in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture sits a rough cotton bag, called ‘Ashley’s Sack,’ embroidered with just a handful of words that evoke a sweeping family story of loss and of love, passed down through generations.”
• “Looking for the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness” by Elizabeth D. Samet 
  • “Elizabeth D. Samet reexamines the literature, art and culture that emerged after World War II, bringing her expertise as a professor of English at West Point to bear on the complexity of the postwar period in national life.””

Romance

• “People We Meet on Vacation” by Emily Henry 
  • “Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love.”
• “It Ends with Us” by Colleen Hover 
  • “Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.””
• “The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren
  • “Olive is always unlucky: in her career, in love, in…well, everything. Her identical twin sister Ami, on the other hand, is probably the luckiest person in the world. Her meet-cute with her fiancé is something out of a romantic comedy and she’s managed to finance her entire wedding by winning a series of Internet contests. Worst of all, she’s forcing Olive to spend the day with her sworn enemy, Ethan, who just happens to be the best man.”
• “One Last Stop” by Casey McQuiston
  • “For cynical twenty-three-year-old August, moving to New York City is supposed to prove her right: that things like magic and cinematic love stories don’t exist. But then, there’s this gorgeous girl on the train.”
• “The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo” by Taylor Jenkins Reid 
  • “Aging and reclusive Hollywood movie icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job, no one is more astounded than Monique herself. Why her? Why now?”

*Summaries of books are quoted from Goodreads. For more book suggestions like the ones above, check out Goodreads and make an account today!

This blog post is written by our Division of Student Life student intern Elliana Olivo.