Recommended Reading

Recommended Reading

This page is a work in progress. I add things as I think of them/have time/find a book that really moves me.

People often ask which books have inspired me, which books I love, which books I re-read over and over, and which books I’d recommend for gifts, etc. While I can’t possibly list everything that has inspired me over the years, here are some reading lists to get you started.


Books About Writing

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

Writing Down the Bones, Natalie Goldberg

The Elements of Style, Strunk & White

Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative FIction, Jeff VanderMeer

Rise of the Machines, by Kristen Lamb

Any of Chuck Wendig’s instructional books (But only if you can stand some off-color language and a good butt-kicking.)

 


Young Adult Fiction

Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling Of course. It’s a modern classic.

The Gemma Doyle trilogy, Libba Bray

Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis

A Wrinkle In Time, Madeline L’Engle

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell

Matched, Ally Condie

The Testing, Joelle Charbonneau

Finding Audrey, Sophie Kinsella

Steelheart, Brandon Sanderson

The Masked Truth, Kelley Armstrong

Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld

The Wrath and the Dawn, Renee Ahdieh

Sabriel, Garth Nix

Stargirl, Jerry Spinelli

Judy Blume’s entire body of YA work.

The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien

Harriet the Spy, by Louise Fitzhugh

 


Adult Fiction & Miscellaneous Non-Fiction

Outlander, Diana Gabaldon

Darkfever/The Fever Series, Karen Marie Moning

Most of Nora Roberts and J.D. Robb, particularly her her earlier works.

The Winter Sea, Susanna Kearsley

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams

Anything by the late Terry Pratchett

The Martian, Andy Weir

Timeline and Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton

The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley

The Rosie Project, Graeme Simsion

The Otherworld Series, Kelley Armstrong

The Imagineering Way, by The Imagineers

 


Books You Might Have to Read in School That I Loved

(Or at Least Didn’t Loathe)

A Separate Peace, John Knowles

Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen

Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury

Gone With the Wind, Margaret Mitchell

Lord of the Flies, William Golding

To Kill A Mockingbird, Harper Lee

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

1984, George Orwell

The Scarlett Letter, Nathaniel Hawthorne

Huckleberry Finn or Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain

Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger

Animal Farm, George Orwell

Watership Down, Richard Adams

The Diary of a Young Girl, by Anne Frank

 


Books About Mythology

The Iliad, Homer

The Odyssey, Homer

Bulfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Bulfinch

100 Characters from Classical Mythology: Discover the Fascinating Stories of the Greek and Roman Deities, Malcolm Day

Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes, Edith Hamilton

The Complete World of Greek Mythology, Richard Buxton

The Greek Myths, Robert Graves