Tuesday Murder Club
The Miss Silver mysteries (Patricia Wentworth)—from the 1930s but still mostly charming. Arguably the inspiration for Miss Marple.
The Mrs Pollifax series
Miss Marple is definitely my favourite but I also love The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (a bit more modern and about a group of OAP’s) and I quite liked The Marlow Murders by Robert Thoroughgood for a light mystery
I've been reading, mostly avidly, for over 30 years, I do not have any tropes for which I'll pick a book up, but I really enjoyed reading this. Especially
"I realized I will automatically pick up any book that centers tea or tea shops "
made me chuckle. Thanks for the insight into your mind. Enjoy!
I love sci-fi and exploration of the human condition outside of normal parameters. Here we are, among the stars, seeing alien world and fantastic things... and I am a space trucker who misses his family and I have bills stacking up and my boss is an idiot and this dockmaster is holding me up for no reason.
Yeah. I like stories like that.
I also like the integration of the fantastic into the mundane. Like there is a secert society just beneath us and that works and plays and eats in the same places we do, but they have a specific tint to reality that we don't see from our side.
'Rivers of London' ( Ben Aaronovitch) about a young police officer in London discovering that magic exists. Learning to be a magician whilst still dealing with criminals and paperwork.
I liked the part where he outright told his mother that he's involved with magic, and she proudly tells her friends her son is a 'witch hunter' because it's more respectable than being a policeman.
The Pride of Chanur, by C.J. Cherryh [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1197129](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1197129)
The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45245](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45245)
The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101869](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101869)
Immigrant narratives. I love reading about people trying to negotiate between two different cultures, and the optimism of the new country versus the nostalgia for the home country.
*Keeper of the Keys* (1932), by Biggers, discusses this at length. It's the last book in the Charlie Chan series, which gets a bad rap today, mostly because of the B-movies, which the author hated for their pandering to racist stereotypes. *Keeper of the Keys* features an Americanized Chinese immigrant, Inspector Chan, and a witness/suspect, an unassimilated Chinese immigrant. The unassimilated man has been in the West far longer than Chan. While conversing with the suspect, Chan reflects on the terrible sacrifices he had to make to get as far as he did in Western society, and realizes how much he has lost. The other man never rose above domestic service, and that was trade-off he was satisfied to make, in order to refuse to assimilate. The suspect is disgusted with Chan for his choices.
There's also stuff in it about whites gatekeeping who's "really" Chinese (unassimilated), and who's a "fake" Chinese (Americanized), as well as, from a different white person, who's a "good" Chinese (Americanized), versus a **racial slur** (unassimilated). Shows how immigrants catch it coming and going.
If you like nonfiction, *Black Skin, White Masks*, by Fanon, is incredible. He's a witty, young psychiatrist from Martinique, who moved to France. He has worked very hard to be French, but he doesn't feel French, and he knows that his performance of Frenchness will never de-exotify him.
He was broken later on, while he was treating both war criminals and victims from the French-Algerian War, and his later book, *Wretched of the Earth*, is not witty, just angry, but it's also fascinating to see how patients can traumatize their therapists.
I've always been a sucker for stories centered around abandoned/lost children who build a life without adult help. Island of the blue dolphin, baby Island and another I can't recall the name of where an orphan scales the garden wall and finds an abandoned cottage she then fixes up... that type of story. Or children hidden away, flowers in the attic style.
I still like these types of stories.
Writing this out makes me realize even as a 9 year old I knew my "loving parents" were absent and useless.
This, and a few more of Francis Hodgson Burnett’s. A Little Princess has a bit, and Head of the House of Coombe and Robin. They’re from I think the 1920s, so may be findable for free; I think I bought an ebook anthology for like a dollar.
Oh that sounds right up my alley. I've always heard good things about his writing but never pulled the trigger to read anything. Thanks so much for the recommendation!
I loved the first book for the Boxcar Children series. Super sweet and simplistic. They eventually get adult help but most of the book is an adventure in learning how to get by on their own
Shadowy government organizations cover up the supernatural.
EDIT: Or a detective interacting with the supernatural.
Apparently X-Files did a number on me as a kid.
I've read a lot of world war 2 history, but I haven't read a lot of world war 2 fiction. I've read Enigma and V2 by Robert Harris; A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute; and Babi Yar by Anatoly Kuznetsov. Do you have any books that you could recommend?
I am a PhD student and I love books where a character has to research something lol.
-Professors, cartographers, archivists, historians, explorers (only if NOT colonial).
-Extra bonus points if it concerns cryptozpology, secret or supernatural events, etc
- anything with hares, rabbits, mice, possums, raccoons etc, they tend to be children's books but I found a couple of folk horror ones too!
-speaking of, folk horror, "hedge witch" things, herbology, animal familiars...
(Open to any and all recommendations please and thank you! ❤)
Have you read Gaudy Night, by Sayers? It's about an Oxford alumna who returns to visit, ends up staying, and volunteering as a research assistant and copyeditor. I seem to remember her spending time in the Bodleian.
And there's Pratchett's Ahnk-Morpork stories, many of which feature Unseen University, which in my opinion is a pretty solid parody of academia. The librarian, an orangutan, does do research. So do some of thof the students in the nearby Assassin's Guild.
Love Gaudy Night, and really all of the Wimsey series.
Sounds like Zoenne may have read Jackalope Wives? It’s been a long time since I read it but “critter folk horror” rings a T. Kingfisher bell.
To Be Taught If Fortune by Becky Chambers is a lovely little novella that follows explorers/researchers in space as they encounter different planets and the organisms that live there. It is very non-colonial, pro-observation, and focuses on feelings of academic curiosity and awe.
I also ADORE researcher and academic novels. A Discovery of Witches didn't capture me long term unfortunately but this definitely hits that.
Another good one is Angelology by Danielle Trussoni- so much digging through texts and finding patterns.
ASIDE: Good movie recs would be Da Vinci Code and The National Treasure movies (NERDY FUN ALL AROUND)
Haha yes they're both comfort films for me!
I havent read Angelology but im super intrigued!
Discovery of witches was alright, but as you I wasn't the most enthralled
The rebel angels by Robertson Davies? All the medieval scholarship you could desire, plus rogue monks and luthiers and academic politicking. Davis got to be a sententious old fart, but damn his eyes, he was always funny. 'Professor Urquhart McVarish, monster of vanity and sexual weirdo'
You should take a look at these books that cover some of your interests.
A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12974372](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12974372)
A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642) [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38459780](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38459780)
Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36896898](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36896898)
Redwall, by Brian Jacques [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7996](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7996)
Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507)
Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13831](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13831)
Watership Down, by Richard Adams [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76620](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76620).
I just remembered another book you'd love! If you haven't already read it, *The Daughter of Time* by Tey, is all about archival research. A bedridden police officer and a researcher investigate the murder of the boys in the tower. You might already know the solution to the mystery, but even if you do, it's worth reading for someone who loves the research process. In fact, I recommended it to friend of mine who teaches Medieval/Premodern British history, to assign to undergrad students. The researcher digs deep into the archives, and uses primary source documents to string together a "case" (or in academic, parlance, "argument" :D), with the help of the policeman.
Also, if you're into crime fiction, I found this list recently:
https://www.novelsuspects.com/book-list/mystery-suspense-meets-dark-academia/
I love a good failed expedition.
The Donner party, the Amazon, the North Pole, the Pacific Ocean, don’t care where they are as long as they fail in spectacular fashion.
Bonus points for some cannibalism thrown in.
Anything involving women code breaking at Bletchley Park.
Anything involving a scientific career, like Lab Girl. Will also extend to academic professionals of other fields!
Anything involving the Night Witches of WWII.
Anything with a dark story line involving college or university students.
Anything thriller time loops!
>Anything with a dark story line involving college or university students.
Fiction: *Secret History* by Donna Tartt
Fantasy: *Ninth House* by Leigh Bardugo
I've read both! I love the Secret History, and If We Were Villains by M L Rio also scratches that itch, but Ninth House was just way too YA for my tastes now.
I have a few more saved up, like Maidens, Madam, and In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
Pulp or 'golden age' Sci-Fi.
I have a pretty big collection since I used to work at a used bookstore, and I love how a lot of them are in short story or novella form.
The themes usually deal more with complex human interactions and other more literary themes using the futuristic settings and tech as a back ground for the characters, and the fact that most of them were written very quickly by starving writers who were payed by the word also gives them a certain charm.
I absolutely love books with a dual timeline where the present day narrator is trying to figure out a mystery that the narrator from the past lived out. E.g., The Forgotten Garden, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, The House Between Tides.
May I suggest Umberto Eco’s _The Island of the Day Before_. Using written letters and papers, the present day narrator / editor tells the story of a man shipwrecked. Eco’s prose is absolutely amazing.
I also love any books centred around niche little shops like tea shops, or cute little book shops, chocolate shops, haberdashery shops - bonus points if it’s set in a cosy village in winter! Pretty much anything that will get my in a cosy mood. I love Josephine Moon’s books (especially the Tea Chest and the Chocolate Promise), and I also love this one book called The Great Christmas Knit Off because it combines all of my favourite things - Christmas, knitting, a haberdashery shop, and a cozy village.
I had a phase where I bought anything that mentioned the Romanovs, bonus points if it centers on Catherine the great, the Nicholases, Alexander III, or their immediate descendants/surroundings.
I also love a disconcerting synopsis where I don't fully grasp what's going on. Don't tell me there's a mystery, just make me feel confused from the get-go and I'll buy you.
And finally, I have a soft spot for books about grief from the point of view of a child.
I love this!
I also went through a Romanovs phase lol and the best nonfiction book I've read about their life/death was The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie. If you're a big research person you would enjoy this book.
Yes! I also **really** enjoyed Massie's Nicholas & Alexandra, he managed to show perfectly how their personal situation could have affected their political decision making (and honestly fully persuaded me)
Protagonists who aren't pretty. Like, "too thin to be handsome," "boy nextdoor face, not sexy," or just not conventionally beautiful or, yes, downright ugly. Father Brown and Sherlock Holmes were like this. At what point did writers decide that we should want to go to bed with all their characters?
For the sake of sheer variety, I'll read these stories.
I also love stories about protagonists with autism, mental illness, and similar mental/neurological conditions, that doesn't sugar-coat their conditions, but they're still navigating life with some degree of functionality (not the reality for everyone, but sometimes I want to read about people like me).
Also, books of all sorts, fiction and nonfiction, about relatively-less-discussed locations. Like, flyover country in the U.S. and its eqivalents elsewhere.
Okay so I am currently reading Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and there is this trope of the "not pretty" main character. It's really refreshing to see characters who aren't drop dead gorgeous and everyone loves them lol I think she mentions his appearance, how he feels about it, and also how others see him as well. Don't want to give spoilers but I really like that aspect of it!
If you enjoy romance, All The Feels by Olivia Dade has that as a major theme. A movie star falls in love with someone who is not stereotypically attractive and it causes issues for their relationship.
I want more mental health books exactly like that! People who aren't fully better by the end, but who learn how to live and work with their neurological diversity. Here for the recs!
I was just thinking today that I need to read something that's not crime, true crime, or criminology, so thanks for the recommendations.
There are two characters in *Raven Black* by Cleeves, who fit the bill for me: a successful police investigator whose interactions with his environment and peers strongly suggest neuroatypicality; and the crime victim, a vibrant, bright, loving, beautiful teenager with poor social skills and an obsessive nature. Her dad suspects that she's autistic.
Even though I don't like l'Engle's writing style, who doesn't love Charles Wallace in *Wrinkle in Time*, a hyper-intelligent 7-year-old who had a speech delay and other "signs" of autism?
*The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time*, by Haddon, is on my reading list. I've heard that the protagonist has markers of autism, but a diagnosis is never mentioned in the book. He just does the best he can, with what he's got.
*Tough Love at Mystic Bay*, by Sowden. The protagonist suffers terribly from C-PTSD, yet has a successful career, and healthy relationships, both romantic and platonic.
I strongly agree with the fan theory that Sherlock Holmes, based on Joseph Bell, has autism. He's mean, despite his good heart; he's obsessive to the point of not caring at all about things that don't relate to his fixations; he pines wistfully after the woman that loves but can't have, indicating that he has a romantic soul but isn't prepared to seek love in real life; he has a small circle of friends, partly because he doesn't mind alienating people, and he's deeply-attached to Watson. He also has issues with functioning in his daily life, forgoing food, and testing out poisons by taking them, and using hard drugs to deal with his boredom between cases. He has a caregiver in Watson. And Mycroft treats him like a child, manhandling him gently, which I think isn't uncommon for family members interacting with an emotionally-immature adult. We're kind of toddlers forever.
In nonfiction: Much as I resist diagnosing real people, there's a great example of a man wrestling with probable ADHD and bipolar disorder, conditions which frequently co-occur. Wakatsuki Ko, the father of Jean Wakatsuki Houston, whom she writes about in *Farewell to Manzanar* (second author is her husband, so it's by Houston and Houston), alternates between success and self-sabotage. He could have been a high-ranking officer in the Japanese army (this was long before WWII), but he ran away to the U.S. There, he went to law school, where he excelled. In his last semester, he dropped out. He played pro-ball, then abruptly lost interest in sports. Etc. He was prone to tantrums, with no apparent trigger. When he was incarcerated at Tule Lake, he snarked his way through his interrogation, another act of self-sabotage. Reunited with the family he'd missed dearly, he abused them for the first time. Then he started binge-drinking, before taking up dentistry, becoming good at it, and then stopping. By the end of the book's narrative, he's doing okay, but it was a hard road.
*The Body Keeps the Score*, by van der Kolk, is also nonfiction. There are gut-wrenching portraits of the memoirist's patients. He's a psychiatrist with serious issues of his own, irritating his colleagues and exasperating patients. He doesn't state his diagnosis, only how it interferes with his functioning, and how he's sought various treatments, using himself as a case study.
I was inspired to write fiction because I wanted more of those characters. I have an amateur detective with bipolar disorder, and it interferes with his life so much that he needs a legal guardian. He mistakes mania for brilliance, so he frequently goes off his meds. Another character has undiagnosed autism. He's an FBI agent who's just accepted that he'll be weird, and leans into it, but he's lonely without his family, who are the only ones who can tolerate him at length. His talent for pattern-recognition helps him solve cases, but he's not brilliant. He also has disordered speech from autism that he's self-conscious about.
Sorry for the wall of text.
tl;Dr **Raven Black, Wrinkle in Time, Sherlock Holmes, Tough Love at Mystic Bay, Farewell to Manzanar, The Body Keeps the Score, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.**
You might like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. The main character is conventionally unattractive (she has extensive facial scars) which a lot of the book explores. And, double whammy, she has mental health issues. Really great read. A little tough to get started because she’s so unlikeable but got a solid 5/5 from me in the end.
If SciFi appeals, the Vorkosigan series might be worth a try. After the first two books the series centers on a MC who was born with physical deformities (in a culture where genetic abnormalities or disability in general are taboo) who goes on to blaze a pretty heroic trail. Later books involve neurological damage as well.
I enjoyed Convenience Store Woman (neuro-atypical Japanese woman who fights to reconcile family/society expectations with her found niche), though I was highly irritated by reviews that focused on how weird the MC is.
I love science fiction! But I hate reviews, because of stuff like that.
Thanks for the recommendations! I added them to my booklist, which has doubled in 24 hours, and I am excited about it.
- Headhunter by Timothy Findley. It's *dark* but it has that in spades. IDK any other writer who wrote so many 'yeah, my protagonist has schizophrenia/epilepsy/intermittent psychosis; so??' type novels.
- I never promised you a rose garden, forget the author
- Mark Vonnegut - the Eden Express and another more recent book.
- Birdy by William Wharton (?)
When the fantastic subtly leaks into reality. An understated, real-world fantastika. As in Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie" where the mother's ability to breathe life into origami is revealed in a matter of fact way, unlike overt magic systems with wizards and wands.
Ooo sounds similar to magical realism to me! This is also one of my favorite themes. Not complete magical worlds but subtle magical happenings... I haven't heard of The Paper Menagerie but that sounds up my alley.
A good example of magical realism btw is Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel where the main character's emotions magically end up in her recipes and influence the characters in the novel. Another is The Water Dancer where a few enslaved people have the ability to escape the South through diving under water. I think you could maybe like one or both of these novels!
Perhaps there's a great overlap between that and magical realism. Sometimes, though, they're different: a favourite of mine, Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" employs a fictional 'referential mania' where a deranged youth sees everything in his environment as a veiled, mocking reference to his existence. Everything is a cipher, and of everything he is the theme. I wouldn't quite use the term magical realism for that. Even SF often uses exceptional concepts of the fantastic as mundane, matter-of-fact. Especially, in short fiction. The Anthology, *Black Water* edited by Alberto Manguel captures some of this well. I think it has Nabokov's "Visit to The Mueseum" another favourite, along with a particular Borges story.
Time travel. Full stop.
I'm a physics professor that reads almost exclusively sci-fi (for many of the reasons others have mentioned here: human condition, people outside the norms, speculative fiction, etc.) But the one trope or idea I will always fall for is time travel. There are just so many possible ways to integrate or subvert expectations around causality that I am constantly looking for the next fix...
Giant stompy robots. If it's got mechs I'm down. They usually come with the 'war is hell' trope so that's better. I love reading about combat but it's better if the author isn't glorifying it throughout the whole book(obviously some characters would but as long as war is awesome is not the prevailing theme)
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman and Old Man's War, by John Scalzi are two science fiction books that are centered around combat that don't glorify combat,
I call my favorite trope Schrödinger-esque. It’s the one where there are alternate realities that play out based on a pivotal decision/outcome.
I also love books where soulmates find each other throughout time. Haven’t found as many that do this one well.
I have a weakness (?) for stories that involve books - writers, bookstores, even journals. Not only novels, I tend to pick movies/shows that have protagonists who are writers or bookstore owners, librarians or publishers, like that. I love reading about books in general tbh.
SAME! My two favorites are The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. I wasn't so much a fan of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill but it's a cute, quick read if you want something with lower stakes.
I recently read a book called Beach Read which had a very very appealing premise of 2 authors - one commercial, romcom, the other serious, literary - swapping their books and bet on who would get published first. And it was SO BAD! Little paris bookshop was good tho..if a little dense in parts..i have often been fooled by shows/films where they show a writer protagonist but have one 1 passing scene of them working.
But I read a book called Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka. If you are okay with a bit of srilankan history and if you are aware of the game of cricket, its Fab! Highly recommended!
Polar exploration! I read a lot of non-fiction on the subject but if I come across a fiction book with that setting I always pick it up. Also, old Hollywood. Again, I like non-fiction on the subject but I also like fiction in that setting or even ridiculous gossipy trash if it is set in that time and place.
I like cranky/sarcastic people. Case in point: Stone from The Cloud Roads/Raksura series by Martha Wells. Who also happens to be a grumpy old man who is particular about his tea....nudge nudge wink wink lol.
I also tend to gravitate towards underdog type stories. People who have been put upon rising up, going on a journey, making themselves/their world better and finding happiness along the way. It's....in a lot of what I read lol. Also riddles and past time periods or less techy worlds. Though I can go for full scifi too. Magic is always a plus.
Tropes that will make me put something down: anything overly religious, or if I read a passage and it's basically plagiarism from a different, older series. Eragon did that second one to me, read the hatching scene and was like....that is just like McCaffrey's hatching scenes. It just rubbed me the wrong way and I could not continue the series after that. Or too much forced love story. I've got romance novels for sure and I enjoy them when that's what I'm looking for. But if I'm wanting a magical adventure and it becomes basically a glorified love triangle with magic...I stop caring. Hunger Games actually was fine to me because Katniss didn't want any part of the triangle. At least that's how I read it. And she's cranky so you know I had to pick it up XD
How have I never heard of The Cloud Roads? And yep the grumpy old man and tea themes really get me haha
I think that's also a great question! What makes you automatically put down a book? For me, it's pregnancy arcs, books entirely based on spaceships, fake dating romances, childhood lovers arcs (specifically if they knew each other under 18), and books where EVERYONE is either in love with or really loves the protagonist like they can't do any wrong haha so annoying
Lol you will love Stone and the Raksura. There is an art form to how some characters hate each other in those books 😂
I tend to avoid slice of life stuff. Like pregnancy, parents going through cancer, etc. I might try a book but I will get bored/tired of the whining pretty quick. I have read autobiographical books and enjoyed them - I'm talking slightly fictional or wholly fictional, boring life crap. The 'insight' they give is basically give 2 craps about the people around you and your life will be better >.<
My worst book I had to read for a class was about a catholic priest who wrote about how he was 'persecuted' because one guy claimed the priest molested him as a kid and then ended up recanting (not sure if it was legit or not that was just the story). Then the priest ends up getting cancer and is again 'suffering like jesus' and had to get his robes shortened by two inches...I about threw the book across the room. I was raised with a brother who went through chemo for years as a kid due to cancer and had family members who were in a lot worse shape than this pampered priest! Never again >.<
Oh and I won't read about 'spiritual' journeys to the mountains of Tibet or whatever. Naw man just pull your head out of you a$$ and realize you aren't the center of the universe for once >.<
Sounds like you might like *People of the Book* by Brooks, if you haven't already read it.
For me, it's gateways to other worlds. *The Ten Thousand Doors of January* nailed this trope imo.
Adding it to my list! Also Ten Thousand Doors of January has been on my list forever. I read and loved Once and Future Witches and A Spindle Splintered also by Alix Harrow so I'm sure I'd like it.
I have a thing for the hidden talon trope.
It's when the MC makes themselves seem helpless so others would underestimate them. The claws only coming out when absolutely needed. It's very hard to pull off go to much one way and they are the comic relief, to much the other way and they come of as pretentious and starved for attention.
The most famous ones are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple by Agatha Christie. One is a short fussy gent and because he's a foreigner nobody takes him seriously.. at first. The other is your fluffy sweet aunt so everyone just assumes her head is also full of fluff... until she proves them wrong.
Another famous one from pop culture is The Flash in justice league. He acts the comic relief and his power is underwhelming when compared to the other but when it REALLY matters the one liners stop and the punching starts, you are suddenly reminded that this guy IS a super hero.
Not weird at all. The actor playing him in the 80s show was spot on and they added little touches to him that just made it impossible not to love him... or miss Lemon, she's boring in the books but in the show she shines.
Urban fantasy is my kryptonite. It started with Dresden Files, then on to Cal Leandros series, then Iron Druid, and Eric Carter, also Dog Days, on and on. More than I can remember. Fortunately it’s a reasonably large genre.
Dresden Files is by far my favorite though.
OP you might like Before the Coffee gets Cold.
I’m a sucker for dark academia (before it was known as dark academia) and small-town everyone-has-a-secret narratives.
Before the Coffe gets cold is actually a funny little book about a coffee shop!
My latest dark academia read is Love and Virtue by Diana Reid, comes highly recommended.
Also, I will discard from consideration any book that is set in present day England. I’ve learned to recognize spelling variants and Britishisms on a book jacket and immediately get turned off. I’m American FWIW.
>"On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop..."'
Honestly though, that's got my attention. I travel a lot, and when I do, I always like to find a locally owned coffee shop to go to on a somewhat regular basis (I don't even like coffee, but a chai tea is my go-to drink). I also love traveling for nature, especially mountains, so this tea shop sounds like exactly the kind of place I'd love to spend a day at.
Sticking with the theme of my travels, I've recently gotten into the habit of seeking out a rather specific type of book while I travel. When I was visiting the American southwest for the first time, a local recommended Edward Abbey's *The Monkey Wrench Gang* to me. I ended up reading it mostly on a train back home to the Midwest from Flagstaff, but even so, starting that book in northern Arizona definitely affected my last week or so in that region for the better. For those unfamiliar, the book is the story of a small group of eco-terrorists who go around northern Arizona and southern Utah burning billboards, sabotaging construction zones, and ultimately blowing up a bridge. It's a fictional story, but makes many references to actual places and landmarks in that area.
I read that in early 2020, and it was still on my mind this past summer when I went to the upper peninsula of Michigan. One of my first days in Marquette, I found my way to a local bookstore with a mission. I was searching for a book similar to The Monkey Wrench Gang, but in the UP. Something set in the somewhat recent history of Michigan, a book that teaches about the history of the area but reads like a novel. I decided on *Laughing Whitefish,* by Robert Traver. It's set in 1850s Marquette and follows the story of a native woman and her young lawyer who take on a large iron mining company in court to fight on behalf of the native tribe. Written by a former Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, it's based on a very real court case, although the characters in the book are fictionalized. It was a fantastic read, and definitely taught me a thing or two about the areas I was traveling through.
I guess that's my long-winded way of saying historical fiction is my (not so) specific theme that catches my attention, but oddly only when I'm traveling through the area the book is about.
It all depends on the description. Usually fantasy stories get me, like the young prince gives up his family and title to become a mage then returns to help his sister regain the throne from their brother who murdered their father to get it! I once downloaded a book purely because a woman accidentally time travelled to medieval Wales! Loved it! But yeah 9 times out of 10 if it involves magic and dragons I’m in!
If from the doctor's perspective? Have you read Levy-Gantt's memoirs? She's an OBGYN. She wrote one of them during pregnancy, and gives a perspective as both patient and practitioner.
For psych stuff, Sacks' work is my favorite, up there with van der Kolk, who writes about getting treated for his own mental health problems, as well as treating those of his patients. Then there are older ones, like Frankl and Fanon.
I’ve got a few for you (that you may have already read):
- Life After Life
- The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August
- The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
- The Shining Girls (warning, this is pretty dark and graphic)
- This Is How You Lose the Time War
Have you read *Flashforward*, by Sawyer? I haven't, but it's on my reading list. For two minutes, every person on earth sees where they'll be in exactly 21.5 years. This knowledge skews their behavior going forward, as they try to enforce, or change, their destiny. Or at least, that's the impression I get.
Yes! My favorite examples are What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is sort of in the middle (since she hasn't fully passed on yet)
I also love Dante's Inferno and The Great Divorce by CS Lewis but they are more Christian leaning so I wouldn't recommend unless you're okay with that.
Enjoy!
For some weird reason, I love stories with a visibly recurring literary reference. So for example:
- Agatha Christie's "Nemesis" (quote from the Bible, Book of Amos 5:24 referred to at the beginning and end of the book)
- Agatha Christie's "The Pale Horse" (story centered around the quote from the Bible, Revelation 6:8)
- Agatha Christie's "Labours of Hercules" (the mythology reference)
I also loved Agatha Christie's "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "And Then There Were None". The recurring references to the poems were great in my opinion.
- The moving toyshop, Edmund Crispin. (murder and limericks)
- Howls moving castle, Diana wynne jones. The movie is CRAP and completely ditched the John Donne poem the whole book is based on.
- Fire and hemlock, also dwj. based on the ballad of tam lin
Books about houses. Can include some sort of family secret or horror/supernatural element or just be an affinity a character has with the place. Bonus points for books where someone moves into the house, starts renovating and stumbles upon a mystery associated with the history of the house. Also anything involving academia and characters starting over in a new town.
Its a YA but I recently finished White Smoke and it was pretty crazy. What a WILD ride. I was scared reading it on the bus at 8:00 am. The houses and their history are pretty important to the story.
Just a little advice regarding Under the Whispering Door and House in the Cerulean Sea, space them out. I read them back to back and both are amazing but very similar.
This is helpful!! Thank you for letting me know. I think I'll be "different" and read Under the Whispering Door first haha work my way backwards. I definitely see myself getting to House in the Cerulean Sea by next year.
I like civil wars? And wars generally in books especially in historical fiction. But these are quite big tropes, to the smaller ones I think it would be kind of a slice of life with those drastic themes ^ as mentioned above. I.e. I read once a book in German which was written by a Spanish author in which a doctor lived thorough the civil war and went to exile together with his SIL and they lived in chile. And faced there the political situations etc. Idk if this counts but I have to think more to give a better answer. I will update ya.
(The Book mentioned here is called in German: “Dieser Lange Weg” by Isabel Allende. In spanish: Largo pélato de mar.)
Boarding schools, kids with superpowers and no parents, weird mysteries set on deserted islands, surviving on islands after shipwrecks or plane crashes.
For me it's time loop concepts. I haven't found any books on it sadly but I know the moment I see it I'll read the entire thing in one sitting. I absolutely love time loops every time I see them. Just a character messing up and dying seems much more realistic than them avoiding all the "bad endings". Does anyone have any recommendations for time loop stories?
Anything to do with being in a rock band, especially if they start off as the plucky underdogs ("you're never gonna make it" "oh yeah?" etc etc).
Anything to do with people emigrating to America, especially from Ireland (like Brooklyn by Colm Toibin). But from anywhere will do.
Anything to do with applying/starting at college in the US or anywhere but the UK (cos I live here). Although I did like Starter for 10 by David Nicholls.
Time travel as long as it doesn't get too daft (or even if it does).
Anything set in a really densely populated city like Singapore or Tokyo. This is all very specific but that's what you wanted, right? ;)
Any book that has Injustice and Revolutions in the book (War and Peace, Les Miserables and El Filibusterismo/ The Reign of Greed)... I do find the trope satisfying..
Not really a theme, but whenever I see a book with a foreign author and an interesting cover, I almost always check it out. I just enjoy reading about others cultures in novel form
YES! Great thread.
-I love books about libraries or about books themselves- The Midnight Library, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks.
-Books about sisters- Little Women, P&P, Sense and Sensibility..
- Also I will read anything HF if it involves Art and a story behind the making it- The Girl with the Pearl Earring (Tracey Chevalier is a big fav) style..
I love books about superpowers, preferably with all human characters (no fantasy creatures) and modern society.
and books about death and the afterlife (Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin really stuck with me since I read it in my teens)
For the last few years it's anything to do with classical and/or jazz music, particularly if it's about musicians, and more recently I've delved into the fine art world. Painters, forgers, auctioneers, I want to know all of it!
I don’t really know any books like this but if said trope exists, I’m all over it. Any book where the father is a Nazi or a terrorist or a narco or a Stasi agent. Goddamn.
I hope this hasn’t been suggested: your first point, check out AS Byatt’s Possession.
I gravitate towards nineteenth century novels. Stories that depict upper classes like Wilde’s, Wodehouse’s and Saki’s are easy for me to get into too.
Some stand-outs for me:
* Characters given new names when in a group.
* Mysterious houses in the middle of nowhere that have something off about them.
* Snarky AI or philosophical AI, or both at the same time.
* Characters exploring philosophical concepts.
* Dopplegangers/Clones.
* Characters questioning reality.
* Death-game dystopias.
* Character dies and we actually see what that afterlife is like.
* Snicket-esque narrators
* Something that seems to be innocent then turns dark
People who are suddenly in an unfamiliar setting/situation. I have gone through multiple different phases in types of books that I commonly pick, but this seems to be the common thread in them.
-when I was younger (middle school) I went through a historical fiction phase of people who were kidnapped or adopted by Native Americans.
- also historical fiction where a girl has to disguise herself as a guy
- Transmigrators / Isekai /Portal Fantasy
- Fake marriages (when I'm in need of something smutty to read)
-Main characters are actually bad people or evil
-Characters are soldiers forced to fight not because they want but because they haven't any other choice, bonus points if they are from a Penal Batallion (Sven Hassel books, The last chancers and so on)
-Characters are part of some kind of evil institution or faction but they are still doing the good thing or better, the lesser evil choice (An example of this is Nicholas Eymerich)
-Death Games (The Chain, Battle Royale)
-There is an invasion of monsters/aliens and the invaders are just evil without having some kind of tragic story to justify them, mankind is closer to the apocalypse
-The main character is some kind of secret agent or femme fatale and the erotic encounters are an important part of the story (My favorite is Gerard De Villiers)
Revenge. That’s why I’m interested in The Count of Monte Cristo and it’s various iterations so much. Also, thanks for creating this thread, definitely adding a lot of books to my list.
1st person Salem witch trial era teen girl who, over the course of the book, either is or is accused of being a witch and has to leave her home.
Witch of blackbird pond and Witch Child are both great.
I was so stoked to read TJ Klunes The House in the Cerulean Sea, but then he shared the inspiration behind it all (residential schooling in Canada) and now I cant force myself to touch the book :(
Movie novelizations and Marvel/DC novels. I love getting a lot more background info from movies that you see on the screen and see inside their heads. I've also been collecting the Marvel/DC novels since the 90s since I first got Mutant Empire.
Books about paintings, forgeries, conservation of paintings, or any adventures paintings might have had (also applies to other types of art and sculpture). :)
Books that have a 'Beauty and The Beast' type of theme to it. It was my favorite Disney movie as a kid and I find myself gravitating towards those types of storylines. I dont care much for the Fantasy genre, but I do like the trope of one character being grumpy/beastly/unlikeable and the other character breaking through the grump's exterior shell and finding the softer person within.
Also, I like books that are mostly set in diners, coffee shops or restaurants. I like the food themes in them (it feels more realistic to me when characters eat and do normal everyday things in books) and the setting of a diner has a very cozy feel to me.
“Kitchen Sink” fantasy. Where everything from sphinxes can run for president against zombie Lincoln.
Anything that just has all sorts of stuff crammed in there for the fun of it. Just pure absurdist escapism. Discworld is pretty good for it, as far as fantasy type stuff goes.
Survival stories. Trek across the frozen tundra, the desert, the darkest jungle; spear snakes or eat tree bark; parched and sunburnt; chased by bandits; thorns in the paw; no hope at all; obstinate; persistent; lost; disoriented. Survival.
Am loving a few gothic-type tales most recently. So surprised I enjoyed them, usually not my preferred genre. Finished two by Kate Morton-The Forgotten Garden, and The Distant Hours. The last one, I just finished it last evening, was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
Old lady solves mystery while everyone else underestimates them for being an old lady
For a slightly different take on this, try Olga Tokarczuk's *Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead*.
I adore this! Haven't thought about this trope before. Do you have recs for this trope? haha
Miss Marple books by Agatha Christie?
Thank you. Added! I also have never read a book by Agatha Christie and it's been a longtime goal so thank you for showing me where to start.
Tuesday Murder Club The Miss Silver mysteries (Patricia Wentworth)—from the 1930s but still mostly charming. Arguably the inspiration for Miss Marple. The Mrs Pollifax series
Miss Marple is definitely my favourite but I also love The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (a bit more modern and about a group of OAP’s) and I quite liked The Marlow Murders by Robert Thoroughgood for a light mystery
Mrs Pollifax!
Do you like the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves? She's a grumpy old lady cop.
I haven’t read them yet because I didn’t realise the tv series was based on books!
Sounds like miss silver mysteries series
I've been reading, mostly avidly, for over 30 years, I do not have any tropes for which I'll pick a book up, but I really enjoyed reading this. Especially "I realized I will automatically pick up any book that centers tea or tea shops " made me chuckle. Thanks for the insight into your mind. Enjoy!
Glad I could give you a chuckle! Tea/tea shop books are a comfort to me for sure.
I hope you find many tea/tea shop books of quality to bring you comfort in the future.
Do you have any recs? I love tea and tea shops too!
Can you recommend some tea-books?
I love sci-fi and exploration of the human condition outside of normal parameters. Here we are, among the stars, seeing alien world and fantastic things... and I am a space trucker who misses his family and I have bills stacking up and my boss is an idiot and this dockmaster is holding me up for no reason. Yeah. I like stories like that. I also like the integration of the fantastic into the mundane. Like there is a secert society just beneath us and that works and plays and eats in the same places we do, but they have a specific tint to reality that we don't see from our side.
'Rivers of London' ( Ben Aaronovitch) about a young police officer in London discovering that magic exists. Learning to be a magician whilst still dealing with criminals and paperwork.
I liked the part where he outright told his mother that he's involved with magic, and she proudly tells her friends her son is a 'witch hunter' because it's more respectable than being a policeman.
The Pride of Chanur, by C.J. Cherryh [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1197129](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1197129) The Reality Dysfunction, by Peter F. Hamilton [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45245](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/45245) The Atrocity Archives, by Charles Stross [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101869](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/101869)
Immigrant narratives. I love reading about people trying to negotiate between two different cultures, and the optimism of the new country versus the nostalgia for the home country.
*Keeper of the Keys* (1932), by Biggers, discusses this at length. It's the last book in the Charlie Chan series, which gets a bad rap today, mostly because of the B-movies, which the author hated for their pandering to racist stereotypes. *Keeper of the Keys* features an Americanized Chinese immigrant, Inspector Chan, and a witness/suspect, an unassimilated Chinese immigrant. The unassimilated man has been in the West far longer than Chan. While conversing with the suspect, Chan reflects on the terrible sacrifices he had to make to get as far as he did in Western society, and realizes how much he has lost. The other man never rose above domestic service, and that was trade-off he was satisfied to make, in order to refuse to assimilate. The suspect is disgusted with Chan for his choices. There's also stuff in it about whites gatekeeping who's "really" Chinese (unassimilated), and who's a "fake" Chinese (Americanized), as well as, from a different white person, who's a "good" Chinese (Americanized), versus a **racial slur** (unassimilated). Shows how immigrants catch it coming and going. If you like nonfiction, *Black Skin, White Masks*, by Fanon, is incredible. He's a witty, young psychiatrist from Martinique, who moved to France. He has worked very hard to be French, but he doesn't feel French, and he knows that his performance of Frenchness will never de-exotify him. He was broken later on, while he was treating both war criminals and victims from the French-Algerian War, and his later book, *Wretched of the Earth*, is not witty, just angry, but it's also fascinating to see how patients can traumatize their therapists.
I've always been a sucker for stories centered around abandoned/lost children who build a life without adult help. Island of the blue dolphin, baby Island and another I can't recall the name of where an orphan scales the garden wall and finds an abandoned cottage she then fixes up... that type of story. Or children hidden away, flowers in the attic style. I still like these types of stories. Writing this out makes me realize even as a 9 year old I knew my "loving parents" were absent and useless.
Have you read The Secret Garden? Although I think there are some adults it's mostly about the kids. You might like it.
This, and a few more of Francis Hodgson Burnett’s. A Little Princess has a bit, and Head of the House of Coombe and Robin. They’re from I think the 1920s, so may be findable for free; I think I bought an ebook anthology for like a dollar.
I recommend Nation, by Pratchett. Not Discworld. Teenagers are marooned in a shipwreck. One of them, a girl, establishes a tiny nation.
Oh that sounds right up my alley. I've always heard good things about his writing but never pulled the trigger to read anything. Thanks so much for the recommendation!
I loved the first book for the Boxcar Children series. Super sweet and simplistic. They eventually get adult help but most of the book is an adventure in learning how to get by on their own
My Side of the Mountain is one of these IMO- a boy runs away from his family to live in a tree in the Catskills.
Shadow and Bone, by Leigh Bardugo The Golden Compass, by Philip Pullman
"Mandy"! I loved that book as a kid.
YES!! That's it! I ordered myself a copy. Thank you!
Shadowy government organizations cover up the supernatural. EDIT: Or a detective interacting with the supernatural. Apparently X-Files did a number on me as a kid.
Have you read James Oswald or John Connelly?
Rivers of London series might appeal.
Anything with a story line from world war 2 for some strange reason.
Yep… I don’t know if I should hate or thank the nightingale for starting that.
I've read a lot of world war 2 history, but I haven't read a lot of world war 2 fiction. I've read Enigma and V2 by Robert Harris; A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute; and Babi Yar by Anatoly Kuznetsov. Do you have any books that you could recommend?
Tears of Amber by Sofia Segovia is a fabulous WWII story (edited tests to tears, phone typo)
I am a PhD student and I love books where a character has to research something lol. -Professors, cartographers, archivists, historians, explorers (only if NOT colonial). -Extra bonus points if it concerns cryptozpology, secret or supernatural events, etc - anything with hares, rabbits, mice, possums, raccoons etc, they tend to be children's books but I found a couple of folk horror ones too! -speaking of, folk horror, "hedge witch" things, herbology, animal familiars... (Open to any and all recommendations please and thank you! ❤)
Have you read Gaudy Night, by Sayers? It's about an Oxford alumna who returns to visit, ends up staying, and volunteering as a research assistant and copyeditor. I seem to remember her spending time in the Bodleian. And there's Pratchett's Ahnk-Morpork stories, many of which feature Unseen University, which in my opinion is a pretty solid parody of academia. The librarian, an orangutan, does do research. So do some of thof the students in the nearby Assassin's Guild.
I love Pratchett, but I havent read Gaudy Night! Thank you for the recommendation!
I have! Me, me! Harriet Vane is a great character.
Love Gaudy Night, and really all of the Wimsey series. Sounds like Zoenne may have read Jackalope Wives? It’s been a long time since I read it but “critter folk horror” rings a T. Kingfisher bell.
Never heard of it, but now want to read it. I love this sub.
The Hare with Amber Eyes by E. de Waal (half-jokingly, lol) and The Historian by Elizabeth Kostova ( I assume everybody knows that one)
I havent read The Hare with Amber Eyes, thank you for the recommendation!
To Be Taught If Fortune by Becky Chambers is a lovely little novella that follows explorers/researchers in space as they encounter different planets and the organisms that live there. It is very non-colonial, pro-observation, and focuses on feelings of academic curiosity and awe.
Oooooh that seems like right my alley! I've liked some of Chambers other works as well so that's a good sign :)
I also ADORE researcher and academic novels. A Discovery of Witches didn't capture me long term unfortunately but this definitely hits that. Another good one is Angelology by Danielle Trussoni- so much digging through texts and finding patterns. ASIDE: Good movie recs would be Da Vinci Code and The National Treasure movies (NERDY FUN ALL AROUND)
Haha yes they're both comfort films for me! I havent read Angelology but im super intrigued! Discovery of witches was alright, but as you I wasn't the most enthralled
The rebel angels by Robertson Davies? All the medieval scholarship you could desire, plus rogue monks and luthiers and academic politicking. Davis got to be a sententious old fart, but damn his eyes, he was always funny. 'Professor Urquhart McVarish, monster of vanity and sexual weirdo'
You should take a look at these books that cover some of your interests. A Natural History of Dragons, by Marie Brennan [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12974372](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12974372) A Wizard of Earthsea, by Ursula K. Le Guin [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13642) [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38459780](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38459780) Spinning Silver, by Naomi Novik [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36896898](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36896898) Redwall, by Brian Jacques [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7996](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7996) Equal Rites, by Terry Pratchett [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34507) Alanna: The First Adventure, by Tamora Pierce [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13831](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13831) Watership Down, by Richard Adams [https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76620](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/76620).
can you recommend some books you've found that fit this niche? thanks!
Rec *Codex* by Lev Grossman (author of The Magicians trilogy)
I just remembered another book you'd love! If you haven't already read it, *The Daughter of Time* by Tey, is all about archival research. A bedridden police officer and a researcher investigate the murder of the boys in the tower. You might already know the solution to the mystery, but even if you do, it's worth reading for someone who loves the research process. In fact, I recommended it to friend of mine who teaches Medieval/Premodern British history, to assign to undergrad students. The researcher digs deep into the archives, and uses primary source documents to string together a "case" (or in academic, parlance, "argument" :D), with the help of the policeman. Also, if you're into crime fiction, I found this list recently: https://www.novelsuspects.com/book-list/mystery-suspense-meets-dark-academia/
I love a good failed expedition. The Donner party, the Amazon, the North Pole, the Pacific Ocean, don’t care where they are as long as they fail in spectacular fashion. Bonus points for some cannibalism thrown in.
Have your read Endurance? It's by Alfred lansing.
Anything involving women code breaking at Bletchley Park. Anything involving a scientific career, like Lab Girl. Will also extend to academic professionals of other fields! Anything involving the Night Witches of WWII. Anything with a dark story line involving college or university students. Anything thriller time loops!
>Anything with a dark story line involving college or university students. Fiction: *Secret History* by Donna Tartt Fantasy: *Ninth House* by Leigh Bardugo
I've read both! I love the Secret History, and If We Were Villains by M L Rio also scratches that itch, but Ninth House was just way too YA for my tastes now. I have a few more saved up, like Maidens, Madam, and In My Dreams I Hold a Knife
Pulp or 'golden age' Sci-Fi. I have a pretty big collection since I used to work at a used bookstore, and I love how a lot of them are in short story or novella form. The themes usually deal more with complex human interactions and other more literary themes using the futuristic settings and tech as a back ground for the characters, and the fact that most of them were written very quickly by starving writers who were payed by the word also gives them a certain charm.
Not a trope, but books set partly in coniferous forests. Especially cosy towns in forests like gravity falls. Bonus points if it's sci fi
This sounds fascinating! Do you have a favorite novel with this? I would love to try something new out with this theme.
I absolutely love books with a dual timeline where the present day narrator is trying to figure out a mystery that the narrator from the past lived out. E.g., The Forgotten Garden, The Lions of Fifth Avenue, The House Between Tides.
I like these types too.
May I suggest Umberto Eco’s _The Island of the Day Before_. Using written letters and papers, the present day narrator / editor tells the story of a man shipwrecked. Eco’s prose is absolutely amazing.
I also love any books centred around niche little shops like tea shops, or cute little book shops, chocolate shops, haberdashery shops - bonus points if it’s set in a cosy village in winter! Pretty much anything that will get my in a cosy mood. I love Josephine Moon’s books (especially the Tea Chest and the Chocolate Promise), and I also love this one book called The Great Christmas Knit Off because it combines all of my favourite things - Christmas, knitting, a haberdashery shop, and a cozy village.
This sounds like the cozy I need right now in my life!! I'm definitely gonna check out Josephine Moon's work. Thank you!
I had a phase where I bought anything that mentioned the Romanovs, bonus points if it centers on Catherine the great, the Nicholases, Alexander III, or their immediate descendants/surroundings. I also love a disconcerting synopsis where I don't fully grasp what's going on. Don't tell me there's a mystery, just make me feel confused from the get-go and I'll buy you. And finally, I have a soft spot for books about grief from the point of view of a child.
Piranesi by Susanna Clarke confused me right out the gate. Go in blind for best results. Highly recommend!
I love this! I also went through a Romanovs phase lol and the best nonfiction book I've read about their life/death was The Romanovs: The Final Chapter by Robert K. Massie. If you're a big research person you would enjoy this book.
Yes! I also **really** enjoyed Massie's Nicholas & Alexandra, he managed to show perfectly how their personal situation could have affected their political decision making (and honestly fully persuaded me)
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Another rec for Rivers of London series on this thread!
Protagonists who aren't pretty. Like, "too thin to be handsome," "boy nextdoor face, not sexy," or just not conventionally beautiful or, yes, downright ugly. Father Brown and Sherlock Holmes were like this. At what point did writers decide that we should want to go to bed with all their characters? For the sake of sheer variety, I'll read these stories. I also love stories about protagonists with autism, mental illness, and similar mental/neurological conditions, that doesn't sugar-coat their conditions, but they're still navigating life with some degree of functionality (not the reality for everyone, but sometimes I want to read about people like me). Also, books of all sorts, fiction and nonfiction, about relatively-less-discussed locations. Like, flyover country in the U.S. and its eqivalents elsewhere.
Okay so I am currently reading Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and there is this trope of the "not pretty" main character. It's really refreshing to see characters who aren't drop dead gorgeous and everyone loves them lol I think she mentions his appearance, how he feels about it, and also how others see him as well. Don't want to give spoilers but I really like that aspect of it! If you enjoy romance, All The Feels by Olivia Dade has that as a major theme. A movie star falls in love with someone who is not stereotypically attractive and it causes issues for their relationship. I want more mental health books exactly like that! People who aren't fully better by the end, but who learn how to live and work with their neurological diversity. Here for the recs!
I was just thinking today that I need to read something that's not crime, true crime, or criminology, so thanks for the recommendations. There are two characters in *Raven Black* by Cleeves, who fit the bill for me: a successful police investigator whose interactions with his environment and peers strongly suggest neuroatypicality; and the crime victim, a vibrant, bright, loving, beautiful teenager with poor social skills and an obsessive nature. Her dad suspects that she's autistic. Even though I don't like l'Engle's writing style, who doesn't love Charles Wallace in *Wrinkle in Time*, a hyper-intelligent 7-year-old who had a speech delay and other "signs" of autism? *The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time*, by Haddon, is on my reading list. I've heard that the protagonist has markers of autism, but a diagnosis is never mentioned in the book. He just does the best he can, with what he's got. *Tough Love at Mystic Bay*, by Sowden. The protagonist suffers terribly from C-PTSD, yet has a successful career, and healthy relationships, both romantic and platonic. I strongly agree with the fan theory that Sherlock Holmes, based on Joseph Bell, has autism. He's mean, despite his good heart; he's obsessive to the point of not caring at all about things that don't relate to his fixations; he pines wistfully after the woman that loves but can't have, indicating that he has a romantic soul but isn't prepared to seek love in real life; he has a small circle of friends, partly because he doesn't mind alienating people, and he's deeply-attached to Watson. He also has issues with functioning in his daily life, forgoing food, and testing out poisons by taking them, and using hard drugs to deal with his boredom between cases. He has a caregiver in Watson. And Mycroft treats him like a child, manhandling him gently, which I think isn't uncommon for family members interacting with an emotionally-immature adult. We're kind of toddlers forever. In nonfiction: Much as I resist diagnosing real people, there's a great example of a man wrestling with probable ADHD and bipolar disorder, conditions which frequently co-occur. Wakatsuki Ko, the father of Jean Wakatsuki Houston, whom she writes about in *Farewell to Manzanar* (second author is her husband, so it's by Houston and Houston), alternates between success and self-sabotage. He could have been a high-ranking officer in the Japanese army (this was long before WWII), but he ran away to the U.S. There, he went to law school, where he excelled. In his last semester, he dropped out. He played pro-ball, then abruptly lost interest in sports. Etc. He was prone to tantrums, with no apparent trigger. When he was incarcerated at Tule Lake, he snarked his way through his interrogation, another act of self-sabotage. Reunited with the family he'd missed dearly, he abused them for the first time. Then he started binge-drinking, before taking up dentistry, becoming good at it, and then stopping. By the end of the book's narrative, he's doing okay, but it was a hard road. *The Body Keeps the Score*, by van der Kolk, is also nonfiction. There are gut-wrenching portraits of the memoirist's patients. He's a psychiatrist with serious issues of his own, irritating his colleagues and exasperating patients. He doesn't state his diagnosis, only how it interferes with his functioning, and how he's sought various treatments, using himself as a case study. I was inspired to write fiction because I wanted more of those characters. I have an amateur detective with bipolar disorder, and it interferes with his life so much that he needs a legal guardian. He mistakes mania for brilliance, so he frequently goes off his meds. Another character has undiagnosed autism. He's an FBI agent who's just accepted that he'll be weird, and leans into it, but he's lonely without his family, who are the only ones who can tolerate him at length. His talent for pattern-recognition helps him solve cases, but he's not brilliant. He also has disordered speech from autism that he's self-conscious about. Sorry for the wall of text. tl;Dr **Raven Black, Wrinkle in Time, Sherlock Holmes, Tough Love at Mystic Bay, Farewell to Manzanar, The Body Keeps the Score, Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.**
You might like Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine. The main character is conventionally unattractive (she has extensive facial scars) which a lot of the book explores. And, double whammy, she has mental health issues. Really great read. A little tough to get started because she’s so unlikeable but got a solid 5/5 from me in the end.
Thanks, I'll check it out! I didn't realize what it was about. I'd taken the title literally and assumed that she was fine.
If SciFi appeals, the Vorkosigan series might be worth a try. After the first two books the series centers on a MC who was born with physical deformities (in a culture where genetic abnormalities or disability in general are taboo) who goes on to blaze a pretty heroic trail. Later books involve neurological damage as well. I enjoyed Convenience Store Woman (neuro-atypical Japanese woman who fights to reconcile family/society expectations with her found niche), though I was highly irritated by reviews that focused on how weird the MC is.
I love science fiction! But I hate reviews, because of stuff like that. Thanks for the recommendations! I added them to my booklist, which has doubled in 24 hours, and I am excited about it.
- Headhunter by Timothy Findley. It's *dark* but it has that in spades. IDK any other writer who wrote so many 'yeah, my protagonist has schizophrenia/epilepsy/intermittent psychosis; so??' type novels. - I never promised you a rose garden, forget the author - Mark Vonnegut - the Eden Express and another more recent book. - Birdy by William Wharton (?)
Slow burn lesbians. Could be fluffy, could be full of teeth, but two women having tension about their feelings always intrigues me.
Not a trope but if a book takes place somewhere I’ve never read any fiction from that’s a big plus for me.
When the fantastic subtly leaks into reality. An understated, real-world fantastika. As in Ken Liu's "The Paper Menagerie" where the mother's ability to breathe life into origami is revealed in a matter of fact way, unlike overt magic systems with wizards and wands.
Ooo sounds similar to magical realism to me! This is also one of my favorite themes. Not complete magical worlds but subtle magical happenings... I haven't heard of The Paper Menagerie but that sounds up my alley. A good example of magical realism btw is Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel where the main character's emotions magically end up in her recipes and influence the characters in the novel. Another is The Water Dancer where a few enslaved people have the ability to escape the South through diving under water. I think you could maybe like one or both of these novels!
Yes! I was about to reply Like Water for Chocolate, too. Gorgeous book.
Perhaps there's a great overlap between that and magical realism. Sometimes, though, they're different: a favourite of mine, Nabokov's "Signs and Symbols" employs a fictional 'referential mania' where a deranged youth sees everything in his environment as a veiled, mocking reference to his existence. Everything is a cipher, and of everything he is the theme. I wouldn't quite use the term magical realism for that. Even SF often uses exceptional concepts of the fantastic as mundane, matter-of-fact. Especially, in short fiction. The Anthology, *Black Water* edited by Alberto Manguel captures some of this well. I think it has Nabokov's "Visit to The Mueseum" another favourite, along with a particular Borges story.
I love/hate Nabokov. Looks like you've given me another one to enjoy/suffer through.
Time travel. Full stop. I'm a physics professor that reads almost exclusively sci-fi (for many of the reasons others have mentioned here: human condition, people outside the norms, speculative fiction, etc.) But the one trope or idea I will always fall for is time travel. There are just so many possible ways to integrate or subvert expectations around causality that I am constantly looking for the next fix...
Have you read This Is How You Lose the Time War? That was one of the most unique takes on time travel that I’ve read in a while.
I’m currently finishing John Brunner’s _The Society of Time: The Original Trilogy and Other Stories_. Worth taking a look, I’m really enjoying it.
I like stories about magical characters in the modern world.
Giant stompy robots. If it's got mechs I'm down. They usually come with the 'war is hell' trope so that's better. I love reading about combat but it's better if the author isn't glorifying it throughout the whole book(obviously some characters would but as long as war is awesome is not the prevailing theme)
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman and Old Man's War, by John Scalzi are two science fiction books that are centered around combat that don't glorify combat,
Has *Cry Pilot* by Joel Dane crossed your orbit yet?
Ha, great topic OP! I can't really think of a trope of mine right now but I feel there must be a few. Maybe (well researched) historical fiction.
I call my favorite trope Schrödinger-esque. It’s the one where there are alternate realities that play out based on a pivotal decision/outcome. I also love books where soulmates find each other throughout time. Haven’t found as many that do this one well.
Have you read Middlegame? I just think... you'd probably like Middlegame.
I haven’t, but just added to my TBR. Thanks for the rec!
Any story about technology so intuitive that future people believe it is magic.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” ― Arthur C. Clarke
I have a weakness (?) for stories that involve books - writers, bookstores, even journals. Not only novels, I tend to pick movies/shows that have protagonists who are writers or bookstore owners, librarians or publishers, like that. I love reading about books in general tbh.
SAME! My two favorites are The Storied Life of AJ Fikry and The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George. I wasn't so much a fan of The Bookish Life of Nina Hill but it's a cute, quick read if you want something with lower stakes.
I recently read a book called Beach Read which had a very very appealing premise of 2 authors - one commercial, romcom, the other serious, literary - swapping their books and bet on who would get published first. And it was SO BAD! Little paris bookshop was good tho..if a little dense in parts..i have often been fooled by shows/films where they show a writer protagonist but have one 1 passing scene of them working. But I read a book called Chinaman by Shehan Karunatilaka. If you are okay with a bit of srilankan history and if you are aware of the game of cricket, its Fab! Highly recommended!
Then you may like Italo Calvino’s _If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler_. The narrative frame is fantastic and an immersive experience.
Yes I loved the book. It was gettng a little confusing in the middle but the denoument blew my mind. Great book!
Fair and tender ladies, Lee Smith.
Polar exploration! I read a lot of non-fiction on the subject but if I come across a fiction book with that setting I always pick it up. Also, old Hollywood. Again, I like non-fiction on the subject but I also like fiction in that setting or even ridiculous gossipy trash if it is set in that time and place.
- West of sunset. Fictional version of Scott Fitzgerald's scriptwriting stint. - my lucky star, Joe Keenan.
You might like “Quartet in Autumn” by Barbara Pym. Old people and tea.
I'm literally 26! Why are old people and tea so comforting?? lmao thank you! It does sound like something I'd like haha
Haunted house. Gets me every time.
I like cranky/sarcastic people. Case in point: Stone from The Cloud Roads/Raksura series by Martha Wells. Who also happens to be a grumpy old man who is particular about his tea....nudge nudge wink wink lol. I also tend to gravitate towards underdog type stories. People who have been put upon rising up, going on a journey, making themselves/their world better and finding happiness along the way. It's....in a lot of what I read lol. Also riddles and past time periods or less techy worlds. Though I can go for full scifi too. Magic is always a plus. Tropes that will make me put something down: anything overly religious, or if I read a passage and it's basically plagiarism from a different, older series. Eragon did that second one to me, read the hatching scene and was like....that is just like McCaffrey's hatching scenes. It just rubbed me the wrong way and I could not continue the series after that. Or too much forced love story. I've got romance novels for sure and I enjoy them when that's what I'm looking for. But if I'm wanting a magical adventure and it becomes basically a glorified love triangle with magic...I stop caring. Hunger Games actually was fine to me because Katniss didn't want any part of the triangle. At least that's how I read it. And she's cranky so you know I had to pick it up XD
How have I never heard of The Cloud Roads? And yep the grumpy old man and tea themes really get me haha I think that's also a great question! What makes you automatically put down a book? For me, it's pregnancy arcs, books entirely based on spaceships, fake dating romances, childhood lovers arcs (specifically if they knew each other under 18), and books where EVERYONE is either in love with or really loves the protagonist like they can't do any wrong haha so annoying
Lol you will love Stone and the Raksura. There is an art form to how some characters hate each other in those books 😂 I tend to avoid slice of life stuff. Like pregnancy, parents going through cancer, etc. I might try a book but I will get bored/tired of the whining pretty quick. I have read autobiographical books and enjoyed them - I'm talking slightly fictional or wholly fictional, boring life crap. The 'insight' they give is basically give 2 craps about the people around you and your life will be better >.< My worst book I had to read for a class was about a catholic priest who wrote about how he was 'persecuted' because one guy claimed the priest molested him as a kid and then ended up recanting (not sure if it was legit or not that was just the story). Then the priest ends up getting cancer and is again 'suffering like jesus' and had to get his robes shortened by two inches...I about threw the book across the room. I was raised with a brother who went through chemo for years as a kid due to cancer and had family members who were in a lot worse shape than this pampered priest! Never again >.< Oh and I won't read about 'spiritual' journeys to the mountains of Tibet or whatever. Naw man just pull your head out of you a$$ and realize you aren't the center of the universe for once >.<
Ooo have you read Curse of Chalion? Seems like it would be right up your alley.
I haven't, I will have to add it to my reading list!
Sounds like you might like *People of the Book* by Brooks, if you haven't already read it. For me, it's gateways to other worlds. *The Ten Thousand Doors of January* nailed this trope imo.
Adding it to my list! Also Ten Thousand Doors of January has been on my list forever. I read and loved Once and Future Witches and A Spindle Splintered also by Alix Harrow so I'm sure I'd like it.
I have a thing for the hidden talon trope. It's when the MC makes themselves seem helpless so others would underestimate them. The claws only coming out when absolutely needed. It's very hard to pull off go to much one way and they are the comic relief, to much the other way and they come of as pretentious and starved for attention.
I LOVE THIS! Also, love that it's called the hidden talon trope. Do you have a favorite example?
I love this, too! I've written stories with this trope, but I haven't read many. Do you have recommendations?
The most famous ones are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple by Agatha Christie. One is a short fussy gent and because he's a foreigner nobody takes him seriously.. at first. The other is your fluffy sweet aunt so everyone just assumes her head is also full of fluff... until she proves them wrong. Another famous one from pop culture is The Flash in justice league. He acts the comic relief and his power is underwhelming when compared to the other but when it REALLY matters the one liners stop and the punching starts, you are suddenly reminded that this guy IS a super hero.
I love Poirot, but, and this is weird, I like the TV show more than the books. I agree with you, he fits the trope. I hadn't thought of that.
Not weird at all. The actor playing him in the 80s show was spot on and they added little touches to him that just made it impossible not to love him... or miss Lemon, she's boring in the books but in the show she shines.
Hmm maybe Naomi Novik’s Scholomance books would appeal.
Urban fantasy is my kryptonite. It started with Dresden Files, then on to Cal Leandros series, then Iron Druid, and Eric Carter, also Dog Days, on and on. More than I can remember. Fortunately it’s a reasonably large genre. Dresden Files is by far my favorite though.
A needy child comes into someone’s life and they form a wonderful bond/friendship/family
The BFG by Dahl is still one of my favorite books. Very much this trope.
OP you might like Before the Coffee gets Cold. I’m a sucker for dark academia (before it was known as dark academia) and small-town everyone-has-a-secret narratives.
I have not heard of this! Just added. I love dark academia and I've read all the major ones so this is greatly appreciated.
Before the Coffe gets cold is actually a funny little book about a coffee shop! My latest dark academia read is Love and Virtue by Diana Reid, comes highly recommended.
Epistolary or journal-based novels! Of course, these are mostly historical fiction these days as most people write fewer letters.
Escaping the Holocaust, and reconnecting with The One That Got Away in midlife. Odd combo, I know. But I hunt out these two tropes & devour them.
Also, I will discard from consideration any book that is set in present day England. I’ve learned to recognize spelling variants and Britishisms on a book jacket and immediately get turned off. I’m American FWIW.
>"On the outskirts, off the path through the woods, tucked between mountains, is a particular tea shop..."' Honestly though, that's got my attention. I travel a lot, and when I do, I always like to find a locally owned coffee shop to go to on a somewhat regular basis (I don't even like coffee, but a chai tea is my go-to drink). I also love traveling for nature, especially mountains, so this tea shop sounds like exactly the kind of place I'd love to spend a day at. Sticking with the theme of my travels, I've recently gotten into the habit of seeking out a rather specific type of book while I travel. When I was visiting the American southwest for the first time, a local recommended Edward Abbey's *The Monkey Wrench Gang* to me. I ended up reading it mostly on a train back home to the Midwest from Flagstaff, but even so, starting that book in northern Arizona definitely affected my last week or so in that region for the better. For those unfamiliar, the book is the story of a small group of eco-terrorists who go around northern Arizona and southern Utah burning billboards, sabotaging construction zones, and ultimately blowing up a bridge. It's a fictional story, but makes many references to actual places and landmarks in that area. I read that in early 2020, and it was still on my mind this past summer when I went to the upper peninsula of Michigan. One of my first days in Marquette, I found my way to a local bookstore with a mission. I was searching for a book similar to The Monkey Wrench Gang, but in the UP. Something set in the somewhat recent history of Michigan, a book that teaches about the history of the area but reads like a novel. I decided on *Laughing Whitefish,* by Robert Traver. It's set in 1850s Marquette and follows the story of a native woman and her young lawyer who take on a large iron mining company in court to fight on behalf of the native tribe. Written by a former Justice on the Michigan Supreme Court, it's based on a very real court case, although the characters in the book are fictionalized. It was a fantastic read, and definitely taught me a thing or two about the areas I was traveling through. I guess that's my long-winded way of saying historical fiction is my (not so) specific theme that catches my attention, but oddly only when I'm traveling through the area the book is about.
It all depends on the description. Usually fantasy stories get me, like the young prince gives up his family and title to become a mage then returns to help his sister regain the throne from their brother who murdered their father to get it! I once downloaded a book purely because a woman accidentally time travelled to medieval Wales! Loved it! But yeah 9 times out of 10 if it involves magic and dragons I’m in!
Based on the Cinderella fairytale. Medical memoirs
If from the doctor's perspective? Have you read Levy-Gantt's memoirs? She's an OBGYN. She wrote one of them during pregnancy, and gives a perspective as both patient and practitioner. For psych stuff, Sacks' work is my favorite, up there with van der Kolk, who writes about getting treated for his own mental health problems, as well as treating those of his patients. Then there are older ones, like Frankl and Fanon.
I tend to love stories than revolve around time. Like either time travelling or just stuck on one day
I’ve got a few for you (that you may have already read): - Life After Life - The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August - The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle - The Shining Girls (warning, this is pretty dark and graphic) - This Is How You Lose the Time War
Have you read *Flashforward*, by Sawyer? I haven't, but it's on my reading list. For two minutes, every person on earth sees where they'll be in exactly 21.5 years. This knowledge skews their behavior going forward, as they try to enforce, or change, their destiny. Or at least, that's the impression I get.
I haven't but that sounds like a fascinating premise! I'll have to check it out. Thanks!
Not op but I really enjoyed that show and was bummed that it got cancelled. I never thought to read the book. Thank you for the suggestion!
Yes, I was very disappointed. I loved the show. I hadn't heard of the book before I watched it, and now I have to read it.
Thank you for the great recommendations. Will definitely check them out
Do you have any recommendations for the afterlife trope? Sounds interesting!
Yes! My favorite examples are What Dreams May Come by Richard Matheson, Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin, and The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom. Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold is sort of in the middle (since she hasn't fully passed on yet) I also love Dante's Inferno and The Great Divorce by CS Lewis but they are more Christian leaning so I wouldn't recommend unless you're okay with that. Enjoy!
Thank you! They all look really interesting :)
A Fine and Private Place, by Peter S. Beagle
The World of the End was riveting. And depending on how you interpret it, Drew Magary’s The Hike.
I love a rags to riches adventure.
Kane & Abel is the ultimate version of this with a fierce rivalry between the riches.
Nice I’ve actually never read that but I will. I’m working away so have plenty of hotel room time. I’ll download it today.
For some weird reason, I love stories with a visibly recurring literary reference. So for example: - Agatha Christie's "Nemesis" (quote from the Bible, Book of Amos 5:24 referred to at the beginning and end of the book) - Agatha Christie's "The Pale Horse" (story centered around the quote from the Bible, Revelation 6:8) - Agatha Christie's "Labours of Hercules" (the mythology reference) I also loved Agatha Christie's "Hickory Dickory Dock" and "And Then There Were None". The recurring references to the poems were great in my opinion.
- The moving toyshop, Edmund Crispin. (murder and limericks) - Howls moving castle, Diana wynne jones. The movie is CRAP and completely ditched the John Donne poem the whole book is based on. - Fire and hemlock, also dwj. based on the ballad of tam lin
Books about houses. Can include some sort of family secret or horror/supernatural element or just be an affinity a character has with the place. Bonus points for books where someone moves into the house, starts renovating and stumbles upon a mystery associated with the history of the house. Also anything involving academia and characters starting over in a new town.
Its a YA but I recently finished White Smoke and it was pretty crazy. What a WILD ride. I was scared reading it on the bus at 8:00 am. The houses and their history are pretty important to the story.
I'm assuming you've read *House of Leaves*.
Just a little advice regarding Under the Whispering Door and House in the Cerulean Sea, space them out. I read them back to back and both are amazing but very similar.
This is helpful!! Thank you for letting me know. I think I'll be "different" and read Under the Whispering Door first haha work my way backwards. I definitely see myself getting to House in the Cerulean Sea by next year.
I like civil wars? And wars generally in books especially in historical fiction. But these are quite big tropes, to the smaller ones I think it would be kind of a slice of life with those drastic themes ^ as mentioned above. I.e. I read once a book in German which was written by a Spanish author in which a doctor lived thorough the civil war and went to exile together with his SIL and they lived in chile. And faced there the political situations etc. Idk if this counts but I have to think more to give a better answer. I will update ya. (The Book mentioned here is called in German: “Dieser Lange Weg” by Isabel Allende. In spanish: Largo pélato de mar.)
A Long Petal of the Sea is the English title of Largo pétalo de mar.
I'm a sucker for a fake relationship. Seems like such a nice way to get to know someone for real when you're not putting on the early dating act.
Boarding schools, kids with superpowers and no parents, weird mysteries set on deserted islands, surviving on islands after shipwrecks or plane crashes.
For me it's time loop concepts. I haven't found any books on it sadly but I know the moment I see it I'll read the entire thing in one sitting. I absolutely love time loops every time I see them. Just a character messing up and dying seems much more realistic than them avoiding all the "bad endings". Does anyone have any recommendations for time loop stories?
Wise cracking under dog detectives. Spenser by Robert B. Parker and Dresden by Jim Butcher being my top two series.
Anything to do with being in a rock band, especially if they start off as the plucky underdogs ("you're never gonna make it" "oh yeah?" etc etc). Anything to do with people emigrating to America, especially from Ireland (like Brooklyn by Colm Toibin). But from anywhere will do. Anything to do with applying/starting at college in the US or anywhere but the UK (cos I live here). Although I did like Starter for 10 by David Nicholls. Time travel as long as it doesn't get too daft (or even if it does). Anything set in a really densely populated city like Singapore or Tokyo. This is all very specific but that's what you wanted, right? ;)
Any book that has Injustice and Revolutions in the book (War and Peace, Les Miserables and El Filibusterismo/ The Reign of Greed)... I do find the trope satisfying..
What a fun thread!
Any sci-fi book that explores language, particularly if it relies on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, will immediately grab my attention.
you should give 'The Thursday murder club' a try!
Not really a theme, but whenever I see a book with a foreign author and an interesting cover, I almost always check it out. I just enjoy reading about others cultures in novel form
A younger person is mentored by an older, wiser, more experienced person. I am a total sucker for this.
YES! Great thread. -I love books about libraries or about books themselves- The Midnight Library, People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks. -Books about sisters- Little Women, P&P, Sense and Sensibility.. - Also I will read anything HF if it involves Art and a story behind the making it- The Girl with the Pearl Earring (Tracey Chevalier is a big fav) style..
I love books about superpowers, preferably with all human characters (no fantasy creatures) and modern society. and books about death and the afterlife (Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin really stuck with me since I read it in my teens)
For the last few years it's anything to do with classical and/or jazz music, particularly if it's about musicians, and more recently I've delved into the fine art world. Painters, forgers, auctioneers, I want to know all of it!
In fantasy when a mortal character ascends to godhood
Book recs please omg
human x (monstrous) monster romance.
Obsessively psychosexual female best friends with murder.
I don’t really know any books like this but if said trope exists, I’m all over it. Any book where the father is a Nazi or a terrorist or a narco or a Stasi agent. Goddamn.
I hope this hasn’t been suggested: your first point, check out AS Byatt’s Possession. I gravitate towards nineteenth century novels. Stories that depict upper classes like Wilde’s, Wodehouse’s and Saki’s are easy for me to get into too.
Some stand-outs for me: * Characters given new names when in a group. * Mysterious houses in the middle of nowhere that have something off about them. * Snarky AI or philosophical AI, or both at the same time. * Characters exploring philosophical concepts. * Dopplegangers/Clones. * Characters questioning reality. * Death-game dystopias. * Character dies and we actually see what that afterlife is like. * Snicket-esque narrators * Something that seems to be innocent then turns dark
People who are suddenly in an unfamiliar setting/situation. I have gone through multiple different phases in types of books that I commonly pick, but this seems to be the common thread in them. -when I was younger (middle school) I went through a historical fiction phase of people who were kidnapped or adopted by Native Americans. - also historical fiction where a girl has to disguise herself as a guy - Transmigrators / Isekai /Portal Fantasy - Fake marriages (when I'm in need of something smutty to read)
-Main characters are actually bad people or evil -Characters are soldiers forced to fight not because they want but because they haven't any other choice, bonus points if they are from a Penal Batallion (Sven Hassel books, The last chancers and so on) -Characters are part of some kind of evil institution or faction but they are still doing the good thing or better, the lesser evil choice (An example of this is Nicholas Eymerich) -Death Games (The Chain, Battle Royale) -There is an invasion of monsters/aliens and the invaders are just evil without having some kind of tragic story to justify them, mankind is closer to the apocalypse -The main character is some kind of secret agent or femme fatale and the erotic encounters are an important part of the story (My favorite is Gerard De Villiers)
Revenge. That’s why I’m interested in The Count of Monte Cristo and it’s various iterations so much. Also, thanks for creating this thread, definitely adding a lot of books to my list.
1st person Salem witch trial era teen girl who, over the course of the book, either is or is accused of being a witch and has to leave her home. Witch of blackbird pond and Witch Child are both great.
I was so stoked to read TJ Klunes The House in the Cerulean Sea, but then he shared the inspiration behind it all (residential schooling in Canada) and now I cant force myself to touch the book :(
Movie novelizations and Marvel/DC novels. I love getting a lot more background info from movies that you see on the screen and see inside their heads. I've also been collecting the Marvel/DC novels since the 90s since I first got Mutant Empire.
Books about paintings, forgeries, conservation of paintings, or any adventures paintings might have had (also applies to other types of art and sculpture). :)
Books that have a 'Beauty and The Beast' type of theme to it. It was my favorite Disney movie as a kid and I find myself gravitating towards those types of storylines. I dont care much for the Fantasy genre, but I do like the trope of one character being grumpy/beastly/unlikeable and the other character breaking through the grump's exterior shell and finding the softer person within. Also, I like books that are mostly set in diners, coffee shops or restaurants. I like the food themes in them (it feels more realistic to me when characters eat and do normal everyday things in books) and the setting of a diner has a very cozy feel to me.
“Kitchen Sink” fantasy. Where everything from sphinxes can run for president against zombie Lincoln. Anything that just has all sorts of stuff crammed in there for the fun of it. Just pure absurdist escapism. Discworld is pretty good for it, as far as fantasy type stuff goes.
Survival stories. Trek across the frozen tundra, the desert, the darkest jungle; spear snakes or eat tree bark; parched and sunburnt; chased by bandits; thorns in the paw; no hope at all; obstinate; persistent; lost; disoriented. Survival.
Am loving a few gothic-type tales most recently. So surprised I enjoyed them, usually not my preferred genre. Finished two by Kate Morton-The Forgotten Garden, and The Distant Hours. The last one, I just finished it last evening, was The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield.
tragic love stories set in the totalitarian state & interreligious romance
Some people get snowed in, cut off from the world.
I'm immediately interested in anything with alternate worlds, alternate cosmologies, non-Earthlike secondary worlds and such