I posted a list like this once before, some years ago, and find that it is out of date. So here’s a more recent take on the type of fiction that is most likely to draw me in.
Note: I’m not claiming these are the best novels ever written. I know for a fact that some of them will raise eyebrows; the point is, I felt enough resonance with that piece of storytelling that I go back for more now and then. There are also novels I truly admire, but could not bring myself to read again. So you won’t find them here.
This list is not divided up by genre, so let me warn you: you’ll find pretty much everything here, from espionage and romance to very dark crime and sci-fi. And then there’s Austen and Dickens.
- Richard Adams The Girl in a Swing
- Jane Austen Persuasion; Pride and Prejudice
- Toni Cade Bambara Gorilla, My Love
- Amy Bloom Come to Me
- James Lee Burke In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead; White Doves at Morning; A Morning for Flamingos
- A.S. Byatt Angels & Insects; Possession
- Chelsea Cain Heartsick (Gretchen Lowell series)
- Jetta Carleton The Moonflower Vine
- Michael Chabon The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay
- Loretta Chase Lord Perfect; Lord of Scoundrels
- Wilkie Collins The Woman in White
- Laurie Colwin A Big Storm Knocked It Over
- Jennifer Crusie Crazy for You; Faking It; Welcome to Temptation
- Judy Cuevas Dance; Bliss
- Junot Díaz The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
- Stephen Dobyns The Burn Palace
- Dorothy Dunnett Niccolo Rising (House of Niccolo; 8 volumes)
- Daphne Du Maurier Rebecca
- George Eliot Adam Bede
- Ken Follett Eye of the Needle
- Ariana Franklin City of Shadows; Mistress of the Art of Death
- Charles Frazier Cold Mountain
- Thomas Hardy Far from the Madding Crowd; The Mayor of Casterbridge
- Mo Hayder Poppet (the Jack Caffery series)
- John Fowles The French Lieutenant’s Woman
- Mark Helprin A Soldier of the Great War
- Judith Ivory Beast
- Baine Kerr Wrongful Death
- Stephen King The Stand; Black House; Dolan’s Cadillac
- Barbara Kingsolver Animal Dreams; The Poisonwood Bible
- Lisa Kleypas Smooth Talking Stranger; Blue-Eyed Devil
- Stieg Larsson The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and the next two)
- Margaret Lawrence Hearts and Bones (Hannah Trevor series; 4 volumes)
- Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
- Dennis Lehane Gone, Baby Gone; Darkness Take My Hand
- Elmore Leonard Pagan Babies, Cuba Libre, Get Shorty
- Gabriel Garcia Márquez A Hundred Years of Solitude
- McCarry, Charles: The Bride of The Wilderness
- Larry McMurtry Lonesome Dove
- Jacquelyn Mitchard Second Nature; The Breakdown Lane
- Toni Morrison Beloved, The Bluest Eye
- Jojo Moyes The Girl You Left Behind
- Alice Munro Friend of my Youth
- Audrey Niffenegger The Time Traveler’s Wife
- Tim O’Brian The Things They Carried
- Michael Ondaatje The English Patient
- Joseph O’Neill Netherland
- Ann Patchett The Magician’s Assistant
- Susan Elizabeth Phillips Ain’t She Sweet
- Annie Proulx The Shipping News; Wyoming Stories
- Mario Puzo The Fortunate Pilgrim
- Mary Doria Russell A Thread of Grace
- Richard Russo Straight Man; Empire Falls
- Karin Slaughter Will Trent series (8 volumes)
- Jane Smiley A Thousand Acres
- Scott Spencer Waking the Dead; Endless Love
- Jessica Davis Stein Coyote Dream
- Kathryn Stockett The Help
- William Styron Sophie’s Choice
- Barry Unsworth Sacred Hunger
- Gore Vidal Burr; Lincoln
- Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse-Five
- Edith Wharton Ethan Frome
- Laura Ingalls Wilder The Long Winter
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