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Way back in 2024, I wrote a post about the best books I've read in the past 10 years. Looking back at my old favorites was interesting because the books I remember most weren't always the ones I chose as favorites. Sometimes a book isn't a top ten all-time favorite, but it still sticks with you.
I'm going to scroll through 10+ years of book reviews and show you the fiction books that haunt my brain. I'll do another post for nonfiction books because there are too many!
The Fiction Books I Remember The Most
Different Seasons by Stephen King
Horror Novella Collection
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption: The most satisfying tale of unjust imprisonment and offbeat escape since The Count of Monte Cristo.
Apt Pupil: A golden California schoolboy and an old man whose hideous past he uncovers enter into a fateful and chilling mutual parasitism.
The Body: Four rambunctious young boys venture into the Maine woods to find life, death, and intimations of their own mortality.
The Breathing Method: A tale told in a strange club about a woman determined to give birth no matter what.
Why I recommend it: Of course I had to put a Stephen King book on the list! This book contains four well-loved novellas. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption was adapted into the movie The Shawshank Redemption. The Body became the movie Stand By Me. I love these novellas because they show that horror doesn’t have to be gory. Sometimes the author just slowly cranks up the tension until you can’t take it anymore, and you feel your heart pounding, and pounding . . . .
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The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Literary Fiction
Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last—inexorably—into evil.
Why I recommend it: The characters are psychopaths who use their money and connections to get away with anything. That seems very relevant to modern times. The writing is brilliant. The author brings the characters' privileged world to life and gets the reader to feel (a tiny bit) sorry for some of them.
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My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
Literary Fiction
Elsa is seven years old and different. Her grandmother is seventy-seven years old and crazy—as in standing-on-the-balcony-firing-paintball-guns-at-strangers crazy. She is also Elsa’s best, and only, friend. At night Elsa takes refuge in her grandmother’s stories, in the Land-of-Almost-Awake and the Kingdom of Miamas, where everybody is different and nobody needs to be normal.
When Elsa’s grandmother dies and leaves behind a series of letters apologizing to people she has wronged, Elsa’s greatest adventure begins. Her grandmother’s instructions lead her to an apartment building full of drunks, monsters, attack dogs, and old crones but also to the truth about fairy tales and kingdoms and a grandmother like no other.
Why I recommend it: The best part of this book is how the characters are developed. In the beginning, Elsa lives in a fairytale world. Everything is over-the-top. Her grandmother is a manic hero who causes mayhem but somehow always manages to save the day. Elsa’s apartment building is inhabited by monsters and other fantasy creatures. Some of the creatures are scary, some are funny, and others are just confusing.
As the plot progresses, the characters become more complex. Elsa uncovers their strengths, weaknesses, and histories. By the end of the book, the characters—even the minor side characters—are all very human. Granny’s death forces Elsa to grow up and see people as complex instead of as “good” or “evil.” Everybody has a little bit of both in them.The Butcher's Hook by Janet Ellis
Historical Horror
Anne Jaccob is coming of age, the daughter of a wealthy merchant. When she is taken advantage of by her tutor—a great friend of her father’s—and is set up to marry a squeamish snob named Simeon Onions, she begins to realize just how powerless she is in Georgian society. Anne is watchful, cunning, and bored.
Her savior appears in the form of Fub, the butcher’s boy. Their romance is both a great spur and an excitement. Anne knows she is doomed to a loveless marriage to Onions and she is determined to escape with Fub and be his mistress. But will Fub ultimately be her salvation or damnation? And how far will she go to get what she wants?
Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon
Mystery
Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she wonders if a terrible secret from her past is about to come to light. If the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly like a man who died sixty years ago?
BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE BY RUTH EMMIE LANG
Fantasy
Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey knew he wasn’t like other people. But when he single-handedly stopped that tornado on a stormy Christmas day in Oklahoma, he realized just how different he actually was.
That tornado was the first of many strange events that seem to follow Weylyn from town to town, although he doesn’t like to take credit. As amazing as these powers may appear, they tend to manifest themselves at inopportune times and places. From freak storms to trees that appear to grow over night, Weylyn’s unique abilities are a curiosity at best and at worst, a danger to himself and the woman he loves. But Mary doesn’t care. Since Weylyn saved her from an angry wolf on her eleventh birthday, she’s known that a relationship with him isn’t without its risks, but as anyone who’s met Weylyn will tell you, once he wanders into your life, you’ll wish he’d never leave.
Why I recommend it: If you’ve ever read a Fredrik Backman book and thought, I wish this guy wrote fantasy, then you need to pick up Beasts Of Extraordinary Circumstance. It’s a quirky love story about adorable weirdos. And deadly animals. And (un)natural disasters. It’s imaginative and sweet. The light tone reminds me of middle grade fantasy, but with adult characters who have grownup problems. I enjoyed every second of it.
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The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
Historical Fiction
In June 1954, eighteen-year-old Emmett Watson is driven home to Nebraska by the warden of the work farm where he has just served a year for involuntary manslaughter. His mother long gone, his father recently deceased, and the family farm foreclosed upon by the bank, Emmett’s intention is to pick up his eight-year-old brother and head west where they can start their lives anew. But when the warden drives away, Emmett discovers that two friends from the work farm have hidden themselves in the trunk of the warden’s car. Together, they have hatched an altogether different plan for Emmett’s future.
Why I recommend it: It's about a group of young men who are trying to figure out what to do with their new freedom. What would you do if you had no responsibilities? Where would you go if you could go anywhere? It reminds me of the adventure stories I read as a young teen. The characters are gallivanting around the US and making bad choices. It's fun and funny. If you like your characters morally gray and fatally flawed, then this is a book for you.
Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
Literary Fiction
Keiko Furukura had always been considered a strange child, and her parents always worried how she would get on in the real world, so when she takes on a job in a convenience store while at university, they are delighted for her. For her part, in the convenience store she finds a predictable world mandated by the store manual, which dictates how the workers should act and what they should say, and she copies her coworkers’ style of dress and speech patterns so that she can play the part of a normal person.
However, eighteen years later, at age 36, she is still in the same job, has never had a boyfriend, and has only few friends. She feels comfortable in her life, but is aware that she is not living up to society’s expectations and causing her family to worry about her. When a similarly alienated but cynical and bitter young man comes to work in the store, he will upset Keiko’s contented stasis—but will it be for the better?
Why I recommend it: This is a tiny book that leaves a big impression. I don't think I'll forget Keiko anytime soon. She's one of those people who exist at the fringes of society and are just trying to mind their own business. Unfortunately, society is not great at leaving people alone.
Convenience Store Woman is relatable. It's about the pressure that people face to conform. We're expected to get a good job, get married, and have children. Keiko has her own ways of meeting society's demands, and they're definitely not what her family expects. The book highlights how ridiculous it is to "fix" people who aren't hurting anyone and who just want to live life on their own terms.
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Leave The World Behind by Rumaan Alam
Literary Fiction
Amanda and Clay head out to a remote corner of Long Island expecting a vacation: a quiet reprieve from life in New York City, quality time with their teenage son and daughter, and a taste of the good life in the luxurious home they've rented for the week. But a late-night knock on the door breaks the spell. Ruth and G. H. are an older black couple—it's their house, and they've arrived in a panic. They bring the news that a sudden blackout has swept the city. But in this rural area—with the TV and internet now down, and no cell phone service—it's hard to know what to believe.
Should Amanda and Clay trust this couple—and vice versa? What happened back in New York? Is the vacation home, isolated from civilization, a truly safe place for their families? And are they safe from one another?
Why I recommend it: This novel has no plot or character development; just scary vibes. I know that sounds like a bad thing, but I couldn't stop reading. I like the vibes! They're extremely unsettling. I suspect this is one of the most realistic apocalypse stories I've read. If all of humanity's communication systems go down, we won't know why strange things are happening. We'll just have guesses and paranoia. This book will make you tense.
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The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Historical Fiction
It is 1939. Nazi Germany. The country is holding its breath. Death has never been busier, and will be busier still.
By her brother's graveside, Liesel's life is changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden in the snow. It is The Gravedigger's Handbook, left behind there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery. So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read. Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.
But these are dangerous times. When Liesel's foster family hides a Jew in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up, and closed down.
Why I recommend it: It's the kind of book that makes you sit in stunned silence for a few seconds after finishing it. The story is a familiar one, but the writing is poetic and beautiful. There were several times where I stopped and reread sentences or whole paragraphs because I liked them so much. This is some of the most interesting writing I've ever seen. The strangeness of the language totally fits Death, the odd, nonhuman narrator.
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The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
Literary Fiction
The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison, viewed through the eyes of a death row inmate who finds escape in his books and in re-imagining life around him, weaving a fantastical story of the people he observes and the world he inhabits. Fearful and reclusive, he senses what others cannot. Though bars confine him every minute of every day, he marries magical visions of golden horses running beneath the prison, heat flowing like molten metal from their backs, with the devastating violence of prison life.
Two outsiders venture here: a fallen priest, and the Lady, an investigator who searches for buried information from prisoners' pasts that can save those soon-to-be-executed. Digging into the background of a killer named York, she uncovers wrenching truths that challenge familiar notions of victim and criminal, innocence and guilt, honor and corruption—ultimately revealing shocking secrets of her own.
Why I recommend it: The writing in this book is some of the best writing I’ve read. It’s eerie. I especially love the descriptions of the cremations and the creatures that come out to hug the warm urns. I thought about those creepy creatures for a long time after finishing the book.
This story is brutal. There is rape and murder and many forms of abuse. Most of the characters are horrible people, but the author humanizes them. They aren’t likeable at all, but it’s easy for the reader to understand how the characters ended up in prison. The death-row inmates are not one-dimensional monsters. They are complex (and profoundly screwed up) humans.
That was my least favorite Backman, but I think all his books are memorable.
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