All the Novels I Need to Read

I have brilliant friends, friends who read...some even read more than I do. When I put out the call for books we all need to read during the next turbulent years, it was answered enthusiastically. And I discovered my very brilliant friends had read books I needed to read. Books that could give me that comfort and empathy that books -- especially novels -- have proved to provide for us who read.

The list I present for you today are novels I've NOT read. Novels I will put on my ever-growing 'To Be Read' list. Novels that friends recommend to us all in trying times. And, yes, there are books here that I certainly SHOULD have read...even English teachers can't read everything. Lewis's book, and Askew's, and Hamid's books are physically IN MY HOUSE, on a stack.

Some appear to be those dystopian novels we have all been referencing recently...of 'perfect' societies run by men and women who have all the answers...who brook no disagreement, who control all parts of others' lives.
So, read through the list...find one you'd especially recommend for me...or add a book you don't see.

Reading keeps us human...and it's never been more important to be loving, accepting, reflective, empathetic humans.


Fiction I need to read:

As I Lay Dying -- Faulkner

Behind the Scenes at the Museum – Atkinson

Blood for Blood – Graudin

Blood Meridian – McCarthy

Disc World Series – Pratchett

Echo -- Ryan

Every Man Dies Alone – Fallada

For Whom the Bell Tolls – Hemingway

Howl – Ginsberg

It Can’t Happen Here – Lewis

Johnny Got His Gun -- Trumbo

Junkie – Burroughs

Kind of Kin – Askew

Never Let Me Go – Ishiguro

Station Eleven – Mandel

Super Sad True Love Story – Shteyngart

The Children of Men – James

The Children’s Hour – Clavell

The Circle – Eggers

The Cucumber King – Nostlinger

The Diabolic – Kincaid

The Dispossessed -- Le Guin

The Gate to Women's Country – Tepper

The Hate U Give – Thomas

The Iron Heel – London

The Leftovers – Perrotta

The Light Between Oceans – Stedman

The Mandibles – Shriver

The Plot Against America – Roth

The Reluctant Fundamentalist -- Hamid

They Thought They Were Free – Mayer

Version Control – Palmer

We – Zamyatin

When I was the Greatest – Reynold

Wolf by Wolf – Graudin