100 Best American Literature Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, Sissy Spacek, et al

5.0

The unforgettable novel of a childhood in a sleepy Southern town and the crisis of conscience that rocked it, To Kill A Mockingbird became both an instant bestseller and a critical success when it was first published in 1960. It went on to win the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was later made into an Academy Award-winning film, also a classic.

Compassionate, dramatic, and deeply moving, To Kill A Mocki

Recommended by Adam Lawrence, Antonio Villaraigosa, Clive Stafford Smith, and 6 others.

Adam Lawrence

It's just the best. [source]

Antonio Villaraigosa

Even though I know we’ve made great strides in America, and have come from the reality of Maycomb, we still suffer today from the lingering effects of the bigotry of that era. At the same time, it’s a lesson in standing tall in the face of tremendously hostile circumstances. [source]

Clive Stafford Smith

The book touches on so many issues and deals with so many prejudices – prejudices towards the mentally ill, racial stuff. It’s a book that was way ahead of its time in many ways. It’s also a wonderfully written book – a joy to read. [source]

2

The Great Gatsby

F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.9

A young man, newly rich, tries to recapture the past and win back his former love, despite the fact that she has married.

Recommended by Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Ev Williams, and 4 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

When he got to high school, the president said, his tastes changed and he learned to enjoy classics like “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.” [source]

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

Melinda and I really like this book. When we were first dating, she had a green light that she would turn on when her office was empty and it made sense for me to come over. [source]

Marvin Liao

Partner/500 Startups

For Non-Business, I'd have to say Dune (Herbert), Emergency (Strauss), The Great Gatsby (Fitzgerald) or Flint (L'Amour). I re-read these books every year because they are just so well written & great stories that I get new perspective & details every time I read them. [source]

3

The Catcher in the Rye

J. D. Salinger

4.9

The hero-narrator of The Catcher in the Rye is an ancient child of sixteen, a native New Yorker named Holden Caulfield. Through circumstances that tend to preclude adult, secondhand description, he leaves his prep school in Pennsylvania and goes underground in New York City for three days. The boy himself is at once too simple and too complex for us to make any final comment about him or his story

Recommended by Bill Gates, Ev Williams, Woody Allen, and 7 others.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

One of my favorite books ever. [source]

Woody Allen

Film Director

It was such a relief from the other books I was reading at the time, which all had a quality of homework to them. [source]

Audrey Russo

So many novels; Lord of the Flies, Great Gatsby, Great Expectations; all the Nancy Drew books; Catcher in the Rye, Books written by Zora Neale Hurston; Pat Conroy – all because of the view about different people who endure despite adversity while kindling the hearts of the human spirit. [source]

4

The Grapes of Wrath

John Steinbeck, Robert DeMott

4.7

The Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression, a book that galvanized—and sometimes outraged—millions of readers.

First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads—driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of Cal

Recommended by Antonio Villaraigosa, Elizabeth Tsurkov, John Kerry, and 2 others.

Antonio Villaraigosa

It has been over 70 years since The Grapes of Wrath was published, yet the suffering that Steinbeck describes still hits close to home with families across our country still struggling to find work and put food on the table. It reminds us progressives that the day-to-day struggles of Americans should always remain close to our hearts. [source]

Elizabeth Tsurkov

@Maysaloon great book! [source]

John Kerry

While there is a story that takes place between characters, the hardship and unfairness is a central element of the book. It shows how fiction can create progressive change as well. [source]

5

East of Eden

John Steinbeck

4.7

In his journal, Nobel Prize winner John Steinbeck called East of Eden "the first book," and indeed it has the primordial power and simplicity of myth. Set in the rich farmland of California's Salinas Valley, this sprawling and often brutal novel follows the intertwined destinies of two families—the Trasks and the Hamiltons—whose generations helplessly reenact the fall of Adam and Eve and the poiso

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Emma Watson, John Lilly, and 2 others.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

It's the perfect summer read...a novel so rich and full of drama you won't be able to turn the pages fast enough! [source]

John Lilly

@ben_mathes @kevinakwok @samhinkie @aweissman Amazing book. Ive always liked it better than Grapes of Wrath. [source]

Steve Benjamins

My favorite non-business book is East of Eden by John Steinbeck. I think all of John Steinbeck’s books are uplifting. He sees the best in humanity and it leaves me feeling warm and generous. [source]

6

The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway

4.7

The Old Man and the Sea, an apparently simple fable, represents the mature Hemingway at his best. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature soon after its publication, and half a century later it is still one of his most read books.

Recommended by Jack Dorsey, James Altucher, Jordan B Peterson, and 1 others.

Jack Dorsey

Co-Founder/Twitter

I keep coming back to it. I love the straightforwardness, the tightness, and the poetry. I think it shows a common struggle that is repeated over and over in so many narratives both fictional and nonfictional. [source]

Jordan B Peterson

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway https://t.co/7dJE4Pfn56, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb [source]

May Witwit

I taught this book to my students in Iraq during the economic sanctions. And I feel like it gave me some kind of strength to continue. [source]

7

Of Mice and Men

John Steinbeck

4.7

The compelling story of two outsiders striving to find their place in an unforgiving world.

Drifters in search of work, George and his simple-minded friend Lennie have nothing in the world except each other and a dream -- a dream that one day they will have some land of their own. Eventually they find work on a ranch in California’s Salinas Valley, but their hopes are doomed as Lennie, struggling

Recommended by Barack Obama and Steve Benjamins.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

When he got to high school, the president said, his tastes changed and he learned to enjoy classics like “Of Mice and Men” and “The Great Gatsby.” [source]

Steve Benjamins

I think all of John Steinbeck’s books are uplifting. He sees the best in humanity and it leaves me feeling warm and generous. I always love this paragraph in Of Mice and Men that hints at the tension between business and humanity: "It has always seemed strange to me that the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honestly, understanding, and feeling are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism, and self-interest are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second." [source]

Cover unavailable

8

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

4.6

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (or, in more recent editions, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) is a novel by Mark Twain, first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885. Commonly named among the Great American Novels, the work is among the first in major American literature to be written throughout in vernacular English, characterized by local col

Recommended by Richard Branson, Walter Isaacson, Daniel Pink, and 3 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Walter Isaacson

Author

Read this book. [source]

Michael Voss

I enjoy nearly everything Mark Twain ever wrote, but my favorite is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This novel showcases Twain at the top of his game in terms of acerbic wit, sharp societal observations and the use of regional dialects - for which he initially garnered great criticism, before the passage of time enabled critics to understand and acknowledge its authenticity. [source]

9

Little Women

Louisa May Alcott

4.6

A beautiful unabridged 150th Anniversary Edition with 200 original illustrations and a Foreword by Alice L. George entitled "Why Little Women Endures 150 Years Later."

Little Women was originally published in two volumes in 1868 and 1869. This edition contains both volumes. It follows the lives of the four March sisters--Meg, Jo, Beth and Amy-- from childhood to womanhood and is loosely based on th

Recommended by Amy Chua, Anne Thériault, Jay Kleinberg, and 1 others.

Amy Chua

Marmee is a character that really resonates for me. She’s obviously not Chinese, but she believes that integrity and hard work are the most important things in life. She holds her daughters to very high standards. She doesn’t sugarcoat much. She also reveals to her rebellious daughter Jo, the star of the book and a character loosely modeled on Louisa May Alcott herself, that she had a bad temper too when she was younger. That’s exactly what I did with my own daughter Louisa…….The kinds of mistakes that Marmee allows her daughters to make are very similar to the kinds of mistakes that I allow my daughters to make. [source]

Anne Thériault

@mmarmoset I love that book so much, and then I got to see Patty Smith perform the year I read it, and she made a Little Women reference during the show, and my heart overflowed [source]

Jay Kleinberg

Nancy Drew is another series which follows in those footsteps. The book is all led by her. I think if one looks in the magazine literature it would be hard to find a similar character at that time. These were stories initially published in a magazine and then bound together as a book. [source]

10

Fahrenheit 451

Ray Bradbury

4.6

Guy Montag is a fireman. In his world, where television rules and literature is on the brink of extinction, firemen start fires rather than put them out. His job is to destroy the most illegal of commodities, the printed book, along with the houses in which they are hidden.

Montag never questions the destruction and ruin his actions produce, returning each day to his bland life and wife, Mildred, w

Recommended by Timothy Ferriss and Ryan Holiday.

Timothy Ferriss

Author & Entrepreneur

This classic work on state censorship remains as relevant in today’s world of digital delights as it was when published in the black-and-white world of 1953. In a futuristic American city, firefighter Guy Montag does not put out blazes; instead, he extinguishes knowledge and promotes ignorance by conducting state decreed book burnings. After an elderly woman chooses a fiery death with her books rather than a life without the written word, he begins questioning not only his profession, but also a society that allows itself to be lulled into complacency by constant exposure to state-controlled, mind-numbing television shows. If you wonder why some people take censorship so seriously, this book will give you the answer. It’s also a fantastically inspiring story of a one-versus-a-million fight that’s worth fighting. Who knows when your turn will come? [source]

Ryan Holiday

Author

I’m not sure what compelled me to pick Fahrenheit 451 back up but I’m so glad I did because I was able to see the book in a very different context. Bradbury’s message (made explicit in his 50th Anniversary Afterword) is much less a warning against government control and much more about a road to hell paved by people attempting to rid the world of offensive speech and conflicting ideas. In a world of microaggressions and outrage porn, this is an important idea to see in such a timeless work of fiction. [source]

11

Slaughterhouse-Five

Kurt Vonnegut and Kevin Power

4.6

Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time, Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world's great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

Recommended by Bernard Tan, Carlos Eire, and Dan Christensen.

Bernard Tan

I’m also a Murakami and Vonnegut fan, Kafka on the Shore, The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, Slaughterhouse-Five, etc. Now that I look at the books listed, they seem to carry an existential theme. I guess I like to understand humanity and human behaviour ultimately to better understand myself. I find reading a means to connect with people who may have lived before my time, or in a distant country, that I may never have had the chance to connect with in real life. As three-dimensional humans, we are all made up of so many faces and emotional layers that we find it hard to dissect them all, and when we find writers who can explain these thought processes in a way that’s tangible and digestible, there’s this incredibly comforting eureka moment of feeling understood. [source]

Carlos Eire

Even though he is no philosopher Vonnegut is still able to ask the questions that all of us think about – how time affects our lives. [source]

Dan Christensen

@MetaHumean Love that book. [source]

12

Catch-22

Joseph Heller, Christopher Buckley

4.5

This fiftieth-anniversary edition commemorates Joseph Heller’s masterpiece with a new introduction; critical essays and reviews by Norman Mailer, Alfred Kazin, Anthony Burgess, and others; rare papers and photos; and much more.

Nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.

Now a Hulu limited series starring Christopher Abbott, George Clooney, Kyle Chandler, and Hu

Recommended by Brian Burkhart, Charles Glass, Kate McLoughlin, and 5 others.

Brian Burkhart

This book is a masterpiece and absolutely hilarious. In subtle ways, you realize the main character is questioning not just the notion of authority, but the way authority thinks and how we must react to it. To me, a guy with the core belief “make waves,” it has a great message, which is, “It’s okay to question the status quo.” For people just starting their careers, it’s easy to think our superiors know everything—they’re not quick to admit their insecurities, flaws, and blind spots, but they have them. And having a healthy dose of skepticism isn’t such a terrible thing. Plus, it’s just a fun read. [source]

Charles Glass

It’s one of the funniest books ever written. It’s about the insanity of military life and the absurdity of a big institution. Heller was very good on the absurdity of big institutions. Catch 22 has every character in it that the American military did have at the time and still has today in Iraq and Afghanistan: The money-makers, the crooks, the officers who were trying to claw their way to the top where they get their men killed, the placing in order of priority the pretence of military success at the cost of many civilian lives. [source]

Kate McLoughlin

It gets you to the point where you can’t apply your reason any more and laughter takes over. It’s the laughter of the absurd. [source]

13

The Road

Cormac McCarthy

4.5

A searing, postapocalyptic novel destined to become Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece.

A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don’t know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have noth

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey, Aubrey Marcus, George Monbiot, and 6 others.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

It's got everything that's grabbing the headlines in America right now. It's about race and class, the economy, culture, immigration and the danger of the us-versus-them mentality. And underneath it all, pumps the heart and soul of family love, the pursuit of happiness, and what home really means. [source]

George Monbiot

This is possibly the most important environmental book ever written. It is a thought-experiment that imagines the world without a biosphere. That is the fundamental thought-experiment at the heart of environmentalism. All the horrors of that story arise from the disappearance of the biosphere, leaving people without any means of feeding themselves and without any means of survival. They are thrown into a brutal and fatal competition where the only thing left to eat is each other. [source]

Greg Garrett

There is no creature that has been transformed by leaking chemicals or radioactive satellites. But, on the other hand, there are human beings who consume other humans and that informs the major conflicts of the book. So, you’ve got a post-apocalyptic setting and you’ve got ethical quandaries for the main characters. There’s the sense of menace that permeates the zombie apocalypse. It’s not bad enough that they’re going to kill you, they’re also going to eat you. What I love about this story is its literary quality. We tend to think of the zombie apocalypse as a low-culture, pulp phenomenon. [source]

14

Walden

Henry David Thoreau

4.5

Preview Summary

At Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau reflected on simpler living in the natural world. By removing himself from the distractions of materialism, Thoreau hoped to not only improve his spiritual life but also gain a better understanding of society through solitary introspection.

In Walden, Thoreau condenses his two-year, two-month, two-day stay into a single year, using the four seasons to symbolize h

Recommended by Emma Watson, Donna Dickenson, Emily Thomas, and 5 others.

Donna Dickenson

He discusses how the original ideals that America was founded on were being compromised, and how massive industrial interests were starting to dominate. [source]

Emily Thomas

The beginning is hard going. Once you get past that, then suddenly you’re into these beautiful and inspiring descriptions of nature. [source]

Joan Boixados

In case you were deceived and expected me to name Walden by Henry David Thoreau, you should read it too if you haven’t, it obviously is the inspiration to Walden Two. :) [source]

15

Moby-Dick

Herman Melville

4.5

Journey to the heart of the sea with this larger-than-life classic.

Regarded as a Great American Novel, "Moby Dick" is the ultimate tale of seeking vengeance.

Narrated by the crew member Ishmael, this epic whaling adventure follows the crew of the "Pequod," as its captain, Ahab, descends deeper and deeper into madness on his quest to find and kill the white whale that maimed him. Beyond the surface-

Recommended by Barack Obama, Steve Jobs, Adam Haslett, and 4 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

According to the president’s Facebook page and a 2008 interview with the New York Times, this title is among his most influential forever favorites. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

Jobs told me that "Moby-Dick" was among his favorite books and he reread it a lot when he was a teen. [source]

Adam Haslett

Evil derives from the violent avoidance of the realisation of our own mortality and there could be few better examples of this in literature than Melville’s portrait of Ahab in Moby-Dick. [source]

16

Gone with the Wind

Margaret Mitchell, Pat Conroy

4.5

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here.

Gone with the Wind is a novel written by Margaret Mitchell, first published in 1936. The story is set in Clayton County, Georgia, and Atlanta during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era. It depicts the struggles of young Scarlett O'Hara, the spoiled daughter of a well-to-do plantation owner, who must use every means at her disposal to cla

Recommended by Ted Turner, Annie Parker, and Kris Reid.

Ted Turner

Founder/CNN

I enjoyed "Gone with the Wind" and history books of all types. [source]

Annie Parker

@mariesornin @Twitter @goodreads @colinismyname @lonelyplanet @AmazonKindle @nytimestravel @TravelLeisure @Delta @BNBuzz Shantaram, The Beach, Round Ireland with a Fridge, and please read Gone with the Wind (not really a travel book but very awesome & needs a good chunk of time!) [source]

Kris Reid

I’m a hopeless romantic, Gone With the Wind is an epic love story based around a tale of an empowered woman struggling to success in a time of extreme adversity. There is a reason it’s a classic! [source]

17

The Bell Jar

Sylvia Plath

4.4

Sylvia Plath's shocking, realistic, and intensely emotional novel about a woman falling into the grip of insanity.

Esther Greenwood is brilliant, beautiful, enormously talented, and successful, but slowly going under—maybe for the last time. In her acclaimed and enduring masterwork, Sylvia Plath brilliantly draws the reader into Esther's breakdown with such intensity that her insanity becomes palp

Recommended by Bryony Gordon, The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form), and Tim Kendall.

Bryony Gordon

As a teenage girl, you have to read The Bell Jar. It’s a rite of passage. [source]

The CEO Library Community (through anonymous form)

One of the best 3 books I've read in 2019 [source]

Tim Kendall

Despite its subject matter, The Bell Jar is often a very funny novel. Perhaps we miss it because the pall of Plath’s biography descends across the whole work and reputation. But The Bell Jar is viciously funny. There are people still alive today who won’t talk about it because they were so badly hurt by Plath’s portrayal of them. [source]

18

The Things They Carried

Tim O'Brien

4.4

Preview Summary

A classic, life-changing meditation on war, memory, imagination, and the redemptive power of storytelling, with more than two-million copies in print

Depicting the men of Alpha Company—Jimmy Cross, Henry Dobbins, Rat Kiley, Mitchell Sanders, Norman Bowker, Kiowa, and the character Tim O’Brien, who survived his tour in Vietnam to become a father and writer at the age of forty-three—the stories in T

Recommended by Caroline Paul, Eugene Gu, Karl Marlantes, and 2 others.

Caroline Paul

A beautiful book by a writer who fought in Vietnam. [source]

Eugene Gu

@realDonaldTrump Tim O’Brien is the author of the book The Things They Carried, which was about the Vietnam War. Must be very triggering for Trump since he dodged the draft multiple times with fraudulent doctors’ notes for fake bone spurs like a coward. [source]

Karl Marlantes

But when O’Brien wrote The Things They Carried he came down to absolute real brass tacks. It was no longer surreal, it was like here’s a list of what a grunt carries, an infantry soldier… [source]

Cover unavailable

19

The Scarlet Letter

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thomas E. Connolly, Nina Baym

4.4

Nathaniel Hawthorne's THE SCARLET LETTER reaches to our nation's historical and moral roots for the material of great tragedy. Set in an early New England colony, the novel shows the terrible impact a single, passionate act has on the lives of three members of the community: the defiant Hester Prynne; the fiery, tortured Reverend Dimmesdale; and the obsessed, vengeful Chillingworth.

With THE SCARLE

Recommended by Carol Gilligan.

Carol Gilligan

The Scarlet Letter is a tragic love story, but it’s also a story about resistance and transformation. [source]

20

A Moveable Feast

Ernest Hemingway

4.4

Preview Summary

Hemingway's memories of his life as an unknown writer living in Paris in the twenties are deeply personal, warmly affectionate, and full of wit. Looking back not only at his own much younger self, but also at the other writers who shared Paris with him - James Joyce, Wyndham Lewis, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald - he recalls the time when, poor, happy, and writing in cafes, he discovered his vocation.

Recommended by Janine di Giovanni, Mohsin Hamid, and Wai Chee Dimock.

Janine di Giovanni

The fact that Hemingway writes it as an old, rather bitter man trapped in his Idaho home with a bullying wife while he dreams of his youth in Paris with his first wife and child is so touching to me. [source]

Mohsin Hamid

We think of Hemingway as an American writer, but much of his writing is set outside of the United States, just as much of his life was set outside of the United States. [source]

Wai Chee Dimock

This is a memoir by Hemingway about his time in Paris, which includes sketches of people like F Scott Fitzgerald. [source]

21

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote

4.4

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, four members of the Clutter family were savagely murdered by blasts from a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. There was no apparent motive for the crime, and there were almost no clues.

As Truman Capote reconstructs the murder and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers, he generates both me

Recommended by Ben Shapiro, Lynda La Plante, and R J Ellory.

Ben Shapiro

Truman Capote's best book. It's a really, really good book. [source]

Lynda La Plante

One of the reasons I like this true crime novelisation is down to the fact it was so out of character for Capote and took everyone by surprise. It is also an excellent, almost biographical, insight into the two young killers’ minds. [source]

R J Ellory

I think in all honesty it is one of the finest books ever written. It took him six years to finish it because he had to wait for the court case and the final verdict which was the two perpetrators being executed. [source]

22

Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens

4.4

Preview Summary

A novel about a young woman determined to make her way in the wilds of North Carolina, and the two men that will break her isolation open.

For years, rumors of the "Marsh Girl" have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark.

But

Recommended by Reese Witherspoon and Kris Crocker.

Reese Witherspoon

Actress, Author, Founder/Hello Sunshine

Great article about the success of Where the Crawdads Sing. Did you read the book? @ReesesBookClub 🤗 https://t.co/w1ZgQLRzsx [source]

Kris Crocker

@spokanelibrary I love this book!! [source]

Cover unavailable

23

A Farewell to Arms: The Hemingway Library Edition

Ernest Hemingway, Seán Hemingway, Patrick Hemingway

4.4

Presented by Patrick and Seán Hemingway, this augmented edition of Ernest Hemingway’s classic novel of love during wartime features early drafts and, for the first time, all of the author’s alternate endings.

Written when Ernest Hemingway was thirty years old and lauded as the best American novel to emerge from World War I, A Farewell to Arms is the unforgettable story of an American ambulance dri

Recommended by Jordan B Peterson, Jordan Peterson, and Julia Enthoven.

Jordan B Peterson

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway https://t.co/dwAYVoKl3K, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb [source]

Jordan Peterson

Jordan Peterson recommended this book on his website. [source]

Julia Enthoven

For non-business, I’ve loved so many different books that it’s hard to pick a favorite. Recently, I’ve enjoyed The Art of Fielding and Americanah, and I love classics like A Farewell to Arms and Lord of the Flies. [source]

24

Invisible Man

Ralph Ellison

4.4

First published in 1952 and immediately hailed as a masterpiece, Invisible Man is one of those rare novels that have changed the shape of American literature. For not only does Ralph Ellison's nightmare journey across the racial divide tell unparalleled truths about the nature of bigotry and its effects on the minds of both victims and perpetrators, it gives us an entirely new model of what a nove

Recommended by Barack Obama, Daegan Miller, Dan Barreiro, and 3 others.

Barack Obama

Former USA President

As a devoted reader, the president has been linked to a lengthy list of novels and poetry collections over the years — he admits he enjoys a thriller. [source]

Daegan Miller

The novel pinpoints relentlessly, and beautifully, the environment of exploitation. [source]

Dan Barreiro

Riveting time capsule material. Literary giant Ellison on the blues, on race, on his powerful book, Invisible Man. https://t.co/iS6xQ7ojE8 [source]

Cover unavailable

25

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain and Scott McKowen

4.3

Who could forget the pranks, the adventures, the sheer fun of Tom Sawyer? It’s something every child should experience and every child will love. From Tom’s sly trickery with the whitewashed fence—when he cleverly manipulates everyone so they happily do his work for him—to his and Becky Thatcher’s calamities in Bat Cave, the enjoyment just never ends. The illustrations for this series were created

Recommended by Richard Branson and Ovidiu Drugan.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Ovidiu Drugan

Question:What books had the biggest impact on you? (perhaps changed the way you see things, dramatically changed your career path) Answer: Dune – Frank Herbert Write It Down, Make It Happen – Henriette Anne Klauser Two years vacations – Jules Verne (and all the well known books) – navigation & cast away story The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain (and Tom Sawyer) – river expedition The Foundation Cycle – Isaac Asimov War books – Sven Hassel – changed the way I see the army, conflicts, war Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoyevsky – any crime comes with inner suffering so better not do it Nansen, Kon-Tiki, Expedition Ra – all expedition books form north pole to across the oceans with ships or rafts [source]

26

Beloved

Toni Morrison

4.3

Staring unflinchingly into the abyss of slavery, this spellbinding novel transforms history into a story as powerful as Exodus and as intimate as a lullaby.

Sethe was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, but eighteen years later she is still not free. She has too many memories of Sweet Home, the beautiful farm where so many hideous things happened. Her new home is haunted by the ghost of her baby, wh

Recommended by Bianca Belair, Esi Edugyan, and Farah Jasmine Griffin.

Bianca Belair

@ylc130 I went to the library when I was in the 3rd grade and read Beloved... I remember being so confused and my Mama having to explain it to me... I later read it as an adult and it hit me completely different. GREAT BOOK! [source]

Esi Edugyan

I was shocked by the blunt force of its subject matter and its exquisitely torqued prose. It remains one of my most adored novels. [source]

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Beloved was Morrison’s fifth novel. It’s a gripping story, inspired by a famous abolitionist case, the true story of a woman who runs away from slavery with her children, but when the slave catchers catch up with her, she kills one of her own and tries to kill the others, rather than returning them to slavery. [source]

27

The Fault in Our Stars

John Green

4.3

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel's story is about to be completely rewritten.

Insightful, bold, irreverent, and raw, The Fault in Our Stars is award-winning author

Recommended by Elon Musk, Emma Watson, and James Comey.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Must admit to liking this book. Sad, romantic and beautifully named. [source]

James Comey

@johngreen You should not be. It is a great book. Was recently in Amsterdam and walked some of the scenes with your huge fan, my youngest daughter. Loved hearing from you and meeting you at Kenyon. [source]

28

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Ken Kesey, John C. Reilly, et al

4.3

Tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her ward in an Oregon State mental hospital with a strict and unbending routine, unopposed by her patients, who remain cowed by mind-numbing medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. But her regime is disrupted by the arrival of McMurphy – the swaggering, fun-loving trickster with a devilish grin who resolves to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inm

29

Lolita

Vladimir Nabokov

4.3

When it was published in 1955, Lolita immediately became a cause célèbre because of the freedom and sophistication with which it handled the unusual erotic predilections of its protagonist. But Vladimir Nabokov's wise, ironic, elegant masterpiece owes its stature as one of the twentieth century's novels of record not to the controversy its material aroused but to its author's use of that material

Recommended by Ev Williams, Bryan Callen, Ella Berthoud, and 3 others.

Bryan Callen

So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and listen to Richard Poe narrate that. Those are two of the greatest feats of the english language that I can think of. Then there’s Fortress of Solitude, an amazing book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, these are great novels. Cold Mountain is a beautiful novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, I mean they’ve been around for a while. But goddamnit, get those under your belt. Those are the novels I think you should read. You know Love In The Time Of Cholera it just makes you ache. Kind of like a Hemingway thing, where Hemingway “ahh!”, it’s the same thing, you know. So I don’t know, I’m a fan of all those books. Those are my 3 slash 20 books. [source]

Ella Berthoud

Even though it’s wrong, you sympathise with him because he can’t help himself and writes about it in such a passionate and empathetic way. [source]

Richard Cohen

It’s more imbued with references to the sun and using the sun as symbol or metaphor – almost a kind of character in the novel – than any other work in literature. [source]

30

Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut

4.3

Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...

Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he's the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable of freezing the entire planet. The search for its w

Recommended by Ev Williams and Andy Stern.

Andy Stern

I think it's something that progressives need to think about, because the book talks a lot about two tendencies that people can adopt, to try to find meaning and purpose. One is kind of a sheer technological approach, and the other is more of a spiritual and religious approach. The book talks about the perils and challenges of each way. Sometimes we as progressives defend technology and science and fact, and other people – clearly both progressive and otherwise – appreciate the spiritual more. Then on either extreme, the book tries to say that blind adherence to either tendency also has huge problems. The book, for me, is about trying to seek meaning, not trying to find simple answers, and appreciating that in some ways following a belief to an extreme can be equally as dangerous as having no beliefs. [source]

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31

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Ernest Hemingway

4.3

Hemingway's classic novel of the Spanish Civil War. In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war; three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from "the good fight," For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal. Surpassing hi

Recommended by David Kadavy, Jordan B Peterson, and Josh Waitzkin.

Jordan B Peterson

For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway https://t.co/1DfwVoZDRJ, a book from my great books list https://t.co/AxBNX3QpMb [source]

Josh Waitzkin

Exquisite novel. [source]

32

The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1)

Suzanne Collins

4.3

WINNING MEANS FAME AND FORTUNE.
LOSING MEANS CERTAIN DEATH.
THE HUNGER GAMES HAVE BEGUN. . . .

In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. The Capitol is harsh and cruel and keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and once girl between the ages of twelve and eighteen to participate in

Recommended by Bill Gates and Robert Muchamore.

Bill Gates

CEO/Microsoft

On Bill Gates's reading list in 2012. [source]

Robert Muchamore

A brutal, exciting, action-based sci-fi novel. Hugely popular and excellent fun. [source]

33

The Color Purple

Alice Walker

4.3

The Color Purple is a classic. With over a million copies sold in the UK alone, it is hailed as one of the all-time 'greats' of literature, inspiring generations of readers.

Set in the deep American South between the wars, it is the tale of Celie, a young black girl born into poverty and segregation. Raped repeatedly by the man she calls 'father', she has two children taken away from her, is separa

Recommended by Emma Watson.

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34

Uncle Tom's Cabin

Harriet Beecher Stowe

4.3

Uncle Tom's Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly, is an anti-slavery novel by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe. Published in 1852, the novel "helped lay the groundwork for the Civil War," according to Will Kaufman. Stowe, a Connecticut-born teacher at the Hartford Female Seminary and an active abolitionist, featured the character of Uncle Tom, a long-suffering black slave around whom the stories o

Recommended by Ezra Levant and George Raveling.

Ezra Levant

Uncle Tom's Cabin is one of the best books I ever read. Abraham Lincoln said to its author, "So you're the little woman who wrote the book that made this great war." It's alternatively heartbreaking and laugh out loud funny. But Greg Fergus thinks it's an instruction manual. https://t.co/K53AJsQnKK [source]

George Raveling

I actually have a first edition of this book. [source]

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35

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Truman Capote, Michael C. Hall, et al

4.3

It's New York in the 1940s, where the martinis flow from cocktail hour till breakfast at Tiffany's. And nice girls don't, except, of course, Holly Golightly. Pursued by Mafia gangsters and playboy millionaires, Holly is a fragile eyeful of tawny hair and turned-up nose, a heart-breaker, a perplexer, a traveller, a tease. She is irrepressibly 'top banana in the shock department', and one of the shi

Recommended by Merve Emre.

Merve Emre

So much of that novella is about personality, and about the way one is liberated by personality or burdened by it. [source]

36

The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Stephen Chbosky

4.3

Read the cult-favorite coming of age story that takes a sometimes heartbreaking, often hysterical, and always honest look at high school in all its glory. Now a major motion picture starring Logan Lerman and Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower is a funny, touching, and haunting modern classic.

The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant “wallflower” C

Recommended by Emma Watson, Jamie Grayson, Rae Earl, and 1 others.

Jamie Grayson

Holy shit there’s no way this book is that old because that really ages me but I COMPLETELY agree. This book is a masterpiece and a must-read. Lessons about being human are in there and those are important right now. https://t.co/fF1spEFrUH [source]

Rae Earl

It is a tremendously powerful study of PTSD, a mental health issue that isn’t talked about enough [source]

Richard Speight Jr.

A pal for 30 years, @StephenChbosky ‘s first book #ThePerksofBeingaWallflower had a MASSIVE impact on me & countless others. Then came his great movies. Now..THE NEXT BOOK! Be like me & buy it THE DAY it comes out. (Then harass him until he agrees to put me in the movie! 🎥 🤠) https://t.co/02bMKPgF9A [source]

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37

The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway, William Hurt, et al

4.3

The quintessential novel of the Lost Generation, The Sun Also Rises is one of Ernest Hemingway’s masterpieces and a classic example of his spare but powerful writing style.

A poignant look at the disillusionment and angst of the post-World War I generation, the novel introduces two of Hemingway’s most unforgettable characters: Jake Barnes and Lady Brett Ashley. The story follows the flamboyant Bret

Recommended by Wai Chee Dimock.

Wai Chee Dimock

Many people don’t appreciate what a big commitment writing this novel was for Hemingway. He was used to writing short stories. It meant he had to spend a lot of time on one book that could have been spent more profitably writing short stories. Like many of Hemingway’s later novels, it is stitched together from shorter pieces – in this case, what he’d already written about Pamplona. [source]

38

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Betty Smith

4.3

The beloved American classic about a young girl's coming-of-age at the turn of the century, Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is a poignant and moving tale filled with compassion and cruelty, laughter and heartache, crowded with life and people and incident. The story of young, sensitive, and idealistic Francie Nolan and her bittersweet formative years in the slums of Williamsburg has enchant

Recommended by Stephen Dubner and Tracy Chevalier.

Stephen Dubner

I read it over and over in part because I felt it was describing to me what my parents’ life was like when they were kids. [source]

Tracy Chevalier

It’s about an Irish-American family living in Brooklyn at the beginning of the 20th century. [source]

39

The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner, Grover Gardner, et al

4.3

This is an alternate cover ed. for ISBN 0679732241.

The Sound and the Fury is the tragedy of the Compson family, featuring some of the most memorable characters in literature: beautiful, rebellious Caddy; the manchild Benjy; haunted, neurotic Quentin; Jason, the brutal cynic; and Dilsey, their black servant. Their lives fragmented and harrowed by history and legacy, the character’s voices and actio

40

Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

4.3

Fair and long-legged, independent and articulate, Janie Crawford sets out to be her own person -- no mean feat for a black woman in the '30s. Janie's quest for identity takes her through three marriages and into a journey back to her roots.

Recommended by Farah Jasmine Griffin.

Farah Jasmine Griffin

Hurston gives us one of the first true love stories in African American writing. [source]

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41

On the Road

Jack Kerouac

4.3

When Jack Kerouac’s On the Road first appeared in 1957, readers instantly felt the beat of a new literary rhythm. A fictionalised account of his own journeys across America with his friend Neal Cassady, Kerouac’s beatnik odyssey captured the soul of a generation and changed the landscape of American fiction for ever.

Influenced by Jack London and Thomas Wolfe, Kerouac always wanted to be a writer,

Recommended by Ev Williams and Bogdan Iordache.

Bogdan Iordache

My favourite book is "On the road" by Jack Kerouac. Apart from being probably one of the best well written books in the world, I appreciate Kerouac's philosophy to dedicate himself entirely to what was important to him, something that I have applied in my life as much as possible. I've simplified my life in many ways, and stay focused on what I think it's really important. For Jack it was the experimentation of life with friends, drinks and jazz, and the dedication he put into it is simply transformative. For me it is a very different mix, though, but doing things your way will make your life meaningful and unique. Obviously, first of all you have to decide what is important for you, that's a process in itself. Also, I loved the "own less, live more" approach he took at life. I don't plan to be a bum, but even if someday I will own billions of dollars I don't want to worry about a yacht in some harbour, I find it meaningless. But I know that's also a trait of our generation, to pay for experience and not for ownership. [source]

42

The Crucible

Arthur Miller, Christopher W. E. Bigsby

4.3

"I believe that the reader will discover here the essential nature of one of the strangest and most awful chapters in human history," Arthur Miller wrote of his classic play about the witch-hunts and trials in seventeenth-century Salem, Massachusetts. Based on historical people and real events, Miller's drama is a searing portrait of a community engulfed by hysteria. In the rigid theocracy of Sale

Recommended by Claire Fox.

Claire Fox

This is the Salem witch hunt in the context of the McCarthy era. The reason I chose it is because I feel that we ourselves, in the contemporary period, are in danger of having our own heresy-calling and witch hunts. It is very popular to say this book proves what it is like when hysterical religions name people as witches, and how intolerant religion is. But I think we can see it in a much more contemporary light as just what happens in an atmosphere where people’s fear is exploited. [source]

43

1984

George Orwell

4.2

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this hardcover edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania

Recommended by Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Emma Watson, and 16 others.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

called this book "one of his favorite" and recommended it to the hires. The book also inspired one the greatest TV ad (made by Jobs) [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

44

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

4.2

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and

Recommended by Twin Mummy And Daddy.

Twin Mummy And Daddy

I love a good book and The Help is exactly that! In fact it’s an amazing book! Read my review over on the blog today! https://t.co/efaf9aRGOK #TheHelp #KathrynStockett #bookreview #bookblogger #mummybloggers #daddybloggers #pbloggers #mbloggers @UKpbloggers @UKBloggers1 #books [source]

45

A Streetcar Named Desire

Tennessee Williams

4.2

The Pulitzer Prize and Drama Critics Circle Award winning play—reissued with an introduction by Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman and The Crucible), and Williams’ essay “The World I Live In.”

It is a very short list of 20th-century American plays that continue to have the same power and impact as when they first appeared—57 years after its Broadway premiere, Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named D

Cover unavailable

46

Death of a Salesman

Arthur Miller

4.2

In the spring of 1948 Arthur Miller retreated to a log cabin in Connecticut with the first two lines of a new play already fixed in his mind. He emerged six weeks later with the final script of Death of a Salesman - a painful examination of American life and consumerism. Opening on Broadway the following year, Miller's extraordinary masterpiece changed the course of modern theatre. In creating Wil

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Tim Lott, and 1 others.

Tim Lott

Death of a Salesman is more about the relationship between fathers and sons than brothers, but the motif of maimed brother relationships runs in all directions. [source]

47

The Secret History

Donna Tartt

4.2

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.

Recommended by Dave Child, Jess Brammar, Kelly Ellis, and 1 others.

Dave Child

In my 20s, it would have been The Secret History by Donna Tartt. It's a shame you can only read a book for the first time once, because this doesn't fare so well the second time around, when you already know what happens. I'm not sure I've found another book quite like it since, but then I'm not really sure what sort of book it is. It isn't a murder mystery, except when it is. It isn't a crime thriller, except when it is. It isn't a love story, except ... you get the idea. [source]

Jess Brammar

@StigAbell Love that book [source]

Kelly Ellis

@elanpin @Nicole_Cliffe Like a favorite song, just thinking about this book immediately takes me back to the point in my life when I first read it. I really enjoyed The Goldfinch, as well. [source]

48

Stoner

John Williams, John McGahern

4.2

William Stoner is born at the end of the nineteenth century into a dirt-poor Missouri farming family. Sent to the state university to study agronomy, he instead falls in love with English literature and embraces a scholar’s life, so different from the hardscrabble existence he has known. And yet as the years pass, Stoner encounters a succession of disappointments: marriage into a “proper” family e

Recommended by Simon Winchester.

Simon Winchester

It is a story of intellectual determination and the ability of a man to find love simply in what he does. It is a book about love of learning. [source]

49

A Confederacy of Dunces (35th Anniversary Edition)

John Kennedy Toole

4.2

After more than three decades, the peerless wit and indulgent absurdity of A Confederacy of Dunces continues to attract new readers. Though the manuscript was rejected by many publishers during Toole's lifetime, his mother successfully published the book years after her son's suicide, and it won the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for fiction. This literary underdog and comic masterpiece has sold more than tw

Recommended by Jerrod Carmichael, Jesse Williams, and Leo Babauta.

Jerrod Carmichael

The language is so good. [source]

Jesse Williams

F*cking funny, vivid, and adventurous. Sometimes that’s what we need. [source]

50

A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1)

George R. R. Martin and Jeffrey Jones

4.2

Here is the first volume in George R. R. Martin’s magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Clash of Kings and A Storm of Swords. As a whole, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, bringing together the best the genre has to offer. Magic, mystery, intrigue, romance, and adventure fill these pages and transport us to a world unlike any we have ever experienced. Already hai

Recommended by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Best books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. [source]

51

Fight Club

Chuck Palahniuk

4.2

"THE FIRST RULE ABOUT FIGHT CLUB IS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT CLUB."

Every weekend, in the basements and parking lots of bars across the country, young men with good white-collar jobs and absent fathers take off their shoes and shirts and fight each other barehanded for as long as they have to. Then they go back to those jobs with blackened eyes and loosened teeth and the sense that they can handle anyt

Recommended by Ryan Holiday and Van Badham.

Ryan Holiday

Author

I’m amazed how many young people haven’t read this book. Truly life-changing. This is the classic of my generation; it is the book that defines our age and ultimately, how to find meaning in it. It’s a cautionary tale too—about being too caught up in revolutionary ideas. [source]

Van Badham

SUPER EXCITED to receive my copy of “Solved! How Other Countries Have Cracked the World’s Biggest Problems and We Can, Too” by Andrew Wear. SO GREAT to read a political book that’s about both pragmatic action *and* hope. Squee! #auspol https://t.co/jIYgr36kZO [source]

52

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

Maya Angelou

4.2

Here is a book as joyous and painful, as mysterious and memorable, as childhood itself. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings captures the longing of lonely children, the brute insult of bigotry, and the wonder of words that can make the world right. Maya Angelou’s debut memoir is a modern American classic beloved worldwide.

Sent by their mother to live with their devout, self-sufficient grandmother in

Recommended by Richard Branson, Bianca Belair, and Julia Enthoven.

Richard Branson

Founder/Virgin Group

Today is World Book Day, a wonderful opportunity to address this #ChallengeRichard sent in by Mike Gonzalez of New Jersey: Make a list of your top 65 books to read in a lifetime. [source]

Bianca Belair

For #BlackHistoryMonth I will be sharing some of my favorite books by Black Authors 5th Book: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings By: Maya Angelou Another autobiography classic that will be hard to not find on any must- read book list! https://t.co/mGRG76lLRn [source]

Julia Enthoven

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is beautifully written, and I really enjoy the voice of the protagonist and think it’s sad and fascinating to read about her time in history. [source]

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53

Tender Is the Night

F. Scott Fitzgerald

4.2

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in a friend's copy of Tender Is the Night, "If you liked The Great Gatsby, for God's sake read this. Gatsby was a tour de force but this is a confession of faith." Set in the South of France in the decade after World War I, Tender Is the Night is the story of a brilliant and magnetic psychiatrist named Dick Diver; the bewitching, wealthy, and dangerously unstable mental p

Recommended by Leo Babauta.

Cover unavailable

54

As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner

4.2

As I Lay Dying is Faulkner’s harrowing account of the Bundren family’s odyssey across the Mississippi countryside to bury Addie, their wife and mother. Narrated in turn by each of the family members -- including Addie herself -- as well as others; the novel ranges in mood, from dark comedy to the deepest pathos. Considered one of the most influential novels in American fiction in structure, styl

Cover unavailable

55

The Call of the Wild

Jack London

4.2

First published in 1903, The Call of the Wild is regarded as Jack London's masterpiece. Based on London's experiences as a gold prospector in the Canadian wilderness and his ideas about nature and the struggle for existence, The Call of the Wild is a tale about unbreakable spirit and the fight for survival in the frozen Alaskan Klondike.

56

Blood Meridian: Or the Evening Redness in the West

Cormac McCarthy

4.2

An epic novel of the violence and depravity that attended America's westward expansion, Blood Meridian brilliantly subverts the conventions of the Western novel and the mythology of the "wild west." Based on historical events that took place on the Texas-Mexico border in the 1850s, it traces the fortunes of the Kid, a fourteen-year-old Tennesseean who stumbles into the nightmarish world where Indi

Recommended by Jocko Willink, Aleksandar Hemon, Bryan Callen, and 3 others.

Jocko Willink

Founder/Echelon Front

The other book that I've read multiple times is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. [source]

Aleksandar Hemon

It’s possibly the greatest American novel of the past 25 years. [source]

Bryan Callen

So here are my three must read books. I've been reading a lot of great books like: Outsmart Your Instincts, The Culture Code, and Antonio Damasio’s The Strange Order, and sometimes when you read a lot of nonfiction it’s very enriching, sometimes you need a novel. I really believe you should take a minute and read something beautiful. Listen, listen to Lolita by Nabokov. But also listen to Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy and listen to Richard Poe narrate that. Those are two of the greatest feats of the english language that I can think of. Then there’s Fortress of Solitude, an amazing book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, these are great novels. Cold Mountain is a beautiful novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, I mean they’ve been around for a while. But goddamnit, get those under your belt. Those are the novels I think you should read. You know Love In The Time Of Cholera it just makes you ache. Kind of like a Hemingway thing, where Hemingway “ahh!”, it’s the same thing, you know. So I don’t know, I’m a fan of all those books. Those are my 3 slash 20 books. [source]

57

The Shining

Stephen King

4.2

Jack Torrance's new job at the Overlook Hotel is the perfect chance for a fresh start. As the off-season caretaker at the atmospheric old hotel, he'll have plenty of time to spend reconnecting with his family and working on his writing. But as the harsh winter weather sets in, the idyllic location feels ever more remote...and more sinister. And the only one to notice the strange and terrible force

Recommended by Daisy Johnson and R J Ellory.

Daisy Johnson

If you think you know the story because you’ve seen the film then you’d be wrong. This book is an absolute classic and a great way into the vast King oeuvre. [source]

R J Ellory

I have always rated Stephen King. I think he is so much more than just a commercially successful horror writer. [source]

Cover unavailable

58

The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)

Dan Brown

4.1

An ingenious code hidden in the works of Leonardo da Vinci.

A desperate race through the cathedrals and castles of Europe.

An astonishing truth concealed for centuries . . . unveiled at last.

While in Paris, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is awakened by a phone call in the dead of the night. The elderly curator of the Louvre has been murdered inside the museum, his body covered in baffling symbol

Recommended by Ev Williams and Neal O'Gorman.

Neal O'Gorman

Certainly, a previous non-business book which I really enjoyed (along with many other people) was the Da Vinci Code. I was living in the States at the time, and it was a rare occasion to be on a plane and not see someone reading it. [source]

59

Atlas Shrugged

Ayn Rand

4.1

This is the story of a man who said that he would stop the motor of the world and did. Was he a destroyer or the greatest of liberators?

Why did he have to fight his battle, not against his enemies, but against those who needed him most, and his hardest battle against the woman he loved? What is the world’s motor — and the motive power of every man? You will know the answer to these questions when

Recommended by Elon Musk, Steve Jobs, Ev Williams, and 14 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

A counterpoint to communism and useful as such, but should be tempered with kindness. [source]

Steve Jobs

Founder/Apple

is said by his Apple co-founder, Steve Wozniak, to have regarded Atlas Shrugged as one of his “guides in life”. [source]

Travis Kalanick

Travis Kalanick mentioned this book in a Washington Post interview. [source]

Cover unavailable

60

The Age of Innocence

Edith Wharton

4.1

The Age of Innocence is Edith Wharton's twelfth novel, initially serialized in four parts in the Pictorial Review magazine in 1920, and later released by D. Appleton and Company as a book in New York and in London. It won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, making it the first novel written by a woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and thus Wharton the first woman to win the prize. The st

Recommended by Anne Thériault.

Anne Thériault

@AngstyX I love that book! [source]

61

The Pearl

John Steinbeck

4.1

Like his father and grandfather before him, Kino is a poor diver, gathering pearls from the gulf beds that once brought great wealth to the kings of Spain and now provide Kino, Juana, and their infant son with meager subsistence. Then, on a day like any other, Kino emerges from the sea with a pearl as large as a sea gull’s egg, as “perfect as the moon.” With the pearl comes hope, the promise of co

62

The Bluest Eye

Toni Morrison

4.1

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year t

63

Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

4.1

Now reissued in a gorgeous hardcover edition: "one of the most prophetic dystopian works of the 20th century" (Wall Street Journal) must be read and understood by anyone concerned with preserving the human spirit in the face of our "brave new world." Huxley's masterpiece has become a bestseller once again after the American election.

Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature,

Recommended by Sam Altman, Yuval Noah Harari, Andra Zaharia, and 9 others.

Yuval Noah Harari

Historian

The most prophetic book of the 20th century. Today many people would easily mistake it for a utopia. [source]

Andra Zaharia

These books and their core ideas have stuck with me the most and continue to guide me when I hit crossroads along the way. [source]

Catherine Mayer

It shows the ways in which technology, our need for certain creature comforts and consumer culture can be used to manipulate us. [source]

64

Middlesex

Jeffrey Eugenides

4.1

"I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably smogless Detroit day of January 1960; and then again, as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey, Michigan, in August of l974. . . My birth certificate lists my name as Calliope Helen Stephanides. My most recent driver's license...records my first name simply as Cal."

So begins the breathtaking story of Calliope Stephanides and thr

Recommended by Alex Stojkovic and Lisa Feldman Barrett.

Alex Stojkovic

I don’t. But I would. Books love to be used up. (Related: Middlesex is the best book I read in 2019. If you’re look… [source]

Lisa Feldman Barrett

Eugenides does a really nice job of illustrating the complexity of emotional life, the emotional life that doesn’t necessarily fall into neat categories. [source]

65

The Martian

Andy Weir

4.1

Note: Alternate-Cover Edition for this ASIN can be found here

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.

Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there.

After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—and even i

Recommended by Ev Williams, Craig Barrett, Dan Christensen, and 2 others.

Craig Barrett

Former CEO/Intel

This book didn’t really change my mind, but rather reinforced the concept of the power of the individual. At a time when we depend more and more on big institutions to solve our business and social problems the real solutions are crafted by individual actions and initiative. This is true in the business world, where ideas from individual researchers or entrepreneurs can create mega companies overnight, and in the social sector, where such actions as high performing charter schools run circles around a moribund K-12 education system. Best we all remember that the next meaningful advances will come from individual initiative rather than massive governmental programs. After all, Google, Facebook, Uber, microloans and countless other success stories were not products of big government. [source]

Dan Christensen

@EconTalker @cable_co1 The Martian... hey it can’t all be economics and it’s a great book [source]

Fabrice Grinda

I have lots of books to recommend, but they are not related to my career path. The only one that is remotely related is Peter Thiel’s Zero to One. That said here are books I would recommend. [source]

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66

Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2)

Suzanne Collins

4.1

SPARKS ARE IGNITING.
FLAMES ARE SPREADING.
AND THE CAPITAL WANTS REVENGE.

Against all odds, Katniss Everdeen has survived the Hunger Games. She and fellow District 12 tribute Peeta Mellark are miraculously still alive. Katniss should be relieved, happy even. Yet nothing is the way Katniss wishes it to be. Gale holds her at an icy distance. Peeta has turned his back on her completely. And there are wh

67

The Kite Runner

Khaled Hosseini and Simon & Schuster Audi

4.1

The unforgettable, heartbreaking story of the unlikely friendship between a wealthy boy and the son of his father’s servant, The Kite Runner is a beautifully crafted novel set in a country that is in the process of being destroyed. It is about the power of reading, the price of betrayal, and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of fathers over sons—their love, their sacri

Recommended by James Altucher, Ann Miura-Ko, Magda Marcu, and 1 others.

James Altucher

Founder/StockPickr

Excellent novel. [source]

Ann Miura-Ko

Ann Miura-Ko recommended this book on the podcast "The Tim Ferriss Show". [source]

Magda Marcu

I’m currently reading “The Kite Runner”. I never have expectations from books, I let them surprise me as I get into the story. Learning about characteristics of different cultures, in this case the Afghan one, it’s one aspect I am interested in. [source]

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68

The Awakening

Kate Chopin

4.1

When first published in 1899, The Awakening shocked readers with its honest treatment of female marital infidelity. Audiences accustomed to the pieties of late Victorian romantic fiction were taken aback by Chopin's daring portrayal of a woman trapped in a stifling marriage, who seeks and finds passionate physical love outside the confines of her domestic situation.

Aside from its unusually frank t

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69

The House of Mirth

Edith Wharton, Anna Quindlen

4.1

A literary sensation when it was published by Scribners in 1905, The House of Mirth quickly established Edith Wharton as the most important American woman of letters in the twentieth century. The first American novel to provide a devastatingly accurate portrait of New York's aristocracy, it is the story of the beautiful and beguiling Lily Bart and her ill-fated attempt to rise to the heights of a

Recommended by Chelsea Handler and Jay McInerney.

Chelsea Handler

A timeless story we have seen play out for hundreds of years — yet, it feels like it would only apply to modern day society in the form of a Kardashian. [source]

Jay McInerney

Americans are always fascinated with the wealthy. It’s a bit of an illusion to imagine ours to be a classless society, as novelists like Wharton made brilliantly clear. [source]

70

All the Pretty Horses (The Border Trilogy, #1)

Cormac McCarthy

4.1

All the Pretty Horses tells of young John Grady Cole, the last of a long line of Texas ranchers. Across the border Mexico beckons—beautiful and desolate, rugged and cruelly civilized. With two companions, he sets off on an idyllic, sometimes comic adventure, to a place where dreams are paid for in blood.

Recommended by Daniel Buttner, Devon Sawa, Meg Rosoff, and 1 others.

Daniel Buttner

Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors, specifically The Border Trilogy. [source]

Devon Sawa

This is the best book I’ve ever read. https://t.co/AUJLuRAadm [source]

Meg Rosoff

A book that explores that whole subject of finding out where you belong in the world, which is not a search that starts and ends between 18 and 21. [source]

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71

Cannery Row

John Steinbeck

4.1

Cannery Row is a book without much of a plot. Rather, it is an attempt to capture the feeling and people of a place, the cannery district of Monterey, California, which is populated by a mix of those down on their luck and those who choose for other reasons not to live "up the hill" in the more respectable area of town. The flow of the main plot is frequently interrupted by short vignettes that in

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72

Nine Stories

J. D. Salinger

4.1

Nine Stories (1953) is a collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger published in April 1953. It includes two of his most famous short stories, "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor". (Nine Stories is the U.S. title; the book is published in many other countries as For Esmé - with Love and Squalor, and Other Stories.)

The stories are:

"A Perfe

Recommended by Ben Stiller.

Ben Stiller

When I was a teenager, my mother gave me this book. The story 'For Esmé—with Love and Squalor' affected me deeply. [source]

73

A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, #2)

George R. R. Martin

4.1

A comet the color of blood and flame cuts across the sky. Two great leaders—Lord Eddard Stark and Robert Baratheon—who hold sway over an age of enforced peace are dead, victims of royal treachery. Now, from the ancient citadel of Dragonstone to the forbidding shores of Winterfell, chaos reigns. Six factions struggle for control of a divided land and the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms, preparing

Recommended by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Best books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. [source]

74

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

Carson McCullers

4.1

'The way I need you is a loneliness I cannot bear'

Making its twenty-three-year-old author an overnight literary sensation, this story of isolated, lost lives intersecting in a small town in the American South is a masterpiece of humane sensitivity.

Ten new titles in the colourful, small-format, portable new Pocket Penguins series

Recommended by Oprah Winfrey and Bryony Gordon.

Oprah Winfrey

CEO/O Network

I love this book! I had heard about this book for years and then my dear friend Julia Roberts did an interview in O, The Oprah Magazine and she listed this as one of her favorite books of all times. The book I love so much—recommended to me by Julia—is The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers. It's a great, great read and not hard at all. [source]

Bryony Gordon

She wrote about what it was to be an outcast, a misfit, to be depressed, to be lonely. [source]

75

A Storm of Swords (A Song of Ice and Fire, #3)

George R. R. Martin

4.0

An alternate cover for this isbn can be found here.

Here is the third volume in George R.R. Martin's magnificent cycle of novels that includes A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings. Together, this series comprises a genuine masterpiece of modern fantasy, destined to stand as one of the great achievements of imaginative fiction.

Of the five contenders for power, one is dead, another in disfavor, and

Recommended by Elon Musk.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

Best books in recent years imo are Iain Banks & George Martin. [source]

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76

Franny and Zooey

J. D. Salinger

4.0

The short story, Franny, takes place in an unnamed college town and tells the tale of an undergraduate who is becoming disenchanted with the selfishness and inauthenticity she perceives all around her.

The novella, Zooey, is named for Zooey Glass, the second-youngest member of the Glass family. As his younger sister, Franny, suffers a spiritual and existential breakdown in her parents' Manhattan li

77

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood

4.0

Before The Testaments, there was The Handmaid’s Tale: an instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (New York Times).

The Handmaid’s Tale is a novel of such power that the reader will be unable to forget its images and its forecast. Set in the near future, it describes life in what was once the United States and is now called the

Recommended by Daniel Pink, Emma Watson, Catherine Mayer, and 3 others.

Catherine Mayer

Atwood takes all the hard information about gender inequality that she sees around her and then turns it up a few notches. [source]

Cliff Bleszinski

@HandmaidsOnHulu Done. Love the show, book is a classic, can't wait for season 2. [source]

Grady Booch

I read this several years ago but — much like Orwell’s 1984 — it seems particularly relevant given our current political morass. [source]

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78

My Ántonia (Great Plains Trilogy, #3)

Willa Cather

4.0

Through Jim Burden's endearing, smitten voice, we revisit the remarkable vicissitudes of immigrant life in the Nebraska heartland, with all its insistent bonds. Guiding the way are some of literature's most beguiling characters: the Russian brothers plagued by memories of a fateful sleigh ride, Antonia's desperately homesick father and self-indulgent mother, and the coy Lena Lingard. Holding the p

Cover unavailable

79

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, #1)

L. Frank Baum

4.0

When Dorothy and her little dog Toto are caught in a tornado, they and their Kansas farmhouse are suddenly transported to Oz, where Munchkins live, monkeys fly and Wicked Witches rule. Desperate to return home, and with the Wicked Witch of the West on their trail, Dorothy and Toto - together with new friends the Tin Woodsman, Scarecrow and cowardly Lion - embark on a fantastic quest along the Yell

80

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Hunter S. Thompson

4.0

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas is the best chronicle of drug-soaked, addle-brained, rollicking good times ever committed to the printed page. It is also the tale of a long weekend road trip that has gone down in the annals of American pop culture as one of the strangest journeys ever undertaken.

Recommended by Bill Earner and Matthew O’Brien.

Bill Earner

My favorites novels are 100 Years of Solitude, All the King's Men, The Last Samurai, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. [source]

Matthew O’Brien

It’s one of my favourite books and probably my favourite Las Vegas-related book. Hunter S Thompson came out here in the early 70s to cover the Mint 400 off-road race for Sports Illustrated. He ended up writing a 10,000-word riff on his visit. In 1971, Jann Wenner ultimately published two long sections of it in Rolling Stone. Those two stories were the foundation for Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. [source]

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81

Leaves of Grass: The Original 1855 Edition

Walt Whitman, American Renaissance Books

4.0

When Walt Whitman self-published "Leaves of Grass" in 1855, he rocked the literary world and forever changed the course of poetry. In subsequent editions, Whitman continued to revise and expand his poems--but none matched the raw power and immediacy of the first edition. This beautifully designed volume presents the 1855 "Leaves of Grass" in its entirety, unchanged, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson'

Recommended by Kevin Kelly.

Kevin Kelly

While reading this classic poetic ode to America and possibilities ('I am multitude!') my gasket blew, and I became seized with an unstoppable urge to travel. [source]

82

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo

Taylor Jenkins Reid

4.0

Reclusive Hollywood icon Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. But when she chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant to write her story, no one is more astounded than Monique herself.

Determined to use this opportunity to jumpstart her career, Monique listens in fascination. From making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to

Recommended by Jacqui Pretty and Sahil Lavingia.

Jacqui Pretty

When it comes to fiction, there are so many to choose from! Some books I've loved in the past year include The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. [source]

Sahil Lavingia

@alexbdebrie best book i've read recently is The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. [source]

83

Flowers for Algernon

Daniel Keyes

4.0

The story of a mentally disabled man whose experimental quest for intelligence mirrors that of Algernon, an extraordinary lab mouse. In diary entries, Charlie tells how a brain operation increases his IQ and changes his life. As the experimental procedure takes effect, Charlie's intelligence expands until it surpasses that of the doctors who engineered his metamorphosis. The experiment seems to be

Recommended by Irina Botnari.

Irina Botnari

It’s pretty hard to pick only one favorite book because as we get wiser (to be read: get older ☺) our interests change and so do our books, but it’ll stick to the plan. The highlight of this year for me was Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes. The idea behind is heartbreaking and completely brilliant, being in the same time so perfect and so horribly disturbing. [source]

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84

Memoirs of a Geisha

Arthur Golden

4.0

A literary sensation and runaway bestseller, this brilliant debut novel presents with seamless authenticity and exquisite lyricism the true confessions of one of Japan's most celebrated geisha.

In Memoirs of a Geisha, we enter a world where appearances are paramount; where a girl's virginity is auctioned to the highest bidder; where women are trained to beguile the most powerful men; and where love

Recommended by Alice Little.

Alice Little

The author uses language that is very, very rich and colorful. … You can really immerse yourself into that world and kind of get a sense of what things were like, at that time. [source]

85

No Country for Old Men

Cormac McCarthy

4.0

In his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones.

One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back. When Moss t

Cover unavailable

86

The Fountainhead

Ayn Rand

4.0

The revolutionary literary vision that sowed the seeds of Objectivism, Ayn Rand's groundbreaking philosophy, and brought her immediate worldwide acclaim.

This modern classic is the story of intransigent young architect Howard Roark, whose integrity was as unyielding as granite...of Dominique Francon, the exquisitely beautiful woman who loved Roark passionately, but married his worst enemy...and of

Recommended by Ev Williams, Travis Kalanick, Emma Watson, and 12 others.

Travis Kalanick

It’s one of my favorite books. [source]

Noah Kagan

Founder/Sumo

A few months ago, I was drinking a Noah’s Mill whiskey (cute) with my good buddy Brian Balfour and talking about life... During the conversation, we got on the topic of books that changed our lives. I want to share them with you. I judge a book's success if a year later I'm still using at least 1 thing from the book. [source]

Ashley Hathaway

Sometimes I want to nerd out and pick a heavy non-fiction book. I was reading The Fountainhead earlier this year which was pretty beefy. Got that checked off the list. [source]

87

All the Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr

4.0

An alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

From the highly acclaimed, multiple award-winning Anthony Doerr, the stunningly beautiful instant New York Times bestseller about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.

Marie-Laure lives in Paris near the Museum of Natural History, where her father works. Wh

Recommended by Jason Goldman.

Jason Goldman

All The Light We Cannot See is the best book I've read in a while. I tend to speed read and here I savored every word; the writing is just effortlessly beautiful. I hope it's made it onto high school WWII syllabi by now. [source]

88

American Psycho

Bret Easton Ellis

4.0

Patrick Bateman is twenty-six and he works on Wall Street, he is handsome, sophisticated, charming and intelligent. He is also a psychopath. Taking us to head-on collision with America's greatest dream—and its worst nightmare—American Psycho is bleak, bitter, black comedy about a world we all recognise but do not wish to confront.

Recommended by Jay McInerney and Pavel Tsatsouline.

Jay McInerney

It’s a brilliant satire of greed and the mindlessness of popular culture, of American life and of New York in the 80s. [source]

Pavel Tsatsouline

Most people exist between the on and off switch. They are unable to turn on and put out high power, and they are unable to turn off completely and enjoy true rest. To learn how to control your on and off switch, read the book Psych by Dr. Judd Biasiotto. He is one of the most successful power lifters in history, having squatted over 600 pounds at a bodyweight of 132... drug free, at the age of 44, after back surgery. [source]

89

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

4.0

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother The

Recommended by Daniel Mendelsohn and Lucy Coats.

Daniel Mendelsohn

I don’t want to know what Achilles did in bed, frankly. If you want to play with the big boys, fine, but don’t turn The Iliad into a Twilight novel. [source]

Lucy Coats

I loved the richness of the language, the descriptions. She really made me feel I was in ancient Greece — the smells, the whole environment. [source]

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90

The Portrait of a Lady

Henry James

4.0

An alternate cover edition for this ISBN can be found here and here and here.

Introduction and Notes by Lionel Kelly, Senior Lecturer in English, University of Reading Transplanted to Europe from her native America, Isabel Archer has candour, beauty, intelligence, an independent spirit and a marked enthusiasm for life. An unexpected inheritance apparently gives her freedom, but despite all her natu

Recommended by Katie Kitamura and Salley Vickers.

Katie Kitamura

Marriage as a social institution, marriage as a form of power—these are at the heart of the story here. [source]

Salley Vickers

The lesson here is that however much freedom you think you have, you haven’t really got it if your instincts are not free. [source]

91

The Jungle

Upton Sinclair

4.0

For nearly a century, the original version of Upton Sinclair's classic novel has remained almost entirely unknown.

When it was published in serial form in 1905, it was a full third longer than the censored, commercial edition published in book form the following year. That expurgated commercial edition edited out much of the ethnic flavor of the original, as well as some of the goriest description

Recommended by Louise Gray.

Louise Gray

When we discuss meat-eating, we talk about the suffering of the animals, we talk about the environment, but we often forget to talk about the people [source]

92

The Nightingale

KRISTIN HANNAH

4.0

In love we find out who we want to be.
In war we find out who we are.

FRANCE, 1939

In the quiet village of Carriveau, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front. She doesn’t believe that the Nazis will invade France…but invade they do, in droves of marching soldiers, in caravans of trucks and tanks, in planes that fill the skies and drop bombs upon the innocent. Wh

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93

Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3)

Suzanne Collins

4.0

My name is Katniss Everdeen.
Why am I not dead?
I should be dead.

Katniss Everdeen, girl on fire, has survived, even though her home has been destroyed. Gale has escaped. Katniss's family is safe. Peeta has been captured by the Capitol. District 13 really does exist. There are rebels. There are new leaders. A revolution is unfolding.

It is by design that Katniss was rescued from the arena in the cruel

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94

Light in August

William Faulkner, Noel Polk, Joseph Blotner

4.0

Light in August, a novel that contrasts stark tragedy with hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, which features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters: guileless, dauntless Lena Grove, in search of the father of her unborn child; Reverend Gail Hightower, a lonely outcast haunted by visions of Confederate glory; and Joe Christmas, a desperate, enigmatic drifter consumed by his mixed

95

Foundation (Foundation, #1)

Isaac Asimov

4.0

For twelve thousand years the Galactic Empire has ruled supreme. Now it is dying. But only Hari Seldon, creator of the revolutionary science of psychohistory, can see into the future -- to a dark age of ignorance, barbarism, and warfare that will last thirty thousand years. To preserve knowledge and save mankind, Seldon gathers the best minds in the Empire -- both scientists and scholars -- and br

Recommended by Elon Musk, Adam Gazzaley, Amy Webb, and 7 others.

Elon Musk

Founder/SpaceX

In terms of sci-fi books, I think Isaac Asimov is really great. I like the Foundation series, probably one of the all-time best. [source]

Adam Gazzaley

Life-changing for me as a kid, and have still read it multiple times throughout my life. [source]

Amy Webb

Asimov was a masterful fringe thinker, and this first book in the Foundation series shows just how attuned he was to possible and plausible future scenarios. Although it’s 50 years old, Foundation is especially provocative reading given our current state of world affairs — in order to save humankind and the vast knowledge we have accumulated, the main character gathers the smartest thinkers and forms a secret society. But that doesn’t go exactly as planned, either. [source]

96

A Little Life

Hanya Yanagihara

4.0

When four classmates from a small Massachusetts college move to New York to make their way, they're broke, adrift, and buoyed only by their friendship and ambition. There is kind, handsome Willem, an aspiring actor; JB, a quick-witted, sometimes cruel Brooklyn-born painter seeking entry to the art world; Malcolm, a frustrated architect at a prominent firm; and withdrawn, brilliant, enigmatic Jude,

Recommended by Ella Botting, Jane Mcgonigal, and Soman Chainani.

Ella Botting

This may be the best book I’ve ever read. It’s a long old book and I bloody love a long book. I don’t possess the vocabulary to describe this book - it was so good, but I’d say it was an intricate analysis of the character’s daily lives and their daily lives are hella intense at times. This booked reminded me that while success in the workplace is very important to me, so is the time spent with loved ones. All three of those books have both drastically changed the way I see things and helped me in my career and personal journey. They also taught me in varying ways that I really can accomplish the things I want to accomplish as well as the importance of recognising my own privilege. [source]

Jane Mcgonigal

@rhondakap @kellymcgonigal If you haven't read this only read it if you want to be emotionally brutalized. Virtuoso portrayal of compassion but Jesus you could not make worse things happen to your characters. Almost sadistic. Amazing book but traumatic read [source]

Soman Chainani

The greatest work of fiction I’ve ever read, with the simplest theme: All of us come with baggage and wounds and pain; all of us. [source]

97

The Calamity Club: A Novel

Kathryn Stockett

4.0

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“So immersive, exciting, and downright fabulous, you never want it to end.”—Oprah Daily“A heart-wrenching, often hilarious story of economic hardship, moral posturing, and the particular yearnings of childless women and motherless girls.”—The New York TimesThe multimillion-copy-selling author of The Help returns with a bold, big-hearted novel about a group of unbreakabl

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98

Ethan Frome

Edith Wharton, Elizabeth Ammons

4.0

The classic novel of despair, forbidden emotions, and sexual undercurrents set against the austere New England countryside

Ethan Frome works his unproductive farm and struggles to maintain a bearable existence with his difficult, suspicious and hypochondriac wife, Zeena. But when Zeena's vivacious cousin enters their household as a hired girl, Ethan finds himself obsessed with her and with the poss

Recommended by Caterina Fake.

99

The Glass Menagerie

Tennessee Williams, Robert Bray

4.0

No play in the modern theatre has so captured the imagination and heart of the American public as Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie. As Williams's first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career, of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagaerie has been the bra

100

Angels & Demons (Robert Langdon, #1)

Dan Brown

4.0

World-renowned Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned to a Swiss research facility to analyze a cryptic symbol seared into the chest of a murdered physicist. What he discovers is unimaginable: a deadly vendetta against the Catholic Church by a centuries-old underground organization -- the Illuminati. In a desperate race to save the Vatican from a powerful time bomb, Langdon joins forces in