I love trying to find books for friends and family that they will love, and I think a thoughtfully-picked out book is a wonderful gift. I worked in a bookstore for four years, and making book recommendations was my favorite part of the job. So last year, I started offering personalized book recommendations. If you tell me about your likes and dislikes, and the types of books you’re looking for, I’ll send you 3-6 recommendations. I can also do this if you’re shopping for someone else, as long as you can tell me about their reading tastes.
Making good book recommendations requires much more than genre; books are incredibly individual! If you love mysteries, for example, that doesn’t mean you’ll love any mystery – in fact you’re much more likely to be choosy about them. So the kinds of things I like to think about include:
- What kind of reading experience are you looking for? Examples might be escapism, comfort, getting out of your comfort zone, or learning about something new.
- Do you prefer dark humor or feel good stories?
- Do you prefer characters that are flawed or characters you admire?
- Do you prioritize character development over plot/action? Do you prefer a fast or slow-paced story?
- Do you prefer stories where things wrap up neatly, or more messy ambiguous endings?
- Do you like or do you avoid books with violence or gore? Graphic sexuality?
- Are you looking for diversity in perspectives (race, ethnicity, sexuality, age) – or are you looking for a specific perspective that you relate to?
- Do you prefer long, meaty reads you can sink your teeth into, or shorter books, short stories or essays you can read in small chunks?
Just go to this page and complete the form. Tell me about several books you liked and why, or books you disliked and why. Tell me what you’re interested in reading.
To give you some ideas, here are some of the books I recommended over the last year.
- For a reader looking for books that are dramatic with very strong character development, particularly American classics with strong writing and male characters, I recommended To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I also recommended Steinbeck’s Cannery Row and East of Eden, and Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry.
- For a reader looking for fiction from around the world, with distinctive writing, addressing serious issues, with well-researched history and compelling characters, I recommended Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie (2017). It’s a modern take on Sophocles’ classic Antigone, about what it’s like to be a Muslim immigrant in the UK or United States today. I also recommended Three Apples Fell from the Sky by Narine Abgaryan (2020). It’s a story about rural Armenia over several generations during the 20th century. The history is very much in the background and it’s set in a fictional village, but it does touch on war, famine and occupation.
- For a reader looking for atmospheric thriller, horror, mystery and slow-burn romance, who was particularly interested in Asian fantasy and well-written LGBTQ YA romance, I recommended Black Water Sister by Zen Cho. It’s a fantasy novel set in Malaysia about a young woman who is having trouble coming out to her family, and who is inhabited by the spirit of her dead grandmother. I also recommended Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club. This is historical fiction about teenagers who face danger and prejudice as Chinese-Americans and lesbians in San Francisco in the 1950s.
- For a reader who likes dark and whimsical paranormal fiction, including realistic fantasy and mythology, that isn’t too heavy or literary, I recommended The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab is a blend of historical fiction and fantasy, and it’s a really unique take on a young woman who sells her soul to the devil for immortality. I also recommended The Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. Set in Mexico and based on Mayan mythology, this book is about a young woman who opens up a mysterious box and this sets off a quest to help the Mayan God of Death. I also recommended T.J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea.
- For a reader looking for murder mysteries and thrillers, who prefers clever protagonists and interesting villains and antiheros, and also looking for diversity and books that break out of cliches and stereotypes, I recommended Jane Harper’s The Lost Man, which is set in a very remote area of the Australian outback, about a man who dies from simply being in the sun without water, even though it’s clear he knew better than to be in the Outback alone. I also recommended Miracle Creek by Angie Kim. It’s incredibly well-written and the characters are well developed and diverse. t’s a legal thriller and a whodunit, but also explores really interesting issues about immigration, autism, parenting, and race.
Those are a few examples of the types of recommendations I provided this year. Please give me a try if you’d like to discover something new. It’s free and I have no financial interest in anything I recommend. I try to select books that shouldn’t be too hard to find; they might not be the newest releases, so they should be in the library.
My two caveats are this: first, I do run into time challenges so I’m not always quick (it may take me a few weeks to a month to get back to you, so let me know if your request is time sensitive). The second is that I limit my recommendations only to books I’ve read and enjoyed – but I do read a diverse range of books and so far I’ve only had one request that was so far outside my reading that I couldn’t make any recommendations.
Of course your local independent bookstore will happily do the same thing for you, and I always recommend supporting local bookstores. They are professionals; I just do this for fun.
