Library

For about seven years, I worked as a page at the large, Huron St. branch of the district library in Ypsilanti, MI. At one point in time I had the Dewey Decimal System pretty reasonably memorized, and could lead library patrons to the section of any general knowledge area they were interested without having to look up a computer.

My tenure also taught me the futility of trying to create a perfect classification system. It was a nice lesson to learn early, because it has let me feel much more free in organizing my own bookshelves however I see fit. This is my own, personal collection after all, and it is the privilege and the pleasure of any collector to be able to order it in whatever way gives them the greatest satisfaction.

That said, the purpose of creating this page was so that my friends and family could more confidently buy me books as gifts without having to worry that they were buying me something I already owned. To that end, I’ve tried to structure this list, roughly, in a way that would make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for.

Many of these distinctions are arbitrary, which is to say I’m not interested in debating the finer points of where any particular book should belong. We’ve all got better things to do—like reading a good book.

Fiction

Contemporary

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi
Americanah
Bennett, Brit
The Vanishing Half
Bivald, Katarina
The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend
Cici B.
Letters to My Ex
Coates, Ta-Nehisi
The Water Dancer
Cook, Courtney
– The Way She Feels: My Life on the Borderline in Pictures + Pieces
Doerr, Anthony
All the Light We Cannot See
– Cloud Cuckoo Land
Graff, Andrew J.
Raft of Stars
Gyasi, Ya
Transcendent Kingdom
Hudson, Genevieve
Boys of Alabama
Hunt, Laird
– Zorrie
Ishiguro, Kazuo
The Buried Giant
Jeffers, Honree Fanonne
The Love Songs of W. E. B. Du Bois
Kidd, Jess
Himself
Kitamura, Katie
Intimacies
Kwak, Chaney
The Passenger
Lahiri, Jhumpa
Interpreter of Maladies
Lee, Harper
– Go Set a Watchman
Lee, Min Jin
Pachinko
Li, Lillian
Number One Chinese Restaurant
Loedel, Daniel
Hades, Argentina
Moreno-Garcia, Silvia
Mexican Gothic
Velvet Was the Night
Murakami, Haruki
Norwegian Wood
Ozeki, Ruth
– The Book of Form and Emptiness
Patchett, Ann
Commonwealth
– The Dutch House

Plett, Casey
A Dream of a Woman
Pressfield, Steven
Last of the Amazons
Robinson, Marilynne
– Jack
Rodriques, Elias
All the Water I’ve Seen Is Running
Quade, Kirsten Valdez
The Five Wounds
Savit, Gavriel
Anna and the Swallow Man
Shaffer, Mary Ann, and Annie Barrows
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
Shipstead, Maggie
Great Circle
Simmonds, Kevin
The Monster I Am Today
Smiley, Jane
Perestroika in Paris
Smith, Zadie
Swing Time
Sweeney, Cynthia D’aprix
The Nest
Towles, Amor
The Lincoln Highway
Vargas, Cyn
On the Way
Victoria, Elisa

Oldladyvoice
Vuong, Ocean
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ward, Jasmyn

Sing, Umburied, Sing
Walter, Jess
The Cold Millions
Whitehead, Colson
Nickel Boys
– The Underground Railroad
Wolitzer, Meg
The Female Persuasion

20th Century Literature

Achebe, Chinua
Arrow of God
No Longer at Ease
Things Fall Apart
Akutagawa, Ryūnosuke

The Life of a Stupid Man
Chesterton, G. K.

Collected Works: Volume VII (The Ball and the Cross, Manalive, The Flying Inn)
The Coloured Lands
Conrad, Joseph
Heart of Darkness
C. S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters
Du Maurier, Daphne
Rebecca
Fitzgerald, F. Scott
The Great Gatsby
Greene, Graham
The Quiet American
Leroux, Gaston
The Phantom of the Opera
Mansfield, Katherine
Miss Brill
McCullers, Carson
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Morrison, Toni
Beloved
Pelevin, Victor

Babylon (Generation “P”)
Omon Ra
Plath, Sylvia
The Bell Jar
Pynchon, Thomas
Gravity’s Rainbow
Salinger, J. D.
The Cather in the Rye
Smith, Betty
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Steinbeck, John
East of Eden
Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men
Solzhenitsyn, Alexander

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
Welty, Eudora
– Moon Lake
Wilde, Oscar
The Picture of Dorian Gray
Woolf, Virginia

Mrs. Dalloway
– The Lady in the Looking-Glass

19th Century Literature

Austen, Jane
Emma
– Love and Friendship
(Sanditon and Collected Works)
– Mansfield Park
Northanger Abbey
– Persuasion
Pride and Prejudice
– Sense and Sensibility

Brontë, Charlotte
Jane Eyre (Missing)
Chekov, Anton
Best Plays
Crane, Stephen
The Red Badge of Courage
Dostoevsky, Fyodor
The Brothers Karamazov
Elliot, George
– The Mill on the Floss
Gaskell, Elizabeth
North and South
Gogol
Dead Souls
Hawthorne, Nathaniel
The Scarlet Letter
Hugo, Victor
– Les Misérables
James, Henry
– Daisy Miller and Other Stories
Kingsley, Mary
– A Hippo Banquet
Kipling, Rudyard
– The Jungle Books

Stevenson, Robert Lewis

South Sea Tales
Sienkiewich, Henryk
– With Fire and Sword
Tolstoy, Leo
War and Peace
Twain, Mark
The Complete Short Stories

Mystery, Horror & Suspense

Christie, Agatha
Murder on the Orient Express
Doyle, Conan
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Furst, Alan
– Dark Star
– Night Soldiers
– The Polish Officer
Galbraith, Robert (J. K. Rowling)
– The Cuckoo’s Calling

Poe, Edgar Allan

The Complete Tales and Poems
Runcie, James
– Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death (Grantchester 1)
– Sidney Chambers and the Perils of the Night (Grantchester 2)
Stevenson, Robert Lewis
– Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Stoker, Bram
Dracula
Yeo-Sun Kwon
Lemon

Science-Fiction & Fantasy

Alderman, Naomi
The Power
Atwood, Margaret

The Handmaid’s Tale
The Testaments
Chiang, Ted
Stories of Your Life and Others
Exhalation
Dick, Philip K.
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Robinson, Kim Stanley
Aurora
Mars Trilogy (Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars)
Tolkien, J. R. R.
The Hobbit
The Fall of House Gondolin
The Lord of the Rings
– The Silmarilion

Verne, Jules
– Extraordinary Voyages (Around the World in Eighty Days, Journey to the Center of the Earth, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea)
Vonnegut, Kurt
Slaughterhouse-Five
Zamyatin, Yevgeny

We

Anthology:
The Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy (2021), Veronica Roth (editor)

New Adult

Dabos, Christelle
A Winter’s Promise (Mirror Visitor, Book 1)
The Missing of Clairdelune (Mirror Visitor, Book 2)
The Memory of Babel (Mirror Visitor, Book 3)
The Storm of Echoes (Mirror Visitor, Book 4)
Morgenstern, Erin
The Starless Sea
Rowell, Rainbow
Fangirl
Schwab, V. E.
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

Young Adult

Acevedo, Elizabeth
The Poet X
Adeyemi, Tomi
Children of Blood and Bone
Brown, Echo
Black Girl Unlimited
Brown, Roseanne A.
– A Song of Wraiths and Ruin
Caldwell, Patrice (editor)
– A Phoenix First Must Burn
Hale, Shannon
The Goose Girl
– Princess Academy

Henderson, Alexis
The Year of the Witching
Ifueko, Jordan
Raybearer
Nix, Garth
Old Kingdom Trilogy (Sabriel, Lirael, Abhorsen)
Across the Wall (Stories set in the Old Kingdom)
Clariel (A prequel to the Old Kingdom series)
Goldenhand (Old Kingdom book 5?)
Terciel & Elinor (A prequel to Old Kingdom series)
Newt’s Emerald (Missing)
Ono, Fumi
The Twelve Kingdoms: Skies of Dawn
The Twelve Kingdoms: The Vast Spread of the Seas
McKillip, Patricia A.
Moon Flash
The Moon and the Face
Pearson, Mary E.
The Kiss of Deception
– The Heart of Betrayal
– The Beauty of Darkness
– Dance of Thieves

Poston, Ashley
Among the Beasts and Briars
– Geekerella
(Geekerella 1)
– The Princess and the Fangirl
(Geekerella 2)
– Bookish and the Beast
(Geekerella 3)
Rowling, J. K.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter 1)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (Harry Potter 2)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (Harry Potter 3)
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Harry Potter 4)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Harry Potter 5)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Harry Potter 6)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Harry Potter 7)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Thomas, Angie
The Hate You Give
Weymouth, Laura E.
– Rush of Wings
Wrede, Patrica C.
– The Enchanted Forest Chronicles
Yoon, Nicola
– Everything, Everything

Youth

Adams, Richard
– Watership Down

American Girl

Meet Josefina
Josefina Learns a Lesson
Josefina’s Surprise
Happy Birthday Josefina!
Josefina Saves the Day
Changes for Josefina
Andersen, Hans Christian
Andersen’s Fairy Tales
Atwater, Richard and Florence
Mr. Popper’s Penguins
Bauer, Joan
Hope Was Here
Brink, Carol Ririe
Caddie Woodlawn
Carroll
Through the Looking Glass
Gaiman, Neil

The Ocean at the End of the Lane
Grimm, J. L. C. & W. C.
– Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Jaques, Brian
– The Bellmaker

Jones, Diana Wynne
Howl’s Moving Castle (Howl 1)
Castle in the Air (Howl 2)
House of Many Ways (Howl 3)
Kendall, Carol
The Gammage Cup
L’Engle, Madeleine
A Wrinkle in Time
Lewis, C. S.
– The Chronicles of Narnia
Selznick, Brian
– The Invention of Hugo Cabret

Picture

Fleischman, Paul
The Animal Hedge
Godin, Seth
V Is for Vulnerable
Hoban, Russell
Bread and Jam for Frances
Kellogg, Steven
The Mysterious Tadpole
Lowrey, Janette Sebring
The Poky Little Puppy
Matthews, Caitlin
How to Be a Princess
McCloskey, Robert
Blueberries for Sal
– Lentil

One Morning in Maine
Moulton, Mark Kimball
Everyday Angels
Patience, John
The Brassband Robbery: Tales from Fern Hollow
Muddles at the Manor: Tales from Fern Hollow
Parson Dimly’s Treasure Hung: Tales from Fern Hollow
Petersen, David
Snowy Valentine
Seuss, Dr.
Fox in Socks
Green Eggs and Ham
Horton Hatches the Egg
Tan, Shaun
Lost & Found
Tazewell, Charles
The Littles Angel
Twiss, Jill
A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo
Unknown
The Little Clay Hut: Russian Folk Tails about Animals
Willems, Mo

Knuffle Bunny

Graphic Novels

Spiegelman, Art
Maus
Wang, Jen
The Prince and the Dressmaker

More coming soon.

Poetry

Angelou, Maya
The Complete Poetry
Keats, John
The Eve of St. Agnes
Rossetti, Christina
Goblin Market

More coming soon.

Classics

The Dhammapada

Aeshylus
– The Oresteia
Euripides
The Bacchae and Other Plays
Heroditus
The Histories
Tacitus

The Agricola and the Germania

Polo, Marco
Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls

Non-Fiction

History

Alexievich, Svetlana
– Secondhand Time

More coming soon.

Political Science

Du Mez, Kristin Kobes
Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation

Coming soon.

Essays

Anthologies:
The Best American Essays: 2021

Adichie, Chimamanda Ngozi

– We Should All Be Feminists
Patchett, Ann
– These Precious Days

More coming soon.

Language

McWhorter, John
Nine Nasty Words

More coming soon.

Religion & Philosophy

Coming soon.

Art

Coming soon.

Cooking

– Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Crafy
Baking Illustrated by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine
Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes, by Nicolaus Balla and Courtney Burns
Berliner Küche
Cooking for One (America’s Test Kitchen)
Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, by David Kaplan, Nick Fauchauld, and Alex Day
English Teatime Recipes: Traditional Cakes from around the Shires
– From Emeril’s Kitchen
, by Emeril Lagasse
– Foolproof Preserving
(America’s Test Kitchen)
Japanese Cooking, by Emi Kazuko
– Land of Plenty, by Patricia Dunlop

– Mezcal: The History, Craft & Cocktails of the World’s Ultimate Artisanal Spirit, by Emma Janzen
Modern Scandinavian Baking: A Cookbook of Sweet Treats and Savory Bakes, by Daytona Strong
Professional Baking (4th Edition), Gisslen
The Professional Pastry Chef: Fundamentals of Baking and Pastry
– Просим к русскому столу

Coffee Table Books

Call of the Desert: The Sahara
A Book of Old Maps Deliniating American History
– Decorating with Plants: What to Choose, Ways to Style, and How to Make Them Thrive, by Baylor Chapman
Пермь
Your Visit to Orsay

Foreign Language

Russian

Coming soon.

German

Coming soon.

French

Coming soon.