10 Books I Always Recommend To Friends

Being a book reviewer, I’m frequently approached – by strangers and loved ones alike – and asked for book recommendations. Often, they’re someone who doesn’t read much and feels overwhelmed by choice, or someone who has hit a bit of a slump with their usual reads and is looking for something different. There’s a quick formula you need to run in your head when someone asks for a book recommendation (what aligns with their tastes? what haven’t they read already? what can they access at their bookstore or library?), but it’s always helpful to have a strong bench of stand-bys, book recommendations that work for every occasion. Here are ten books I always recommend to friends.

My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

My Brilliant Friend is the first book in the Neapolitan series, following the lives of Elena Greco (the narrator) and Rafaella “Lila” Cerullo as they emerge from humble origins in a poor neighbourhood on the outskirts of Naples. It’s one of the books I always recommend to friends because, if they love it (as I know they will), there are three more books to follow to keep the good times going! Plus, I don’t know anyone who doesn’t find the author’s mystique just a little intriguing – an international best-seller, one of TIME’s most influential people of 2016, and she’s completely anonymous! No one actually knows who she is! Read my full review of My Brilliant Friend here.

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves is a really difficult book to recommend, because it’s near impossible to describe just how good it is without giving away the gob-smacking hair-raising twist – and yet, it’s one of the books I always recommend to friends anyway, because it’s just that good. Not only does it set a new high bar for plot twists, but it’s highly readable and entertaining literary fiction that will pull you in and not let you go until the final page. Read my full review of We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves here.

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

This is the book that Oprah says has “redefined the traditional American love story”, and if Oprah recommends it to all her friends, who are we to contradict her? An American Marriage is the story of Roy and Celestial, a middle-class Black couple living in Atlanta. They are educated, employed, upwardly mobile – but even though they’ve ‘done everything right’, their lives are torn apart when Roy is imprisoned for a crime he didn’t commit. The story unfolds through their letters, as Roy’s life stands still in prison and Celestial’s moves on outside without him. Read my full review of An American Marriage here.

Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris

The best kind of friend is the one who knows how to make you laugh when you feel like crying. I have a cheat code for that: I always recommend friends read Me Talk Pretty One Day. This collection of memoir-essays from the masterful humourist David Sedaris never fails to raise a smile. From his childhood as a lisping guitar lesson drop-out to his adulthood fumbling through French lessons in Normandy, Sedaris has a unique talent for finding the funny in the mundane. This is the perfect pick for friends who prefer audiobooks, too, because Sedaris is even better when he’s reading his own work aloud. Read my full review of Me Talk Pretty One Day here.

Too Much Lip by Melissa Lucashenko

Too Much Lip blends The Castle and the Beverly Hillbillies with a storytelling tradition older than any of us can fathom – a unique combination that my friends are unlikely to find anywhere else, which is why I always recommend it. In the Salters, Lucashenko has created a family that, yes, drink and lash out and steal and vandalise, but also love and share and laugh and stand together when the shit goes down. It’s a go-to recommendation for friends who didn’t grow up here and are looking to learn more about the lived experience of First Nations people in contemporary Australia. Read my full review of Too Much Lip here.

Educated by Tara Westover

Educated is a memoir I always recommend to friends who need a bit of inspiration, a real-life story of overcoming the odds that doesn’t sugarcoat the difficulties. Westover grew up in a family of survivalist Mormons, where her father’s word was law and she had no resources for even learning to read other than the Bible. She didn’t step foot into a classroom until young adulthood, when she summoned the courage to leave her family and attend university. She went on to complete a PhD at Cambridge University, a feat that’s in and of itself miraculous, before generously sharing her story in this internationally best-selling memoir. Read my full review of Educated here.

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes by Anita Loos

I have made it my personal mission in life to get Anita Loos the recognition she deserves, so Gentlemen Prefer Blondes is one of the books I always recommend to friends in service of that goal. Most don’t even realise that it was a book before it was a Marilyn Monroe musical, which only fuels my motivation to push it into more hands. This is, in my mind, the perfect Jazz Age novel – with glamour, scandal, gender politics, and class mobility. It’s delightfully funny, it’s sneakily insightful, and it’s about so much more than diamonds and hair-dos. Read my full review of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes here.

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

Know My Name is one of the books I always recommend to friends, but I always offer a few caveats when I do. First off, given the subject matter, I offer strong content warnings to readers I know might be sensitive to stories about sexual assault and trauma. Secondly, I ask them what they already know about “the Brock Turner case” – the college swimming star who was convicted of assaulting a woman behind a dumpster in 2016. Most don’t know the name of his victim, or anything about her story beyond those crucial dark minutes – but they will after they read this memoir. Read my full review of Know My Name here.

The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson

I think I have recommended The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared to a hundred different readers, and I don’t know a single one who hasn’t been totally and completely charmed by it. What’s not to love about a centenarian who would rather climb out the window of his nursing home than face the dreadful birthday party they’ve planned for him? Allan Karlsson goes on an adventure that would appeal to all ages, one that takes him around the world and has him rubbing shoulders with all sorts, from presidents to drug dealers, and drinking a lot of vodka. Read my full review of The One-Hundred-Year Old Man Who Climbed Out The Window And Disappeared here.

Less by Andrew Sean Greer

For friends who are nervous about reading Literary(TM) novels, I always recommend that they start with Less. This delightful satire is determinedly self-deprecating, a story about an aging gay writer written by an aging gay writer, and it takes aim at everything that makes the literary world – and humanity more generally – ridiculous. The main character, Arthur Less, is so desperate to avoid attending the wedding of his ex-lover that he accepts invitations to every half-baked literary event around the world. From hosting author talks (for free) to teaching classes in German (a language he barely speaks), Arthur Less takes the reader on one heck of a journey. Read my full review of Less here.