Hello, Daaahlings. Enough people have asked me for book recommendations that I think a page is in order—otherwise I will slowly be driven crazy by too frequently thinking of too many beautiful things at once…

Literary Fiction (Contemporary)

Written on the Body and The Passion by Jeanette Winterson.

The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.

Beloved by Toni Morrison; really anything by Toni Morrison. If you’re easily triggered, please tread lightly with her writing, especially with Beloved.

The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy. Again, very risky for people with triggers.

The Probable Future by Anne Hoffman. She writes beautiful, gentle things, though Here on Earth is one of the best inside looks at the slide into an abusive relationship I’ve ever read.

Fantasy (lots of crossover with other categories)

For younger folk:

Madeleine L’Engle’s Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door, and Swiftly Tilting Planet, in that order.

The Narnia Chronicles by C.S. Lewis (my favorite is The Magician’s Nephew).

For young adults, but as good as anything else:

Madeleine L’Engle’s The Young Unicorns (no unicorns, though!) and A Ring of Endless Light.

Tolkien’s The Hobbit.

Bruce Coville’s Into the Land of the Unicorns and Song of the Wanderer.

Anne McCaffrey’s Dragon Song and Dragon Singer.

Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl.

Beauty by Robin McKinley.

For older teens and adults, more or less:

Stardust by Neil Gaiman.

For adults, and with trigger warnings:

Beloved by Toni Morrison.

Anything by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

Deerskin by Robin McKinley.

For those who like violence and smut:

Laurel K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter series, as well as her Merry Gentry series.

Not sure where it goes:

Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones—I haven’t actually read it yet, but my sister recommends it.

Classics

Young Adult/Teen

Madeleine L’Engle’s books: House like a Lotus, A Ring of Endless Light, The Young Unicorns. For a little bit younger, her Time Trilogy: A Wrinkle in Time, A Wind in the Door, A Swiftly Tilting Planet.

Poetry (Contemporary)

Song and The Orchard by Brigit Pegeen Kelly.

Rose by Li-Young Lee. His other books, also.

Mary Oliver.

Marianne Boruch.

Poetry (Romantic and Modern)

William Butler Yeats

Elizabeth Bishop

Philip Larkin

Emily Dickinson

Children’s Books

Emily of New Moon, Emily Climbs, Emily’s Quest by L.M. Montgomery. I like these even more than her Anne of Green Gables—though those are lovely, too.

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin.