Hi and welcome to the reading world!
Today, I’m going to be sharing my post for That Artsy Reader Girl’s series, Top Ten Tuesday. This week’s prompt is “Books I Loved that Made Me Want More Books Like Them”! I absolutely love this idea- basically, this is to share a book I enjoyed and what similar books I ended up picking up/wanting to pick up based off of that!
I’ve been doing a series of Recommendations: If You Like This, Try That which is sort of similar to this concept, so I love getting to share book recommendations like this! Also, if you have any suggestions for these topics, please feel free to leave them in the comments!
Links will be to either the Goodreads page for the book or, if available, my blog post. Let’s get into the list!
Memoirs
After reading When Breath Becomes Air a long time ago, I realized how much I wanted to read more of memoirs. Recently, I’ve also enjoyed memoirs such as Wow No Thank You. Memoirs are such a broad genre, and it’s always been interesting to see which ones I can pick up next.
Sci Fi
This is a very broad genre as well, but sci fi is one I definitely haven’t read as much of previously. That changed when I read and loved All Systems Red and then picked up The Space Between Worlds! Now, science fiction is one of my favorite genres.
Hate to Love
Hate to love/enemies to lovers is a trope seen in romance. It’s not true hatred or enemies, but oftentimes entails a lot of banter and rivalry prior to the romantic onset. The first book I read and enjoyed this trope in was probably The Hating Game, and afterwards another one I picked up and enjoyed was Well Met.
Non-Western Centered Fantasy
Fantasy as a genre definitely is diversifying the backgrounds and world building that is featured in prominent novels, and I love it! Black Sun was my Favorite Read of 2021 and what started my search for more fantasies that aren’t Eurocentric. Another one I read and enjoyed was The Daevabad Trilogy.
Translated Literature
I started reading translated literature a long time ago, but the book I remember picking up and starting my interest in translated novels was probably The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. After this, I’ve picked up several Murakami novels such as After Dark and I’ve got a lot of translated fiction on my TBR!
Dark Academia
This subgenre of thriller and mystery is definitely a popular one. I picked up Ninth House as my first foray into dark academia. After enjoying this one, I read The Maidens, an upcoming release that I’ll be reviewing very soon on the blog!
Urban Fantasy
This is one I’m actually looking for my next read in. I read and enjoyed Ninth House, as I previously mentioned. However, now I’m not sure what urban fantasy to pick up next! I’ve got Jade City on my TBR, so I’m definitely thinking about picking that one up soon, but I’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments.
Space Opera
Space Opera is another genre that I’m only just starting to get into. I read Binti and then picked up Star Wars: Queen’s Shadow, so next on my TBR is probably Leviathan Wakes!
Intergenerational Family Stories
This is a subtype of contemporary and literary fiction that I’ve read and enjoyed. Some of my reads include Patsy and The Joy Luck Club, and on my TBR are Gold Diggers, Pachinko, and Dominicana.
Psychological Thriller/Mystery
While I’m still trying to figure out what specific subtypes of thriller I enjoy the most, but psychological thrillers and mysteries have definitely intrigued me so far! Of these, I’ve read and enjoyed Pretty Little Wife, and I’ve got Local Woman Missing on my TBR.
So, there are some of the tropes and genres of books I’ve enjoyed and want to read more of! I share a lot of suggestions for book recommendations in the format of “If you like this book, try this one” on the blog here and on my Bookstagram, so feel free to check those out!
I’d love to hear any book recommendations you have for these topics in the comments below! Thank you for stopping by!
-Rae
Ooh, non-western-centred fantasy is a great answer. I want to read more of that, too.
My post: https://lydiaschoch.com/top-ten-tuesday-books-i-loved-that-made-me-want-more-books-like-them/
I definitely have a ton of books in that subcategory of fantasy I’ve read and loved, I’ll be sure to share a list soon for some more recommendations!