With the abundance of time we have on our hands with the never ending pandemic, I have created a must-reads list for those who need help with choosing something.  Given that everyone has different tastes, and I read anything I can get my hands on, I have included multiple genres so hopefully everyone gets a good recommendation for the new year.

Young Adult Fiction

The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness

Todd Hewitt is the only boy in a town of men. Ever since the settlers were infected with the Noise germ, Todd can hear everything the men think, and they hear everything he thinks. Todd is just a month away from becoming a man, but in the midst of the cacophony, he knows that the town is hiding something from him — something so awful Todd is forced to flee with his dog, whose simple, loyal voice he hears too. With hostile men from the town in pursuit, the two stumble upon a strange and eerily silent creature: a girl. Who is she? Why wasn’t she killed by the germ like all the females on New World? Propelled by Todd’s gritty narration, readers are in for a white-knuckle journey in which a boy on the cusp of manhood must unlearn everything he knows in order to figure out who he truly is.

Important Note: While filming for the movie started in 2017, Chaos Walking (based on the book mentioned above) is set to be released on March 5, 2021. The movie will star Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley.

https://youtu.be/IxemliOq5a0

Goodreads Rating: 3.97/5

Romance

Me Before You – Jojo Moyes

Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life—steady boyfriend, close family—who has barely been farther afield than their tiny village. She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair bound after an accident. Will always lived a huge life—big deals, extreme sports, worldwide travel—and now he’s pretty sure he cannot live the way he is. Will is acerbic, moody, bossy—but Lou refuses to treat him with kid gloves, and soon his happiness means more to her than she expected. When she learns that Will has shocking plans of his own, she sets out to show him that life is still worth living.

Goodreads Rating: 4.26/5

Psychological Thriller

The Secret History – Donna Tartt

Under the influence of their charismatic classics professor, a group of clever, eccentric misfits at an elite New England college discover a way of thinking and living that is a world away from the humdrum existence of their contemporaries. But when they go beyond the boundaries of normal morality, they slip gradually from obsession to corruption and betrayal, and at last – inexorably – into evil.

Goodreads Rating: 4.09/5

Classical Literature

The Beautiful and Damned – F. Scott Fitzgerald

First published in 1922, “The Beautiful and the Damned” followed Fitzgerald’s impeccable debut, “This Side of Paradise,” thus securing his place in the tradition of great American novelists. Embellished with the author’s lyrical prose, here is the story of Harvard-educated, aspiring aesthete Anthony Patch and his beautiful wife, Gloria. As they await the inheritance of his grandfather’s fortune, their reckless marriage sways under the influence of alcohol and avarice. A devastating look at the nouveau riche, and the New York nightlife, as well as the ruinous effects of wild ambition, “The Beautiful and the Damned” achieved stature as one of Fitzgerald’s most accomplished novels. Its distinction as a classic endures to this day. Pocket Book’s Enriched Classics present the great works of world literature enhanced for the contemporary reader. Special features include critical perspectives, suggestions for further read, and a unique visual essay composed of period photographs that help bring every word to life.

Goodreads Rating: 3.75/5

Comedy

A Man Without a Country – Kurt Vonnegut

In a volume that is penetrating, introspective, incisive, and laugh-out-loud funny, one of the great men of letters of this era—or any era—holds forth on life, art, sex, politics, and the state of America’s soul. Whether he is describing his coming of age in America, his formative war experiences, or his life as an artist, this is Vonnegut doing what he does best: being himself. Whimsically illustrated by the author, “A Man Without a Country” is intimate, tender, and brimming with the scope of Kurt Vonnegut’s passions

Goodreads Rating: 4.10/5

Mystery

Sparkling Cyanide – Agatha Christie

Six people sit down to a sumptuous meal at a table laid for seven. In front of the empty place is a sprig of rosemary- “rosemary for remembrance.” A strange sentiment considering no one is likely to forget the night, exactly a year ago, that Rosemary Barton died at exactly the same table, her beautiful face unrecognizable, convulsed with pain and horror.

But then Rosemary had always been memorable—she had the ability to arouse strong passions in most people she met. In one case, strong enough to kill…

Goodreads Rating: 3.9/5

Historical Fiction

The Nickel Boys – Colson Whitehead

When Elwood Curtis, a black boy growing up in 1960s Tallahassee, is unfairly sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called the Nickel Academy, he finds himself trapped in a grotesque chamber of horrors. Elwood’s only salvation is his friendship with fellow “delinquent” Turner, which deepens despite Turner’s conviction that Elwood is hopelessly naive, that the world is crooked, and that the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble. As life at the Academy becomes ever more perilous, the tension between Elwood’s ideals and Turner’s skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades.

Goodreads Rating: 4.26/5

Nonfiction

Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness – Susannah Cahalan

When twenty-four-year-old Susannah Cahalan woke up alone in a hospital room, strapped to her bed and unable to move or speak, she had no memory of how she’d gotten there. Days earlier, she had been on the threshold of a new, adult life: at the beginning of her first serious relationship and a promising career at a major New York newspaper. Now she was labeled violent, psychotic, a flight risk. What happened?

Goodreads Rating: 4.05/5

Politics

Shortest Way Home – Pete Buttigieg

Once described by the Washington Post as “the most interesting mayor you’ve never heard of,” Pete Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., has now emerged as one of the nation’s most visionary politicians. With soaring prose that celebrates a resurgent American Midwest, “Shortest Way Home” narrates the heroic transformation of a “dying city” (Newsweek) into nothing less than a shining model of urban reinvention.

Goodreads Rating: 4.21/5

Scientific Nonfiction

The New York Times Book of Mathematics: More Than 100 Years of Writing by the Numbers

From the archives of the world’s most famous newspaper comes a collection of its very best writing on mathematics. Big and informative, “The New York Times Book of Mathematics” gathers more than 110 articles written from 1892 to 2010 that cover statistics, coincidences, chaos theory, famous problems, cryptography, computers, and many other topics. Edited by Pulitzer Prize finalist and senior “Times” writer Gina Kolata, and featuring renowned contributors such as James Gleick, William L. Laurence, Malcolm W. Browne, George Johnson, and John Markoff, it’s a must-have for any math and science enthusiast.

Goodreads Rating: 3.63/5

Self Help

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking – Malcolm Gladwell

Drawing on cutting-edge neuroscience and psychology and displaying all of the brilliance that made The Tipping Point a classic, “Blink” changes the way you’ll understand every decision you make. Never again will you think about thinking the same way. Malcolm Gladwell redefined how we understand the world around us. Now, in Blink, he revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant – in the blink of an eye – that actually aren’t as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? Why do some people follow their instincts and win, while others end up stumbling into error? How do our brains really work – in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others?

Goodreads Rating: 3.94/5

Play

Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller

Willy Loman has been a salesman for 34 years. At 60, he is cast aside, his usefulness now exhausted. With no future to dream about he must face the crushing disappointments of his past. He takes one final brave action, but is he heroic at last? Or a self-deluding fool?

Goodreads Rating: 3.53/5

Note: the following summaries have been taken from Goodreads. For more information on the books, please visit their website here.