#drgarth

ANYTHING by Sarah J. Maas if you like series (my favorite of hers are the ACOTAR books - starts with A Court of Thorns and Roses [THERE ARE WINGS!!!]); anything by Leigh Bardugo; The Ember quartet by Sabaa Tahir (Ember in the Ashes is the first book); the Caraval trilogy by Stephanie Garber.

If you like Bridgewater, Lauren Shippen also created an audio drama called the Bright Sessions and there are three in-universe books - the third came out today!!! You don't have to have listened to the audio drama to read them, and they can be read as stand-alones or separately. They are: The Infinite Noise (TIN is such a comfort read), A New Darkness, and Some Faraway Place (HBD TO THIS ONE!)

Sam Smith mentioned another series by Laini Taylor that I love dearly at this last con; first book is The Daughter of Smoke and Bone (monsters, angels, lore galore!)

If you wanna get Halloween-y I really love the book Anna Dressed in Blood and its sequel Girl of Nightmares by Kendare Blake (also her Three Dark Crowns series is amazing).

I can't book rec without mentioning my beloved Winternight trilogy by Katherine Arden (first book is The Bear and the Nightingale), which accurately incorporates so much of my own Russian historical folklore and Talk About A Compelling Otherworldly Being as a lead character RAWR.

I read a lot of series; that much is clear. However -

Non-series: Slaughterhouse Five; The Song of Achilles (but prepare to be broken); The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo (peak literature); The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (and watch the Netflix film after); On the Come Up by Angie Thomas. I was recently rec'ed Piranesi by Susanna Clarke as well and really enjoying diving into that one (I read mult books and fic at once I am unwell).

Oh! And White Oleander. I am always thinking about White Oleander by Janet Finch, be warned if it was an AO3 fic though the triggers would be a paragraph long. But its fucking lovely and sadly formative brain reading years for me.

If you're ok with harder topics, the best two books I've ever read on the concept of addiction are Beautiful Boy by David Sheff and the companion piece Tweak by Nic Sheff (the boy in question). Please be forewarned they are BOTH very hard reads dealing with drug abuse (meth and other things). Also as someone with personal history of ED I would be remiss not to mention Portia De Rossi's memoir Unbearable Lightness which does the best job of describing that area of struggle I have ever read (however again - please watch the triggers).

For lighter, funner fare please read through Tamora Pierce's entire oeuvre and enjoy the stories of my youth. Also Anne McAffrey. Pern, my beloved safe place.

Nonfiction I have enjoyed includes What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami, Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi (if you're a history human this is a great account of the REAL history so many of us were not taught in school); and Pity The Reader by Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell (a great writing book).