Book Recs

Hankerin’ for something to read?

Try the following books; they are all recommended by readers so they’re Messy Girl approved! (Most links are through Kind of a Mess’s Amazon Affiliate.  For more information, click here.)

You can also swap your used books through Paperback Swap, click here for details!

Alyssa
The Mercy of Thin Air: A Novel by Ronlyn Domingue
The Thirteenth Tale: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
Letter to My Daughter by Maya Angelou
Storm Front (The Dresden Files, Book 1) by Jim Butcher
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

beylit
The Princess Bride: S. Morgenstern’s Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure by S. Morgenstern (William Goldman)
Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Wicked Years) by Gregory Maguire
Till We Have Faces: A Myth Retold by C.S. Lewis
American Gods: A Novel by Neil Gaiman
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore
American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Hitchhiker’s Guide Series #1) by Douglas Adams
Ender’s Game (Ender, Book 1) by Orson Scott Card

Ceej
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
White Teeth: A Novel by Zadie Smith

ElfPuddle
Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series
A Game of Thrones 4-Book Boxed Set: A Game of Thrones, A Clash of Kings, A Storm of Swords, and A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire), A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five by George R. R. Martin
Anne McCaffery’s Dragonriders of Pern
The Red Tent: A Novel by Anita Diamant
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
all of Shakespeare’s plays

Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next books

Emily Elizabeth
Midnight’s Children: A Novel by Salman Rushdie
Cloud Atlas: A Novel by David Mitchell
Lonesome Dove: A Novel by Larry McMurtrey
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Audio book recommendations:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Skippy Dies: A Novel by Paul Murray
A Discovery of Witches: A Novel by Deborah Harkness

esposetta
An Object of Beauty: A Novel by Steve Martin
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self by Danielle Evans
My Life in France by Julia Child
A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

Ginna
Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand: A Novel (Random House Reader’s Circle) by Helen Simonson
The Irresistible Henry House: A Novel by Lisa Grunwald

Jaime
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
The Complete Anne of Green Gables Boxed Set (Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, Anne of the Island, Anne of Windy Poplars, Anne’s House of Dreams, … Rainbow Valley, Rilla of Ingleside)by Lucy Maud Montgomery
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: A Novel by Jonathan Safran Foer

Jo
The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Laura
Corelli’s Mandolin: A Novel by Louis de Bernieres

LifeSheWrote
Shades of Grey: A Novel by Jasper Fforde
Treasure Box by Orson Scott Card
Away: A Novel by Amy Bloom
City of Thieves: A Novel by David Benoiff
Touchstone by Laurie R. King
The Work of Wolves by Kent Myers
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
Half Broke Horses: A True-Life Novel by Jeannette Walls
The Witch of Portobello: A Novel by Paulo Coelho
The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers: A Novel by Thomas Mullen

lizvd
To Kill a Mockingbirdby Harper Lee
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Oh, the Places You’ll Go by Dr. Seuss
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Emma by Jane Austen
Kleypas’s Wallflower & Hathaways Series by Lisa Kleypas
Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia and Committed: A Love Story by Elizabeth Gilbert

Maggie
The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye
Cheaper by the Dozen by Frank Gilbreth Jr. & Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
Henry Reed’s Journey by Keith Robertson
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Middlesex: A Novel by Jeffrey Eugenides
The Namesake: A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Poisonwood Bible: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
Prep: A Novel by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Wonder Spot by Melissa Banks
The True Story of Hansel and Gretel: A Novel of War and Survival by Louise Parker
I Was Told There’d Be Cake: Essays by Sloane Crosley
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents by Julia Alvarez
Catch Me If You Can: The True Story of a Real Fake by Frank Abagnale Jr.
Not That Kind of Girl: A Memoir by Carlene Bauer
The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker
Good Eggs: A Memoir by Phoebe Potts
Blankets (New Hardcover Edition) by Craig Thompson
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
Special Topics in Calamity Physics by Marisha Pessl
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
The Woman in White (Penguin Classics) by Wilkie Collins
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Anything by Jane Austen
Anything by Anne or Charlotte Bronte Bronte

Meghan
In the Woods by Tana French
The Dark Is Rising (Boxed Set): The Dark Is Rising, Greenwitch, Over Sea, Under Stone, Silver on the Tree, The Grey King by Susan Cooper
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss
Prodigal Summer: A Novel by Barbara Kingsolver
The Stolen Child: A Novel by Keith Donahue
East of the Mountains by David Guterson
Geek Love: A Novel by Katherine Dunn

Michelle
Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy Deluxe Boxed Set: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Plus On Stieg Larsson by Stieg Larsson
Dune, 40th Anniversary Edition (Dune Chronicles, Book 1)
The Story of Edgar Sawtelle: A Novel by David Wroblewski
Michelle’s favorites by Sarah Vowell (Alyssa heartily agrees on all of them.)Assassination Vacation
The Wordy Shipmates
Radio On: A Listener’s Diary
The Partly Cloudy Patriot

Nikki
Stephen King’s Dark Tower series
John Sandford’s Prey series and Virgil Flowers series
Blood, Bones & Butter: The Inadvertent Education of a Reluctant Chef by Gabrielle Hamilton
Rat Girl: A Memoir by Kristin Hersh
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Julie Powell’s books
A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
The Elenium by David Eddings
Dragonlance novels by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.

Red
The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane by Katherine Howe

Savychacha
The Last Night of the Earth Poems by Charles Bukowski
Hot Water Music by Charles Bukowski
Dry: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Possible Side Effects by Augusten Burroughs
World Without End by Ken Follett
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
Straightby Boy George
The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things by J. T. LeRoy
When You Are Engulfed in Flames by David Sedaris
Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

Sharon
War for the Oaks: A Novel by Emma Bull

Vee
Ishmael: An Adventure of the Mind and Spirit by Daniel Quinn.
Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet by Benjamin Hoff
The Space Between Us: A Novel by Thrity Umrigar
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Washington Square by Henry James
The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender