Book Recommendations by Mood: Destroy Your 2024 Reading Challenge
Did you succumb to peer pressure and set a Reading Challenge goal for 2024, but now the prospect seems completely overwhelming? Are you exhausted from having to make so many decisions all the god damned time? Do you wish someone could just give you the exactly right book recommendations so you can have one single fucking break from decision making?
You’ve come to the right place. My two favorite things just happen to be reading and telling people what to do.
Click on the mood that best matches your current vibe, and select a book. Or, just read all the recommended books, so you don’t have to decide a single thing.
Get it free from your local library (using Libby for eBooks and audiobooks), buy it from a local bookseller, or simply click the Amazon links conveniently included below. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases on paid links, but the referral link does not affect the price you pay.1
Mood
Mood: Searching for Hope in Humanity
Have you seen the news lately? If you haven’t, it’s bad. Like the consume your existence with burning rage and crushing sorrow kind of bad.
You may be wondering if this is the beginning of the end. Or even the end of the end. If you are looking for some hope that humanity is fundamentally good underneath it all, or that we are worth saving despite our flaws, or that we’re capable and worthy of persevering, here are your personalized book recommendations.
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
See my post Survival is Insufficient for my thoughts on this post-apocalyptic love letter to art and humanity and perseverance.
- An absolutely remarkable thing by Hank Green
If you saw a giant transformer-like statue appear on the sidewalk in Los Angeles, would you stop to look? Or has the remarkable become unremarkable for you? Have you lost the instinct to see beauty and joy?
Don’t be deterred by the flaws of the narrator. She’s just written realistically, warts and all, and she learns from her mistakes.
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
An angel and a demon work together to prevent Armageddon. Sometimes when I am in a bout of depression, I re-read this book, and it reminds me I can still smile.
- The Invisible Life of Addie La Rue by V.E. Schwab
This is now one of my favorite books of all time. When I feel myself getting jaded by the world, I think of this story.
- The Martian by Andy Weir
A story about the power of human determination, cooperation, ingenuity, and wit, as we venture beyond our world.
Mood: You are a witch living in a comfortable stone cottage by a stormy sea, with a feline familiar and a vast library. Mysteries abound in the magical depths you have crafted below.
You don’t belong in this world of corporations sucking us dry from the inside out. Of institutions designed to fail the most vulnerable of us again and again. Where the myth of the capitalist protestant work ethic drains humanity of all our intrinsic value and capability for joy.
You belong to the wild ocean waves crashing on the shore and the shining meteors burning through the sky. Cindy from the HOA who keeps citing you for the wildflowers in your yard can fuck all the way off. Escape into these worlds instead.
- The Starless Sea by Erin Morganstern
A vast underground library of magic and cats and wonder. A love letter to storytelling, in all its forms from the ancient to the futuristic. If you searched the back of closets and wardrobes for a hidden door, this book is for you.
The Night Circus is also great, but The Starless Sea is my favorite.
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
A 24-hour bookstore in San Francisco with mysterious clientele and encoded tomes, some sort of secret society, and Google. If The Starless Sea sounds like your kind of vibe, but you want something a lot shorter, this is a great option. (But really, read both).
- Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Worlds within worlds, hidden in plain sight. The lives of the overlooked and undervalued.
- A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
World-crossing magic of multiple versions of London and the mayhem of a clever cut-purse. Perfect if you liked Six of Crows but wished the writing was better.
- Circe by Madeline Miller
The women of the Odyssey and the Iliad are presented in the original works only as pawns subject to the will and whims of men, where they have no agenda or worth of their own. Finally, Circe gets to tell her story, her way.
Mood: Needing to Laugh With Your Whole Body
You know when this is what you need. It doesn’t mean the entire book is full of knock-knock jokes. Books must have heart to make you laugh with your whole body, for humor to resonate that deeply. While reading these novels, I literally laughed at loud at multiple points, a rare feat.
- The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
I could read this book over and over again forever, and I’d never not laugh.
Also, you should read literally everything else Douglas Adams has ever written.
- Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
An angel and a demon work together to prevent Armageddon. Sometimes when I am in a bout of depression, I re-read this book, and it reminds me I can still smile.,2
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
The first installation of The Murderbot Diaries about a part human, part robot construct struggling with identity and free will while they fight to keep some stupid humans alive when they would much rather watch soap operas in the feed.
Bonus: It’s a novella so you can rack up those reading challenge points quickly by going through the series.
Mood: Wanting to be absolutely emotionally devastated. I mean, just absolutely wrecked for weeks.
Pictured below: Your friends after giving into your book recommendations from this section.
- Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
For two weeks after reading this book, I couldn’t think about anything else. It’s a viscerally real story of friendship, love, grief, and creativity that pierced straight through and burrowed inside of me.
- Normal People by Sally Rooney
Nobody hits the nail on the head of the tragedy of everyday relationships like Sally Rooney. About people who can never quite figure out how to ask for what they need because they don’t know what they deserve.
- The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
“We accept the love we think we deserve.” What an absolutely devastating line. Shoots straight to the heart of teen insecurity that lasts a lifetime.
- Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
The only non-fiction book on my list, Daring Greatly will change your life if you let it. But you need to allow yourself to face some uncomfortable truths.
Mood: You’re nearing six-and-twenty and are already a burden to your parents
But you dread being a pawn of society, unable to control your own fate, valued only for your good breeding, in every sense of the word. Fortunately, a kind-hearted single man with a fortune happens to be in want of a wife and will sweep you off your headstrong feet.
These are the best kinds of Classics – ones that endure because they feel in many ways as relevant today as they did when written, where humor and wit abound. It’s okay to let yourself be charmed.
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Even if you’ve watched every adaptation, from the the BBC miniseries in which Jennifer Ehle as Elizabeth absolutely eviscerates Colin Firth (Darcy) in the best way possible, to Fire Island, beautiful, fun, modern queer re-telling, if you have never read the original, now is the time.
- Emma by Jane Austen
Emma is a spoiled brat, but that is partially the point. The story is as much about her growing up as finding love.
- Persuasion by Jane Austen
I’ll always love Mr. Darcy, but Captain Wentworth doesn’t get the swooning he deserves.
- I make commission on items you purchase from Amazon when you click on the sponsored links. I don’t make a profit from running this site, but the commissions from Amazon help to cover the costs of maintaining the site.
- Yes I know I have this book twice in this post, but this is my blog, and I can do what I want.
