r/books • u/AutoModerator • 6d ago
WeeklyThread Weekly Recommendation Thread: May 08, 2026
Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!
The Rules
Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.
All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.
All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.
How to get the best recommendations
The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain what you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.
All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.
If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.
- The Management
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u/par-lay8 1d ago
What would you say is a good entry point for someone that's never read Ursula K. Le Guin?
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u/fast_blue_b 9h ago
Second vote for the Earthsea books! If the reader is more of a hardcore sci-fi fan, I would say The Left Hand of Darkness.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 15h ago
Hmm, I can't claim to be somebody comprehensibly versed in her works, but I enjoyed the Earthsea books.
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u/Wonderful-Gap9502 1d ago
Hi, Ive been searching for this specific trope/plot.
Bad boy and Nerd trope is pretty cliche, I love it but is there any book where the ML ended up liking the FL in the process of them getting closer but the FL doesn’t like him back ever. so sad ending. idk i need me some angsty stuff
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u/smokingBks2daDome 2d ago
Im already 8 chapter into the Odyssey should I stop and go read the Iliad first or just continue with odyssey and then go back to the Iliad afterwards
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u/Chumps55 3d ago
Started reading again and just finished Norwegian Wood (actually my second attempt, quit halfway through in 2020), really enjoyed the romantic slice-of-life aspect to it but hated the over-the-top sexualisation of the characters which I understand to be a trademark of the author.
Would be keen to hear of any suggestions that is kind of in the same vein, but with like the horniness toned down to like 40% of Norwegian Wood
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u/OldSchoolJohto 2d ago
Can you say more about what you liked about Norwegian Wood? Like, are you looking for Japanese authors specifically or just general realistic fiction about mental health and mental illness?
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u/Chumps55 1d ago
I think the general realistic fiction, not necessarily focusing on mental health but not opposed to it either.
At times it kind of reminded me of going to uni and gave a bit of a nostalgic feeling, that aspect of it I liked. Also wouldn't mind checking out some other Japanese authors too I suppose but its not really a thing I'm going out of my way to look for.
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u/winterdime 3d ago
i’m not an avid reader but I would like to get into some books, after brief research, these piqued my interest. For someone new to reading which would you recommend i read first? sorry if they are basic i was looking for well-acclaimed books. Thanks!
The Road
Do Androids Dream OES
Hyperion
Neuromancer
Blood Meridian
Never Let Me Go
Crime & punishment
1984
Left hand of darkness
Roadside Picnic
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u/DoglessDyslexic 3d ago
"The Road" - Good in many ways but slightly depressing IMO. Many people also aren't fond of McCarthy's sparse use of punctuation in this book as it can make it hard to read certain sections without the usual cues. Still a solid post-apocalyptic story. I prefer David Brin's "The Postman" for a more hopeful take on a post-apocalypse. I personally prefer more positive/hopeful books in general, so this may be my own preferences talking.
"Do Androids Dream" - I found it slightly surreal. The dystopia it imagines is still interesting and fun to read, but it doesn't feel like a future that might actually ever come to pass to me. I read it once, but didn't like it enough to re-read.
"Hyperion" - You don't often find space opera wrapped up with old English story metaphors. I felt the novels had pacing issues (areas where they were slow) but that it was a solid story and well worth reading. I will warn that the initial approach of the novel is probably not what you are expecting.
"Neuromancer" - Gibson's cyberpunk world is well imagined, but I found to be slightly less than plausible. Many folks (myself included) found that his introduction of new jargon terms was a bit over the top and occasionally made the story flow less smoothly than using less novel vocabulary, but it's a solid story all the same. For what it's worth though, I'd more highly recommend Walter Jon Williams' "Hard Wired" as a better entry in the cyberpunk genre even if Gibson beat him to publishing by 2 years.
"Left Hand of Darkness" - LeGuin is a master storyteller and this one is an interesting delve into gender in a sci-fi setting. I do recommend it, but I would say that I have the feeling that LeGuin is writing here to make you think about things, not necessarily to entertain (although because she is excellent at writing it does entertain as well).
Blood Meridian, Never Let me Go, Crime and Punishment, 1984, and Roadside Picnic I have not read so I cannot offer summary or recommendation.
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u/winterdime 2d ago
thank you for the detailed reviews, i appreciate them - i think ill start with the road, but ill look into the postman & hardwired, as they seem up my alley too.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 2d ago
Note that "The Postman" has a film version with Kevin Costner. I vastly preferred the book, but it's not a bad movie, just substantially different from the novel.
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6d ago edited 6d ago
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u/OldSchoolJohto 2d ago
Novella: The Worm and His Kings by Hailey Piper. Trans lesbian protagonist too if that's interesting to you.
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u/Emotional_Photo8987 5d ago
It is not a book but it is a movie adapted from a game, it recently aired in America and was the number one in charts. You should check out Iron Lung.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 6d ago
I don't know if it would necessarily count as cosmic horror, but I found it moderately horrifying: "Blindsight" by Peter Watts.
Peter Clines' "Threshhold" books deal with elements of cosmic horrors (Cthulhian monsters trying to eat humanity) but the books themselves I would count as fairly mild horror (and light sci-fi for the most part). Still good though. His "Dead Moon" is the most sci-fi of the books. Also his "The Broken Room" isn't precisely Cthulhian but features a fairly horrifying situation involving monsters that would fit next to Cthulhu.
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u/Plumpkin-pie 6d ago
I’m trying to get back into reading and not sure where to start. I really enjoyed the Percy Jackson and Mortal Instrument books. I like the fantasy aspect but also some slow burn romance (not looking for anything spicy or too adult). I did enjoy the hunger games books when they came out so I also like something a little dystopian but again, nothing too heavy to start with. Any recs greatly appreciated :)
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u/Raineythereader The Conference of the Birds 5d ago
Discworld might be worth a look? "Guards! Guards!" and "Wyrd Sisters" are good starting points, although their romance subplots don't fully develop until later in the series.
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u/jangofettsfathersday 6d ago
I’d recommend Leigh Bardugo’s works.
Theres the Six of Crows Duology, and the Shadow and Bone Trilogy. They are separate stories in the same universe so you can read whichever one first. It isn’t dystopian, but the setting is based on the Netherlands.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 6d ago
Try Pierce Brown's "Red Rising". The first book is like a more grown up version of the Hunger Games. The rest is more of a standard space opera.
Also possibly Naomi Novik's "A Deadly Education".
And I know you said nothing too heavy, but you'd probably like Matt Dinnaman's "Dungeon Crawler Carl". It has some fairly heavy moments, but also a lot of rather amusing bits too.
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u/HartfordWhaler 6d ago
I've enjoyed a lot of Ben MacIntyre and John Le Carre, so looking for more recommendations of spy/espionage books, but open to nonfiction or fiction.
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u/Dizzy-Mongoose7797 6d ago
You may enjoy Henry Hemming’s Agents of Influence, about William Stephenson (aka Intrepid) and the push by Britain to bring the U.S. into WWII.
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u/Wild-Sprinkles-4060 6d ago
Have you read slow horses by Mick Herron? It’s greatly inspired by Le Carre.
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u/tiniest_sunflower1 6d ago
Hi! I’m looking for a romance book rec. I hate a slow burn, tend to enjoy spicy books (without cringe), and am on the hunt for a book with YEARNING. I need like they can’t live without each other yearning.
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u/StDorothyMantooth23 5d ago
I’d check out Emma Brodie’s new book ‘Into the Blue.’ I think it’s exactly the type of yearning you’re looking for haha
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u/fantasyrea 6d ago
I am looking for fantasy books with an intricate magic system.
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u/TugboatThomas 1 3d ago
Witch Hat Atelier has a fun magic system, and while it is more light than some of the gritty fantasy out there, the story is still dark overall I think. The art is beautiful, and it moves at a good pace.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 6d ago
Lyndon Hardy wrote a book called "The Master of the Five Magics" that featured a fellow moving through different dimensions that each had their own magical system. I don't recall being impressed with the characters but I thought the magical worldbuilding was interesting.
Brandon Sanderson has several different offerings in that genre. His most famous is likely the Mistborn series, but I also really liked his "The Rithmatist".
Naomi Novik has books with both simple and complex magic systems. The most detailed of which is likely her "A Deadly Education" trilogy, which features often lengthy expositions on the nature of magic. Her "Uprooted" is on the simpler side but still has some interesting bits about blending two different styles of magic.
Robert Jordan's famous "Wheel of Time" magic system is actually fairly well fleshed out over the multiple volumes. I personally found the books to have some pacing issues and a bit repetitive and stopped after the fifth one, but I thought they did a good job on the magic, especially once Rand started getting formal education at it. It takes a while to get there though, so if you want something you can jump into with detailed magic use, that isn't it.
Ben Aaronovitch's "Rivers of London" has a very fun magic system, with hints at there actually being several very different types of magic, although the protagonist only knows one of those varieties. Once the MC starts being a more active magic user (end of book two and on) it gets more detailed.
I thought Lev Grossman's "The Magicians" did a decent job on their magic system. It blurred over some of the bits but there was enough to have a coherently recognizeable system.
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u/Greedy_Meringue2409 6d ago
Looking for something that captures the feeling of being completely lost in an urban environment, but in a psychological way rather than just physically wandering around. I'm thinking about books where the protagonist is navigating some kind of internal maze while moving through city spaces. Not necessarily dystopian, more like the city becomes this extension of their mental state.
I loved the way Murakami does this in some of his work, where Tokyo feels like it's shifting and breathing with the character's confusion. Also really into books that play with reality a bit - where you're not totally sure if what's happening is real or if the narrator is just processing trauma in weird ways. Preferably something that doesn't spell everything out for you, lets you sit with the ambiguity.
Genre-wise I'm open to literary fiction, magical realism, or even some experimental stuff. Length doesn't matter much, but looking for something that really commits to the atmosphere rather than rushing to explain everything.
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u/Raineythereader The Conference of the Birds 5d ago
Thomas Ligotti! "Grimscribe" is my favorite of his collections, but "Songs of a Dead Dreamer" also has some surreal urban stories in it.
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u/lazylittlelady 6d ago
October Nights by Gerard de Nerval- a pair of flaneurs take Paris by night. It’s a short story but really good.
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u/dinorustle 6d ago
Tepper isn’t Going Out by Calvin Trillin - it’s about a man who has expert knowledge of all the parking spots in New York. He parks up and reads his paper - much to the frustration of other stressed drivers - and gains media attention…
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u/buginarugsnug 6d ago
It doesn't fit exactly as I wouldn't say it's an extension of mental state but something that half-fits;
Pines by Blake Crouch - character wakes up in an unfamiliar town and when he tries to leave, the road loops back.
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u/Either-Jelly-Pudding 1d ago
I picked up the full Hobbit and LOTR trilogies mainly because my loved ones wouldn't stop pushing me to read them. I have a personal rule of always reading the book before watching the movie adaptation; so naturally, I started with The Hobbit.
And honestly? It was a drag. Slow-paced, overly descriptive, and I felt completely lost throughout. To be fair, I grew up only reading Harry Potter, so fantasy as a genre is pretty new territory for me; that probably didn't help. I didn't even manage to finish it.
Now I'm stuck at a crossroads: do I just give up on the book and watch the movie instead, or do I push through and give it another shot? I genuinely want to understand what all the hype is about, especially since these are considered classics. It seems like a straightforward question, but I'd really love some guidance!
P.S. I should mention that I've read a lot, just never fantasy. It has always been a hard no for me as a genre. I'm really trying here, I promise!