When I saw Oyster did a best books list, I was on it like Donkey Kong. I have a soft spot for “best of” lists and also a soft spot for Oyster. Out of the 100, I’ve read 21 and DNF 1 (My Brilliant Friend).
Read:
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
- The Tiger’s Wife by Téa Obreht
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
- Boy Snow Bird by Helen Oyeyemi
- Swampandia by Karen Russell
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay
- Tiny Beautiful Things by Cheryl Strayed
- Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Achidie
- Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
- Bossy Pants by Tina Fey
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride
- Home by Toni Morrison
- Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
- Gulp by Mary Roach
- The Flamethrowers by Rachel Kushner
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
- The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
- This is How You Lose Her by Junot Diaz
I agree with most of these. I think I’ve gushed about Americanah and Bad Feminist to everyone I know. Station Eleven was probably my most surprising like since generally I’m not an apocalypse girl. I like the diversity shown. I like that it seems to be pretty equally split between women and men. There are a lot of books still I need to get to.
To Read.
- The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
- Billy Lynn’s Halftime Walk by Ben Fountain
- Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
- Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff
- A Girl is a Half Formed Thing by Eimear McBride
- NW by Zadie Smith
- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Changing my Mind by Zadie Smith
I’m probably going to add to this list since there are a few books that I’m not familiar with. I’d like to see Oyster make a list on their app with the books they have available to make it easier.
Do you agree with this list? How many of your favorites are on here? How many are on your TBR? Any you want to talk me into reading?
Of that list, I’ve only read Changing My Mind (enjoyed it greatly; have a copy if you want to read it and don’t have one lying around). There’s a ton on there that I’ve been wanting to read for a while, though, especially Americanah.
I have Americanah if you want to read it. We can trade!
I’m a sucker for literary lists. I haven’t tried Oyster yet, but I will one of these days. I keep hearing about it on Book Riot.
The only book that made me pause was Life After Life. Not because I disagree, it was so popular and praised, but because I abandoned it– I couldnt get into it and still kinda regret it .