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2020 Reading List

This reading list is based on the 52 book challenge, in which the goal is to read a book per week. With that said, we want to encourage people to read more, regardless of their availability, reading speed, or lifestyle. If you commit to reading a book a month, or a book every two weeks, that's fantastic. Every year, Josh Mauthe and Dietrich Stogner will select a list of 75 books (52 books plus alternates). These are books that we both agree are some of the absolute best, not just in their genres, but in the entire bookstore. 

We're selecting one book from each author, and we're going to work to get a wide range  of styles and genres. If you have suggestions, we'd love to hear them, and we'll consider including them in next year's reading list. Also, and I can't stress this enough, READ OUTSIDE OF YOUR USUAL. If you're a big fantasy reader, spend some time with the noir novels. If you only read "literary" books, stop, and read some of the best genre has to offer. The entire goal is discovering something new.
​
P.S. We're posting this in October of 2019 because we just launched this podcast, and there's not enough time in the year to do a 2019 list. If you want to add on some books and roll it into next year, that's great. If you want to get a jump on 2020, that's great too. 

Literary / Miscellaneous

Mother Night, by Kurt Vonnegut
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
Lovecraft Country, by Matt Ruff
Reincarnation Blues, by Micheal Poore
Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders
Julian Comstock: A Story of 22nd Century America, by Robert Charles Wilson
The Underground Railroad, by Colson Whitehead
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, by Mark Haddon
Gates of Fire, by Stephen Pressfield
The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
Catch-22, by Joseph Heller
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, by Hunter S. Thompson
Atonement, by Ian McEwan
Boys Life, by Robert R. McCammon
A Prayer for Owen Meany, by John Irving
The Time Traveler’s Wife, by Audrey Niffenegger

​Science Fiction / Fantasy


​Old Man’s War,
by John Scalzi
The Lathe of Heaven, by Ursula K. LeGuin
Recursion, by Blake Crouch
The Forever War, by Joe Haldeman
The Universe Builders, by Steve LeBel
Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said, by Philip K. Dick
Rendezvous with Rama, by Arthur C. Clarke

Throne of the Crescent Moon, by Saladin Ahmed
The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisen
The Lies of Locke Lamora, by Scott Lynch
The Bear and the Nightingale, by Katherine Arden
Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett
American Gods, by Neil Gaiman
Orconomics, by J Zachary Pike

Noir / Mystery

The Devil’s Detective, by Simon Kurt Unsworth
LA Confidential, by James Ellroy
Yiddish Policemen's Union, by Micheal Chabon
Winter’s Bone, by Daniel Woodrell
The Silence of the Lambs, by Thomas Harris
Gone Baby Gone, by Dennis Lehane
Clockers, by Richard Price
Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith
Pop. 1280, by Jim Thompson
Red Harvest, by Dashiell Hammett

Horror / Thriller

Hex, by Thomas Olde Heuvelt
The Croning, by Laird Barron
The Changeling, by Victor Lavalle
The Troop, by Nick Cutter
Books of Blood, by Clive Barker
We Have Always Lived In The Castle, by Shirley Jackson
Annihilation, by Jaff VanDerMeer
Relic, by Douglas Preston and Lee Child
A Simple Plan, by Scott Smith
The Tomb, by F. Paul Wilson


Young Adult

The Age Of Miracles, by Karen Thompson Walker
The Fault In Our Stars, by John Greene
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie
The Gates, by John Connolly

Short Fiction Collections

Stories of Your Life (And Others), by Ted Chiang
Machine of Death, edited by Ryan North, David Malki, and Matthew Bernardo
At The Mouth of the River of Bees, by Kij Johnson
20th Century Ghosts, by Joe Hill

Nonfiction

Generation Kill, by Evan Wright
A Long Way Gone, by Ismael Beah
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, by Mary Roach
Into Thin Air, by Jon Krakauer
The Corner: A Year In The Life of an Inner City Neighborhood, by David Simon and Ed Burns
On Writing, by Stephen King
Black Hawk Down, by Mark Bowden
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote
The Innocent Man, by John Grisham

Graphic Novels

From Hell, by Alan Moore
Maus, by Art Spiegelman
Boxers and Saints, by Gene Luen Yang
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