Summer 2017
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan
The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
Night by Elle Wiesel
The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Black Water by Joyce Carol Oates
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Sex and Rage by Eve Babitz
The Liars’ Club by Mary Karr
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Last Interview by James Baldwin
Fall 2017
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Girls by Emma Cline
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Bone by Yrsa Daley-Ward
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood
A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
Sisters by Lily Tuck
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
O Fallen Angel by Kate Zambreno
Winter 2017/2018
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Maus by Art Spiegelman
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (suggested to Emma Roberts)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Eternal Life by Dara Horn
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
No Time to Spare by Ursula K. Le Guin
New and Selected Poems by Mary Oliver
Collected Poems by Jack Gilbert
The Life and Death of Sophie Stark by Anne North
Celebration by Maya Angelou
The Sun and her flowers by Rupi Kaur
Sea of Strangers by Lang Leav
Heart Talk by Cleo Wade
Extra books mentioned on her bookshelf tour for Belletrist (April 2018)
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
The Gift – Poems by Hafiz
Cosmos by Carl Sagan
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorder
The Essential Rumi by Coleman Barks
1984 by George Orwell
Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-Smith
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
The White Album by Joan Didion
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
What It Means When a Man Falls From the Sky by Lesley Nneka Arimah
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Pagan Rabbi and Other Stories by Cynthia Ozick
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
We Were Eight Years in Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Spring 2018
What We Are Doing Here? Essays by Marilynne Robinson
The Ghost Notebooks by Ben Dolnick
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés (suggested to Emma Roberts)
The Fisherman by Chigozie Obioma
Marlena by Julie Buntin
Consider the Lobster by David Foster Wallace
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
Summer 2018
Book of Longing by Leonard Cohen
Motherhood by Shelia Heti (suggested by Emma Roberts)
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins
They Come in All Colors by Malcolm Hansen
Putney by Sofka Zinovieff
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard (suggested by Emma Roberts)
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins (suggested by Emma Roberts)
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman
Call Me by Your Name by André Aciman
Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Love & Trouble by Claire Dederer
Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins
All About Love by Bell Hooks
The Parting Gift by Evan Fallenberg
Bluets by Maggie Nelson
Nicole’s favourite books of 2018
Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim
Heart Talk by Cleo Wade
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
The Soul of an Octopus by Sy Montgomery
A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne
Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
To Shake the Sleeping Self by Jedidiah Jenkins
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine by Alan Lightman
Worm Fiddling Nocturne in the Key of a Broken Heart by Kimberly Lojewski
The Seas by Samantha Hunt
Eternal Life by Dara Horn
Feel Free by Zadie Smith
The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Winter/Spring 2019
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
My Sister, the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
Gun Love by Jennifer Clement
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
Tonight I’m Someone Else: Essays by Chelsea Hodson
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Words Are My Matter: Writings About Life and Books, 2000-2016, by Ursula K. Le Guin
Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin
The Farm by Joanne Ramos
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel: Essays by Alexander Chee
Katerina by James Frey
Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Last Interview by Martin Luther King Jr.
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Felicity by Mary Oliver
Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
Treatise on Modern Stimulants by Honoré de Balzac
Nicole’s favourite books of 2019
Zami: A New Spelling of my Name by Audre Lorde
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Heating & Cooling: 52 Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly
Where to Begin by Cleo Wade
Self Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race by Thomas Chatterton Williams
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
The Dark Water Dancer by Ta Nehisi Coates
The Good Earth by Pearl Buck
An American Marraige by Tayari Jones
Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
For Small Creatures Such As We by Sasha Sagan
Tonight I’m Someone Else: Essays by Chelsea Hodson
Words Are My Matter by Ursula K. Le Guin
Nicole’s to-read list (March 2020)
Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories by Young-Ha Kim
The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry by Wendell Berry
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance by Zora Neale Hurston
The Testaments (The Handmaid’s Tale #2) by Margaret Atwood
Gilead by Marilynne Robinson
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Nicole’s book recs by Black authors (June 2020)
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Grand Union by Zadie Smith
I Am Not Your Negro by James Baldwin
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
Beloved by Toni Morrison
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
The Water Danger by Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
There Are More Beautiful Things Than Beyoncé by Morgan Parker
The Weary Blues by Langston Hughes
Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
A Burst of Light by Audre Lorde
Native Son by Richard Wright
The Black Unicorn: Poems by Audre Lorde
Shadow and Act by Ralph Ellison
We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Buck: A Memoir by MK Asante
James Baldwin: The Last Interview: And Other Conversations
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Collected Essays by James Baldwin
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Well-Read Black Girl by Glory Edim
The Beautiful Struggle by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Swing Time by Zadie Smith
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
Zami: A New Spelling of My Name by Audre Lorde
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Martin Luther King, Jr.: The Last Interview by Martin Luther King, Jr.
All About Love: New Visions by Bell Hooks
Tar Baby by Toni Morrison
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Here Comes the Sun by Nicole Dennis-Benn
Tambourines to Glory by Langston Hughes
The Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah
No Name in the Street by James Baldwin
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Frederick Douglass
Nicole’s quarantine reading list (April 2020)
Shantaram by Gregory David Roberts
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Still Life with Woodpecker by Tom Robbins
Diary of a Murderer: And Other Stories by Young-ha Kim
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Running with Scissors: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs
Untamed by Glennon Doyle
Think Little by Wendell Berry
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
To Shake the Sleeping Self: A Journey from Oregon, to Patagonia and a Quest for a Life by Jedidiah Jenkins
For Small Creatures Such as We by Sasha Sagan
Grand Union: Stories by Zadie Smith
September 2020
Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
January – April 2021 (Winter/Spring 2021)
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
What the Road Said by Cleo Wade
Train Dreams by Denis Johnson
How to Slowly Kill Yourself and Others in America by Kiese Laymon
May 2021
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Fifty Words for Rain by Asha Lemmie
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
The Wild Iris by Louise Glück
Anthony Bourdain: The Last Interview by Anthony Bourdain
Where I Lived, and What I Lived For by Henry David Thoreau
How to Love by Thich Nhat Hanh
“2021 so far…” (Spring/May 2021)
Home Body by Rupi Kaur
The Absolutist by John Boyne
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
Low Touch Economy by Mia Moretti
What Kind of Woman by Kate Baer
The Book of Delights by Ross Gay
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Way of Ignorance by Wendell Berry
Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The 2020 Griffin Poetry Prize Anthology: A Selection of the Shortlist
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
Summer 2021
Owls and Other Fantasies by Mary Oliver
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up At Night by Morgan Parker
The Anthropocene Reviewed by John Green
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
With Teeth by Kristen Arnett
Pop Song by Larissa Pham
Upstream by Mary Oliver
Pedro Paramo by Juan Rulfo
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
The Pocket Rumi by Rumi
Oysterville by Willard R. Espy
Our Only World: Ten Essays by Wendell Berry
The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh by Thich Nhat Hanh
We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai
Always Crashing in the Same Car by Matthew Specktor
The Paper Palace by Miranda C. Heller
Fall 2021
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
A Place For Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
Winter Recipes from the Collective: Poems by Louise Glück
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Our Only World: Ten Essays by Wendell Berry
2021: The Hits
Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart
Wild Ducks Flying Backwards by Tom Robbins
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Dear Senthuran by Akwaeke Emezi
Sing to It by Amy Hempel
On Beauty by Zadie Smith
Song of Myself by Walt Whitman
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers
Owls and Other Fantasies by Mary Oliver
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller
Like Streams to the Ocean by Jedidiah Jenkins
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Dancing at the Edge of the World by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Sweetness of Water by Nathan Harris
The Absolutist by John Boyne
Milk Blood Heat by Dantiel W. Moniz
The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
Other People’s Comfort Keeps Me Up at Night by Morgan Parker
Animal by Lisa Taddeo
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
The Tradition by Jericho Brown
The Way of Ignorance by Wendell Berry
Afterparties: Stories by Anthony Veasna So
Winter 2021/2022
Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution by Carlo Rovelli
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois by Honorée Fanonne Jeffers (Nicole said this book is one of her all-time favourites now)
Spring 2022
Being Alive is a Good Idea: A Wide-Ranging Conversation with Nikki Giovanni & Glory Edim by Nikki Giovanni and Glory Edim
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
The Crying Book by Heather Christle
When I’m Gone, Look For Me in the East by Quan Barry
Devil House by John Darnielle
Granta 158: In the Family Paperback by Sigrid Rausing
Trust by Hernan Diaz
2022 so far (Winter/Spring)
Anodyne by Khadijah Queen
Being Alive is a Good Idea by Nikki Giovanni & Glory Edim
Devil House by John Darnielle
The Crying Book by Heather Christle
In the Distance by Hernan Diaz
The Echo Chamber by John Boyne
When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neil
The Girls in the Stilt House by Kelly Mustian
Trust by Hernan Diaz
My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson
When I’m Gone, Look For Me in the East by Quan Barry
Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
Time is a Mother by Ocean Vuong
A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
Seven Days in June by Tia Williams
2023 so far (Winter/Spring)
My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson
Dubliners by James Joyce
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
The Book of Goose bu Yiyun Li
Unpunished by Michelle Kenney
Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black by Cookie Mueller
They’re Going to Love You by Meg Howrey
What Napoleon Could Not Do by DK Nnuro
On Writing by Stephen King
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamastu
The Franz Lebowitz Reader by Franz Lebowitz
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy by Mark Rozzo
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
The Journals of May Sarton: Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
Liberation Day by George Saunders
The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese
Mother, Nature by Jedidiah Jenkins
Mumbo Jumbo by Ishmael Reed
Fruiting Bodies by Kathryn Harlan
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O’Farrell
End of Summer 2023
Collected Stories by Shirley Hazzard
Everybody Thought We Were Crazy by Mark Rozzo
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Electric Kool-Aid Test by Tom Wolfe
Black Swans: Stories by Eve Babitz
The Black Unicorn by Audre Lorde
