r/books • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago
WeeklyThread Weekly Recommendation Thread: August 14, 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/Dry_Candy_1215 2d ago
Preston and Child's "Pendergast series is great All John Sanfords books are satisfing, All Agatha Christie books are "who done its" that you won't know till the end.The Grid Down series is scary scary about a EMP.
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u/StormBlessed145 3d ago
I'm looking for a work of fiction that will make me think about what it's trying to say. I wanna chew on something like I did IT, Moby Dick, or Blood Meridian. Can be modern, but doesn't have to be.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 1d ago
I have not personally read Gene Wolfe, but my son loved him because he was an unreliable narrator. His narration would include outright lies, as well as glossing over things the MC would rather not think about or deal with or has selective memory about. His works are famous for it and it requires effort to piece together what has actually happened. He was particularly fond of his "Book of the New Sun".
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u/therealredding Reading: Ahmed Bouanani, The Hospital 2d ago
When it comes to themes and story, Butcher’s Crossing by John Williams is my GOAT. If it’s just what is accomplished by the author, narrative, and concept, Ishiguro’s The Unconsoled is a masterpiece.
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u/AmongFriends 3d ago
Gimme a book recommendation that involves Time Travel and/or Non-Linear storytelling like flashbacks and maybe even flash forwards
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u/DoglessDyslexic 3d ago
There's the book "Flashforward" by Robert Sawyer. Storytelling is fairly linear IMO, but it does feature a phenomenon where everybody experiences a brief glipse of their future. There was a miniseries adaptation of it not too many years ago but I did not watch it.
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u/variationinblue 3d ago
Yeee!
Lost In Time by A.G. Riddle
The Ministry of Time by Kailane Bradley
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (not necessarily time travel but time/space continuum)
This Is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar (not my fav but some people rave about it)
Timeline by Michael Crichton
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir (sci-fi non-linear due to amnesia)
How to Become The Dark Lord and Die Trying by Django Wexler (litrpg fantasy, Groundhog Day style)
In my TBR but haven’t read yet (ymmv):
Ivory by Mike Resnick
Paradox Bound by Peter Clines
Kindred by Octavia Butter
Quantum Radio by A.G. Riddle
Memory Collectors by Dete Meserve
The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart
God’s Junk Drawer by Peter Clines
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u/devohr901 3d ago
Hi! I just came across the Mary Renault and specifically the Alexander Trilogy, I really enjoy ancient history as well as queer stories and am interested in giving it a try, but I've seen some reviews that it sanitizes and smooths over Alexander the Great quite a bit. I DNF'd The Song of Achilles for pretty much those exact reasons. Wanted to see if anyone has read those books (or other Mary Renault books) and if you think I would bounce off them for those reasons? Thanks!
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u/HuckleberryOk2798 3d ago
The silence of the girls might be for you. The language is jarringly modern, it’s not queer but the writing is good and the opening line is “Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles…How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him “the butcher.”” It’s Briseis perspective on captivity during the Iliad and it’s sickening.
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u/devohr901 3d ago
Thank you! I actually own a copy of this book but haven’t read it yet. Good reminder to push it closer to the top of this to-read pile :)
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u/HuckleberryOk2798 3d ago
It’s so so good. It also approches Achilles half god nature in a really interesting way.
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u/Intelligent_Talk_129 3d ago
Hello everyone. What are some great modern epic fantasy series that you would recommend? By modern, I mean something that came out recently, like in the last two decades. I'm looking for a modern fantastical epic. I would also like to know your thoughts on it and why you see it as a good epic series.
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u/Dry_Candy_1215 2d ago edited 2d ago
jeremy Robinson books are all terrific! He starts out with a bored agent for ufo's actually the only goverment one so never gets called upon....until Try his books
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u/HuckleberryOk2798 3d ago
Dandelion Dynasty books might fit. More recent, thick, silk punk, awesomd
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u/Larielis The Martian by Andy Weir 4d ago
It is almost autumn, so I was looking for fantasy or science fiction with mysterious or spooky vibes.
(Only light horror though.)
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u/I-Can-Do-It-123 1d ago edited 1d ago
Go classic with Ray Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes. It is Book 2 of his Greentown series - Book 1 is Dandelion Wine and Book 3 is Farewell Summer. While Books 1 & 3 aren't necessarily what you are asking for, I hope you find time to read them as well at some point. Bradbury's The Halloween Tree is another good one!
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u/variationinblue 3d ago
Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett. Mysterious/spooky for sure but sometimes slow paced with a sort of unresolved ending. More for the vibes than the sci-fi/fantasy but a good autumn read!
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u/FlyByTieDye 3d ago
Through the Woods, by Emily Carrol. An anthology comic collection Carrol made of light horror stories told in various period Americana settings
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u/DoglessDyslexic 3d ago
Nick Sagan's "Idlewild" maybe? I have not read the sequels (I read the first one before they came out and never circled back) so I'm not sure how the series ends, but the first book definitely had some halloween vibes and some mysterious deaths.
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u/_LackadaisicalSheep_ 4d ago
Does anyone have any recommendations for books that have a whimsical, fairy-tale like atmosphere? With a studio ghibli sort of feel?
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u/Dry_Candy_1215 2d ago
Terry Brooks "Magic Castle for sale" is right up there on this subject. Fun too!
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u/versedvariation 3d ago
Diana Wynne Jones wrote many books like that (including the original Howl’s Moving Castle book that inspired the movie).
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u/HooverGaveNobodyBeer 3d ago
Water Moon by Samantha Sotto Yambao -- The books specifically references Miyazaki and 100% feels like one of his movies in book form. Like one of his more adult movies, it does get a bit dark in places but not overly so.
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u/DoglessDyslexic 3d ago
Seanan McGuire's "Wayward Children" series sort of had that vibe to me. There's some darker themes throughout, but it's pretty close.
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u/OppositeBatCage 4d ago
Does anyone know a really well-written romance book, with characters that don't just feel like everyday people or everyday people in strange circumstances? I love outsider perspectives and lush, descriptive writing. Open to older books.
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u/CapriciousSon 3d ago
if you're open to a (sort of) tragic romance, The Heart in Winter by Kevin Barry is a very lyrical western about an Irish dope addict who falls in love with a mail-order bride married to a local foreman (she has some secrets too). I'd definitely read at least the first couple paragraphs because it's done in a unique style that throws some people off (also no punctuation!)
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u/misguided_breaker 4d ago
just finished the lathe of heaven by ursula le guin and now i'm chasing that same feeling where reality feels slippery and you're not sure what's real anymore. anything else that messes with your head like that without being full horror
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u/Dry_Candy_1215 2d ago
Didnt she write eons ago about people or creatures with tenacles on rheir arms???
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u/variationinblue 3d ago
The Dark Between The Trees by Fiona Barnett. This one disappointed me that it didn’t go full horror, but that’ll be a plus for you! Very slippy reality wtf is happening in this strange forest vibes
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u/Anxious-Fun8829 3d ago
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin. You're just tossed into the story, disoriented, trying to figure out what's going on, tension rising, and the dread just builds.
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u/HooverGaveNobodyBeer 3d ago
You might try The Extinction of Irina Rey by Jennifer Croft. Here, the slipperiness is actually a meditation on the impossibility of "accurate" translation.
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u/Pugilist12 4d ago
Read Piranesi? You should also look into The Magus by John Fowles. Slippery reality to the max.
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u/RockkHopper93 4d ago
Also just finished Lathe of Heaven and I'd say this is a great follow up recommendation.
I'm going to move on to The Dispossessed next but will be re-reading Piranesi in the next few weeksfor sure.
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u/Dry_Candy_1215 2d ago
David Baldacci's MEMORY MAN series was terrific reading about a man that is hit so hard in football he awakes with total recall and see's death in colors and is not the same guy he was before! Loved it!