After reading/listening to more than 1,000 books, here is my (growing!) list of 5-star favorites.
I am very stingy with my ratings/stars.
If I really (really!) enjoy something, it gets 4-stars (or 4.5 stars).
5-stars are reserved for books I love so much I think everyone should read them ;)
I am not linking to Amazon (or other) to avoid making any money off this post--it is a public service. I get most of my books from the library (libby app or hoopla) but also buy from Chirp and audible.
If you need an "escape" right now from all the goings on, this post is your best friend.
Happy Reading!
NEED MORE RECOMMENDATIONS?
I have hundreds and hundreds of 4-star books. Read my reviews/see my ratings on Goodreads. Currently, I average about a book every other day and I try not to read too many "popular" or "main stream" books (e.g. Reese book club) because I LOVE finding the overlooked gem and giving it love. I usually include summaries with my reviews to help you decide if you're in or out!
HAPPY HERBIVORE'S 5-STAR AUDIO BOOKLIST
TOP FAVES EVERRRR
- HARRY POTTER
- The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon (also a movie)
- Me Before You by JoJo Moyes (also a movie)
- The Hate You Give (also a movie)
- Comoran Strike Series by Robert Galbraith (a.k.a. JK Rowling) (also a TV series)
- Far From the Free by Robin Benway
- An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Reid
- You Will Not Have My Hate
- A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
- anything by Diane Chamberlain
- Jane Doe by Victoria Helen Stone
Historical Fiction
- Lady Hardcastle series by TE Kinsey
- Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
- Erotic Stories for Punjabi Windows by Balli Jaswal
- Before We Were Yours by Lusa Wingate
- The House Girl by Tara Conklin
- The Help
- The Alice Network
- Pulp by Robin Talley
- Verity by Colleen Hoover
- The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves
- The Alice Netword by Kate Quinn
- The Nightingale
Psychological Thriller
- An Anonymous Girl
- These Hidden Things
- White Lies by Lucy Dawson
- The Daughter by Lucy Dawson
- Jane Doe by Victoria Stone
- The Other Woman by Sandie Jones
- Then she was Gone by Lisa Jewell
- The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda
- Behind Closed Doors by BA Paris
- The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
- Jane Doe by Victoria Stone Helen
- The Waiting Room by Emily Bleeker
- The First Time She Drowned
- You & Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes (also on Netflix)
- What She Knew by Gilly Macmillian
- The Handmaid’s Tale (also a show)
- The Memory Watcher by Minka Kent
- It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell
- One of Us is Lying (YA) by Karen McManus
- Lies She Told by Cate Holahan
- Black Eye-d Susans
- I Let You Go by Clare McIntosh
- The Secret Child by Kerry Fisher
- The Lies We Told by Camilla Way
- What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman
- The Waiting Room by Emily Bleeker
- All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
- I Let You Go by Mackintosh, Clare
- The Silent Patient
Police / Investigation
- Mean Streak by Sandra Brown
- The Stranger by Harlan Coben
- All The Missing Girls by Megan Miranda
- All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker
- My Sister’s Grave by Robert Dugoni
Love Story
- Who Do You Love by Jennifer Weiner
- Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
- All Your Perfects by Colleen Hoover
- Hearburn by Nora Ephron
- Leave me by Gayle Forman
- The Hatin Game by Sally Thorne
- The Rosie Project by Simsion Graeme
- To All the Boys I've Loved Before/Lara Jean Series (YA) by Jenny Han
- Who Asked You? By Terry McMilan
- Meet Me at the Museum
Young Adult-contemporary
- Four, Three, Two, One by Courtney Stevens
- Janie Johnson series (5 books)
- Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver (also a movie)
- Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon
- Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
- If I Stay & Where She Went by Gayle Foreman
- When by Victoria Laurie
- Greyhound by Piper Stephen
- The Line Between (#1) and A Single Light by Tosca Lee
- Pretties (series) by Scott Westerfield
- Wayward Children (series)
General Fiction
- If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
- What Alice Forgot (the only Liane Moriarty I liked)
- Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf
- Everything I never Told You by Celeste Ng
- Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
- If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
- All The Bright Places by Jenifer Niven
- What She Left Behind BY Wiseman, Ellen Mari
Sci-Fi (lightly not heavy) or Dystopian
- The Dispatcher
- BirdBox (also a movie)
- Landline by Rainbow Rowell
- When She Woke
- The Unremarkable Heart (short stories) Karen Slaughter
- Uglies by Scott Westerfeld (great social commentary)
- Flowers for Algernon
- The One by John Marrs
Non-Fiction
- Chain of Title by David Dayen
- A Mother’s Reckoning by Sue Klebold
- The Brain Defense by Kevin Davis
- Educated by Tara Westover
- Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
- Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham
- The New Jim Crow
- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
- The Coddling of the American Mind
- The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World by Melinda Gates
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Resilience: Hard-Won Wisdom for Living a Better Life
- The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
Non-White/POC Books That Opened My Eyes (LBGT too)
- Americanah
- The Hate You Give
- Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
- I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness
- So You Want to Talk about Race
- Between the World and Me
- Born a Crime
- American Panda
- I am not Your Perfect American Daughter
- Love, Hate and Other Filters
- Mustard Seed
- Bury What We Cannot Take by Kristin Chen
- My Sister, the Serial Killer
- 13 Hours by Deon Meyer
- Internment by Samira Ahmed
- With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo
- So You Wanna Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo
- Ayesha at Last by Jalaluddin, Uzma
- The Convenience Store Girl
- With the Fire on High by Acevedo, Elizabeth
- If I Was Your Girl by Russo, Meredith
- Pulp by Talley Robin
Memoir or Biography
- This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare
- A Beautiful, Terrible Thing by Jen Waite
- Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman
- Escape from Camp 14: One Man's Remarkable Odyssey from North Korea
- Rising Out of Hatred: The Awakening of a Former White Nationalist
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- Unbearable Lightness by Portia de Rossi
- Fish: A memoir of a Boy in a Man’s Prison
- This is Me: Chrissy Metz
- Forgotten: The Untold Story of D-Day Black Heroes
- A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (also a movie)
- My Horizontal Life
- Rabbit: Autobiography of Ms. Pat
- The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russel
- The Sociopath Next Door
- Becoming Nicole: The Transfromation of an American Family
- The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love
- The Year of Living Danishly: My Twelve Months Unearthing the Secrets of the World's Happiest Country
