BOOK RECS LIST

HELLO AND WELCOME TO DOBE-PRAH'S BOOK CLUB
here are some of my all-time favorite books if anyone is LOOKING FOR BOOKS TO READ, this is far from an exhaustive list but these are the ones ive read in recent years that are really memorable to me and stand out as having been really great. i included warnings for each book but all of them are really sensitively and wonderfully handled, all the authors on this list but one are women and basically like IF U ARE SICK OF READING SEXIST GARBAGE BY MEN here is a really good starter list to CLEANSE UR PALATE. this aint no GRRM bullshit


Out by Natsuo Kirino

(you cant get this one on kindle boo)

 

"This mesmerizing novel tells the story of a brutal murder in the staid Tokyo suburbs, as a young mother who works the night shift making boxed lunches strangles her abusive husband and then seeks the help of her coworkers to dispose of the body and cover up her crime. The coolly intelligent Masako emerges as the plot’s ringleader, but quickly discovers that this killing is merely the beginning, as it leads to a terrifying foray into the violent underbelly of Japanese society. "
OK YEAH the official book description does a better job summarizing this than i could. this is one of the more morbid novels on the list, its sort of slow moving and …dark, very dark … it's less breezy than a lot of the books i recommended? it's translated from japanese and it reads a LITTLE bit dry? if anyone is picky about their translations, im not tho.

warnings: muuuuurders, GORE OUT THE FUCKING WAZOO,  a really really graphic rape scene towards the end of the book. YOU WILL GET QUEASY READING THIS.

 

House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

 

AH YES THE ONE I TALK ABOUT ALL THE TIME. this is the story of matt, a clone of a powerful 140-year old drug lord named El Patron. You already know you want to read this one. Look at that one sentence summary. 140 year old drug lord. Do it. DO IT. it takes place in a country between the US and mexico border called opium, and in this world rich people make clones and harvest them for organs all the time. (this is how el patron is so old btw) clones are treated as property and animals, but el patron likes to give his clones a "normal" life so matt grows up kind of this pampered lamb getting ready for slaughter, surrounded by el patron's descendants who fucking hate him lol. im going to stop here bc i could just summarize this book all day long. this book is good. read it. READ IT.

this is my favorite childhood book!! its the only YA novel on the list, it's definitely on like A TEN YEAR OLD READING LEVEL which always blows my mind considering the SUBJECT MATTER. i'm always worried other people wont love this book as much as i do, it just had a huge impact on me growing up. it's all about what makes you human and all the characters are so great.

warnings: UH. IDK. there is lots of horrible stuff that happens in this book but bc its like a kids book it sort of skims the line a lot

 

HONORABLE MENTION: some of you might be more familiar with never let me go by kazuo ishiguro, its the EXACT same premise of house of the scorpion re: clones being harvested for organs but the execution is totally different. they are both very good, i enjoyed never let me go but i still like house of the scorpion way better. it's more interesting the way matt actually knows his "original" he's cloned from and the relationships focus more on family than never let me go which is just like … about dumb young people sort of. if you're interested in the topic, never let me go is another good book i'd recommend.

 

 

Lilith's Brood by Octavia Butler

 

OK DONT GET CONFUSED LIKE I DID BY THIS ONE. THIS IS A TRILOGY. lilith's brood is the name of the whole trilogy and you can buy it all in one book or on kindle for 9 bucks. WHEN I BOUGHT IT, I BOUGHT ONLY THE FIRST BOOK, DAWN. FOR 10 BUCKS. SO I HAVENT READ THE WHOLE THING BC IM STILL BURNED ABOUT THE FACT THAT AMAZON FUCKED ME OVER.

OK SO I HAVE ONLY READ DAWN which you can buy here NOW for only THREE BUCKS so THX AMAZON ??? ok whatever moving on

SO I CAN ONLY SPEAK ABOUT DAWN i assume the other 2 books are VERY DIFFERENT bt they're probably good, idk you can go find out yourself

ok basically this is about a woman named lilith who is abducted by aliens after human life is wiped out on earth. she's saved by the oankali, a group of aliens who consider themselves "genetic traders" and they agree to restore earth and send the humans back to it but only if humans breed with them? sort of? SOMETHING LIKE THAT? THERE IS ALIEN SEX IN THIS BOOK ITS GREAT. HUMAN X ALIEN SEX I MEAN. oankali are like these great awesome tentacaly things and they have three genders, male, female and ooloi OH MAN THEY ARE SO COOL. I LOVE THES ALIENS.

lilith is chosen to be the leader of the new group of humans bc she was the first one woken up from suspended animation so she starts choosing who to wake up and form a new world with her but she runs into lots of problems bc she's already formed bonds with these aliens that all the humans are freaked out by IDK THIS IS A BAD SUMMARY BUT THIS IS A GREAT BOOK READ IT. THIS BOOK IS SO FUCKING GREAT BUT ITS SO EMBARRASSING TO REC IT BC ITS SO EASY TO MAKE IT SOUND SO TUMBLR "BLACK FEMALE PROTAG! NON BINARY CHARACTERS! ALIENS!" but you know what, that's exactly what this book is. gives you an obnoxiously worded bulleted list of why this book is THE BEST THING EVER

i assume that the second and third book begin with the new humans recolonizing earth and i think they are about lilth's children who are human-oankali hybrids but yeah i don't know, I HAVE PLANS TO READ THEM EVENTUALLY but dawn is a very good standalone book that has a satisfying enough ending as it is so i never felt a huge need to go read them all right away bc like, dawn is so good just on its own.

warnings: none that i can remember, the humans get violent with each other sometimes

 

 

 

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson

 

this is a story about an english woman born in 1910 who is reborn into the same life every time she dies. she changes her fate a little bit in every life and idk i REALLY loved this one, it never gets repetitive which is surprising bc like every time she dies it starts over from the beginning again? eventually in some lives she starts remembering past lives and takes choices from there, she lives through ww2 many times and in some of her lives she tries to kill hitler. THIS ONE MADE ME CRY IDK because it starts over again and again you REALLY get attached to the main character and her family

warnings: rape and abuse in several lives, it's very much a war novel so lots of war violence … hitler is an actual character she interacts with in several of her lives so like, if that's something you don't want to read about then yeah

 

Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

 

ok yeah here's another official book summary for this one:

 

"Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby’s household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves—fingersmiths—for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home.

One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives—Gentleman, an elegant con man, who carries with him an enticing proposition for Sue: If she wins a position as the maid to Maud Lilly, a naïve gentlewoman, and aids Gentleman in her seduction, then they will all share in Maud’s vast inheritance. Once the inheritance is secured, Maud will be disposed of—passed off as mad, and made to live out the rest of her days in a lunatic asylum.

With dreams of paying back the kindness of her adopted family, Sue agrees to the plan. Once in, however, Sue begins to pity her helpless mark and care for Maud Lilly in unexpected ways...But no one and nothing is as it seems in this Dickensian novel of thrills and reversals."

 

LESBIAN VICTORIAN TWISTED CRIME NOVEL YEAHHH *insert dancing emoji here* this one is EVIL GOOD FUN its very dickensian but in the fun way, like i fucking hate dickens but this only has the good dickens stuff. and has GREAT PLOT TWISTS. don't look up ANY spoilers for this book at all JUST READ IT. its long but engrossing and yes it is like, an actual love story and its not one of those Dissatisfying I Thought This Was Going To Be Gayer books. this book is FUN.

warnings: institutionalization mainly? yeah, victorian insane asylums…

 

The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman

 

this is the only non-fiction book on the list!! This is a really tragic book about cultural miscommunication in medicine. it follows the story of a young Hmong girl in California with epilepsy and the clash between her parent's beliefs on how to treat her vs. the doctor's. it's not dry or too medically, it's not a dull read at all. it IS very sad like remember its a true story and no it doesn't end well.

REALLY SHORT SUMMARY SORRY? I FRANKLY CANT REMEMBER THIS BOOK THAT WELL i read it during my traumatic leaving-school period so that whole time in my life is full of weird blank spots in my memory but i know this book is v. good

warnings: sad? medical? things? SAD?

 

 

Perfume: the Story of a Murderer by Patrick Suskind

 

only book by a DUDE on this list *scoffs.* translated from german but the translation is v. good never feels clunky or "this is obviously translated." this novel is hard to describe, reading it is less like reading a story and more like EXPERIENCING A PIECE OF ART. its about a fucked up little dude who has the worlds best sense of smell and his desire to make the best perfume in the world leads him to murder young ladies bc like, young lady smell is the best smell ever i guess. this book is just creepy and weird and the descriptions of smells are so poetic and FUN. honestly just read this book for the description of smells the plot is kind of whatever but reading an entire book where the main char's sense of smell is the focus of all his senses is like so cool and interesting to read