Calling all readers!
When IHGB reader Martha emailed me in March asking if I was ever going to release another Beaner Book List, I smiled. Martha and I get each other. We’ve never met, but I have a feeling we would be those friends who pass books back and forth. She’d call me to try and guess why I turned down the corner of a certain page. I would laugh at the jokes she left in the margins for me.
Should I be concerned about my active imagination?
I posted my original Beaner Book list in 2012. The next one was in 2015. I understand that upon first glance of these dates, it would appear that compiling a book list isn’t that important to me. That is entirely untrue. It just took me that long to read all of the wonderful suggestions!
I LOVE THIS POST SO MUCH, because the Beaner Book List introduced me to some of my favorite people:
- Katniss Everdeen (#TeamPeta)
- Four and Tris
- Big Mama herself, Melanie Shankle
- Aibileen Clark
- Jon Acuff
- JAMIE AND CLAIRE
- Charles Martin
- JoJo Moyes
- Malala Yousafzai
- Jenny Lawson
- Louis Zamperini
How I ever lived without Jamie and Claire is a mystery.
Your task is simple: Either email me (lincee@iHateGreenBeans) or leave a list in the comments section of your favorite books or authors. Your suggestion neither has to be genre specific, nor a brand new book. I want to hear EVERYTHING. If you tell me I need to read Anna Karenina because Tolstoy is the greatest, I will consider it…again. Some of you want to pretend you don’t read YA books, while others like me embrace the fact. Never fear! We will build that list for you! Action, murder, mystery, chick flick, beach read, young adult, old adult, Grace Livingston Hill (shout out to my Mimi!), humorous, memoir, biography, and old favorites you can pick up time and time again…I want them all!
You have one week to respond, then I’ll compile all your recommendations into a list for everyone to enjoy.
Let nothing stand in your way, dear reader. Let’s do this!
Anything by Sarah Eden. She writes Regency Romance (clean ones!) with fun, clever and interesting characters. I read all her books the day they come out.
I just added two on my kindle – clean romance? Love it.
I mean, I want some romantic kissing and longing looks, but I can do without in depth descriptions of anatomy.
Thanks!
Yay! Yay! Yay! I heart book lists, even though I have a stack of unread books next to my bed that is pert near three feet tall.
Some of my favorites:
Mink River by Brian Doyle
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
Travels With Charley by John Steinbeck
Death By Living by N.D. Wilson
Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis
I have never seen Mink River on a list. I loved this book, love Brian Doyle’s writing, met his writing through Guidepost devotional.
This one is about a finding the call God has for your life. The author’s specific call was to say yes to both God and his wife about being a foster parent. But everyone has a gift only they can give.
https://www.amazon.com/Better-Than-You-Can-Imagine/dp/0781412986/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497374430&sr=8-1&keywords=better+than+you+can+imagine+book
The Cuckoo’s Calling
The Silkworm
Career of Evil
all by Robert Gailbraith (aka, J.K. Rowling)
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry – Fredrik Backman
And Then There Were None – Agatha Christie
The Husband’s Secret – Liane Moiriarty
I second all of these!
Me too!
Oh I forgot about Liane Moiriarty books. Really suspenseful!!!!! So good.
1. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. If you have never read it, do it! So much better than the movie/miniseries. I bought a copy with footnotes to help explain some of the terminology of the time.
2. A Place of Execution by Val McDermid. She is a mystery writer and her novels are set in the U.K. I’ve read a number of her books, but this was the first and still my favorite, with an unexpected ending.
3. The Bride Quartet series by Nora Roberts. I’m not a romance novel type of person, but I was back home and needed something to read, so I grabbed the first book from my mom’s bookshelf. I was hooked and had to borrow the rest! It’s about 4 friends since childhood that run a wedding planning business. Each book is focused on a different woman finding love.
I highly recommend The Light We Lost and Since we Fell. Also enjoyed Alec Baldwin’s Memoir and Carole Bayer Sager’s. All great reads.
The Light We Lost. A DEFINITE YES!!!!!
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel- I as rule despise and abhor dystopian fiction, but COULD NOT PUT THIS ONE DOWN.
Blue Diary by Alice Hoffman
The Boston Girl by Anita Diamant
In the Unlikely Event, Judy Blume (Do not read on a plane, but so good)
The Third Hill North of Town, Noah Bly
Any book by Jonathan Tropper
Any book by Joshilyn Jackson
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Betty Smith (for real. I don’t care if you read in it HS. I did not. But I read it this year and it is SO GOOD!)
Unmentionable, Therese O’Neil (My goodreads review – “You can have Jamie, I’ll take tampons.” I too could not fictionally live without Jamie, but this book is fabulousness.)
One Thousand White Women, Jim Fergus (Love)
Yes to Joshilyn Jackson! Love her books and she has a new one coming out this summer. Although disclaimer don’t start with Someone else’s love story. It isn’t great in my opinion, her other books are better. Gods in Alabama is probably my favorite.
Oh my gosh… forgot abot 1000 white women!!! Excellent read! I second that one!
I am obsessed with You followed by the sequel Hidden Bodies by Caroline Kepnes.
With Love From the Inside by Angela Pisel
Saving Cee Cee Honeycutt by Beth Hoffman
I will admit I’m a terrible critic. As in I enjoy books & movies for what they are and hardly ever say “well that was terrible”. These are books that I’ve suggested to others who also liked them or visa versa so I have some faith in these suggestions. Ha
I’m really looking forward to this list!
You & Hidden Bodies have lots of sex so if that makes you uncomfortable, don’t read them!
Here is my list: (by the way-are you on Good Reads? I’ve gotten great books recs from there!)
1. The Prince of Tides, Beach Music, South of Broad- Pat Conroy
2. Light Between Oceans- ML Stedman
3. Wild- Cheryl Strayed
4. Spilled Milk – KL Randis
5. The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
6. Me Talk Pretty One Day – David Sedaris (he is fantastic but this one is the best one to start with in my opinion)
7. A Girl Named Zippy (follow this with She Got Up Off the Couch) – Haven Kimmel (I can read a girl named Zippy over and over again)
8. Both of Mindy Kaling’s books BUT “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me” is my favorite of the two
9. Life and Other Near Death Experiences – Camille Pagan (to be honest I am in the middle of this book but based on what I’ve read so far-it is so good!)
10. The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (very creepy but very good!)
The Nightingale! Couldn’t put it down…. totally read it in 2 days! And the Hsndmaides tale… that one stuck with me for a while too. Both great reads!
“The Scribe of Siena” by Melodie Winawer just came out last month, and it was excellent. It’s the basic story line of Outlander, because a woman goes back in time, but it’s 14th century Italy. It’s super well written and researched. You WILL like it 🙂
And this is perfect timing for a new book list. I’ve just been compiling one for myself too.
My all time favorites:
1. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen (I re-read it every year)
2. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte (see note above)
3. Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
4. Mark of the Lion series by Francine Rivers
I’m also halfway through Room by Emma Donoghue right now. It’s very captivating (pun intended) so far!
As if my “to-read” list wasn’t already long enough. Thanks. Here are my recent reads that I’ve loved:
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
All the Light we Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Royal We by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
Where’d You Go Bernadette by Maria Semple
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Houdini, The Snitch and Me, by Johnny Virgil (I literally cried I was laughing so hard)
Anything by Mary Kay Andrews
The Book of Love by Jill Connor Browne (and the rest of the Sweet Potato Queen books–you will even find me in one of the stories she tells)
The Royal We for sure!
Yes to Pride & Prejudice and Redeeming Love–two of my favorites that I reread almost every year!
Wonder (bonus- it’s going to be a movie in the fall!)
Liane Moriarty
Anything by Jo Jo Moyes and by Sheila O’Flanagan. Every single book draws me in from the first chapter. I’ve read all of their books.
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
Land of Silence by Tessa Afshar
Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
Unglued by Lysa TerKeurst
Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers
I agree with the Colleen Hoover suggestion – It Ends With Us and November 9 are great reads. Also, One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid – had me doing the ugly cry, but so good!
A Man Called Ove- Fredrik Backman
What Alice Forgot/ Big Little Lies/ The Husband’s Secret- Liane Moriarty
The Story of God’s Love for you- Sally Lloyd-Jones (Jesus Story Book bible but with no pictures for adults
Not read yet, but on my list I purchased for summer reading:
The Girls- Emma Cline
Falling Apart in One Piece- Stacy Morrison
Windfall- Jennifer Smith
Everything, Everything- Nicola Yoon
Why Not Me- our girl, Mindy
YES!!!!