When You Ask Friends for Book Recommendations...

...be prepared to be OVERWHELMED. Take it from me! I posted a simple Facebook status this week asking friends to share their favorite book with me, and before I knew it, I had a list of more than 60 recommendations! Now, I just want to read ALL THE BOOKS.

The back story to that post? My friend Amber and I host a monthly book club called #collaboreads, where we pick a theme and every one picks a different book that fits the theme to read and review on their blog. We all link up at the end of the month, and it's so fun to see what everyone read and what they thought! It's a different kind of book club, and we're in love with it.

December's theme is "A Friend's Favorite," hence why I asked my friends about their favorite books.

Because this list is SO GOOD, I decided I would share it all with you! And if you're looking for a book to read so you can join us, feel free to pretend my friends are your friends and choose one from this list! They've all come highly recommended, and I wanted to make sure I saved the list so I can revisit it and tackle these over the coming months!

Now, which to read first...


  1. The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy

  2. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

  3. Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

  4. The Lola Quartet by Emily St. John Mandel

  5. Same Kind of Different as Me by Rod Hall and Denver Moore

  6. Dear Mr. Knightley by Katherine Reay

  7. The Road by Cormac McCarthy

  8. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver

  9. The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

  10. The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

  11. A Grief Observed by C.S. Lewis

  12. The Feast of Love by Charles Baxter

  13. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon

  14. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

  15. Bridge to Haven by Francine Rivers

  16. Edge of Honor by Gilbert Morris

  17. Hadassah by Tommy Tenney

  18. PS I Love You by Cecelia Ahern

  19. Love, Rosie by Cecelia Ahern

  20. The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo

  21. The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis

  22. Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis

  23. Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen

  24. Persuasion by Jane Austen

  25. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

  26. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

  27. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

  28. Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

  29. Church of Marvels by Leslie Parry

  30. Iscariot by Tosca Lee

  31. 11/22/63 by Stephen King

  32. Bonhoeffer by Erica Metaxas

  33. Beloved by Toni Morrison

  34. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

  35. Hotel on the Corner of Bitter & Sweet by Jamie Ford

  36. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant

  37. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

  38. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

  39. Anything: The Prayer That Unlocked My God and My Soul by Jennie Allen

  40. The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

  41. Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

  42. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

  43. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

  44. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George

  45. Nobody’s Cuter Than You by Melanie Shankle

  46. Surprised by Oxford by Carolyn Weber

  47. A Shepherd Looks at Psalm 23 by W. Phillip Keller

  48. Let Me Be A Woman by Elisabeth Elliot

  49. The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom

  50. Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

  51. Tis by Frank McCourt

  52. Teacher Man by Frank McCourt

  53. As Simple As Snow by Gregory Galloway

  54. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner

  55. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe by Fannie Flagg

  56. Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card

  57. The History of Love by Nicole Krauss

  58. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

  59. The Cheese Monkeys by Chip Kidd

  60. The Magicians by Lev Grossman

  61. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

  62. Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh

  63. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman

  64. Stardust by Neil Gaiman

  65. Smoke & Mirrors by Neli Gaiman