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If you read enough books, you eventually settle on certain genres that you know you will predictably enjoy. For my one aunt, it was cozy mysteries that somehow always involved a cat. For her sister, my other aunt, it was mass-produced fantasy paperbacks.
GoodReads tells me that Amanda and I have similar tastes, but while the website says we rate books the same 71% percent of the time, we definitely have our own favorite genres. Below are some of our go-to reading categories. What are yours?
Amanda’s Favorite Genres
When it comes to picking books, the ones I gravitate toward are typically considered historical fiction or mystery/thriller. I don’t mind reading other genres and do like to get outside my wheelhouse at times but I definitely like to come back to what I find comfortable and familiar. Regardless of what kind of book I’m reading, I need to have characters that draw me in, even if I don’t like them. And I need a plot that keeps my interest. I can sometimes enjoy a book if only one or the other is fulfilling but if they’re both lacking I struggle with wanting to finish.
The majority of the books that I’ve read in this category have plots that take place during World War II. There’s something about the emotional stories told about concentration camps, being part of a resistance, and otherwise helping war efforts feels captivating to me. Although I will admit that after reading quite a few books set during this period in time that it’s getting harder to draw me in with a *new* look at a plot.
The Book of Lost Names by Kristen Harmel was one of my favorites in 2021. I also enjoyed The Last Checkmate by Gabriella Saab. The former I rated 4 out of 5 stars while I gave the latter 5 out of 5. Typical of historical fiction, the plot in both of these novels bounces between different timelines. If written well this back and forth does not bother me.
Not all of my recent historical fiction books have centered around WWII. I reviewed Yellow Wife by Sadeqa Johnson in February but it’s worth mentioning again. This book is set during the time of slavery and follows one woman’s life born into slavery and how she deals with what is thrown at her. I eagerly gave this book 5 out of 5 stars. I recently read I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys. While it’s geared toward teens, I enjoyed it myself, giving it 5 our to 5 stars. Unlike my go-to historical fiction, this book was set in Romania in 1989 and follows a teen dealing with living in the country wondering who he can trust with spies all around him.
As a kid, I gobbled up books written by Christopher Pike and even picked up two-minute mystery-type books. This started my enjoyment of mystery/thriller books. I like being taken down a path as I try and figure out whodunit or how the plot will end up. I like the twists and turns while wondering who should be trusted. And sometimes the thriller aspect in books has me thinking, “What did I just read?” when I’ve completed the last page.
I’ve come to like author John Marrs when it comes to mystery/thrillers. I rated The One and The Passengers both 4.5 out of 5 stars. They’re loosely related but serve as stand-alone reads. The Minders is a third that mentions topics that happen in each of the books, but I’ve only recently started reading it.
Blake Crouch is another author whom I’ve read multiple books in this category. Recursion I rated 4 out of five and Dark Matter I liked even more giving it 5 stars. Both of these have a sci-fi flair to them as well. Similarly, Andy Weir’s The Martian (4 out of 5 stars) and Project Hail Mary (5 out of 5 stars) are sci-fi books I enjoyed that have some mystery and thrills as well.
Maryalene’s Favorite Genres
I have possibly had FOMO since long before FOMO was even a thing. I can acutely remember watching the Olympics as a child and feeling deep sadness that this was an experience I would never have in my life. Perhaps that’s why I became a reader and a writer. Both give me the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes and walk around for a bit. And while I like fiction just fine, the books I most consistently reward with 4 and 5 stars are those that take me inside real-life stories: narrative nonfiction and memoirs.
Narrative Nonfiction
When Titanic came out in the theatres, I watched it again and again. I wasn’t so much interested in Jack and Rose (although Leonardo was kinda dreamy) as I was in the whole idea that this massive ship sunk in icy waters and PEOPLE SURVIVED!
Yes, my love of narrative nonfiction — or is literary nonfiction? creative nonfiction? I really don’t know — can be narrowed down even further to survival stories. The one I read, er listened to, most recently was Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. I used my Audible credit for it without really knowing what it was about. Ends up that Ernest Shackleton decided to take about two dozen men on a trip across Antarctica. Only the boat gets stuck in the ice, but that’s ok; the men can live on the boat. That is until the boat is crushed by the ice, and the men spend months living on ice IN THE MIDDLE OF THE SEA! I hate to give away any spoilers, but trust me, the all caps text is warranted.
The cool thing about this is that they found the Endurance at the bottom of the Weddell Sea as I was listening to this audiobook. And then I discovered that photographer Frank Hurley was taking pictures all along, and you can view those online too.
Anyway, the magnitude of what people can endure and the will to survive floors me. That’s a common theme in a lot of the narrative nonfiction books I read. Other titles I’ve liked include The Children’s Blizzard and Into the Wild (although the survival part is questionable there). Currently, I am reading Five Days at Memorial about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina at Memorial Hospital. So far, it seems as though the book is set up on the premise that some staff did not rise to the challenge of the situation, but I hope as I get further into it, I will be proven wrong.
Memoir
And that brings us to memoirs. I’m not exactly sure what differentiates a memoir from an autobiography but we’ll bundle them both together here.
It is because of this genre that while I’ll never be a world-class athlete, I can peer into that life with Andre Agassi’s book Open. Maybe I won’t make it to the Appalachian Trail, but I have lived vicariously through Bill Bryson in his A Walk in the Woods. And while the experience of my husband dying was different from that of Joan Didion, her memoir The Year of Magical Thinking provided a feeling of camaraderie that can hard to find elsewhere. Wintering likewise provided a chance to look at someone else’s struggles and find a sense of kin and comfort.
Of course, there are also memoirs that are stark reminders of how good a life I have. The Glass Castle is a perfect example. I wrote about that one back in December 2019 if you want to hear more about it.
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