* recommended
2024
- The Bee Sting by Paul Murray
- The Mill On the Floss by George Eliot *
- The Ghost Brigades by John Scalzi
- Old Man's War by John Scalzi
- The Future by Naomi Alderman
- The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia by Ursula K. Le Guin *
- The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Men Who Hate Women) by Stieg Larsson
- The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro *
- Babel, or the Necessity of Violence by R. F. Kuang
2023
- The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara *
- Wager by David Grann
- Making it So by Patrick Stewart
- Pageboy by Elliot Page
- The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
- The Bullet that Missed by Richard Osman
- Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry
- Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry *
- Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton
- Sphere by Michael Crichton
- Murder Must Advertise by Dorothy L. Sayers
- Neuromancer by William Gibson
- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
- Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson
- The Other Wind by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Tales from Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Tehanu by Ursula K. Le Guin
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- The Tombs of Atuan by Ursula K. Le Guin
- A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin *
- White Teeth by Zadie Smith
2022
- Everyone Knows Your Mother is a Witch by Rivka Galchen
- Matrix by Lauren Groff
- Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin *
- Exit Strategy by Martha Wells
- Rogue Protocol by Martha Wells
- Artificial Condition by Martha Wells
- All Systems Red by Martha Wells
- The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu
- The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu *
- A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine
- A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
- A Perfect Spy by John le Carré
- The Anomaly by Hervé Le Tellier
- Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel
- A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
- The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon *
- Termination Shock by Neal Stephenson
- The King at the Edge of the World by Arthur Phillips
- The Committed by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
2021
- World War Z by Max Brooks
- Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- The Man Who Died Twice by Richard Osman
- The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman
- Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson *
- Normal People by Sally Rooney *
- Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
- Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
- Severance by Ling Ma
- Lavinia by Ursula K. Le Guin
- iWoz by Steve Wozniak
- A Promised Land by Barack Obama
2020
- The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Foundation's Edge by Isaac Asimov
- Second Foundation by Isaac Asimov
- Foundation by Isaac Asimov *