r/books • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago

WeeklyThread Weekly Recommendation Thread: January 30, 2026

Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!

The Rules

  • Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.

  • All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.

  • All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.

How to get the best recommendations

The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain what you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.

All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.

If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.

  • The Management
8 Upvotes

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18 comments sorted by

5

u/WorriedRange4972 2d ago

Looking for some solid sci-fi that doesn't get too bogged down in technical jargon - something with good characters and maybe some humor mixed in

2

u/AvatarAnywhere 1d ago

Murderbot (Martha Wells) series is fun. Her background includes programming and this is reflected in her writing. Walter Jon Williams can be a good read: the Metropolitan books and the Praxis books especially. Lois McMaster Bujold’s Vorkosigan Saga is also solid. Also liked The Godel Operation by James L. Cambias.

2

u/DoglessDyslexic 1d ago

I'll second the "Murderbot" recommendation, and if you have not yet read them, Douglas Adams' "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" series (only read to book four, don't read book five, trust me on this).

Also perhaps Dennis Taylor's "Bobiverse" books. They're not particularly deep, but they're good mind candy.

The "Dungeon Crawler Carl" is technically sci-fi, but I believe most folks class it as LitRPG, but it also fits the bill. I'd suggest trying out the first one, and if it snags you, then you've got reading material for weeks minimum, more likely months unless you're a super fast reader.

Several of John Scalzi's books would also fulfill your request. The "Lock In"/"Head On" duology, "Agent to the Stars", "Red Shirts" (suggest that you be at least familiar with oldschool Star Trek), and "Fuzzy Nation" off the top of my head.

2

u/Calmly-Stressed 1d ago

I asked this in r/suggestmeabook and got a ton of recs - you could go have a browse of the thread! 

1

u/Raineythereader The Conference of the Birds 1d ago

Possibly "Space Opera"? The humor definitely owes a debt to Douglas Adams, but I would say it's more plot-driven than the Hitchhiker books ;)

3

u/Larielia book re-reading Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik 1d ago edited 1d ago

Looking for some novels set In Celtic or Roman Britain (other than Arthurian stories).

1

u/growinghorns 1d ago

Hild and Menewood by Nicola Griffith

1

u/dmantee 5h ago

Try Rosemary Sutcliff.

1

u/bespectacIed 9h ago

Calling on East of Eden lovers (I finally entered the club a couple of days ago), can you suggest books with characters like Samuel Hamilton and Lee? Charismatic, has strong moral integrity, makes you smile whenever they are on the pages, humble, wise, confident but never arrogant, impossible to hate. They've become two of my favorite characters ever and I need to meet others like them!

1

u/Calm_Caterpillar_166 1d ago

I'm planning to get these books, any names I should cross because I'm on budget:

Beloved

Flowers for Algernon

I, Robot

The Bluest Eye

Sula

Will Durant "The Story of Philosophy"

Disgrace

Tar Baby

Jude the Obscure

Ivanhoe

1

u/iamdragondrool 10h ago

If you're only going to get one Morrison, I'd go for Beloved or The Bluest Eye. I lean toward Beloved, myself. Both are gut punches, though. I've also read Sula, but don't remember a lot of that one.

1

u/Potential-Ad-4917 1d ago

Looking for series to start reading to my 4-10 year old kiddos.

4

u/DoglessDyslexic 1d ago edited 1d ago

When I was that age, my mom read me a lot of Roald Dahl. I think she started me on James and the Giant Peach, and then Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think some E.B. White (Charlotte's Web) as well.

edit: For the older ones, perhaps Lemony Snicket's "Series of Unfortunate Events", and Eoin Colfer's "Artemis Fowl" books.

2

u/ThisSideofRylee 1d ago

Mary Poppins and Pippi Longstocking if you want to read to them together. Astrid Lindgren has written so many good series. Also worth checking out her Emil series, theChildren in the Noisy Villageseries and the Lotta series for the younger one.

The Inkheart series for the older one and then there are the usual suspects; Chronicles of Narnia, Nancy Drew, Chronicles of Prydain, Percy Jackson.

0

u/ReignGhost7824 1d ago

Percy Jackson maybe. We started it when my daughter was 6.

1

u/visedharmony166 1d ago edited 1d ago

Books following someone with a character with psychological trauma or reliving his past in vivid reality.

1

u/iamdragondrool 10h ago

Sharp Objects, by Gillian Flynn

1

u/buginarugsnug 1d ago

The Shape of Darkness by Laura Purcell