Reading Recommendations

Staff Pick Recommendations | WashU Libraries Book Club | Faculty Book Talk

The WashU Libraries are your informational hub for research – but we also read for fun. Join us in celebrating and discussing some of the books your Libraries’ staff and WashU faculty have enjoyed. Goodreads users can follow us for direct recommendations.

Want a more comprehensive reading selection? Check out our Research Guide on Local Libraries in the St. Louis area to see how WashU students living on campus can get a library card. The Libraries involve more than research, so browse their book discussion or events calendars!

Staff Pick Recommendations

Staff Picks features many books the Libraries’ staff has recommended in recent years.

Tahmima Anam’s A Golden Age	Bolu Babalola’s Honey and Spice	Fredrik Backman’s My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry	Alberto Cairo’s How Charts Lie
Karen Dionne’s The Marsh King’s Daughter	Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder	Tim Falconer’s Bad Singer	Julia Fine’s The Upstairs House
David Grann’s Killers of the Flower Moon	Lauren Greenfield’s Generation Wealth	Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind	Leon Hendrix’s Jimi Hendrix
Lady Hyegyŏng’s Memoirs	Lee Israel’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?	Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing	Mikki Kendall’s Hood Feminism
Esther Kinsky’s Grove	Eric Klinenberg’s Palaces for the People	Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team	Russell Means’ Where White Men Fear to Tread
Michael Meyer’s The Last Days of Old Beijing	Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime	Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland	Rosa Salzburg’s Ephemeral City
George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo	Richard Shone’s The Books that Shaped Art History	Colm Tóibín’s New Ways to Kill Your Mother	Jeffrey Toobin’s The Run of His Life
Jeff VanderMeer’s Dead Astronauts	Ryan H. Walsh’s Astral Weeks

WashU Libraries Book Club

Each book club gathering begins with a discussion or presentation, followed by a discussion of the book selected for the month. Visit the Events page for more details about upcoming book club events.

Mark Adams’ Turn Right at Machu Picchu	Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings	Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz’s Dr. Mutter’s Marvels	Ron Blumenfeld’s The King’s Anatomist
Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451	Geraldine Brooks’ People of the Book	Rachel Caine’s Ink and Bone	Ian Caldwell & Dustin Thomason’s The Rule of Four
Alix Christie’s Gutenberg’s Apprentice	Ruth Downie’s Medicus	Danielle Dutton’s Margaret the First	Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Ariana Franklin’s Mistress of the Art of Death	Elizabeth Gilbert’s The Signature of All Things	Joshua Hammer’s The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu	Robert Hellenga’s The Sixteen Pleasures
David Hill’s The Vapors	Katherine Howe’s The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane	Eva Jurczyk’s The Department of Rare Books and Special Collections	Rachel Kadish’s The Weight of Ink
Mary Beth Keane’s Fever	Alfred Lansing’s Endurance	Katharine McMahon’s The Alchemist’s Daughter	Candice Millard’s River of Doubt
David Mitchell’s The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet	Regina O’Melveny’s The Book of Madness and Cures	Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red	Carolyn Porter’s Marcel’s Letters
Oliver Pötzsch’s The Hangman’s Daughter	Kate Racculia’s Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts	Carlos Ruiz Zafon’s The Shadow of the Wind	Vanitha Sankaran’s Watermark
Robin Sloan’s Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore	Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club	Rose Tremain’s Restoration	Luis Alberto Urrea’s The Devil’s Highway
Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss	Pip Williams’ The Dictionary of Lost Words

Faculty Book Talk

The Faculty Book Talk series at the Libraries features professors discussing their published work. Learn more about these events on our Events page.

Tazeen M. Ali’s The Women’s Mosque of America	Heather Berg’s Porn Work	Patrick Burke’s Tear Down the Walls	Todd R. Decker’s Hymns for the Fallen
Jonathan Fenderson’s Building the Black Arts Movement	Gayle J. Fritz’s Feeding Cahokia	Hillel J. Kieval’s Blood Inscriptions	Rebecca J. Lester’s Famished
Edward McPherson’s The History of the Future	Lecia Michelle’s The White Allies Handbook	Sowande’ Mustakeem’s Slavery at Sea	Jake Rosenfeld’s You’re Paid What You’re Worth
Henry I. Schvey’s Blue Song	Holden Thorp and Buck Goldstein’s Our Higher Calling	Miguel A. Valerio’s Sovereign Joy	Rebecca Wanzo’s The Content of Our Caricature
Adia Harvey Wingfield’s Flatlining