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Books I Love

A selection of books Gigi Kenneth has loved and returns to, across fiction, tech, essays, and personal growth, with short notes on why each one stuck.

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Books That Changed Me

The ones that shifted my thinking and stayed with me.

  • Paper Towns by John Green

Non-Fiction I Recommend

  • Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber
  • Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialised World by David Epstein
  • Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
  • 21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Cultish by Amanda Montell
  • The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Fiction I Loved

  • AI 2041: Ten Visions for Our Future by Kai-Fu Lee
  • The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Show the full 2018 to 2020 reading list

I had this list hidden somewhere, so I might as well share it.

Dystopian

  • Divergent Series (1-4) by Veronica Roth
  • The Hunger Games (1-4) by Suzanne Collins (I only read the first book though)

Mental Health

Mostly books on anxiety and depression.

  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
  • Looking for Alaska by John Green
  • Saving June by Hannah Harrington
  • Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
  • Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (this one is about obsessive compulsive disorder)
  • Madness by Zac Brewer
  • It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini
  • All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
  • Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

Thrillers, Crime Fiction, Action

  • Robert Langdon series by Dan Brown (from Angels and Demons to Origin)
  • The Wallflower by William Bayer
  • The Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle
  • The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
  • American Assassin by Vince Flynn
  • Deception Point by Dan Brown
  • Kill Shot by Vince Flynn

LGBTQIA+ Novels

  • Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green
  • Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
  • Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
  • Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Books That Made Me Laugh Out Loud

  • My Not So Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
  • Can You Keep A Secret by Sophie Kinsella
  • Remember Me? by Sophie Kinsella
  • Basically any book by Sophie Kinsella

Romance, Kinda

  • Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
  • By Your Side by Kasie West
  • Let It Snow by John Green et al
  • Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
  • Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
  • To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han
  • Losing It by Cora Carmack
  • The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang

Graphic Novels

  • Persepolis 1 and 2 by Marjane Satrapi (about the Islamic Revolution in Iran)
  • Maus 1 and 2 by Art Spiegelman (about the Holocaust)

Travel

  • I See London, I See France by Sarah Mlynowski

Books on Rape, Drug Abuse, Human Trafficking

  • Burned by Ellen Hopkins
  • Tricks by Ellen Hopkins
  • Traffick by Ellen Hopkins
  • Glass by Ellen Hopkins

Horror

  • Carrie by Stephen King

Fiction I Couldn't Categorise

  • Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
  • Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers

Black Characters

  • The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
  • The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • American Street by Ibi Zoboi
  • Dear Martin by Nic Stone

YA Fiction

  • Love, Hate and Other Filters by Samira Ahmed
  • Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
  • Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
  • An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
  • Hello Girls by Brittany Cavallaro
  • My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga
  • Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  • Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  • The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer

New Adult Fiction

  • Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
  • China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
  • Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
  • Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
  • Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
  • The Circle by Dave Eggers
  • Real Life by Brandon Taylor
  • Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Autobiography and Biography

  • The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
  • I, Steve by George Beahm
  • Screw It, Let's Do It by Richard Branson
  • In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
  • Shoe Dog by Phil Knight

Non-Fiction

  • The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by Mark Manson
  • Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull
  • Zero to One by Peter Thiel
  • Yes, My Accent Is Real by Kunal Nayyar
  • I'm Judging You by Luvvie Ajayi
  • Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
  • The Space Barons by Christian Davenport
  • Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl
  • The Art of Creativity by John Adair
  • Brutal Simplicity of Thought by M and C Saatchi
  • Brotopia by Emily Chang
  • You Are a Badass by Jen Sincero
  • Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

AI

  • Our Final Invention by James Barrat
  • The Fourth Age by Byron Reese
  • Will Computers Revolt? by Charles Simon
  • Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark
  • Deep Medicine by Eric Topol

Science

  • She Has Her Mother's Laugh by Carl Zimmer
  • Engines of Creation by Eric Drexler
  • Biopunk by Marcus Wohlsen
  • Regenesis by George Church and Ed Regis
  • Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
  • Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari

Poetry

  • Her 1 and 2 by Pierre Alex Jeanty

Historical Fiction

  • The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Fantasy

  • The Curse of Salamander Street by G.P. Taylor

Sci-Fi

  • Synapse by Steven James
  • Hacker: The Outlaw Chronicles by Ted Dekker
  • Infinity Lost by S. Harrison