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There's a funny thing that happens when you tell someone you write about books. Almost always, they immediately ask, "Do you have any book recommendations?"

The short answer is yes, we always have recommendations.

The long answer is *internal panicking* WHERE DO WE EVEN BEGIN?!

That's why we invited a panel of past guests — Mashable deputy science editor Miriam Kramer, social good editor Matt Petronzio, commerce editor Nicole Cammorata, and culture reporter Chloe Bryan — to the latest MashReads Podcastto help us line up a list of really great book recommendations.

No idea what you want to read? We're here to help.

Without further ado: the podcast. Read on for a list of 16 books we heartily recommend to anybody just looking for a really good book.

16 book recommendations for when you have absolutely no clue what you want to read

The Immortalists

Chloe Benjamin

Chloe Benjamin's The Immortalistsis the perfect book to pick up if you don't know what to read. It features a page-turning, propulsive plot mixed with great writing, unforgettable characters, and true human wisdom. The novel starts off with a fantastical premise — what would happen if you found out the exact day of your death — and explores the raw, painful, and unexpected consequences of what happens when a person has to live with that knowledge.

Electric Arches

Eve L. Ewing

If poetry is your thing, check out Eve Ewing's collection Electric Arches. Her writing merges elements of reality, afrofuturism, and magical realism to craft unforgettable poems about race, womanhood, and Chicago. But what's especially striking about this collection is its inventive storytelling. Whether she's imagining a time-traveling LeBron James or waxing poetic about black hair, Ewing is as creative as she is thought-provoking.

teaching my mother how to give birth

Warsan Shire

Many people know poet Warsan Shire as the artist who wrote the interludes featured in Beyoncé's Lemonade, but if you haven't read her poetry collection teaching my brother how to give birth, you're truly missing out. The book is an eloquent meditation on love, war, and everything in between.

Cloud Atlas

David Mitchell

David Mitchell's Cloud Atlashas been called a postmodern masterpiece, and for good reason. The book tells six separate stories, each in a different genre (including historical fiction, pulp crime novel, and dystopian tale). The stories themselves are enjoyable separately, but they also tie together thematically in ways that are charming, thoughtful, unexpected, and greater than the sum of their parts.

Black Swan Green

David Mitchell

If you're looking for a coming-of-age story, check out Black Swan Green by David Mitchell. The book follows a year in the life of Jason Taylor, a 13-year-old boy living in England during the Cold War in 1982, and the misadventures he gets into. But what stands out is the incredible amount of heart with which Mitchell writes about growing up.

Wade in the Water

Tracy K. Smith

Tracy K. Smith’s poetry collection Wade in the Wateris a beautiful, harrowing book that looks at the historical treatment of black people in this country, and the racism, xenophobia, sexism, and other marginalization people continue to face in America today. Smith enters these topics as a black woman, a mother, a poet, and as someone living in this world at this moment time.

Brown Girl Dreaming

Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming is Jacqueline Woodson's memoir in verse. The book documents Woodson's childhood growing up in the '60s and '70s. It's a deep dive into Woodson's personal history — and a universal story about the complex emotions we all feel as kids. Need further reason to read? It won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature in 2014.

Delicate Edible Birds

Lauren Groff

Many people know Lauren Groff for her acclaimed book Fates and Furies (which Obama recommended as one of his favorites of 2015), but be sure to check out her short story collection Delicate Edible Birds. Whether she's writing about a small town reeling from a sex scandal or a girl with polio learning how to swim, Groff explores womanhood, discontentment, and the way we grapple with violence against women.

The History of Bees

Maja Lunde

The History of Bees sounds like scientific non-fiction, but it's actually an incredible debut novel that follows three beekeepers at very different points in human history: 1852 England, 2007 United States, and 2098 China.

I Was Told There'd Be Cake

Sloane Crosley

If you're looking for a book that'll make you laugh, pick up Sloane Crosley's 2008 essay collection, I Was Told There'd Be Cake. Her writing depicts the absurdity of real life, from a woman who finds herself with a drawer full of miniature ponies to the Natural History Museum.

The Tenth of December

George Saunders

The fun thing about a George Saunders short story is that you never know where his adventures, with their many twists and turns, will go. In his collection The Tenth of December that's more evident than ever. Some stories are grounded in realism, like "Victory Lap," which looks at what happens when a teenage boy sees someone trying to abduct his neighbor. Others are more sci-fi, like "Escape from Spiderhead," in which Saunders imagines a facility that's able to chemically control people's thoughts and feelings.

The Rules Do Not Apply

Ariel Levy

It's hard to describe Ariel Levy's memoir The Rules Do Not Apply and feel like you've done the many narratives any justice. The book is part coming-of-age story, as Levy goes from inquisitive child to New Yorker writer; part meditation on love as Levy details her relationships; and part dive into grief and heartbreak as Levy outlines the death of her child and the dissolution of her marriage. No matter what Levy is writing about it, she pours her heart and soul into her prose in way that's truly unforgettable.

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertali

Maybe you've seen the movie? If you're looking for a great YA novel, grab Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agendaby Becky Albertali. The book is about Simon Spier, a closeted gay teen who begins an online romance with someone who goes only by the pseudonym "Blue." But when his emails to Blue are discovered by a classmate, Simon is blackmailed, prompting a series of schemes to protect his relationship and to keep his identity a secret until he is ready to come out. (Check out the full MashReads Podcastepisode about the book here.)

Wild

Cheryl Strayed

Part travelogue and part meditation on grief, Wild traces Strayed's journey along the Pacific Crest Trail in the aftermath of her mother's death. What stands out is not just the distance that Strayed travels, but the love and wisdom emanating from each page.

bone

Yrsa Daley-Ward

Yrsa Daley-Ward's poetry collectionbone is another standout. The collection was self-published in 2014, steadily gained a fanbase online, and was finally picked up by Penguin Random House in 2017. Touching on race, religion, love, and more, the poems are passionate reflections on what it means to be a human in the world.

On Immunity: An Inoculation 

Eula Biss

Sometimes you put down a book and just think, "Wow, I had no clue I was so fascinated by [insert seemingly mundane topic we interact with all along]." That is the exact feeling you get when you finish On Immunity. The book is a deep dive into the history of immunization, and the way that our conversation about the topic has shifted over time. It turns out our history with immunization is waaaaayyy more complicated than you think.

Next up, we're reading Daniel Mallory Ortberg's book Merry Spinster. We hope you'll join us.

Happy reading, everyone!

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