My Favorite Books

Fiction

Series

Mysteries

Nils Shapiro series by Matt Goldman
This series follows a private detective in Minneapolis as he assists a police detective in solving crimes and murders. I think I loved these books so much because they take place in or around Minneapolis. I could picture the places that Nils visited. Goldman used to write for Seinfeld.

Gone to Dust
Broken Ice
The Shallows
Dead West (this was my least favorite)

Cozy Mysteries

Inspector Gamache series by Louise Penny
The series is set around the life of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force for Quebec. I saw so many of my friends loving these books but when I read the first one, I was underwhelmed. However, I kept reading them and now I am enamored with Three Pines and the character development. These are so good – the writing, the intricate plots.

Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich
This series follows a female bounty hunter that has no skills and lots of luck catching the bad guys. If you need something mindless but fun, these books are for you! I’ve been reading these since I was in middle school. My mom and I would listen to the audiobooks on the way to softball tournaments as I was growing up. They get VERY repetitive and predictable as the series goes on, like anything that has 30+ books…

Paradise series by Elin Hilderbrand
A middle aged mom from Iowa gets the phone call no one wants – her husband has died. Now she has to deal with the perplexing events leading up to his death in a Caribbean island as she discovers his second life and second family.

The Thursday Murder Club series by Richard Osman
This series follows a group of retired wannabe sleuths that assist the cops with solving murders in their community. The dry humor in this series is fantastic.

The Thursday Murder Club
The Man Who Died Twice (my favorite)
The Bullet that Missed
The Last Devil to Die

Hercule Poirot series by Agatha Christie

Too many to list!

Finlay Donovan series by Elle Cosimano
My number one recommendation to most people lately – picture this: A mom of two young kiddos, going through a divorce, that writes mediocre romance mystery novels is pitching her new idea to her agent at a local Panera. A woman overhears and thinks she is a hitman and hires her to murder her husband – chaos ensues.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It
Finlay Donovan Knocks ’em Dead
Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice (Coming in 2024!!)

The Maid by Nita Prose
Now 2 books in the series! This follows an autistic woman who is a maid at a fancy hotel that finds herself mixed up in a murder.

Death on Tap Series
A series that takes place in the Pacific Midwest, in a town that I now want to visit! The theme centers around breweries and murder!

Murder in an Irish Village Series
And now I want to go to Ireland….

Dead and Gondola (Cozy mystery!)

Buried in a Good Book (cozy)

A Bad Day for Sunshine (cozy series)

Chocolate Chip Cookie Murder by Joanne Fluke
I’ll be honest, these are pretty bad… but also take place in a fake Minnesota small town. Sometimes I needs something so innocent and mindless, this is it!

Louisiana Longshot Series
Follows a CIA agent that has to hide out in a small Louisiana town and pretend to be a beauty queen

General Fiction

Beartown series by Fredrik Backman (You do not need to like hockey to love these books, the character development is so amazing and the story telling is amazing. I cried in all three books and the last one was so heartbreakingly good.)

Beartown
Us Against You
The Winners

Mystery/Thriller

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty

Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister

Razorblade Tears by S.A. Crosby

Every Time I go on Vacation, Someone Dies by Catherine Mack

The Truth about the Devlins by Lisa Scottoline

If Something Happens to Me by Alex Finlay

No One Can Know by Kate Alice Marshall

General Fiction

The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Kline

The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal

Iona Iverson’s Rules for Commuting by Clare Pooley

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin

Chronicles of a Radical Hag by Lorna Landvik

Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

A Man Called One by Frederick Backman

The Hearts Invisible Furies

People We Meet on Vacation

We Begin at the End

Black Buck

The Guncle (The Guncle, #1)

The Scent of Rain and Lightning

Historical Fiction

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Molokai by Alan Brennert

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

I Must Betray You by Ruth

The Personal Library by Marie Benadict
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict

Fall of Giants Trilogy by Ken Follett

The Girl in His Shadow (Nora Beady, #1)

Sci Fi/Fantasy

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Upgrade by Blake Crouch

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Project Hail Mary

Non-Fiction

Memoirs

The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch

When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Educated by Tara Westover

Know My Name by Chanel Miller

This is Going to Hurt: Secret Diaries of a Junior Doctor by Adam Kay

Open Book by Jessica Simpson
I know… Jessica Simpson right! That’s what I thought. But her story and the things she went through are just fascinating to read about.

Green Light by Matthew McCounohay
If you can listen to this one… do it! He reads it

Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry

Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed

In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park

The Office BFFs: Tales of The Office from Two Best Friends Who Were There

The Longest Race: Inside the Secret World of Abuse, Doping, and Deception on Nike’s Elite Running Team by Kara Goucher

Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod by Gary Paulson

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