100 books recommended by us for you!
In 2024, Libraries Unlimited is celebrating 100 years of a county library service in Devon, so our library teams across Devon and Torbay have put our heads together and come up with a list of 100 recommended reads. We welcome you to share your thoughts and your own recommended reads with us on social media.
We hope you’ll be inspired to keep reading, to try something new, and of course, to keep supporting your local library.
Libraries really do matter – let’s continue putting libraries at the heart of our communities for another 100 years… and beyond!
Our list of 100 recommended reads:
- Lessons in Chemistry, Bonnie Garmus – recommended by Beth Reynolds
- Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Yuval Noah Harari – recommended by Callum Archer
- Foster, Claire Keegan – recommended by Olivia Desborough
- The Summer Book, Tove Jansson – recommended by Olivia Desborough
- Sticky McStickstick: The friend who helped me walk again, Michael Rosen – recommended by Katrina Oldcorn
- Educated, Tara Westover – recommended by Anna Wanigasekara
- Wild, Cheryl Strayed – recommended by Anna Wanigasekara
- The Roundabout Man, Clare Morrall – recommended by Anna Wanigasekara
- Dear Reader, Cathy Rentzenbrink – recommended by a team member
- The Salt Path, Raynor Winn – recommended by a team member
- The Midnight Library, Matt Haig – recommended by Elena Webster & another team member
- Born to Run, Christopher McDougall – recommended by Rachel Payne
- Tidying, Marie Kondo – recommended by Isobel Jarvis
- Small Things Like These, Claire Keegan – recommended by Rowena Marshall
- Remarkably Bright Creature, Shelby Van Pelt – recommended by Kate Smith
- Cuddy, Benjamin Myers – recommended by Rowena Marshall & Sophie Crofts
- Finding Hildasay, Christian Lewis – recommended by Rowena Marshall
- Girl, Woman, Other, Bernardine Evaristo – recommended Sarah Reevell
- This is Happiness, Niall Williams – recommended Sarah Reevell
- More Perfect Union, Tammye Huf – recommended Sophie J
- Tiger in a Tutu, Fabi Santiago – recommended by Emily Hicks
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce – recommended by Frances Lemmer
- The Mobile Library, David Whitehouse – recommended by Frances Lemmer
- A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman – recommended by Frances Lemmer
- Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries, Heather Fawcett – recommended by Aimee Fisher
- Women Who Run With Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes – recommended by Aimee Fisher
- Ariel, Sylvia Plath – recommended by Aimee Fisher
- The Tiger’s Wife, Tea Obreht – recommended by Tom Glanville
- The Secret Life of Albert Entwistle, Matt Cain – recommended by Jo Lawrence
- A Dutiful Boy, Moshin Zaidi – recommended by Jo Lawrence
- I’m Glad My Mum Died, Jennette McCurdy – recommended by Jo Lawrence
- The Reader on the 6.27, Jean Paul Didierlaurent – recommended by Anna Wanigasekara
- Miss Benson’s Beetle, Rachel Joyce – recommended by Jane Petch
- Case Histories, Kate Atkinson – recommended by Jane Petch
- Rubbernecker, Belinda Bauer – recommended by Jane Petch
- All My Mothers, Joanna Glen – recommended by Ellen
- Cloud Cuckooland, Anthony Doer – recommended by a team member
- Dexter the Amazing School Dog, Lucy Plunkett – recommended by Alice Haynes
- Ways to Live Forever, Sally Nicholls – recommended by Katrina Oldcorn
- With the Fire on High, Elizabeth Acevedo – recommended by Alice Haynes
- The Colour of Bee Larkham’s Murder, Sarah J Harris – recommended by Alice Haynes
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, Mark Haddon – recommended by Katrina Oldcorn
- Read Me Like a Book, Liz Kessler – recommended by Katrina Oldcorn
- The Lost Rainforests of Britain, Guy Shrubsole – recommended by Emily Nash
- Earthsea, Ursula K. Le Guin – recommended by Emily Nash
- The One-in-a-Million Boy, Monica Wood – recommended by Emma Andrews
- Matrix, Lauren Groff – recommended by Emma Andrews
- The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman, Julietta Henderson – recommended by Emma Andrews
- Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison – recommended by Jez Winship
- The Rotters’ Club, Jonathan Coe – recommended by Jez Winship
- Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake – recommended by Jez Winship
- Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Franz Kafka – recommended by Jez Winship
- The phone box at the edge of the world, Laura Imai Messina – recommended by Sarah Robinson
- Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred Watson – recommended by Emma Cottrell
- Hope Nicely’s Lessons for Life, Caroline Day – recommended by Emma Cottrell
- The Reading List, Sara Nisha Adams – recommended by Emma Cottrell
- The Great Alone, Kristen Hannah – recommended by Emma Cottrell
- The Thirteenth Tale, Diane Setterfield – recommended by Kate Mackenzie
- Heart’s Invisible Furies, John Boyne – recommended by Kate Mackenzie
- My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Ottessa Moshfegh – recommended by Alan Nash
- If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, Jon McGregor – recommended by Alan Nash
- What you are looking for is in the library, Michiko Aoyama – recommended by Rachel Wiltshire
- How To Be Both, Ali Smith – recommended by Alan Nash
- The Birthgrave, Tanith Lee – recommended by Alan Nash
- I am an island, Tamsin Calidas – recommended by Elizabeth Beckett
- House at Riverton, Kate Morton – recommended by Elizabeth Beckett
- Red Bird, Mary Oliver – recommended by Elizabeth Beckett
- The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’ Farrell – recommended by Serena FitzGerald
- The Wager, David Grann – recommended by Serena FitzGerald
- Based on a True Story, Delphine De Vignan – recommended by Serena FitzGerald
- City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert – recommended by Serena FitzGerald
- Sensitive, Jenn Granneman and Andre Solo – recommended by Serena FitzGerald
- Anxious People, Fredrik Backman – recommended by Elena Webster
- Zuleikha, Guzel Yakhina – recommended by Elena Webster
- Win, Lose, Kill, Die, Cynthia Murphy – recommended by a team member
- Perfume, Patrick Suskind – recommended by Linda Isaacson
- The Nightingale, Kristen Hannah – recommended by Rosie Black
- The thing about December, Donal Ryan – recommended by Rowena Marshall
- Throne of Glass (the whole series), Sarah J Maas – recommended by Naomi de Vries
- Harry Potter (the whole series), JK Rowling – recommended by Naomi de Vries
- A Flat Place, Noreen Masud – recommended by Megan Cooper
- The Slowworm’s Song, Andrew Miller – recommended by Megan Cooper
- Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier – recommended by a team member
- Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks – recommended by Anthony Young
- Write it all Down, Cathy Rentzenbrink – recommended by Tamsin Pender
- The Night Manager, John Le Carre – recommended by Sue Taylor
- Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens – recommended by Sue Taylor
- Love in the time of cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marques – recommended by Ruth Clayton
- Circe, Madeline Miller – recommended by Sophie Crofts
- How to Stop Time, Matt Haig – recommended by Sophie Crofts
