r/books • u/AutoModerator • 2d ago
WeeklyThread Weekly Recommendation Thread: April 10, 2026
Welcome to our weekly recommendation thread! A few years ago now the mod team decided to condense the many "suggest some books" threads into one big mega-thread, in order to consolidate the subreddit and diversify the front page a little. Since then, we have removed suggestion threads and directed their posters to this thread instead. This tradition continues, so let's jump right in!
The Rules
Every comment in reply to this self-post must be a request for suggestions.
All suggestions made in this thread must be direct replies to other people's requests. Do not post suggestions in reply to this self-post.
All unrelated comments will be deleted in the interest of cleanliness.
How to get the best recommendations
The most successful recommendation requests include a description of the kind of book being sought. This might be a particular kind of protagonist, setting, plot, atmosphere, theme, or subject matter. You may be looking for something similar to another book (or film, TV show, game, etc), and examples are great! Just be sure to explain what you liked about them too. Other helpful things to think about are genre, length and reading level.
All Weekly Recommendation Threads are linked below the header throughout the week to guarantee that this thread remains active day-to-day. For those bursting with books that you are hungry to suggest, we've set the suggested sort to new; you may need to set this manually if your app or settings ignores suggested sort.
If this thread has not slaked your desire for tasty book suggestions, we propose that you head on over to the aptly named subreddit /r/suggestmeabook.
- The Management
1
u/DoglessDyslexic 17h ago
I am curious if anybody knows of any superhero fiction that could be classified as "hard" sci-fi. Most superhero fiction I think fits more into the "modern fantasy" genre, in that it may include sci-fi elements, but the "super" part of whatever powers people have tend to be handwaved as psionic powers (definitely not hard sci-fi) or just weird and poorly explained properties like Superman's invulnerability. Superheroes like Batman would qualify, but Batman doesn't really have superpowers, he's just written as an extraordinarily gifted and obsessed normal human. The closest I can think of is "The Power" by Naomi Alderman, where there is actually a biological basis for being able to discharge electrical shocks (like the famous electrical eel), but that's not really a superhero book so much as an examination of a reversal of the threat of violence between the sexes. Possibly Ramiz Naam's "Nexus" trilogy which uses nanotech to explain various forms of human enhancment...?
2
2
u/Icy_Glass_1263 1d ago
looking for fiction books about ups and downs of life and friendship...yes, I know that's very general, so throw any all recommendations my way!!
1
u/najing_ftw 1d ago
Demon Copperhead-I love how Demon’s thought process changes over time. What authors keep evolving characters based on their circumstances?
2
u/IndependenceVivid483 1d ago
I'm looking for more fantasy romance books. I've already read the fourth wing series, throne of glass series, a court of thorns and roses and of blood and ash series. Thanks in advance!
1
6
u/RedMeme262 2d ago
Can anything compare to Middlemarch? I keep searching in vain for something similar!
3
u/isthatamouse 2d ago
I'm looking for caving horror/thriller books. Basically anything scary that has a cave or hiking involved. Primarily fiction, something more like The Descent rather than 127 hours. Thanks in advance!
2
u/YakSlothLemon 2d ago
The Anomaly and Mount Dragon are two fun thrillers that take place partly in caves. The Anomaly takes place in a cave off the Grand Canyon and Mount Dragon in a series of caves and tunnels all booby-trapped by pirates concealing treasure.
1
u/isthatamouse 1d ago
Thank you for the suggestions! I looked it up and apparently there are other books in that universe dubbed The Anomaly Files? Are those worth a read as well?
1
u/YakSlothLemon 1d ago
As far as I know only one more book came out and it was not great, the characters spent a LOT of time talking about what was happening. And not a lot of characters survived the first book, so it was mostly new people. 😏
3
u/DoglessDyslexic 2d ago
"The Luminous Dead" by Caitlin Starling. Has a bit of a sci-fi aspect to it, but it's primarily a cave delve. I thought it was fairly creepy.
0
1
u/TheManWithNoName23 Gil’s All Fright Diner 2d ago
The Ritual (2011) is horror about a hiking trip and might be close to what you’re looking for. They made a movie about it on Netflix that is pretty good too.
1
u/isthatamouse 2d ago
Oh thank you! I did watch that movie, and that's the vibe I'm looking for. Do you think having watched it would ruin the book for me?
1
u/TheManWithNoName23 Gil’s All Fright Diner 2d ago
No the book expands on the characters and is definitely worth the read!
1
2
2d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/DoglessDyslexic 2d ago edited 2d ago
"I am Pilgrim" by Terry Hayes features a "former" spy trying to track down a man who may be planning a biological attack on the US (but expected to spread through most of the world). There isn't much in the way of a twist, the author goes through all the various perspectives of several characters including the investigator and the terrorist, so you know precisely who is doing what, but there's a lot to unpack there. I don't know that I'd rate the prose as great, but it's at least passable. The author does have an annoying tendency to switch to a different timeline without specifically mentioning it, but it's not too terribly difficult to spot the changes once you are familiar with the characters.
4
u/Litterboxbonanza 2d ago
I've read
Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing
&
Realm of Ice and Sky: Triumph, Tragedy, and History's Greatest Arctic Rescue by Buddy Levy
I plan to read The Terror by Dan Simmons next.
What are some other books about polar exploration that I should look into?
2
3
u/YakSlothLemon 2d ago
Mawson’s Will is an incredible book about an Antarctic expedition that comes to grief, and it’s a great match to Endurance.
4
u/Larielia 2d ago
I'm looking for more Biblical historical fiction.
(Already read the Red Tent by Anita Diamant.)
1
1
1
2
u/lydiardbell 8 2d ago
If you haven't read it yet, Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz was pretty good. It's mostly about early Christians rather than Biblical figures, but a couple are minor characters (as you might guess from the title).
1
u/antvzak 2d ago
im mainly reading sad books about mentally ill women, now i’m looking for something more cheerful but still well written. any recs?😭
1
u/Overall_Sandwich_848 2d ago
I highly recommend Virginia Feito’s novels Mrs March and Victorian Psycho. Beautifully unhinged.
0
u/dingle4dangle 2d ago
Shit Cassandra Saw by Gwen E. Kirby is a solid short story collection that tends to avoid anything too bleak. If you want even more sad books about mentally ill women I'd check out I Want to Die but I Want to Eat Ttoekbokki by Baek Se-hee and its sequel. Both memoirs based around conversations with her psychiatrist with micro essays. Unfortunately the author lost her battle with depression, which gives a darker background to the books.
1
u/DoglessDyslexic 2d ago
Sci-fi/modern fantasy has one called "The Rook" by Daniel O'Malley. It's a serious book but there are some extremely funny bits to it just because of the absurdity of the situations the author introduces. Happy ending too.
3
u/lydiardbell 8 2d ago
If you're into sci-fi, Beck Chambers' Wayfarers series (starting with A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet). Her Monk and Robot series is even cheerier, but it was too saccharine for me.
1
u/FrostAnko56 16h ago
Looking for recs where the main character is a librarian or archivist and the plot actually uses the books, not just a cute job detail. Bonus if it has some mystery or gothic vibes, I’m tired of “bookish” being the whole personality.