When I was younger I used to only read Stephen King, R.L. Stein, Dean Koontz, you get my drift, pretty much thriller and horror only. When I was in High School, I stared my first job as a barista and found my co-worker’s copy of Nora Robert’s novel Lawless. That was my intro into great Romance novels. I very rarely left that comfort zone of those authors though. I had no idea the books I was missing out on.
The past several years I have made changes in the way I choose what books to read and I have been picking up ones that I normally wouldn’t. I join reading challenges that prompt me to choose books outside my comfort zone. We are two months into the year so far and my genre resume has already been so vast, Literary Women’s Fiction, Contemporary Realistic Fiction, New Adult Romance, Literary Fiction, Crime and Comedy Thriller, Poetry, and Non-fiction Memoir.
Here are a few that I have thoroughly enjoyed recently:
- My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell – Literary Women’s Fiction, Dark Academia
- Memorial Drive: A Daughter’s Memoir by NatashaTrethewey – Non-fiction Memoir
- Because Of Jenny by Brad Neaton – Literary Fiction
- Accidental Activist: Justice for the Groveland Four by Josh Venkataraman and Barbara Venkataraman – Non-fiction Memoir
- Handle With Care by Jodi Picoult – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones – Literary Fiction
- On Island Time: Kayaking the Caribbean by Scott B. Williams – Non-fiction Memoir, Travel
- The Kite Runner by Khalid Hosseini – Contemporary Realistic Fiction
- American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan – Non-fiction True Crime
- The Alice Network by Kate Quinn – Historical Fiction
I hope that this will give you the push to expand your reading beyond your comfort zone as well. There is a whole world out there to explore. Don’t be afraid to check them out.
