A Tasting Menu

When I started my bookstagram account 2.5 years ago, I debated for several weeks before ever opening the app. Why? Because in classic Cassie fashion (aka overthinking it), I couldn’t land on a name. At this point, I can’t even remember what was in the running, but I ended up with eclectically bookish and I’ve stuck with it.

I landed on eclectic because I read a lot of different genres. Sure, there were years when I read nothing but leadership and religion books. And there were the years I affectionately and sadly refer to as the “life could be worse,” years; those were marked by horrifying thrillers and crime podcasts. And lately, my top three genres are romance, literary fiction, and spiritual nonfiction. I still venture out of the big three though. Here’s a quick list of some of my recent top reads (all rated 4.5 stars or higher) by genre to give you a little tasting menu of what you can expect me to pick up and review in the future.

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To start, three all-time favorites (aka if you haven’t heard me talk about these lately, ask if I’m okay):

• Red Rising and the entire series of books that follow by Pierce Brown

• Shark Heart by Emily Habeck

• Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan

Classics

• Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

• Persuasion by Jane Austen

• Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

Fantasy

• Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

• The Once and Future Queen (formerly La Vie de Guinevere; releasing in December 2025) by Paula Lafferty

• A River Enchanted and A Fire Endless duology by Rebecca Ross

Genre-Bending

• Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy

• The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young

General Nonfiction

• Good Inside by Dr. Becky Kennedy

• Here After by Amy Lin

• The Lazy Genius Way by Kendra Adachi

• Stay True by Hua Hsu

Literary

• A Little Hope by Ethan Joella

• Piglet by Lottie Hazell

• The Names by Florence Knapp

• There There by Tommy Orange

• Tilt by Emma Pattee

Romance

• Beach Read by Emily Henry

• Four Weekends and a Funeral by Ellie Palmer

• Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez

• Promise Me Sunshine by Cara Bastone

Science Fiction

• Hunt the Stars by Jessie Mihalik

• Klara and the Sun by Kazou Ishiguro

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

• Starter Villain by John Scalzi

Spiritual Nonfiction

• Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzero

• The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning

• The Gift of Thorns by AJ Swoboda

• Love, Acceptance and Forgiveness by Jerry Cook

• The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by John Mark Comer

Thrillers and Horror

• Desert Creatures by Kay Chronister

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn

• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

Do we have any these books in common? Tell me about a book you’ve recently loved in the comments!

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