It is important to think about genre conventions when writing a book. However, as an avid reader,  I also focus on books that make me think: books that illustrate the historical, cultural, and psychological forces that shape individuals and events and books that help me understand the how and why of things that happen in the human and natural worlds. Yet, I also enjoy mystery, fantasy, science fiction, and historical fiction. Below, I've listed some of my favorite books and authors. You'll notice a few of the best young adult novels on the list. 

Fiction that Made me Think

The Things They Carried by Tim O'Brien
A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison (not the novel by H. G. Wells)
The Great Gatsby ​by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck 
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson

Historical Fiction

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Book Thief  by Markus Zusak
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
The Nightingale and The Women by Kristin Hannah
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
The Giver by Lois Lowry
Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr
Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood

​Mysteries

Agatha Christie mysteries
P.D. James mysteries
Louise Penny mysteries
Liane Moriarty books
Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier
Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins