50 Great Books That Will Change Your Life

“If you have never read this classic, or pooh-pooh it as being only for kids, think again. Alice and her adventures will make you see things with childlike curiosity. The story helps us remember that we need to be playful in love, life, and especially words.”

Recommended by Lily Koppel, the author of two nonfiction books, The Astronaut Wives Club ($28, amazon.com) and The Red Leather Diary ($15, amazon.com).

To buy: $25, amazon.com.   

“I took a fiction workshop with Phillips in college and was shocked when she assigned her own book. (It’s a collection of stories about everything from serial killers to mothers and daughters.) But I’m glad she did. Never before had a book given me permission to write so frankly about sex and sexuality, to try on different voices, male ones included, and to write from a dark, honest place. The stories are varied, some emotional and others shocking, but they are all authentic and utterly compelling.”

Recommended by Jennifer Gilmore, the author of three novels, the most recent of which is The Mothers ($26, amazon.com).

To buy: $14, amazon.com.

“I first read this collection in the early 1990s. Culled annually from magazines, the anthology was my introduction to legends of the short-story form—John Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, as well as then-newcomers Lorrie Moore and Charles D’Ambrosio. I was amazed by the ability of these writers to bring a page alive with sly humor and perfect sentences. To this day, I still consider the anthology the ideal place to discover a new writer or remember why I love one to begin with.”

Recommended by Curtis Sittenfeld, the author of four novels, including Prep ($15, amazon.com) and the forthcoming Sisterland ($27, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“I once confessed to a girlfriend (who is a designer) that I was inept at drawing, and she told me about this book. It breaks drawing down into five basic perceptual skills—of edges, spaces, relationships, lights and shadows, and the whole—and provides instruction on dipping into our right brain, which helps develop overall creativity. And who couldn’t use a dose of creativity?”

Recommended by Elaine Griffin, an interior designer and the author of Design Rules: The Insider’s Guide to Becoming Your Own Decorator ($25, amazon.com).

To buy: $20, amazon.com.

“I read this punchy romantic comedy while finding the courage to leave my job as an attorney. The story, which centers on a Jewish girl’s fixation on an anti-Semitic hotel in Vermont, stayed in my mind and heart and filled me with the notion of becoming a writer: I can do this, I thought while turning every page. At the very least, I have to try.”

Recommended by Emily Giffin, the author of Where We Belong ($16, amazon.com), as well as five other novels.

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“This book made me want to work in a test kitchen. I was always curious about the hows and whys of cooking, and the author addresses so many of those questions. If you keep making the same mistakes in your cooking— say, your cakes are falling, your sauce always separates, or your bread isn’t rising right—Cookwise will help you discover solutions.”

Recommended by Aida Mollenkamp, a chef and the author of Aida Mollenkamp’s Keys to the Kitchen ($35, amazon.com).

To buy: $35, amazon.com.

“Benchley taught me how to create and then mine a comedic worldview with details gleaned from everything all around me. As I read and reread this collection of his essays from the 1930s, I marveled at how he effortlessly blended hilarious observations about the indignities and insanities of everyday life into a larger stew of real lunacy.”

Recommended by Merrill Markoe, a humorist and the author of eight books, including, most recently, Cool, Calm & Contentious ($15, amazon.com).

To buy: $20, amazon.com.

“This was the first ‘grown-up’ book I read; I was 9 at the time. It’s a coming-of-age novel about an orphan girl who plays competitive chess. The story makes you fall in love with the main character, but it also makes moving pawns and rooks nail-bitingly exciting. Before reading it, I thought stories were supposed to be about adventures (and wizards mostly).”

Recommended by Max Barry, the author of four novels, including Syrup ($16, amazon.com) and the forthcoming Lexicon ($27, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“This is the true story of a writer who moves to Baghdad with her journalist husband in 2003, during the Iraq War, and discovers the soul of her new country—and her marriage—through an exploration of the local cuisine. This memoir helped me understand that food literally is life, carrying with it the vibrating pulse of humanity and illuminating a society’s essential nature.”

Recommended by Louisa Shafia, a chef and the author of The New Persian Kitchen ($25, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“This brilliant and challenging little book gives the most cogent reason for why we procrastinate about the most important things in our lives. It is both inspiring and daunting, and a must-read for people who ever find themselves avoiding what they know in their hearts they should be doing.”

Recommended by David Allen, a productivity consultant and the author of Getting Things Done ($16, amazon.com).

To buy: 13, amazon.com.

“Maxwell’s masterpiece, which weighs in at a mere 144 pages, contains as much life, range, and depth of emotion as its 1,000-page counterparts. It made me think that what is left unsaid can be as powerful as the words on the page.”

Recommended by Ann Patchett, the author of eight books, including the novels Bel Canto ($17, amazon.com) and State of Wonder ($16, amazon.com).

To buy: $14, amazon.com.

“I read this book when I was 19. I understood it then as a visceral, poetic lament about how race, class, and beauty had conspired to destroy the soul and spirit of a little African-American girl named Pecola Breedlove. I found in Pecola’s story a way to understand my own broken girlhood in America. This novel remains for me an eloquent reminder of how fierce the struggle to love whom you see in the mirror can be.”

Recommended by Monique Truong, the author of the novels The Book of Salt ($14, amazon.com) and Bitter in the Mouth ($15, amazon.com).

To buy: $14, amazon.com.

“The late Russell Page, born in 1906, created gardens in England, continental Europe, and the United States and ranks among the giants of 20th-century design. His gardens were the epitome of style and sophistication, and like many a great artist, he strove, in the end, for simplicity. His single book is never out of reach on my desk.”

Recommended by Dean Riddle, a landscape designer and the author of Out in the Garden: Growing a Beautiful Life ($18, used, abebooks.com).

To buy: $19, amazon.com.

“Hearing this book read aloud by my father was perhaps the first time I realized that there could be two ‘right’ ways to solve a problem, and by choosing one, you might betray the other. If Huck had turned Jim in to the authorities, he would have satisfied society’s law at the time but betrayed his own conscience. This theme often appears in my own writing.”

Recommended by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor, the author of more than 140 books for children and young adults, including the Shiloh trilogy and the Alice series (from $6, amazon.com).

To buy: $3, amazon.com.

“This work of historical fiction tells the 14th-century love story of Katherine Swynford and John of Gaunt, ancestors of many in the British royal family. It showed me that two people can change the course of the future, and it was the start of my lifelong love affair with the past.”

Recommended by Kristin Hannah, the author of 21 novels, including Fly Away ($28, amazon.com).

To buy: $16, amazon.com.

“I’m sad that more girls don’t read the Betsy-Tacy books, a saga of three friends growing up at the turn of the 20th century in Deep Valley, Minnesota. The series begins in childhood and concludes with Betsy’s wedding. This volume in particular really blew my hair back. In it, Betsy, a high school sophomore, falls into the traditional female pit of thinking her authentic self isn’t good enough, but she manages to haul herself out of it. Like most girls, I believed I was the only one tempted to dumb herself down and sell herself short. Reading about a smart young woman doing the same helped me avoid that temptation. And for me the books were particularly powerful because the assumption throughout is that Betsy will become a writer, which is exactly what happens.”

Recommended by Anna Quindlen, the author of five novels and eight nonfiction books, including, most recently, Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake ($26, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“My mother gave me this book when I was 26, explaining that it could teach me all I needed to know about ‘good interiors.’ From this book, I have learned about proportion, color, pattern, and how to lay out a room. It also taught me that the best rooms aren’t necessarily the fanciest or most expensive.”

Recommended by Annie Selke, a textile designer and the author of Fresh American Spaces ($45, amazon.com).

To buy: $80.50 (used), abebooks.com.

“This book—about a 35-year-old woman who falls for the 15-year-old son of her best friend—changed the way I read newsreports about ‘pedophiles’ who have scandalous affairs with the underage. This is a headlong heartbreaker, tender but never schlocky. It deepened my sympathy for many people under the spotlight whose real stories are so much richer and more morally nuanced than the headlines suggest.”

Recommended by Lionel Shriver, the author of 13 novels, including We Need to Talk About Kevin ($15, amazon.com). Her latest is the just-released Big Brother ($27, amazon.com).

To buy: $11, amazon.com.

“This is one of the few books I know that have been read by my grandmother, my mother, me, and my daughter—a testament to the timelessness of the material. Any book that features magic sneakers, summer in a bottle, and a Happiness Machine is bound to make an impression. The whole world is in this novel: fear and acceptance, joy and sorrow, the circle of life and the passing of the seasons, and the magic of everyday things. The author shows his own heart in this work, something I try to do in mine as well.”

Recommended by Susan Wiggs, the author of the romance series The Lakeshore Chronicles (from $6, amazon.com). Her latest book is The Apple Orchard ($25, amazon.com).

To buy: $8, amazon.com.

“You will never forget this novel because, from the first sentence, the story comes alive and the characters reach out for us from the pages. A young Irish girl narrates her experience of going to live with an unfamiliar couple on a farm. It’s a story about childhood, told with such beauty and with such respect for the growing heart of its main character that I consider it to be one of the best books ever written. In other words, I would take a bullet for this book!”

Recommended by Simon van Booy, the author of three novels, including The Illusion of Separateness ($24, amazon.com), out this month.

To buy: from $5.50 (used), amazon.com.

“When I was a teenager, I discovered this book in the office of my father, the designer Mark Hampton. It’s a compilation of floor plans from some of the greatest apartment buildings of all time. The logic and the beauty of the timeless designs still inspire me today.”

Recommended by Alexa Hampton, an interior designer and the author of The Language of Interior Design ($50, amazon.com).

To buy: from $45 (used), amazon.com.

“The story centers on a private investigator, Spenser, becoming a role model and mentor for a young boy cast off by his parents. It’s about doing what you like in life, but doing it damn well. I took that message to heart, and it changed my life.”

Recommended by Ace Atkins, the author of the Quinn Colson novels The Lost Ones ($16, amazon.com) and The Broken Places ($27, amazon.com), which comes out this month.

To buy: $8, amazon.com.

“When I first became a makeup artist, 16 years ago, and I was just out of my training, I carried this with me everywhere. I didn’t always know which makeup suited certain features, so the book was my backup. If you’re interested in makeup artistry, it can show you how to actually change people’s features. It provides what I call ‘old-school training,’ from the era before Photoshop, when makeup had to be perfectly blended.”

Recommended by Jemma Kidd, a makeup artist and the author of Jemma Kidd Make-up Masterclass ($26, amazon.com) and Jemma Kidd Make-up Secrets ($25, amazon.com).

To buy: $22, amazon.com.

“I first picked up this memoir of Hotchner’s youth back in the early ’90s. I had no idea what I was reading at first, but I soon found parallels in the story with my own struggles and conquests, even though I was as far away from Depression-era St. Louis as you could get. Hotchner is able to capture the fleeting impulses of childhood and the life-or-death importance of imagination in a way that had me rereading the book for years.”

Recommended by Domingo Martinez, the author of the memoir The Boy Kings of Texas ($17, amazon.com).

To buy: $20, amazon.com.

“For several impressionable years, this was my favorite novel. Its heroine, the daughter of a half-mad penniless writer (I empathized), falls in love with a rich, funny neighbor (I approved). The book taught me that romance novels can be just as pleasurable when their heroines are neither golden-haired nor virtuous but confused, cerebral, and wry—a lesson I later brought to my own stories.”

Recommended by Eloisa James, the author of more than 25 romance novels, the most recent of which is Once Upon a Tower ($8, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“Even if you aren’t religious, there’s something about reading a spiritual autobiography that feeds the soul and realigns the senses. Whenever I pick up this book, it feels like I’m spending time with the smartest, funniest, and wisest Trappist monk who ever lived. The story of Merton’s religious awakening and conversion at age 23 feels as fresh today as it did in the year it was first published (1948). I don’t leave home without it—seriously!”

Recommended by Benjamin Anastas, the author of the novel An Underachiever’s Diary ($13, amazon.com) and the memoir Too Good to Be True ($25, amazon.com).

To buy: $16, amazon.com.

“This darkly poetic, tragic story set in South Africa in the middle of the 20th century made me, as a white teenager, confront, really for the first time, the Jim Crow southern United States in which I lived. The language is beautiful, and the story summons readers to question society’s dictums and search their own souls.”

Recommended by Katherine Paterson, the author of many children’s books, including Jacob Have I Loved ($7, amazon.com) and Bridge to Terabithia ($7, amazon.com).

To buy: $28, amazon.com.

“This is a slim volume of poetry, loss, and the sepia-toned remembrances of a girl coming of age in the wilds of French Indochina before World War II. It is an unforgettable ode to a time and place in a young girl’s life, a portrait of the moment when the road forks, a choice is made, and a life is changed forever. When I read it, my life turned on its axis. My own experience was validated, and I felt the power, the necessity, of honoring my own life through words.”

Recommended by Rebecca Walker, the author of the memoir Black, White, and Jewish ($15, amazon.com). Her first novel, Adé: A Love Story ($20, amazon.com), will be published this fall.

To buy: $12, amazon.com.

“I read this book when I was a kid and was mesmerized by its subtle grace. A simple tale about a week in the life of a New Orleans stockbroker, it poked and pried at the essential questions we wrestle with, such as ‘Why are we here?’ and ‘How are we supposed to live our lives?’ It made me want to be a writer.”

Recommended by Walter Isaacson, the chief executive officer of the Aspen Institute and the author of biographies of Steve Jobs ($35, amazon.com), Albert Einstein ($19, amazon.com), and Benjamin Franklin ($19, amazon.com).

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“My friend Jasna, who’s from Sarajevo, gave me this book long before we could imagine a war would arrive in Yugoslavia. I forgot about it, but books are medicine; they don’t do us any good if they aren’t the right prescription. And so, when war erupted back in 1991, this book literally fell from the shelf and taught me what I could do on behalf of my friend. It showed me that the way to work for peace is to be at peace.”

Recommended by Sandra Cisneros, the author of several novels, including The House on Mango Street ($11, amazon.com) and, most recently, Have You Seen Marie? ($21, amazon.com)

To buy: $15, amazon.com.

“The author’s true account of living with drug-addicted parents on the streets, overcoming hardship, and ultimately landing admission to Harvard University made me look at life differently and changed the way I think. Now I follow Murray’s mantra: ‘So what, now what?’ I face my problems head-on, find solutions, and move forward with life.”

Recommended by Bobbi Brown, a makeup artist, the founder of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics, and the author of more than a dozen books on beauty, the latest of which is Pretty Powerful ($30, amazon.com).

To buy: $16, amazon.com.

“This was the first book that catapulted me out of the insular world of childhood and forced me to think about injustice writ large. Set in the decades preceding the civil rights movement, the novel is all about losing one’s innocence much too soon yet refusing to settle for the status quo. The Logan family loves hard and deep, and their seemingly ordinary sacrifices to make their community a more just and equitable place will leave you in tears.”

Recommended by ZZ Packer, the author of the short-story collection Drinking Coffee Elsewhere ($15, amazon.com).

To buy: $8, amazon.com.

“Shortly after graduating from college, I was buying my third copy of this beloved graphic novel and the clerk said to me, ‘Are you a cartoonist?’ I gasped. ‘No! Why?!’ I had a degree in psychology, but in that cathartic moment I realized that, yes, I was going to be a cartoonist. I drank in Bechdel’s work. Her characters, drawing style, and sense of humor inspired me, as did the intriguing language of interwoven words and pictures. Even for readers without repressed aspirations to make comics, reading a graphic novel is an intimate, personal experience. And if you’ve never read one, Bechdel’s are a great place to start.”

Recommended by Ellen Forney, a graphic novelist and the author of Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me ($20, amazon.com).

To buy: $25, amazon.com.