I Asked My Friends For Book Recommendations

Cowboys, aliens, & biblical horror, oh my!

With the new year comes a hesitant glance towards my intimidating TBR pile. My goal for 2025 is 15 books and I have 12 physical stories in a neat stack atop my drawer. Admittedly, most of them are fantasy. In middle and high school I read almost exclusively fantasy (with Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo, Half Bad by Sally Green, and The Inheritance Cycle by Christopher Paolini being among my favorites). I didn’t start to branch out until college and after reading other genres, fantasy doesn’t always do it for me anymore. (I’ve attempted to read The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon and The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent but couldn’t get into them—fans of either don’t fret, I’ll return to both soon enough.)

Being three books short and needing some new recommendations, I asked my friends on Instagram to share some reads they loved. Below are four recommendations of varying genres straight from the mouths of my friends. Some books contain trigger warnings.

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White Nights by Fyodor Dostoevsky

White nights captures loneliness and how in a sprawling city, happy moments can be fleeting. It follows a lonely pair of strangers who find companionship in conversation. I love how the city is personified and how vivid every detail is. The city feels bustling and lively yet our characters must learn to live with themselves in reality instead of their internal fantasies. It’s a beautiful yet thought provoking short story and I would recommend it to everyone!

- Eon E.

The Lonesome Dove by Larry McCurty

I am 24 years old and I adore Larry McMurtry’s 1985 novel, The Lonesome Dove. This book would not have been on my radar if it weren't for my aunt. She insisted that I read it and was certain I would love it.

Although games like Red Dead Redemption, directors like Tarantino/Coen Brothers, and artists like Orville Peck/Beyonce have boosted the cowboy aesthetic, Westerns have a stigma of being only for 70-year-old Republican white men. Do not let The Lonesome Dove continue to collect dust on Grandpa’s bookshelf. All I knew about The Lonesome Dove before my aunt’s recommendation was that it was a Western and that it was giant. I assumed it would be a long and boring trek through the dust. What I found was that it was a long and fun trek through the dust. (The characters doing the trekking had much less fun than I did.)

Lately, I’ve been a little burnt out on reading dense and respected literature, but I also find a lot of genre fiction to be kind of dumb and not worth my time. The Lonesome Dove is very much genre fiction, but it is extremely intelligently written. Especially if you are a fan of wit. It is entertaining and easy to read, like watching TV in a book, but also insightful and emotional and has something to give the reader in return for its massive page count.

The strength of the novel is in its characters and dialogue. Similar to George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and other odysseys, the book follows a large cast that resides in different parts of the land, and each chapter is written from a different character’s perspective. With over thirty characters, McMurtry gives great depth and often hilarious detail to even those that show up once. The main plot follows a washed-up pair of Texas Rangers, Augustus “Gus” McCrae and Woodrow Call, and their quirky crew as they drive a cattle range from Texas to Montana. Gus might be my favorite character of all time. Everything he says is clever, and the foil he and Call have is nothing new, but it’s perfect.

Of course the novel is still quite dated, being written by a white man who was born in Texas in 1936, but I also found it surprisingly progressive, especially for female representation. There is not one, but three strong female leads, and some great minor female characters sprinkled in as well. Do the women ever interact with each other? Not much, but I found them to have round and complex identities. Although there are definitely some issues to find, The Black character in the story, Deets, is also well represented for the time.

If you already have well-rounded knowledge of Westerns, maybe you already know that The Lonesome Dove is awesome. But if you have not read a Western before and would like to go on an emotional 843 pg. journey full of stinky cowboys, I highly recommend you start with The Lonesome Dove.

- Robin F. (give her substack a read here!)

Under the Skin by Michael Faber

I recently gave Under The Skin by Michael Faber a read and if I had to give a book recommendation it would be that one. It’s one of my favorite books I’ve read in a long time. A poignant story about femininity, sexism, bodily autonomy, and the ethics of modern existence under capitalism through the use of body horror, bleak humor, and science fiction. Part of the exploration of its themes does take the form of sexual content, specifically the sexualization of its female protagonist Isserly, and the violence that surrounds a feminine existence. I’m gonna put a few content warnings here that may involve some minor spoilers, so be aware. There are examples of sexism, scenes of sexual assault and sexualized violence, druggings, and a litany of violent murders throughout the story. Still, I found it to be an intelligent, deeply entertaining, and thoroughly interesting book that never really felt like I was fighting to get through it.

- Dylan R. (give their Substack a read here!)

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

One of my top books from 2024 has to be Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman. I read this in May of last year and have NOT been able to stop thinking about it to this day. You follow the story of a disgraced knight Thomás through the biblical revelations apocalypse, ie: war and plague-torn 14th-century Europe.

There is just something so gut-wrenchingly perfect about watching this man (who would have been ‘bandit number 3’ in any other book) pick himself back up again over and over. You begin to cheer on his little victories and curl away from his defeats. Thomás is not a good man, but he is not an evil one either. You do not get too much insight into why Thomás is the way he is, but rather you watch the journey he undertakes trying to get away from it. Please give this book a read if you like biblical horror, and a true introspection of the human condition when faced with the worst the world can offer (and then a bit beyond that).

Fair warning, however, this book is dark. Though I think that if you can handle Game of Thrones, Between Two Fires should be just as fine.

- Lance D.

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

One of the saddest books I’ve ever read but kept me captivated the whole time. Touches on subjects of friendships and how they can be tested by the hardships of life. This is one of the few books I’ve ever read that I feel like changed my outlook about certain aspects of life. It’s cool to get to watch the characters age and go through their life experiences. It’s definitely a commitment as it’s one of the longest books I’ve ever read in my life but if you stick around it’s so worth it.

- Kailey M.

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Thanks for the read. Drop your own book recommendations below! And thanks again to all my friends who participated.