Curated Reading List
6 books: propulsive stories that stay with you.
Plot-driven books with real depth beneath the momentum. A note on every book, a question to carry while you read, and about 74 hours of reading in all.
Inside
A note from the concierge
Plot-driven books with real depth beneath the momentum.
For when you want to be swept along but still want something to think about on the other side.
The Concierge
6 books
Donna Tartt, 1992
At a small New England college, a clique of classics students is drawn into a crime that slowly unravels them. The reader knows the ending from page one and cannot look away.
Consider: What does friendship demand of the people in The Secret History?
Andy Weir, 2021
A lone astronaut wakes with no memory aboard a spacecraft and slowly realizes he is humanity's last hope.
Consider: What does friendship demand of the people in Project Hail Mary?
Daphne du Maurier, 1938
A young bride arrives at the great house Manderley and finds it still ruled by the memory of her husband's first wife.
Consider: Where in Rebecca does love show itself through action rather than words?
Hilary Mantel, 2009
The rise of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son, through the dangerous court of Henry VIII, told in intimate, present-tense prose.
Consider: Who holds power in Wolf Hall, and how do they use it?
Richard Osman, 2020
Four unlikely friends in a comfortable retirement village meet weekly to investigate cold cases, until a real murder lands on their doorstep.
Consider: What does friendship demand of the people in The Thursday Murder Club?
Umberto Eco, 1980
In 1327, a Franciscan friar and his young novice investigate a string of deaths in a secretive Italian abbey with a labyrinthine library.
Consider: What does The Name of the Rose suggest faith is for?
Practical
Read together, these 6 books come to about 74 hours. That is a comfortable month at roughly 19 hours a week.
If you want more
Readers who love this list tend to enjoy the following. Each is chosen for how closely it shares the mood and themes of the books above.
Kate Quinn, 2017
In 1947 a young American searching for her missing cousin is drawn into the story of a woman who spied behind enemy lines in occupied France during the First World War. Shares gripping and uplifting with Project Hail Mary.
Charlotte Brontë, 1847
An orphaned governess with fierce independence takes a post at Thornfield Hall and finds a secret at its heart. Shares classics and gripping with Rebecca.
Jeffrey Archer, 1979
Two men are born on the same day, one into Boston banking wealth and the other into poverty in Poland, and their ambitions pull them into a rivalry that spans decades. Shares historical fiction and gripping with Wolf Hall.
The books
At a small New England college, a clique of classics students is drawn into a crime that slowly unravels them. The reader knows the ending from page one and cannot look away.
A lone astronaut wakes with no memory aboard a spacecraft and slowly realizes he is humanity's last hope.
A young bride arrives at the great house Manderley and finds it still ruled by the memory of her husband's first wife.
The rise of Thomas Cromwell, a blacksmith's son, through the dangerous court of Henry VIII, told in intimate, present-tense prose.
Four unlikely friends in a comfortable retirement village meet weekly to investigate cold cases, until a real murder lands on their doorstep.
In 1327, a Franciscan friar and his young novice investigate a string of deaths in a secretive Italian abbey with a labyrinthine library.