lynn d. jung

I often get asked for book recommendations of various genres and age categories, so: here is a list, which I shall update intermittently, of all of my favorite books. Starred titles are highly recommended.

Please note that my tastes tend to lean literary, speculative, and esoteric across the board.

Fiction
Sci-Fi & Fantasy
*Piranesi by Susanna Clarke – strange, philosophical, & one of the most unique fantasies I’ve read in a while
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson – hard fantasy, mechanisms of empires
*Local Heavens by K.M. Fajardo – a timely cyberpunk reimagining of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (coming fall 2025!)
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone & Amal El-Mohtar – sci-fi novella, strange and wonderful
Starling House by Alix E. Harrow – a modern Gothic, wonderful characters
*The Djinn Waits a Hundred Years by Shubnum Khan – a lyrical, heart-wrenching modern Gothic
*The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu – a collection of speculative short stories
Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse – SO fun. dystopian + speculative elements
Siren Queen by Nghi Vo – Old Hollywood magic (literally!), lyrical prose

General/Literary
*If I Had Your Face by Frances Cha – Korean beauty standards and womanhood
Folklorn by Angela Mi Young Hur – speculative literary fiction, trippy and difficult to describe
*Pachinko by Min Jin Lee – multi-generational historical fiction
Fruit of the Dead by Rachel Lyon – modern-day retelling Hades, Persephone, & Demeter
Circe by Madeline Miller – a fresh take on the Greek mythological figure
Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel – sci-fi and literary blend, pandemic at the center
If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio – dark academia theater kids
*On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong – beautiful. emotional.

Young Adult
*Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo – queer tale of self-discovery in 1950s Chinatown, San Francisco
The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan – a slightly speculative exploration of grief and generational trauma
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay – a Filipino-American teen reckons with his cousin’s death
Strange the Dreamer & Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor – iconic YA fantasy duology, beautifully written

Nonfiction
*Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer – a glorious intro to ethnobotany in the form of a creative nonfiction essay collection
A Disability History of the United States by Kim E. Nielsen – an eye-opening look at the history of disability (and ableism) in the USA

–Fin-