I didn’t think it would be this difficult to rank books on a numerical scale, but I make the effort since ratings are a key part of the review biz. Even if two books share a rating, (e.g., The Book of Lost Things and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant), this doesn’t necessarily make them equal. Between the two, Dinner would “win” every time, but when looked at individually and “objectively,” both books net a 4.5.
When I find a reviewer whose opinion I trust, I search their site for their most recommended books. I thought it would be a good idea to make mine searchable this way, in case any of you out there have similar taste in books.
Happy Reading!
5.0
Ballad of the Sad Café, The — Carson McCullers
Book of Evidence, The — John Banville
Circe — Madeline Miller
Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The — Agatha Christie
Remains of the Day, The — Kazuo Ishiguro
Sellout, The — Paul Beatty
What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky — Lesley Nneka Arimah
4.9
And Then There Were None — Agatha Christie
Best of Roald Dahl, The — Roald Dahl
Endurance — Alfred Lansing
House of Names — Colm Toíbín
Nickel Boys, The — Colson Whitehead
Road, The — Cormac McCarthy
Shining, The — Stephen King
To Kill a Mockingbird — Harper Lee
4.8
City of Thieves — David Benioff
Convenience Store Woman — Sayaka Murata
Dead Wake — Erik Larson
High-Rise — J.G. Ballard
I’m Thinking of Ending Things — Iain Reid
In Cold Blood — Truman Capote
Intruder in the Dark — George Bellairs
Jurassic Park — Michael Crichton
Less — Andrew Sean Greer
Luka and the Fire of Life — Salman Rushdie
Martian Chronicles, The — Ray Bradbury
Memory Police, The — Yoko Ogawa
My Cousin Rachel — Daphne du Maurier
North Water, The — Ian McGuire
On Chesil Beach — Ian McEwan
Orphan Master’s Son, The — Adam Johnson
Rebecca — Daphne du Maurier
Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen, The — Hendrik Groen
Tale of the Unknown Island, The — José Saramago
There There — Tommy Orange
Tyll — Daniel Kehlmann
Underground Railroad, The — Colson Whitehead
4.7
4:50 from Paddington — Agatha Christie
Big Little Lies — Liane Moriarty
Blind Assassin, The — Margaret Atwood
Bone Clocks, The — David Mitchell
Chronicle of a Death Foretold — Gabriel García Márquez
Childhood’s End — Arthur C. Clarke
Concrete Island — J.G. Ballard
Confederacy of Dunces, A — John Kennedy Toole
Dangers of Smoking in Bed, The — Mariana Enríquez
Green Road, The — Anne Enright
Hobbit, The — J.R.R. Tolkien
Intuitionist, The — Colson Whitehead
Keep, The — Jennifer Egan
Murder on the Orient Express — Agatha Christie
Painted Veil, The — W. Somerset Maugham
Picture of Dorian Gray, The — Jonathan Swift
Shadow of the Wind, The — Carlos Luis Zafon
Shutter Island — Dennis Lehane
Slade House — David Mitchell
Stiff — Mary Roach
True Grit — Charles Portis
War of the Worlds, The — H.G. Wells
4.6
Ballad of Black Tom, The — Victor LaValle
Breathing Lessons — Anne Tyler
Book of Strange New Things, The — Michel Faber
Cardiff, by the Sea — Joyce Carol Oates
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead — Olga Tokarczuk
Eli Marks, Books 1-3 — John Gaspard
Moor’s Account, The — Laila Lalami
Murder in the Age of Enlightenment — Ryūnosuke Akutagawa
Too Loud a Solitude — Bohumil Hrabal
Vegetarian, The — Han Kang
Woman Who Walked into Doors, The — Roddy Doyle
4.5
After Dark — Haruki Murakami
Bird Box — Josh Malerman
Book of Lost Things, The — John Connolly
Complications — Atul Gawande
Coral Merchant, The — Joseph Roth
Darker Shade of Magic, A — V.E. Schwab
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant — Anne Tyler
Elantris — Brandon Sanderson
Fingersmith — Sarah Waters
Girl in the Tower, The — Katherine Arden
Good Earth, The — Pearl S. Buck
It — Stephen King
Martian, The — Andy Weir
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer — Patrick Suskind
Separate Peace, A — John Knowles
She — H. Rider Haggard
Uprooted — Naomi Novik
We Have Always Lived in the Castle — Shirley Jackson
4.4
Americanah — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Grendel — John Gardner
Haroun and the Sea of Stories — Salman Rushdie
Hell House — Richard Matheson
How Right You Are, Jeeves — P.G. Wodehouse
Oryx and Crake — Margaret Atwood
Punch Escrow, The — Tal M. Klein
4.3
Aunt Who Wouldn’t Die, The — Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay
Caribbean Mystery, A — Agatha Christie
Coraline — Neil Gaiman
Great Gatsby, The — F. Scott Fitzgerald
Gun, with Occasional Music — Jonathan Lethem
Handful of Dust, A — Evelyn Waugh
Haunting of Hill House, The — Shirley Jackson
Jamaica Inn — Daphne du Maurier
Moving Finger, The — Agatha Christie
Wolf Hall — Hillary Mantel
4.2
Animal Farm — George Orwell
Dutch House, The — Ann Patchett
House on the Strand, The — Daphne du Maurier
My Name Is Red — Orhan Pamuk
Narrow Road to the Deep North, The — Richard Flanagan
Spool of Blue Thread, A — Anne Tyler
Washington Black — Esi Edugyan
4.1
The Drowned World — J.G. Ballard
Hunger Games, The — Suzanne Collins
Wuthering Heights — Emily Brönte
4.0
Christmas Carol, A — Charles Dickens
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The — Stieg Larsson
Giver, The — Lois Lowry
Gulliver’s Travels — Jonathan Swift
Interpreter of Maladies — Jhumpa Lahiri
Roverandom — J.R.R. Tolkien
“Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” — Richard P. Feynman
While I Was Gone — Sue Miller
Without You, There Is No Us — Suki Kim