The 99

We encourage you to read widely, thoughtfully and with curiosity. The 99 is our recommended reading list: a carefully chosen collection designed to broaden horizons, spark imagination and deepen understanding.

From classics that have stood the test of time to contemporary voices that challenge and inspire, these books explore what it means to be human – in all its complexity, beauty and struggle.

How many have you read?

Biography / Autobiography
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah Butterfly: from refugee to Olympian, my story of rescue, hope and triumph - Yusra Mardini with Josie Le Blond The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage to the Antarctic - Alfred Lansing I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks - Rebecca Skloot Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer Shoe Dog: a memoir by the creator of Nike - Phil Knight A Short History of London: the creation of a world capital - Simon Jenkins
Non-Fiction
Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates Empire of Pain: the secret history of the Sackler dynasty - Patrick Radden Keefe Musical truth: a musical history of modern Black Britain in 28 songs - Jeffrey Boakye On the Shortness of Life – Seneca Playing to the Gallery: helping contemporary art in its struggle to be understood - Grayson Perry Prisoners of Geography: ten maps that tell you everything you need to know about global politics - Tim Marshall Sapiens: a brief history of humankind - Yuval Noah Harari The Spy and the Traitor - Ben Macintyre We Should All Be Feminists - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
STEM
The Alchemy of Air - Thomas Hager All That Remains: a life in death - Sue Black Bad Science - Ben Goldacre Humble Pi: a comedy of maths errors - Matt Parker Invisible Women: exposing data bias in a world designed for men - Caroline Criado Perez Reaching for the Moon: the autobiography of NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson - Katherine G. Johnson Rosalind Franklin: the dark lady of DNA - Brenda Maddox A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson Thinking Fast and Slow - Daniel Kahneman
Classic Fiction
The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath Beloved - Toni Morrison Frankenstein: or, the Modern Prometheus - Mary Shelley Giovanni's Room - James Baldwin The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich -Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
Post-2000 Fiction
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Atonement - Ian McEwan The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne My Brilliant Friend - Elena Ferrante Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguru Normal People – Sally Rooney Sorrow and Bliss - Meg Mason The Vegetarian: a novel - Han Kang White Teeth - Zadie Smith
Crime & Thrillers
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier The Secret History - Donna Tartt Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafón The Talented Mr Ripley - Patricia Highsmith Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy - John le Carré The Turn of the Screw - Henry James The Woman in Black - Susan Hill
Historical Fiction
All The Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr Catch-22 – Joseph Heller Circe - Madeline Miller A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles Hamnet - Maggie O'Farrell Imperium - Robert Harris Pachinko - Min Jin Lee Slaughterhouse-five, or, The Children's Crusade: a duty-dance with death - Kurt Vonnegut Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Fantasy Fiction
Assassin’s Apprentice - Robin Hobb Children of Blood and Bone - Tomi Adeyemi The Fifth Season - N.K. Jemisin Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett A Hero Born - Jin Yong The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern The Once and Future King - T.H. White Piranesi - Susanna Clarke The Princess Bride - William Goldman
Sci-fi & Dystopia
Brave New World - Aldous Huxley Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury Foundation - Isaac Asimov The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood Journey to the Centre of the Earth – Jules Verne Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell Parable of the Sower - Octavia E. Butler Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
YA Fiction
Displacement (graphic novel) - Kiku Hughes The Giver - Lois Lowry I Must Betray You - Ruta Sepetys Long Way Down (verse novel) - Jason Reynolds A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness Northern Lights – Philip Pullman Noughts and Crosses - Malorie Blackman Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli A Wizard of Earthsea - Ursula Le Guin
Poetry / Drama / Short Stories
The Elephant Vanishes - Haruki Murakami Interpreter of Maladies - Jhumpa Lahiri Jerusalem - Jez Butterworth Metamorphosis & Other Stories - Franz Kafka Old Babes in the Wood - Margaret Atwood Poems of the Decade - multiple anthologies Poor - Caleb Femi Stag’s Leap - Sharon Olds The Waste Land – T.S.Eliot

Note: Some of these texts are emotionally challenging and have mature themes. If you would like to see content advisory notes, please refer to the library catalogue entry for each title.

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