31 books I stayed up far too late for
Books have been showing me my place in the world since I was a little girl. I still swap them with friends and family, and a week later I ask which part got to them. It’s never the part that got to me. Since 2021 I’ve been having those same conversations here, with far more people than fit around my kitchen table. These are the 31 books that started the best of them. I’ve read every one. Pull up a chair.
Browse by what you’re in the mood for
- Novel
The Great Gatsby
October pickF. Scott FitzgeraldA self-made millionaire throws lavish parties on Long Island, all in the hope that the woman he loved five years earlier will walk through the door.
Read my notes → - Novel
Lolita
Vladimir NabokovHumbert Humbert, the novel’s narrator, tries to justify his obsession with a twelve-year-old girl in elegant, self-serving prose.
Read my notes → - Novel
Lord of the Flies
William GoldingA plane full of schoolboys crashes on a deserted island, and the order they set up among themselves slowly falls apart.
Read my notes → - Novel
Poor Things
Alasdair GraySet in Victorian Glasgow, Alasdair Gray’s 1992 novel follows Bella Baxter, a young woman brought back to life by the eccentric surgeon Godwin Baxter, told by several unreliable narrators.
Read my notes → - Memoir
Educated
June pickTara WestoverTara Westover grew up in a survivalist household. Her memoir is about what happens when the story your family gave you about yourself stops matching who you are becoming.
Read my notes → - Essays
Our Women on the Ground
August picked. Zahra HankirArab women journalists write about what it is like to report from their own part of the world.
Read my notes → - Memoir
Tell Me Who I Am
September pickAlex & Marcus LewisAt 18, Alex Lewis woke from a coma remembering only his identical twin’s face. For twenty years Marcus rebuilt his brother’s past while hiding a secret about their childhood.
Read my notes → - Investigative journalism
Bad Blood
John CarreyrouThe rise and fall of Theranos, the blood-testing start-up whose founder raised hundreds of millions for technology that did not work.
Read my notes → - True crime
Killers of the Flower Moon
David GrannDavid Grann uncovers the conspiracy behind the murders of wealthy Osage people in 1920s Oklahoma, a story of greed and injustice that also tells of the birth of the FBI.
Read my notes → - Gonzo journalism
Hell’s Angels
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson spent a year riding with the motorcycle club, until some of its members turned on him and beat him up.
Read my notes → - Biography
American Prometheus
Kai Bird & Martin J. SherwinKai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin follow J. Robert Oppenheimer from his central role in the Manhattan Project to his downfall during the McCarthy era.
Read my notes → - Memoir
I Am Malala
Malala YousafzaiMalala Yousafzai tells how she stood up for girls’ education in Pakistan, survived a Taliban assassination attempt and kept fighting for every girl’s right to learn.
Read my notes → - Psychology
What Happened to You?
July pickBruce D. Perry & Oprah WinfreyA psychiatrist and Oprah Winfrey on how what happens to us as children shapes the way we think, feel and react as adults.
Read my notes → - Memoir & psychology
Man’s Search for Meaning
Viktor E. FranklPsychiatrist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl describes his experience in the concentration camps and how he found meaning in suffering, whatever his circumstances.
Read my notes → - Spirituality
The Power of Now
Eckhart TolleEckhart Tolle argues that most suffering comes from clinging to the past or worrying about the future, and that real change starts with living fully in the present moment.
Read my notes → - Science
Why We Sleep
Matthew WalkerNeuroscientist and sleep researcher Matthew Walker explains, from a scientific point of view, why we sleep and how lack of sleep is linked to diseases like dementia.
Read my notes → - Communication
Nonviolent Communication
Marshall B. RosenbergA psychologist’s method for speaking and listening by looking for the feelings and needs behind what people say and do.
Read my notes → - Letters
Letters to a Young Poet
Rainer Maria RilkeRainer Maria Rilke’s letters to a young aspiring poet, full of advice on solitude, creativity and finding an authentic artistic voice.
Read my notes → - Creativity
The War of Art
Steven PressfieldSteven Pressfield on the inner resistance that artists and other creators run into, and practical ways to push past it and do the work.
Read my notes → - Creativity
The Creative Act
Rick RubinRick Rubin sees creativity as a mindset and a way of living, shaped by how you approach life and how willing you are to accept the unknown.
Read my notes → - Self-development
Mastery
Robert GreeneRobert Greene studies the lives of figures such as Albert Einstein and Teresita Fernández to uncover what made them so successful.
Read my notes → - Writing guide
The Elements of Style
Strunk & WhiteA short, classic guide that boils the basic principles of writing clearly and effectively down to concise, practical advice.
Read my notes → - Business
Blue Ocean Strategy
W. Chan Kim & Renée MauborgneW. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne on how to stop competing in crowded markets and create uncontested space by offering a radically different kind of value.
Read my notes → - Memoir & psychology
The Choice
Edith EgerEdith Eger survived Auschwitz at sixteen and became a clinical psychologist in her fifties. Her 2017 memoir is about spending the rest of her life learning what to do with that.
Read my notes → - Oral history
Working
Studs TerkelStuds Terkel let Americans in every kind of job, from farmhands to executives, talk about what they do all day and how they feel about it.
Read my notes → - Short story
The Lottery
Shirley JacksonOn a summer day, the pleasant people of a small village gather in the square for the drawing. Shirley Jackson only reveals at the very end what the person chosen receives.
Read my notes → - Ideas
Infectious Generosity
Chris AndersonChris Anderson on how small acts of generosity, amplified by storytelling and the internet, can spread and spark self-replicating positive change.
Read my notes → - Social psychology
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan HaidtJonathan Haidt argues that a “great rewiring” of childhood began around 2010, as smartphones and social media replaced play, independence and real-world social contact.
Read my notes → - Memoir
Je ziet mij nooit meer terug
Sonja BarendNo English edition · available in DutchA Dutch memoir, with no English edition, in which Sonja Barend looks for answers about her childhood, the father she only knew from a photo and what happened to her parents during the war.
Read my notes → - Self-help
Build the Life You Want
Arthur C. Brooks & Oprah WinfreyArthur C. Brooks and Oprah Winfrey combine science and wisdom in a guide to getting happier and building a more fulfilling life.
Read my notes → - Health & psychology
When the Body Says No
Gabor MatéGabor Maté explores the role that stress and a person’s emotional makeup play in many common diseases, and how closely mind and body are connected.
Read my notes →
October pickOne book club book from this shelf, every month, read together
This month it’s Gatsby: under two hundred pages, one summer, and a green light across the water. The pick lands in your inbox on the first of the month, with why I chose it.
Past bookclub picks
Every reader underlines something different
I owe a debt of gratitude to the writers on this shelf. Some have been gone for decades, some are still writing. Without them I wouldn’t know half of what I know today.
Nothing makes me happier than swapping books with friends and family and talking them through afterwards. What I didn’t expect was how much I’d learn from those talks. Give the same novel to two friends and they come back with two different books, because each of them brings a different life to it. Those conversations are the reason this shelf exists.
There are millions of books out there. These are the ones that helped me understand people a little better, myself included. I’d love to hear what you make of them.
Two readers, one Gatsby
Some dreams are better left in the past.
He’s not in love with her; he’s in love with what she represents.
Questions about the shelf
Have you read every book on this shelf?
Yes. A book only goes on this shelf after I've finished it and would hand it to a friend.
What are the best book club books?
The Night Owl picks on this shelf are The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies and Our Women on the Ground. The monthly picks of the Night Owl Bookclub so far have been Educated (June 2026), What Happened to You? (July), Our Women on the Ground (August), Tell Me Who I Am (September) and The Great Gatsby (October).
What kind of books are on your shelf?
31 books in four groups: 5 classics, 10 true stories, 9 about how minds work and heal, and 7 about creativity, writing and work. They range from The Great Gatsby (1925) to The Anxious Generation (2024).
How do you choose which books make the shelf?
I ask one question: did this book help me understand someone, myself included? How well it sold doesn't come into it.
Where can I buy these books?
Each book has its own page with my recommendation and links to Amazon, Bookshop.org, Waterstones, bol.com and Audible.
Are any of the books in Dutch?
One: Je ziet mij nooit meer terug by Sonja Barend. It has no English edition, so it is only available in Dutch.
What is the Night Owl Bookclub?
One book from this shelf each month, sent by email on the first of the month with why I picked it, and my notes when you're halfway in. October's pick is The Great Gatsby.
More from the shelf
November’s pick goes out on the first of the month.
The book, why I chose it, and my notes when you’re halfway in.
