The Books You Should’ve Read at Every Age

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… 10

According to the writer and illustrator Carson Ellis, 50, the author of the children’s books ‘Home’ (2015) and ‘Du Iz Tak?’ (2016).

‘D’Aulaires’ Book of Trolls’ (1972) by Ingri and Edgar Parin d’Aulaire

“The d’Aulaires are probably best known for their ‘Book of Greek Myths’ (1962) but, as a child, I was more interested in the strange, mountainous, twilit world of trolls.”

‘Last Stop on Market Street’ (2015), written by Matt de la Peña and illustrated by Christian Robinson

“CJ and his nana board a city bus after church, and other passengers move in and out of the story like real strangers on a bus would: a blind man, an old lady with a jar of butterflies, a guitarist, two teenage boys. CJ’s nana demonstrates for him — and for us — how to be a curious, openhearted citizen. At the end of the ride their destination is revealed, and it always makes me cry.”

‘Who Needs Donuts?’ (1973) by Mark Alan Stamaty

Karl Leitz for Anthony Cotsifas Studio

“I grew up in the suburbs of New York, and the chaotic city of this picture book — teeming with tiny flying horses, ranting pedestrians, metaphysical vehicles, overflowing garbage cans and cryptic signage — captures my suburban kid impression of New York City perfectly.”

… 20

According to the writer Jacqueline Woodson, 63, the author of ‘Brown Girl Dreaming’ (2014), ‘Another Brooklyn’ (2016) and ‘Remember Us’ (2023).

‘Sula’ (1973) by Toni Morrison

“Morrison is an author who crosses time, genre, gender and age. Within a very short narrative, Sula shows us where she lived and all the magical things she was able to accomplish. At around 200 pages, it might speak to people today, who are reading shorter books.”

‘Brutal Imagination’ (2001) by Cornelius Eady

Karl Leitz for Anthony Cotsifas Studio

“This brilliant poetry collection reimagines the character invented by Susan Smith, the South Carolina woman who in 1994 killed her kids and said a Black man did it. For a time, no Black man in the area was safe from being pulled over, searched and questioned. Everybody, by the time they’re 20, should’ve read some good poetry.”

… 30

According to the singer-songwriter Dua Lipa, 30, the founder of Service95 Book Club.

‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ (1985) by Margaret Atwood

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“I first read the book when I was 15, and I just reread it at 30 — what I accepted as dystopian fiction in my teens feels all too real today. I recently had the chance to interview Margaret Atwood, a slightly terrifying prospect, but actually she was brilliantly mischievous. Always meet your heroes if you get the chance.”

‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949) by George Orwell

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“It’s unsettling just how prescient Orwell was.”

‘Norwegian Wood’ (2000) by Haruki Murakami

“It captures the highs and lows of adolescence and young adulthood with grace, beauty and dignity. And every T.B.R. pile needs translated fiction — it’s a gift from around the world.”

… 40

According to the writer Esi Edugyan, 48, the author of ‘Half-Blood Blues’ (2011) and ‘Washington Black’ (2018).

‘Barney’s Version’ (1997) by Mordecai Richler

“Ostensibly the memoirs of a scoundrel TV producer, this irreverent comic novel is also one of the most moving pieces of fiction you’re likely to read. Nothing is sacred in Richler’s world.”

‘Love in the Time of Cholera’ (1985) by Gabriel García Márquez

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“It’s everything a grand novel should be — stately, funny, stirring, idiosyncratic. It feels especially meaningful in middle age, when you’ve experienced the vagaries of decades-long relationships.”

‘War & Peace’ (1869) by Leo Tolstoy

“Because of the possibilities it offers for what a meaningful life can look like. It’s the book I’ve needed at every age.”

… 50

According to the writer Hernan Diaz, 52, the author of ‘In the Distance’ (2017), ‘Trust’ (2022) and the forthcoming novel ‘Ply’ (September 2026).

‘Don Quixote’ (1605-15) by Miguel de Cervantes

“If there is one perfect book for avid middle-aged readers, it’s this book about an avid middle-aged reader. Alonso Quijano, a bachelor of around 50, devours adventures of chivalry, disregarding everyone and everything until he loses his wits and mutates into Don Quixote, a knight-errant who goes out into the world to right all wrongs in order to impress the woman of his dreams, whom he barely knows. Through his formal inventiveness, Cervantes both inaugurates the modern novel and demolishes it in one single gesture. The book is also hilarious: the best midlife crisis in the history of literature.”

‘Mrs. Dalloway’ (1925) by Virginia Woolf

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“Woolf once claimed that George Eliot’s ‘Middlemarch’ ‘is one of the few English novels written for grown-up people.’ If this is true, I’d argue that Woolf’s own ‘Mrs. Dalloway’ is one of the few novels written for those of us who are midway in the journey of our lives. Only now, being Clarissa’s exact age, can I hope to understand at least some of her regrets and joys. Only now can I sometimes feel how all one’s life may be condensed into an instant (the book takes place over the course of a single day), and how those droplets of time may compound into a stream (the novel also submerges us into Mrs. Dalloway’s past).”

‘I Remember’ (1975) by Joe Brainard

“Brainard was only in his early 50s when he died, but he published this masterpiece at 33. Each one of the more than 1,000 entries in the book begins with ‘I remember,’ followed by seemingly mundane recollections presented mostly in a line or two. Individually, these evocative objets trouvés are gorgeous; collectively, they draw both an unsentimental self-portrait and a sharp picture of America. But the most wonderful thing about this book is that, as you sink into its mantra, ‘I remember’ shifts to you, the reader. This incantation will return to you things you didn’t know you’d lost.”

… 60

According to the writer Bernardine Evaristo, 66, the author of ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ (2019) and ‘Mr. Loverman’ (2013).

‘Kindred’ (1979) by Octavia E. Butler

Karl Leitz for Anthony Cotsifas Studio

“As you progress through life, you might grow more receptive to stories that don’t directly relate to you. Let’s hope. This one is among the most original and exciting novels about African enslavement in the United States, with an ingenious plot device that keeps you hooked from start to finish. A Black woman is dragged back through history to the 19th century, and there are parallel stories of her life in the ’70s and her experiences as a slave woman. It’s an amazing conceit for a novel.”

‘Quicksand’ (1928) and ‘Passing’ (1929) by Nella Larsen

“Set in the 1920s, ‘Quicksand’ is about a mixed-race woman — part African American, part Danish — trying to come to terms with her identity as somebody who doesn’t quite fit neatly into the racial parameters of America. I was probably 14 when I first read it, and it’s withstood the test of time. ‘Passing’ gets to the heart of how racialization works in America and elsewhere.”

… 70

According to the writer Valerie Martin, 78, the author of ‘Mary Reilly’ (1990) and ‘Property’ (2003).

‘Resurrection’ (1899) by Leo Tolstoy

“I don’t think Tolstoy’s last novel gets read enough. It’s about a juror who recognizes a woman accused of murder as the poor housemaid he seduced and abandoned years earlier. She’s condemned, and he resolves to follow her into exile in Siberia. It reveals a world you don’t see much of in ‘Anna Karenina’ — the desperately poor, universally brutalized underclass of Russia. Tolstoy admitted to his biographer that, as a young man, he’d seduced a maid in his aunt’s house and that, as a result, she’d been sent away. So in this novel he is working out major guilt. I think once you get to 70, you’ve probably got some unresolved guilt.”

‘The Infatuations’ (2011) by Javier Marías

Karl Leitz for Anthony Cotsifas Studio

“A young woman is fascinated by a couple she observes nearly every morning in a Madrid cafe. When she learns the husband’s been murdered, she stumbles into the investigation. She’s a wonderful, believable character, and she winds up in a very dangerous situation. It’s quite scary. Marías, who’s one of my favorite writers, once said in an interview that he’d never write from the point of view of a woman, so this book, which he published at age 60, was a challenge for him — something he didn’t believe he could do until he was older. In my view, he was amazingly successful.”

… 80

According to the writer Armistead Maupin, 81, the author of ‘Tales of the City’ (1978-2024).

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ (1960) by Harper Lee

“Some books have the power to endure a lifetime, and I think this is one of them. I read it when it was first published, when I was 15, living in North Carolina. It shook me to the core about my family’s racist attitudes. I saw a nonracist view of the world for the first time. It amazed me that my racist father loved it too. I often talk about it as one of the first gay-themed things I ever read because the character Scout is, for all intents and purposes, a little baby lesbian tomboy, and Dill, her friend, was based on Truman Capote.”

‘A Single Man’ (1964) by Christopher Isherwood

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“My favorite novel, period. It’s a small, delicate book about a man coming to terms with his partner’s death. Isherwood’s language in all his books is perfect, but this is his best work. He doesn’t waste a word.”

… 90

According to the writer, director and actor André Gregory, 91, a co-author and co-star of the film ‘My Dinner With André’ (1981).

‘Hope Against Hope’ (1970) by Nadezhda Mandelstam

Karl Leitz for Anthony Cotsifas Studio

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve become more interested in nonfiction and less interested in fiction. The world is going through such a terrifying transition. Nonfiction often seems more relevant. Nadezhda Mandelstam was the widow of the great Soviet poet Osip Mandelstam, who made a silly little slip at a dinner party and was arrested and ultimately killed by the Stalinists. She memorized all of his poems, and then she walked around Russia surreptitiously staying with friends for 20 years until she could come back to Moscow and get them down on paper. Had she not done that, the work of one of the greatest poets of all time would’ve been lost. This memoir is the most precise, accurate and horrific description of what it’s like to live in a dictatorship. It also poses the question, ‘In dictatorial times, what can we do?’”

‘The World of Yesterday’ (1942) by Stefan Zweig

“Several months before this book was published, the Austrian novelist Stefan Zweig, along with his wife, committed suicide. Because he’d feared that, under the Nazis, culture would be destroyed, possibly forever, he wanted to write about the beauty of creative people and artists, so that young people could learn something before the lights went out. I don’t think Zweig’s novels are great, but this memoir is.”

These interviews have been edited and condensed.

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