One of my favorite discoveries on the book subs…how many people read Owen Meany years or decades ago and still remember it (and remember it rather fondly).

What We Reckon by Eryk Pruitt 109 ratings, 26 reviews. Southern gothic-ish and a great read.

Your post is AMAZING!! I came here to say something you covered beautifully...

”Stalk” like-minded readers for recommendations. In a similar vein, if you find a user with similar taste—especially if they have a “favorite books” shelf that’s similar to yours—their profile can be a great source for book recommendations. It’s worth reading some of their reviews, though, to see if they like books for the same reason you do (eg, if I love Daphne du Maurier’s “Rebecca” because of the prose and another reader loves the same book in spite of her descriptive writing style, we might not be a great fit).

That's 100% what I do - particularly for a specific genre. There's someone I found and follow where I pick up all my hick-lit and the like suggestions. She reads several books a week and I know her well enough to know which books are for me. Rarely a miss. Sometimes beyond amazing!

When I see a review that totally clicks with me - I'll start by doing a book comparison with the review writer. That's a pretty straight forward way to see if you have enough in common and which type of books you have in commom.

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward just slapped you in the face over and over with highly emotional and upsetting things. And yet it’s absolutely beautiful writing and an amazing read (as are her other books that also get difficult, but this was the hardest for me).

I loved the book. 5-stars from me. But what the hell happened near the end? I swear a 2nd author jumped in and finished it. And yet it’s in my top 5 books of all time - the rest is that damn good.