Thanksgiving is nearly here for those of us in the states! This year, I had a rough start--as the year went on, though, I felt very thankful in spite of the bumps. Thankful to literature. Thankful to this community. Thankful to the fact that my father was able to find a new beginning after being laid off last year. Thankful to all the friends who helped me help my parents in the six months my dad had no job for the first time since he was a teenager.


If you are in the US and celebrate Thanksgiving: I hope you have a wonderful day. 

Aside from the obvious people and things I am thankful for (family, friends, pets, all of YOU, music, musical theatre, various book series, etc) I decided to stick with standalones I am thankful for as this week's freebie. I know what you're thinking: Jessica, didn't you already do a couple of posts about standalones this year? Which, sigh, yes, I did. The good news is... I'm basically a walking, talking, but-what-there's-more advertisement and, well, here we are.

There's nothing like a good standalone. While, as you guys know, I've been preferring to read book series a lot more the last few years, I still have a lot of love for standalones. Some of these titles are ones that I've talked about multiple times through the years, others are ones that I've spoke of less often.

Oh! And I decided to not include YA this time around for no real reason. (Probably because the majority of my content centers around YA, and I wanted to give nods to different forms of fiction.)

Picking some of these titles as standouts was difficult because there are many authors on my list that I wanted to list multiple books for but I stopped myself!


Recently, I reread The Goldfinch and was reminded of just how beautiful Tartt's prose is. The novel is long, but so is life, and I could probably read it a hundred times and not tire of it. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, too, is long, but it's one of my favourite fantasies. I know Clarke was planning a sequel, but for now I'm considering it a standalone.

Initially, I wasn't going to talk about either of these titles. Mostly because I included them in prior lists re: standalones. The truth is, I couldn't not mention them. They are two favourites. Sharp Objects is probably my favourite novel of all time and forever gives me chills. The Girls centers around a cult of sorts and is just brilliantly crafted. Therefore, I'm forever thankful.

Both of these novels are written in a different manner than the others on this list. Daisy Jones & the Six is one of the newest additions to the list. Given its subject matter (a rock band!) I think you guys can understand why I've read it a couple of times since its been released. Where Rainbows End (or Love, Rosie) is probably my favourite standalone love story. Talk about a slow burn!

We all know I'm a massive fan of The X-Files. David Duchovny may be known primarily for acting, but his prose is even better than his ability to become someone else. Bucky F*cking Dent is one of the biggest novel surprises of my life--I had thought I'd struggle with it, given the sprinkles of sports within it, but it quickly became one of my favourite standalones of all time. Sweetbitter is one of those books people either absolutely adore or absolutely loathe. I obviously adore it.

I don't talk of her as much as I should, but I'm an admirer of Kate Morton's many works. The Lake House is my personal favourite and I'll never forget reading the ARC of it one summer and getting so lost in Morton's writing, I lost track of the entire day. And, of course, speaking of books I am thankful for would mean nothing without the incomparable Megan Abbott--I went with Dare Me, because the show is coming soon and I'm so excited.