The Best Escapist Books To Read During Quarantine, According To Goodreads
Ambar Pardilla
Updated
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Like lots of us, you might have found it hard to pay attention to a book from your shelf or get through the first page of a newly bought bestseller in the early days, weeks and months of the coronavirus pandemic.
But with summer now here, you might be ready to pick up a beach read.
If “Severance,” “Station Eleven” and “The Plague” are definitely not on your to-read list, we’ve got you covered with books that are not about pandemics.
We asked the literary experts at Goodreads about the most trending escapist books right now. That is, books that’ll take your mind off things (and don’t have plot points about pandemics or quarantine). There’s a science to what makes a book trendy, too. Goodreads tallies up how many members mark a book “to read.” It’s kind of like a virtual bookmark, and is the way Goodreads helps us pick out the most-anticipated books coming out each month.
When the pandemic started, Goodreads saw members going for books like Stephen King’s “The Stand” and Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments.” But now, they’re looking for “lighter fare” like Emma Straub’s “All Adults Here,” Feekes told HuffPost Finds.
What’s the No. 1 trending book on Goodreads these days? Feekes said that would be Suzanne Collins’ “The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes,” prequel to the popular “Hunger Games” series. But the post-apocalyptic plot might not be the “escape” you’re hoping for right now.
“Escapist books can mean different things to different people,” Feekes said. “For some, it’s an absorbing story about family and relationships like ‘The Vanishing Half’ by Brit Bennett, the most popular book on Goodreads that [came] out in June. Others are seeking comfort in tried-and-true book club favorites from the last several years,” he said.
We put together a guide to 15 of the most trending escapist books on Goodreads down below. You can find them all on Amazon, but you could always support your small local bookstores and check to see if they’re taking online orders, too.
From the perfectly titled beach read called — wait for it — “Beach Read” to “Big Summer,” which is about former friends who come together for a summer wedding, these books will actually help you unplug from the world right now.
Check out 15 of the most trending books on Goodreads right now that’ll help you escape:
"Beach Read" by Emily Henry
"Big Summer" by Jennifer Weiner
"City Of Girls" by Elizabeth Gilbert
"Daisy Jones & the Six" by Taylor Jenkins Reid
"The Flatshare" by Beth O’Leary
"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles
"The Henna Artist" by Alka Joshi
"The House in the Cerulean Sea" by T.J. Klume
"The Jane Austen Society" by Natalie Jenner
"Shakespeare for Squirrels" by Christopher Moore
"Something To Talk About" by Meryl Wilsner
"The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires" by Grady Hendrix