UBN Participant Recommendations

These books were recommended by participants of Ultimate Book Nerd. Any of these books may be used to complete Category #46 of Ultimate Book Nerd 2026.

Updated January 14, 2026
Drag items up and down to your preferred order then select the "Save Order" button.
Maid : hard work, low pay, and a mother's will to survive
Land, Stephanie
Paper Book
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Evicted meets Nickel and Dimed in Stephanie Land's memoir about working as a maid, a beautiful and gritty exploration of poverty in America. Includes a foreword by Barbara Ehrenreich....
Firekeeper's daughter
Boulley, Angeline
Paper Book
An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller! A Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club Pick! A Printz Medal AND Morris Award Winner! Soon to be adapted at Netflix for TV with President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama''s production company, Higher Ground. ...
A history of the world in 6 glasses
Standage, Tom.
Paper Book
From beer to Coca-Cola, the six drinks that have helped shape human history. Throughout human history. certain drinks have done much more than just quench thirst. As Tom Standage relates with authority and charm, six of them have had a surprisingly pervasive influence on the course...
A prayer for Owen Meany : a novel
Irving, John
Paper Book
In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys--best friends--are playing in a Little League baseball game in New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills his best friend's mother. Owen Meany believes he didn't hit the ball by accident. He believes he is God's instrument. What happens to...
The hate u give
Thomas, Angie
Paper Book
8 starred reviews · Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best · William C. Morris Award Winner · National Book Award Longlist · Printz Honor Book · Coretta Scott King Honor Book · #1 New York Times Bestseller! "Absolutely riveting!" --Jason Reynolds ...
The hobbit, or, There and back again
Tolkien, J. R. R.
Paper Book
This beautiful gift edition of The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien's classic prelude to his Lord of the Rings trilogy, features cover art, illustrations, and watercolor paintings by the artist Alan Lee.  Bilbo Baggins is a hobbit who enjoys a comfortable, unambitious life,...
Gender Queer : A Memoir Deluxe Edition
Kobabe, Maia.
Ebook
In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia's intensely cathartic...
House of rain : tracking a vanished civilization across the American Southwest
Childs, Craig
Paper Book
Drawing on scholarly research and archaeological evidence, the author examines the accomplishments of the Anasazi people of the American Southwest and speculates on why the culture vanished by the 13th century.
Jurassic Park
Crichton, Michael
Paper Book
An astonishing technique for recovering and cloning dinosaur DNA has been discovered. Creatures once extinct now roam Jurassic Park, soon-to-be opened as a theme park. Until something goes wrong...and science proves a dangerous toy.... "Wonderful...Powerful." THE WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD
Out of the dust
Hesse, Karen.
Paper Book
Acclaimed author Karen Hesse's Newbery Medal-winning novel-in-verse explores the life of fourteen-year-old Billie Jo growing up in the dust bowls of Oklahoma."Dust piles up like snow across the prairie. . . ."A terrible accident has transformed Billie Jo's life, scarring her inside and out. Her...

Library staff! You can create and contribute to lists. Contact your catalog administrator or log in here.