I consumed The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald in the ebook format checked out from my public library.  This is a great vacation or casual, fun read but not to say it is light on context. The story centers around Sarah, her love for books, her pen pal (Amy) and desire to give something back to Broken Wheel, Iowa, who have been welcoming and a little kind, after her unfortunately timed arrival. There is some loss, some love, a lot of reflection, healthy rivalry AND (bonus!) lots of book recommendations and references, in the form of opening quotes to chapters, Broken Wheel’s bookstore shelves, gifts from Sarah and many more in conversation. I love the eclectic, not solely high-brow selections; just a focus on good books. The Kindle edition has a full listing of books and authors mentioned throughout, and in searching the book and interwebs, found mention of more, complilation below. There is an insightful book club guide as well. All these books and authors are deftly woven into the story, which I absolutely recommend!

“I think that life and sorrow go together like farmers and rain: without a little, nothing will grow.” page 72

You can also see a list in Goodreads and build your reading list there, if you prefer.

• An Old-Fashioned Girl; Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo; The Girl Who Played with Fire; The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Next (Stieg Larsson)
• Rowing without Oars (Ulla-Carin Lindquist and Margaret Myers)
• To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee)
• The Help (Kathryn Stockett)
• Bridget Jones’s Diary;  Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason; Cause Celeb (Helen Fielding)
• Villette (Charlotte Brontë)
• Gone with the Wind (Margaret Mitchell)
• Gone Tomorrow (Lee Child)
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Mark Twain)
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin (Harriet Beecher Stowe)
• The Brooklyn Follies; New York Trilogy (Paul Auster)
• Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë)
• The Great Gatsby; Tender Is the Night (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
• Beloved (Toni Morrison)
• Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe (Fannie Flagg)
• A Redbird Christmas (Fannie Flagg)
• The Shipping News (Annie Proulx)
• All Families Are Psychotic (Douglas Coupland)
• Walden (Henry David Thoreau)
• The Grapes of Wrath (John Steinbeck)
• Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck)
• Before I Fall (Lauren Oliver)
• Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (Louis de Bernières)
• The General’s Daughter; Word of Honor; Spencerville (Nelson DeMille)
• The Little World of Don Camillo (Giovannino Guareschi)
• Collected Poems (Dylan Thomas)
• Pudd’nhead Wilson (Mark Twain)
• The Sorrows of Young Werther (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
• Ulysses ( James Joyce)
• Geography and Plays (Gertrude Stein)
• The Sea, the Sea (Iris Murdoch)
• 84, Charing Cross Road (Helene Hanff )
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer)
• The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (Helene Hanff )
• The Taste of Sorrow (Jude Morgan)
• Mansfield Park; Persuasion; Pride and Prejudice; Sanditon ( Jane Austen)
• Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World (Vicki Myron)
• The Horse Whisperer (Nicholas Evans)
• The Bridges of Madison County (Robert James Waller)
• Eragon; Eldest; Brisingr (Christopher Paolini)
• Candide (Voltaire)
• The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing: Everything You Need to Know to Write, Publish, Promote and Sell Your Own Book (Marilyn Ross and Sue Collier)
• Anne of Green Gables Series (LM Montgomery)
• Harry Potter series (JK Rowling) –> yep, that’s right, I have never read any of them
• Harlequin romance novels (no specific novel mentioned) –> in my young days 😉
• Euthanasia Bondeson series (Carina Burman)

Mentioned, Sometimes Recommended Authors (not already listed above):

• Terry Pratchett
• Dan Brown
• Jens Lapidus
• Camilla Läckberg
• Elizabeth Young
• Marian Keyes
• Joyce Carol Oates
• Oscar Wilde
• Charles Dickens
• Philip Roth
• John Grisham
• Michael Connelly
• Erich Maria Remarque
• Jodi Picoult
• Nicholas Sparks
• Sophie Kinsella (the Shopaholic series)
• Fyodor Dostoyevsky
• Mikhail Bulgakov
• Gabriel García Márquez
• Moa and Harry Martinson
• William Shakespeare
• Georgette Heyer
• Dick Francis
• Agatha Christie
• Barbara Cartland