A Bibliophile’s Top Book Recommendations for Getting Out of a Reading Slump
If you’ve ever lost motivation to get through your To Be Read pile or found yourself mindlessly flipping pages without retaining any information, you’ve experienced it: the dreaded reading slump. The good news? It won’t last forever—especially with our favorite slump-breaking book recommendations!
What is a Reading Slump?
A reading slump can be defined as any period of time when an individual has little to no interest in reading. Someone experiencing this lack of literary desire may struggle with concentration, boredom, or an inability to connect with material they usually enjoy. Reading slumps are incredibly annoying and occur when you least expect it, but, in most cases, a good book bought from a local bookstore can be the cure!
5 Tips for Overcoming a Reading Slump
- Try reading shorter books—the act of actually finishing a story could break you free.
- Step outside your comfort zone by joining a book club or exploring a new genre.
- Reread an old favorite to reignite that spark.
- Set a realistic reading goal for each day, week, or month to motivate you.
- If you don’t like the book you’re reading, don’t feel the need to push through—DNR it and move on.
Our Best Book Recommendations to Break a Reading Slump
If a reading slump is weighing you down, lose yourself in a physical copy or audiobook version of one of these immersive titles:
The Finlay Donovan Series by Elle Cosimano
This witty, fast-paced adult mystery series is one of our top recommendations for breaking reading slumps. Each book follows struggling suspense novelist and single mother Finlay Donovan, whose side hustle as an amateur sleuth leads her to countless sticky, thrilling situations. Though it’s recommended you read the series in order, each one is written to stand on its own. Pick one up at our Rochester, Michigan, bookstore and dive into the heartfelt, hilarious series today.
All the Books in the Finlay Donovan Series:
- Finlay Donovan is Killing It
- Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead
- Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun
- Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice
- Finlay Donovan Digs Her Own Grave
- Finlay Donovan Crosses the Line (coming March 2026!)
Wild Dark Shore by Charlotte McConaghy
With countless secrets, drama, and breathtaking twists, Wild Dark Shore has everything you need to leave a reading slump behind. Set on the isolated island of Shearwater, off the coast of Antarctica, Dominic Salt and his three children have one straightforward job: to take care of the largest seed bank in the world. But when a woman named Rowan mysteriously washes ashore during a raging storm with a shabby cover story for her journey, it quickly becomes clear that everyone on this island is keeping secrets. As another storm brews, they will have to decide if they can trust one another—before it’s too late.
Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson
If you know anything about us, you may already be aware of just how much our main curator and co-owner, Rachel, adores Pineapple Street. In this reading-slump-ending novel, we get an inside look at the messy and real lives of the lovable, if fallible, Stockton sisters. Darley, the eldest daughter, left her job and old money inheritance behind for motherhood; Sasha, the middle child, married into a Brooklyn Heights family and finds herself feeling like an outsider for the first time; Georgiana, the baby sister, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have. With fascinating family dynamics and insightful observations in class, it’s nearly impossible to put this escapist novel down.
The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby by Ellery Lloyd
In 1938, the famed runaway heiress and artist Juliette Willoughby died alongside her masterpiece Self Portrait As Sphinx in an accidental studio fire in Paris. Fifty years later, two art history students at Cambridge stumble across evidence that the fire was no accident—but something far more sinister. The more secrets they uncover, the more questions they have. What’s the curse rumored to have plagued the Willoughbys for generations? Is it possible that this incident could be connected to a present-day murder in Dubai? Discover the truth in The Final Act of Juliette Willoughby.
The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali
When the untimely death of her father in 1950s Tehran forces seven-year-old Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown, she can’t help but wish for a friend. On the very first day of school, she quickly befriends Homa, a kind and brave girl—together, the two of them dream of becoming “lion women.” But when Ellie is welcomed back into her previous life of privilege, the two are separated for years—that is, until one day when Homa makes a sudden reappearance in Ellie’s bourgeois life as the most popular student in school. As political turmoil builds in Iran and the two come of age, one unforgivable betrayal will change everything in The Lion Women of Tehran.
The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young
Romantic, mystical, and filled with questions to be answered, The Unmaking of June Farrow is sure to help you get over your reading slump. Plagued by her family’s mysterious curse, June Farrow is waiting for fate to find her. It’s been a year since she started hearing and seeing things that weren’t there—doors appearing out of nowhere, voices calling her name, the faint but persistent wind chimes—but June is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if it means sacrificing everything she loves. Following the cryptic clues found after her grandmother’s death, June decides to journey through the threshold of the vanishing door to find the truth about her mother’s mysterious decades-old disappearance, changing her past, present, and future in the process.
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
In post-World War I Texas, in 1921, America is on the brink of a brand new era—but there aren’t many options for women other than marriage, and Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry, is losing hope. One night, after she meets Rafe Martinelli, she changes the direction of her life for good and marries a man she barely knows. By 1934, the Great Depression is in full swing, dust storms roll across the plains, and everything on the Martinelli farm is dying (including her marriage). In The Four Winds, Elsa must make the terrifying and agonizing choice: stay and fight for the land she loves or go west in search of a better life for herself and her family.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
If non-fiction is more up your alley, disrupt your reading slump with Bad Blood. In 2014, Elizabeth Holmes, the seemingly brilliant Stanford dropout and CEO of Theranos who created a technological design said to be able to perform a whole range of laboratory tests from a single drop of blood, was seen as the next Steve Jobs. It seemed like the claims made by Holmes and her partner, Sunny Balwani, were too good to be true. Turns out—they were. Uncover their lies and discover the truth with this thrilling inside look at their years-long con.
There’s no shame in experiencing a reading slump—we’ve all been there! Stop by Novel to surround yourself with books, consult our events calendar, and shop these exciting titles to get back into reading ASAP.