{"id":4158,"date":"2025-09-23T09:39:13","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:39:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4158"},"modified":"2025-09-23T09:39:13","modified_gmt":"2025-09-23T09:39:13","slug":"what-should-i-read-next-indie-book-recommendations-based-on-your-mood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4158","title":{"rendered":"What Should I Read Next? Indie Book Recommendations Based on Your Mood"},"content":{"rendered":"

What Should I Read Next?<\/strong> Indie Book Recommendations Based On Your Mood<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Nick Gardner<\/em><\/p>\n

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Answering the inevitable question.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I used to have a stack of about twenty books beside my reading chair, but last year I graduated to an entire to-be-read bookshelf. Now that shelf is two titles deep and I still find myself wondering, what should I read next?<\/em><\/p>\n

The problem isn\u2019t so much that I don\u2019t have time to read all of the books I\u2019ve collected\u2014I\u2019m not overwhelmed\u2014but rather that sometimes I visit a new bookstore and a fresh plot catches my eye. Or I read a blurb or review and think, \u201cThis is the book that fits my mood!\u201d <\/p>\n

Even though I have a backlog of what I\u2019m sure are perfectly wonderful titles, oftentimes it\u2019s not the quality of the book as much as my mood that decides which author\u2019s world I will lose myself to in that moment.<\/p>\n

When a book fits my mood, it takes me where I want to go. My wanderlust overpowers me, so I read a travelogue or adventure story or my disgust with a certain contemporary event drives me to horror. Maybe I just want to see words used in sentences that are beautiful concoctions of sound and motion, so I read something lyrical, musical.<\/p>\n

Though there are many reasons to read any book, if an author can drop me smack-dab into the middle of a place I\u2019ve been yearning for, then their book rises to the top of my stack.<\/p>\n

Below, I\u2019ve arranged several books I\u2019ve come to love based on moods, or, more specifically, where my mood drives me to get lost. Because if you\u2019re going to lose yourself, you may as well know what you\u2019re losing yourself to. And bonus points
\u2014they\u2019re all indie books<\/a>!<\/p>\n

Here are some book recommendations to answer the inevitable question, \u201cWhat should I read next?\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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(Book lists on Independent Book Review are chosen by very picky people. As affiliates, we earn a commission on books you purchase through our links.)<\/em><\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost On a journey<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Kevin Maloney<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Two Dollar Radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 242 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781953387288<\/p>\n\n

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Oregon, Montana, Vermont, Kevin Maloney\u2019s protagonist finds himself slumming it in some of my favorite cities and wild lands. <\/p>\n

Joe Walters, in his review at Independent Book Review<\/a>, calls The Red-Headed Pilgrim<\/em> \u201cescapist fiction. You can\u2019t convince me otherwise. It\u2019s not a fantasy, a sci-fi, any other mystical land to travel to (unless you count Portland). It\u2019s just a break from this wild real life, a visit to a funny world, an entrance into someone else\u2019s reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s weird, even though that \u201csomeone else\u2019s reality\u201d is not necessarily the \u201clap of luxury,\u201d it is meaningful enough to wander the streets of Burlington, broke, with a cowboy hat and a corncob pipe, pretending to be some preposterous other. It\u2019s somehow enough to know that you\u2019re somewhere else.<\/p>\n

Amaranthine Chevrolet<\/em><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Dennis E. Bolen<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Rare Machines<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 256 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781459754775<\/p>\n\n

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Another book filled with similar wanderlust, Amaranthine Chevrolet<\/em> by Dennis E. Bolen, follows fifteen-year-old Robin, who takes off in his boss\u2019s field truck on a thousand-mile trek across Western Canada. The book is based in 1967, so it plays doubly on my transportation in both space and time. Sometimes it\u2019s enough to just mentally trek across North America and meet the strangers who live there in order to get you lost.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost In nostalgia?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Issa Quincy<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Two Dollar Radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 166 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781953387998<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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It\u2019s nice to think back on the past\u2014a car ride through the country with a long-lost lover, the joy of a high school soccer game. Nostalgia is everything you\u2019ve physically lost but still carry with you. <\/p>\n

Issa Quincy\u2019s Absence<\/em> is the story of a poem that follows the narrator from his childhood bedroom where his mother first read it to him. Over the years, the poem pops up time and again to remind him of his past, of his mother, a memory he will carry with him forever.<\/p>\n

Amy Brozio-Andrews calls Issa Quincy\u2019s Absence<\/em>, \u201cA tender and thoughtful novel that illuminates the power of memory and how it shapes us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bonus nostalgia recommendation:<\/strong> Andrew Bertaina\u2019s long essay, Ethan Hawke & Me: The Before Trilogy<\/a><\/em>, tracks how the Ethan Hawke films shaped him as a man, a thinker, and a writer.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost In language?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Whitney Collins<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Sarabande Books<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 252 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781956046236<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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There are plenty of wonderful books out there written in simple language. A perfect plot or intriguing character is often enough to make a book worth reading. But then there are those writers who really lean into the rhythms of speech, the flow of their language. They may use beautiful imagery, some rhyme, some esoteric words, but the words themselves have the tendency to sweep you up and take you away.<\/p>\n

Whitney Collins\u2019 prose has wowed me since I read Ricky and Other Love Stories<\/em> earlier this year. A collection of love stories that aren\u2019t always only love stories, Collins is a smooth talker, throwing humor and wit into her prose. Shark attacks, sperm banks, a Ham Depot, Collins\u2019 stories are always a heartfelt, if sometimes weird, wild ride.<\/p>\n

Bonus recommendation in this mood:<\/strong> Claire Hopple\u2019s Echo Chamber<\/a><\/em> is bizarre and beautiful, sure to take you to unexpected places.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost In the grotesque?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> David Simmons<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Apocalypse Party<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 248 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781954899377<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I\u2019m late to the indie horror game, but thanks to David Simmons, I\u2019ve found myself enjoying the description of a Dobson Fly eating its way through Jada\u2019s insides. Simmons\u2019 latest novel, The Eradicator<\/em> features a twenty-four-year-old NICU nurse who likes parties, drugs, sex, and sometimes murder. As her own body deteriorates and lashes back at her, she takes her discomfort and her hatred of the world out on strangers around her in vicious ways.<\/p>\n

Simmons describes the most disgusting parts of bodies in a manner that makes me cringe but also want to read on. It\u2019s a mystery, in a way. It makes you wonder what is actually wrong with this person, with people.<\/p>\n

Bonus recommendation in this mood: <\/strong>While David Ohle\u2019s The Death of a Character<\/a><\/em> is a vastly different story, the obsession with breaking-down bodies, with the strangeness of bodies is also there and also incredibly fascinating to read.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost In the West?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Kendall Roberts<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Atmosphere Press<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 316 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781639886845<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I love a good Western. Boundless land to ride through, heroic escapes, a clear sense of good and evil, white hats versus black hats. The Western is, in many ways, a simplified world with clear laws about humanity. <\/p>\n

Kendall Roberts\u2019 Gunslingers<\/em> is a story about cowboys in the wild plains of the West defining their own personal brand of justice in a dangerous world. Of course Gunslingers<\/em> features shoot-outs and bar brawls, posses, and long rides through the desert, but Roberts\u2019 take on the Western goes beyond the thrill of dead-eye gunmen and near escapes.<\/p>\n

With deft prose, Roberts paints a fictional landscape spotted with fictional towns that comment on traditional views of the American Frontier while also showing its natural beauty. It\u2019s wonderful to get lost in the plains.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost In the mind?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Bennett Sims<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Two Dollar Radio<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 202 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781953387356<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Sometimes a mental landscape can be just as interesting as a physical landscape, even if the mind you\u2019re reading is filled with small anxieties and paranoia. As an anxious person myself, it actually feels nice to lose myself to someone else\u2019s paranoia. Or, rather, to see the anxieties of another character and laugh at how similar they are to my own. It\u2019s healthy to laugh at yourself, and easy to do when you see your same follies in others.<\/p>\n

Bennett Sims Other Minds and Other Stories<\/em> is a collection of quiet, intellectual stories, often taking place over no more than a couple hours of the character\u2019s life in which very little action actually occurs. However, as the characters spiral, the tension grips tighter. As suspicions snowball into certainties and questions mushroom into conspiracies, the simple process of writing an essay or reading a book turns into a question of life and death.<\/p>\n

What should I read next if I want to get lost For a short amount of time?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Author:<\/strong> Michael Bible<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Clash Books<\/a><\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 154 pages<\/p>\n

ISBN:<\/strong> 9781960988409<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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I read on the metro sometimes, or in stolen moments before and after work. Maybe on an airplane, which is where I powered through Michael Bible\u2019s powerful, moving, heartbreaking book about a tortoise, Little Lazarus<\/em> (Clash Books). The book shows the world through the eyes of a turtle who cares very deeply for everyone around him. It\u2019s a quiet book, but a short read, taking up not much more than an afternoon.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve talked with several readers of Bible\u2019s novella who have cried at the end. I also teared up. The prose is fantastic, but the heart is what drives this hundred-or-so-page novella.<\/p>\n

Bonus recommendation in this mood:<\/strong> Ryan Rivas\u2019 Lizard People<\/a><\/em> is another short book with a lot of heart that\u2019s definitely worth sitting with for a couple hours some afternoon.<\/p>\n

No matter what your mood, there\u2019s a book to match it because writers<\/a>, like readers, often change. Whether you want to transport yourself to outer space<\/a> or into the subconscious depths of your mind, there\u2019s a book made for you.<\/p>\n

About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Nick Gardner<\/strong> is a writer, teacher, and critic who has worked as a winemaker, chef, painter, shoe salesman, and addiction counselor. His latest collection of stories from the Rust Belt, Delinquents And Other Escape Attempts<\/a><\/em>, is out now from Madrona Books. He lives in Ohio and Washington, DC and works as a beer and wine monger in Maryland.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Thank you for reading Nick Gardner\u2019s \u201cWhat Should I Read Next? Indie Book Recommendations Based on Mood.\u201d<\/strong> If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post What Should I Read Next? Indie Book Recommendations Based on Your Mood<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What Should I Read Next? Indie Book Recommendations Based On Your Mood by Nick Gardner Answering the inevitable question. I used to have a stack of about twenty books beside my reading chair, but last year I graduated to an entire to-be-read bookshelf. Now that shelf is two titles deep and I still find myself […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}