Jail & Prison Reading List

September 27, 2022

I’ve tried to capture all the titles I read while inside, mostly in order, but a couple of the lists were inevitably lost. I averaged a couple books a week – though it was more in jail (where there was less to do) and less in prison (where there was more to do). The titles are a real mix of classics, bestsellers, literature, and non-fiction. I was lucky that family and friends sent many of the good books that I requested, but sometimes you just read whatever you can get your hands on. The better reads, and those I’d recommend to others are noted in bold. The very short list of the 14 best books I read, which are in a different class, are *asterisked* in bold throughout and also listed here. Books kept me sane throughout my bid, so I tried to loan or give away my books to others who asked. Now I spend a few hours a week at DC Books to Prisons; check them out and maybe donate if you can. It’s a great organization that gets hundreds of requests a week, which volunteers work to fill from their mini-library.

The Night Gardener, George Pelecanos
Alex Cross, Run, James Patterson
Mr. Vertigo, Paul Auster
The Art of Racing in The Rain, Garth Stein
Bastard Out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, Sherman Alexie
Water For Elephants, Sara Gruen
The Namesake, Jhumpa Lahiri
Empire Falls, Richard Russo
Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman
Pigs In Heaven, Barbara Kingsolver
Glamorama, Brett Easton Ellis
My Family and Other Animals, Gerald Durrell
The Cuckoo’s Calling, Robert Galbraith
Seeing, Jose Saramago
The Brothers Karamazov, Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion
Soul Circus, George Pelecanos
Gap Creek, Robert Morgan
The Van, Roddy Doyle
The Martian, Andy Weir
The Leopard, Jo Nesbo
The Brass Verdict, Michael Connelly
Around The World In 80 Days, Jules Verne
Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Fountain
Foundation, Isaac Asimov
Void Moon, Michael Connelly
Little Bee, Chris Cleave
Identical, Scott Turow
The Lynne Truss Treasury, Lynne Truss
Two Years, Eight Months, & 28 Nights, Salman Rushdie
The Big Over Easy, Jasper Fforde
The Best American Short Stories, 2011, Various
Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Port Mortuary, Patricia Cornwell
The Overlook, Michael Connelly
9 Dragons, Michael Connelly
And The Mountains Echoed, Khaled Hosseini
The Lighthouse, P.D. James
Persuader, Lee Child
DC Noir, Various
The Girl on The Train, Paula Hawkins
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair, Joel Dicker
Wild, Cheryl Strayed
Cry, The Beloved Country, Alan Paton
Luka and the Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie
Thank You for Your Service, David Finkel
*Between the World and Me, Ta-Nahesi Coates*
Captiva, Randy Wayne White
Sanibel Flats, Randy Wayne White
Trunk Music, Michael Connelly
The Illusion of Separateness, Simon Van Booy
A Fine Balance, Rohinton Mistry
*Les Misérables, Victor Hugo*
Refuge Recovery, Noah Levine
The Black Box, Michael Connelly
Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger
The Narrows, Michael Connelly
Cruel And Unusual, Patricia Cornwell
The Street Lawyer, John Grisham
Prey, Michael Crichton
The Postcard Killers, James Patterson
Net Force, Tom Clancy
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
A Bend in the River, V.S. Naipul
The Girl Who Played With Fire, Steig Larson
Invisible Man, Ralph Ellison
Dexter By Design, Jeff Lindsay
Black Echo, Michael Connelly
Trace, Patricia Cornwell
Born Standing Up, Steve Martin
As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner
The Last Patriot, Brad Thor
Mystic River, Dennis Lehane
Cause Of Death, Patricia Cornwell
A Million Little Pieces, James Frey
The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga
Cross Country, James Patterson
The Seagull Reader – Short Stories, Various
The Body Farm, Patricia Cornwell
My Friend Leonard, James Frey
The Last Shot, John Feinstein
Zombie, Joyce Carol Oates
Cross, James Patterson
Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert
Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, Stieg Larsson
Rosa Lee: A Mother and Her Family in Urban America, Leon Dash
A Thousand Splendid Suns, Khaled Hosseini
Best American Short Stories 1989, Various
*Nine Stories, J.D. Salinger*
Intensity, Dean Koontz
The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold
Real Estate Riches, Dolf De Roos
Drama City, George Pelecanos
The Bone Bed, Patricia Cornwell
What Is the What, Dave Eggers
Nights In Rodanthe, Nicholas Sparks
World War Z, Max Brooks
Paula, Isabel Allende
The Given Day, Dennis Lehane
The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, Stieg Larsson
Native Tongue, Carl Hiaasen
Hollywood Station, Joseph Wambaugh
Shutter Island, Dennis Lehane
Post Mortem, Patricia Cornwell
Lonesome Dove, Larry McMurtry
Basket Case, Carl Hiaasen
Beyond Belief, Josh Hamilton
The Enemy, Lee Child
Tourist Season, Carl Hiaasen
A Lesson Before Dying, Ernest Gaines
The Burning Room, Michael Connelly
High Five, Janet Evanovich
Daughter Of Fortune, Isabel Allende
Moving On, Larry McMurtry
Chicken Soup for The Prisoners Soul, Various
Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand
Cat And Mouse, James Patterson
The Green Mile, Stephen King
Friday Night Lights, H.G. Bissinger
The Havana Room, Colin Harrison
The Keys of Hell, Jack Higgins
A Wanted Man, Lee Child
The Brethren, John Grisham
*East Of Eden, John Steinbeck*
River Thieves, Michael Crummey
Beach Road, James Patterson
The 6^th Target, James Patterson
One Shot, Lee Child
Flesh And Blood, Jonathan Kellerman
L.A. Dead, Stuart Woods
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins
I, Alex Cross, James Patterson
A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemmingway
10^th Anniversary, James Patterson
Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemmingway
1^st To Die, James Patterson
Streets Of Laredo, Larry McMurtry
Telegraph Days, Larry McMurtry
Capital Crimes, Jonathan Kellerman
Billy Straight, Jonathan Kellerman
Get Shorty, Elmore Leonard
Isle Of Dogs, Patricia Cornwell
The Clinic, Jonathan Kellerman
A Gathering of Old Men, Ernest Gaines
Body Of Evidence, Patricia Cornwell
A Drink Before the War, Dennis Lehane
Roadwork, Stephen King
The Sun Also Rises, Ernest Hemmingway
Dr. Death, Jonathan Kellerman
The Magus, John Fowles
The Hard Way, Lee Child
Comanche Moon, Larry McMurtry
The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell & Bill Moyers
One For the Money, Janet Evanovich
The Web, Jonathan Kellerman
Angel’s Flight, Michael Connelly
Therapy, Jonathan Kellerman
Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen
Moonlight Mile, Dennis Lehane
At Risk, Patricia Cornwell
Bones, Jonathan Kellerman
I, Michael Bennett, James Patterson
Zoo, James Patterson
Blood Test, Jonathan Kellerman
Point Of Origin, Patricia Cornwell
Sin Killer, Larry McMurtry
The Conspiracy Club, Jonathan Kellerman
Wandering Hill, Larry McMurtry
American Tabloid, James Ellroy
Echo Park, Michael Connelly
The Last Picture Show, Larry McMurtry
Sick Puppy, Carl Hiaasen
Blow Fly, Patricia Cornwell
Guilt, Jonathan Kellerman
Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin
Mostly Harmless, Douglas Adams
Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs, Chuck Klosterman
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, Douglas Adams
Life, the Universe, and Everything, Douglas Adams
Boone’s Lick, Larry McMurtry
The Murder Book, Jonathan Kellerman
How To Be Good, Nick Hornby
Gods And Monsters, Christopher Bram
Dune, Frank Herbert
Black Notice, Patricia Cornwell
Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Tom Robbins
My Brother Ernest Hemmingway, Leicester Hemmingway
Evidence, Jonathan Kellerman
Plainsong, Kent Haruf
Dust, Patricia Cornwell
Kitchen Confidential, Anthony Bourdain
Never Go Back, Lee Child
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Ken Kesey
My Losing Season, Pat Conroy
Hardball, Sara Paretsky
Flight, Sherman Alexie
Close Range: Wyoming Stories, Annie Proulx
Bad Monkey, Carl Hiaasen
How To Stop Worrying and Start Living, Dale Carnegie
By Sorrow’s River, Larry McMurtry
Die Trying, Lee Child
Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald
Running Blind, Lee Child
My Life in France, Julia Child
Beach Music, Pat Conroy
The Iceman Cometh, Eugene O’Neill
Bad Luck and Trouble, Lee Child
Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides
Boomerang, Michael Lewis
Scat, Carl Hiaasen
Tishomongo Blues, Elmore Leonard
Tripwire, Lee Child
Stormy Weather, Carl Hiaasen
Scarpetta, Patricia Cornwell
Last Stand at Saber River, Elmore Leonard
The Submission, Amy Waldman
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Slapstick, Kurt Vonnegut
Mystery, Jonathan Kellerman
The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy
The Scarecrow, Michael Connelly
Tender At the Bone, Ruch Reichl
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, John LeCarre
Moneyball, Michael Lewis
When You Are Engulfed in Flames, David Sedaris
*The Sellout, Paul Beatty*
The Nanny Diaries, Emma Mclaughlin & Nicola Kraus
Bloodwork, Michael Connelly
The Late Child, Larry McMurtry
The Water Is Wide, Pat Conroy
*Fates And Furies, Lauren Groff*
Last Dance, John Feinstein
The Fourth Hand, John Irving
Straight Man, Richard Russo
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh
Squeeze Play, Jane Leavy
Best Boy, Eli Gottlieb
The Blind Side, Michael Lewis
Worth Dying For, Lee Child
My Movie Business, John Irving
GBH, Ted Lewis
When The Bough Breaks, Jonathan Kellerman
Silent Partner, Jonathan Kellerman
Oryx And Crake, Margaret Atwood
Forgiveness 4 You, Ann Bauer
The Killing Floor, Lee Child
Echo Burning, Lee Child
*A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara*
Teacher Man, Frank McCourt
Don’t Stop the Carnival, Herman Wouk
Running With Scissors, Augusten Burroughs
Personal, Lee Child
Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins
Make Me, Lee Child
Heroes Of the Frontier, Dave Eggers
Purity, Jonathan Franzen
The Forever Marriage, Ann Bauer
Lost Light, Michael Connelly
Tiny Beautiful Things, Cheryl Strayed
Your Fathers, Where Are They? Dave Eggers
The Affair, Lee Child
Reading Lolita in Tehran, Azar Nafisi
The Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls
61 Hours, Lee Child
The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly
Are You There, Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea, Chelsea Handler
The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
A Window Opens, Elizabeth Egan
Nothing To Lose, Lee Child
*May We Be Forgiven, A.M. Homes*
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
NW, Zadie Smith
A Darkness More Than Night, Michael Connelly
The Road to Character, David Brooks
*A Manual for Cleaning Women, Lucia Berlin*
How To See Yourself as You Really Are, The Dalai Lama
Hunger Games: Mockingjay, Suzanne Collins
Muse, Jonathan Galassi
Three Cups of Tea, Greg Mortenson
Welcome To the Monkey House, Kurt Vonnegut
The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut
The Infinite Jest, David Foster Wallace
The Crossing, Michael Connelly
Black Swan Green, David Mitchell
Ball Don’t Lie, Matt DeLaPena
The Big Blowdown, George Pelecanos
Gone Tomorrow, Lee Child
All This Life, Joshua Mohr
Torch, Cheryl Strayed
Driftwood, Elizabeth Dutton
The Way Home, George Pelecanos
The Mindfulness Key, Sarah Silverton
A Prison Diary, Jeffrey Archer
The Lay of the Land, Richard Ford
The Black Ice, Michael Connelly
LaRose, Louise Erdrich
Without Fail, Lee Child
Flashman, George MacDonald Fraser
The Architect’s Apprentice, Elif Shafak
The Drop, Michael Connelly
Native Believer, Ali Eteraz
A Strangeness in My Mind, Orhan Pamuk
The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi
A Multitude of Sins, Richard Ford
Black Water Rising, Attica Locke
Electric Barracuda, Tim Dorsey
Purgatory, Jeffrey Archer
Heaven, Jeffrey Archer
*Thank You, Goodnight, Andy Abramowitz*
A Firing Offense, George Pelecanos
War Child, Emmanuel Jal
Undone, John Colapinto
The Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
The Book Of Ralph, Christopher Steinsvold
Private Citizens, Tony Tulathimutte
Yesterday Will Make You Cry, Chester Himes
Mohawk, Richard Russo
Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Travels, Michael Crichton
What Belongs to You, Garth Greenwell
The Risk Pool, Richard Russo
Wildlife, Richard Ford
I Am Radar, Reif Larsen
The Closers, Michael Connelly
Rock Springs, Richard Ford
The Little Red Chairs, Edna O’Brien
A Piece of My Heart, Richard Ford
World Gone By, Dennis Lehane
Everybody’s Fool, Richard Russo
On Writing, Stephen King
The Heart Goes Last, Margaret Atwood
The Drop, Dennis Lehane
Chasing The Dime, Michael Connelly
The Braindead Megaphone, George Saunders
*Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy*
The Brief and Frightening Reign Of Phil, George Saunders
That Old Cape Magic, Richard Russo
The Whore’s Child, Richard Russo
Moonglow, Michael Chabon
Night School, Lee Child
Atonement, Ian McEwan
The Little Friend, Donna Tartt
The Wrong Side of Goodbye, Michael Connelly
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Peacekeeping, Mischa Berlinski
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
You Shall Know Our Velocity, Dave Eggers
The Husband, Dean Koontz
Home, Harlan Coben
October Sky, Homer Hickam, Jr.
*All The Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr*
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
Nineteen Minutes, Jodi Picoult
Bridge Of Sighs, Richard Russo
Inherent Vice, Thomas Pynchon
The Children Act, Ian McEwan
War Dogs, Guy Lawson
The Innocent, David Baldacci
The Warmth of Other Suns, Isabel Wilkerson
In Cold Blood, Truman Capote
Live By Night, Dennis Lehane
Texasville, Larry McMurtry
Filthy Rich, James Patterson
Songs Of the Humpback Whale, Jodi Picoult
The Poet, Michael Connelly
The Hours, Michael Cunningham
Wonder, RJ Palacio
The Abstinence Teacher, Tom Perrotta
Fine Just the Way It Is, Annie Proulx
Zeke And Ned, Larry McMurtry
Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, Walter Mosley
A Gambler’s Anatomy, Jonathan Lethem
*The Remains of The Day, Kazuo Ishiguro*
The Snowden Files, Luke Harding
I Know This Much Is True, Wally Lamb
The Things They Carried, Tim O’Brien
The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
The Lie, Chad Kultgen
Darkness, Take My Hand, Dennis Lehane
The Big Short, Michael Lewis
Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, Alice Munro
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
Trajectory, Richard Russo
Benjamin Franklin, Walter Isaacson
Running The Books: Adventures of An Accidental Prison Librarian, Avi Steinberg
Eating The Dinosaur, Chuck Klosterman
Avenue Of Mysteries, John Irving
A Book of American Martyrs, Joyce Carol Oates
The Midnight Line, Lee Child
Every Love Story Is a Ghost Story, D.J. Max
Zero K, Don DeLillo
Savage The Bones, Jesmyn Ward
Prison Profiteers, Ed. By Tara Herivel And Paul Wright
The Twenty-Seventh City, Jonathan Franzen
Hard Revolution, George Pelecanos
The Pale King, David Foster Wallace
Save My Son, Maralys Wills and Mike Carona
The Life We Bury, Allen Eskens
Here I Am, Jonathan Safran Foer
Nickel And Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America, Barbara Ehrenreich
Still Here, Lara Vapnyar
Whiteout, Ken Follett
Secrets, Danielle Steel
Honor Among Thieves, Jeffrey Archer
I’ll Be Seeing You, Mary Higgins Clark
Evening In Byzantium, Irwin Shaw
Dust Across the Range, Max Brand
The Names and Faces Of Heroes, Reynolds Price
The Executioner: System Corruption, Don Pendleton
The Lucifer Gospel, Paul Christopher
Paranoia, Joseph Finder
Flash, Jayne Krentz
Just One Look, Harlan Coben
The Fourth Protocol, Fredrick Forsyth
All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
The Witches of Eastwick, John Updike
Liar’s Poker, Michael Lewis
Politika, Tom Clancy
The Crossing, Cormac McCarthy
Bag Of Bones, Stephen King
Shelter, Harlan Coben
Cities Of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy
The Murder House, James Patterson
First Among Equals, Jeffrey Archer
Private Screening, Richard North Patterson
Die Again, Tess Gerritsen
The Shining, Stephen King
Minotaur, Stephen Coonts
Inferno, Dan Brown
NYPD Red, James Patterson
Into The Water, Paula Hawkins
About Grace, Anthony Doerr
Child Of God, Cormac McCarthy
Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee
Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward
Some Can Whistle, Larry McMurtry
What I Lived For, Joyce Carol Oates
The 12 Lives of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti
The River Why, David James Duncan
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
Sacred, Dennis Lehane
On The Move: A Life, Oliver Sacks
Djibouti, Elmore Leonard
The Patriots, Sana Krasikov
Sabbath’s Theater, Philip Roth
Tuff, Paul Beatty
Consider The Lobster, David Foster Wallace
The White Boy Shuffle, Paul Beatty
No Country for Old Men, Cormac McCarthy
Lunar Park, Bret Easton Ellis
Dead Man’s Walk, Larry McMurtry
Fire And Fury, Michael Wolff
The Other Side of the Leash, Patricia McConnell
Terrorist, John Updike
Cherry, Nico Walker
Zuckerman Unbound, Philip Roth
The Warehouse Prison, John Irwin
Look At Me, Jennifer Egan
The Tough on Crime Myth, Peter Elikann
Don’t Shoot the Dog, Karen Pryor
Spooner, Pete Dexter
Possible Side Effects, Augusten Burroughs
Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
Past Tense, Lee Child
Who Is Rich? Matthew Klam
Conversations With Friends, Sally Rooney
The Prisoner’s Wife: A Memoir, Asha Bandele
Reforming Punishment, Craig Haney
Five-Carat Soul, James McBride
Golden Prey, John Sandford
10^th Of December, George Saunders
Sick Justice: Inside the American Gulag, Ivan Goldman
All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Larry McMurtry
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Michael Pollan
Suttree, Cormac McCarthy
Duane’s Depressed, Larry McMurtry
Education Of a Felon, Edward Bunker
When The Light Goes, Larry McMurtry
City Of Bones, Michael Connelly
Something Happened, Joseph Heller
Nothing Happens Until It Happens to You, T.M. Shine
Terms Of Endearment, Larry McMurtry
South Of Broad, Pat Conroy
Gates Of Injustice: The Crisis in America’s Prisons, Alan Elsner
The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead
Interpreter Of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri
*Slouching Toward Bethlehem, Joan Didion*
With Liberty and Injustice for Some, Glenn Greenwald
Prison Industrial Complex for Beginners, James Peterson
Releasing Prisoners, Redeeming Communities, Anthony Thompson
The Evening Star, Larry McMurtry
The Goldfinch, Donna Tartt
Cutting For Stone, Abraham Verghese
Solitary, Albert Woodfox
The Monk of Mokha, Dave Eggers
Coyote Blue, Christopher Moore
Rebuild The Dream, Van Jones
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, Barbara Kingsolver
Somebody’s Darling, Larry McMurtry
The Everything Guide to Starting and Running A Nonprofit, Jim Goettler
Blue Moon, Lee Child
Formerly Known as Food, Kristin Lawless
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
Eating Animals, Jonathan Safran Foer
Ghost Written, David Mitchell
Time Is Tight, Booker T. Jones
The Parade, Dave Eggers
Fleishman Is in Trouble, Taffy Brodesser-Akner
Normal People, Sally Rooney
Fresh Complaint, Jeffrey Eugenides
Sing To It, Amy Hempel
The Cold Millions, Jess Walter
Evening In Paradise, Lucia Berlin
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World, Elif Shafak
Halfway Home, Reuben Jonathan Miller
The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis
1996 O. Henry Awards Prize Stories, Ed William Abrahams
Slade House, David Mitchell
Two Kinds of Truth, Michael Connelly
The Sentinel, Lee Child
Her Fearful Symmetry, Audrey Niffenegger
The Guardians, John Grisham

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