Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.
Earlier this year I created a post entitled "Tell Me Your Aesthetic and I’ll Give You Book Recs." Y’all seemed to like it so I’ve decided to do it again. Once again I’ve picked five aesthetics, spent hours upon hours pouring over my bookcases, my book wish lists, social media, and the internet at large to bring you book recs that match your aesthetic.
Below are those five aesthetics, what they mean in my opinion, a handful of book recommendations, and a beautiful, aesthetic picture I created in Canva. I covered some pretty popular aesthetics in my first post, which if you haven’t read then you totally should, so this time around I’ve chosen some lesser known, but super fun ones.
Cottagegore
You know Cottagecore now get ready for Cottagegore! Cottagegore is very similar to Cottagecore but with a few key differences. Cottagegore, like Cottagecore, represents an idealized rural life centered on sustainability, harmony with nature, and living off the land but Cottagegore also focuses on the dark aspects of nature i.e. rotting plants, decay, and spirits, ghosts, forest cryptids. It’s not simply Cottagecore with blood thrown on it. Think of Cottagegore as living in the middle of the woods, being cut off from the outside world, and revering Mother Nature as an entity that is just as deadly as she is beautiful. Time for some books.
· Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh
· Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekbäck
· The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden
· On Sundays, She Picked Flowers by Yah-Yah Scholfield
· The Poison Season by Mara Rutherford
Autumn Academia
My most desired aesthetic. It’s Pumpkin Spice and Everything Nice. Think rainy fall days, those beautiful vibrant reds and oranges, a hot drink in hand as you sit in a café on a chilly October day. Think pumpkins, both carved and whole, apple candles, and the pursuit of knowledge via literature. Autumn Academia is a cozy aesthetic with the tiniest bit of mystery and magic. This is everything I want out of life. Want some books now?
· Into the Bright Open by Cherie Dimaline
· A Hundred Vicious Turns by Paige O’Brien
· In the Night Wood by Dale Bailey
· Haunted House Murder by Barbara Ross, Lee Hollis, and Leslie Meier (Honestly any cozy mystery set in the fall goes with this aesthetic. Drop some more fall cozy mysteries in the comments below.)
· The Gathering Dark: An Anthology of Folk Horror by Erica Waters, Chloe Gon, Tori Bovalino, Hannah Whitten, Allison Saft, Olivia Chadha, Courtney Gould, Aden Polydoros, Shakira Toussaint, and Alex Brown; Edited by Tori Bovalino
Cryptidcore
Do you believe in ghosts, aliens, and Bigfoot? This aesthetic is for you! Cryptidcore focuses on the romanticization of the adventure and mystery surrounding things such as ghost-hunting, cryptid-hunting, and all things supernatural. People who are fans of this aesthetic simply want to see something fantastical. And if you can’t see that in real life, have some books where you can imagine it.
· Meddling Kids by Edgar Cantero
· Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
· The Resurrectionist: The Lost Work of Dr. Spencer Black by E.B. Hudspeth
· Fly By Night by Tara O’Connor
· Rules for Vanishing by Kate Alice Marshall
Fairy
Let’s move away from the “darker” aesthetics now and look at something fairy light. Meet the fairy aesthetic. The aesthetic that focuses on the ethereal, dainty, Western depictions of fairies with the scheming and mischief the fae are also known for. It’s a very whimsical, ethereal aesthetic and I love it for that. This is for all you ACOTAR readers who want another fairy based fantasy read. So here are some ethereal, fairy books.
· A Midsummer’s Night Dream by William Shakespeare
· The Split Worlds series by Emma Newman
· Tithe by Holly Black
· Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine
· The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
Old Hollywood
You already know this aesthetic. You’re picturing it right now without me describing it to you. Late 1920’s-1950’s Hollywood. The glitz, the glamour, the super thin, dark eyebrows and bold red lip. This aesthetic is meant to draw you into a time long since gone. A time where modern problems don’t exist and make you embrace the simple things in life. Now let’s get to the books!
· The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
· The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin
· Did You Hear About Kitty Karr? by Crystal Smith Paul
· A Night In With Audrey Hepburn by Lucy Holliday
· Design For Dying by Renee Patrick
Thus endeth our list! Guess I should say thus endeth our lists. Either way, thank you for joining me today. I do so hope you’ve found a new book, or books, to enjoy. And if you want to see more aesthetic book recs, drop your requests in the comments below. With that, I must bid you all adieu. I’ll see you all again next week with a new review.
Until then, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.
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