Every book I read for my creative writing degree, rated & reviewed 📚

From literary fiction to short stories, these 80 books transformed me as a writer. Let's tier-rank and review every single book I read for my Masters degree in Creative Writing. All opinions are my own ↠ WATCH PART 2 HERE:    • Rating every FANTASY book I read for my cr...   ↠ CHAPTERS ↞ 0:00 - let’s talk books ya’ll 1:25 - the rules of the game 2:41 - literary fiction 22:30 - short stories 27:27 - poetry 28:50 - nonfiction 37:28 - to be continued! ↠ MENTIONED ↞ (In order of appearance) LITERARY FICTION “The Virgin Suicides” by Jeffrey Eugenides: https://amzn.to/4ghmyHN “Klara and the Sun” by Kazuo Ishiguro: https://amzn.to/3XA9rt1 “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy: https://amzn.to/3MAbnMT “Sing, Unburied, Sing” by Jesmyn Ward: https://amzn.to/3Xgvdl3 “All The Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr: https://amzn.to/3XwTUeB “Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro: https://amzn.to/4dR0YIu “Dream House” by Valerie Laken: https://amzn.to/4dSIp6O “Lavinia” by Ursula K. Le Guin: https://amzn.to/3XdmEaW “March” by Geraldine Brooks: https://amzn.to/3XdmEaW “A Place For Us” by Fatima Farheen Mirza: https://amzn.to/4g7i4nj “Kaleidoscope” by Cecily Wong: https://amzn.to/3MAUwcY “If Not For This” by Pete Fromm: https://amzn.to/3ThPuFW “A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do” by Pete Fromm: https://amzn.to/47wBRIZ “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffman: https://amzn.to/47egrQA “Homecoming” by Kate Morton: https://amzn.to/3ZhnaXV “Daisy Jones and the Six” by Taylor Jenkins Reid: https://amzn.to/47fVAw6 “The Falcon’s Eyes” by Francesca Stanfill: https://amzn.to/3Thx8EY “An Irish Country Doctor” by Patrick Taylor: https://amzn.to/4d0wa70 “This Is Happiness” by Niall Williams: https://amzn.to/4cWY4Rs “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous” by Ocean Vuong: https://amzn.to/3Xuv52T “Lighthousekeeping” by Jeanette Winterson: https://amzn.to/4e8ave2 “At Home At the End of the World” by Michael Cunningham: https://amzn.to/4dSc5AX “Rebecca” by Daphne Du Maurier: https://amzn.to/4ghnqw3 “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt: https://amzn.to/3zfG0UE SHORT STORIES “Stories of Your Life and Others” by Ted Chiang: https://amzn.to/3zgrZWL “A Good Man is Hard to Find & Other Stories” by Flannery O’Connor: https://amzn.to/4dR1OoC “Bluebeard’s Egg” by Margaret Atwood: https://amzn.to/4dWW11a “The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye” by A.S. Byatt: https://amzn.to/3AQtzzc “Smoke and Mirrors” by Neil Gaiman: https://amzn.to/47iuV1F “Snow White, Blood Red” edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling: https://amzn.to/47nmNNG “Dubliners” by James Joyce: https://amzn.to/3ZgfN2W “Unforeseen” by Molly Gloss: https://amzn.to/47iv1X5 “Memory Wall” by Anthony Doerr: https://amzn.to/3ZwJZqX “The Shell Collector” by Anthony Doerr: https://amzn.to/3MzGAQ9 POEMS “The Historians” by Eavan Boland: https://amzn.to/3Z9afr5 “Beowulf” translated by Seamus Heaney: https://amzn.to/3Zdklas “The Four Quartets” by T.S. Eliot: https://amzn.to/47hdFdl NONFICTION “The Artist’s Journey” by Kent Nerburn: https://amzn.to/47cBqDj “The Gift of Presence” by Caroline Welch: https://amzn.to/3Xfdg6v “On Writing” by Stephen King: https://amzn.to/47hCbv1 “Thrill Me” by Benjamin Percy: https://amzn.to/3zaxx5g “Refuse to Be Done” by Matt Bell: https://amzn.to/3TiRmOq “The Craft of Revision” by Donald M. Murray: https://amzn.to/3Mvwjoi “Steering the Craft” by Ursula K. Le Guin: https://amzn.to/3XdKWl4 “Adorning the Dark” by Andrew Peterson: https://amzn.to/4dWTgN9 “Art and Faith” by Makoto Fujimura: https://amzn.to/3AQu3W2 “This Homeward Ache” by Amy Baik Lee: https://amzn.to/3XdGiU4 “Rembrandt Is In The Wind” by Russ Ramsey: https://amzn.to/3ATeFs2 Note: some of these are affiliate links, which means if you choose to purchase anything using those links, I may make a small commission. 🫶 ↠ LINKS ↞ 🌷 Read my Substack → https://www.oliviagracecook.substack.com 📸 Follow me on Instagram →   / olivia.grace.cook   ☕️ Support my novel → https://www.buymeacoffee.com/oliviagr... ✨ Check out my website → https://www.oliviagracecook.com 🎶 All music courtesy of https://www.epidemicsound.com ↠ ABOUT ME ↞ If you’re new here, hi! 👋 I’m Olivia, a twenty-something writer living on the central coast of California. I hold a MFA degree in Creative Writing from Pacific University, and I’m currently revising my debut novel (Project Amaranth)—the first book in a high fantasy series. This YouTube channel is a cozy corner of the internet where I share about all things books, creativity, travel, and life design. My goal is to inspire and encourage you on your own creative journey. Thanks for stopping by! ☀️ ↠ KEY WORDS ↞ #writers #writertube #writerscommunity #writing #writerslife #author #booktube #books #reading