"Every Single Sentence Is Like Cracking A Crème Brûlée With A Spoon" – 13 Of The Most Beautifully Written Books We've Ever Read

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25-03-2025

Sometimes we're not only just after a good book, but one that's written with an air of grace and beauty. Well, u/yxial recently asked r/booksuggestions, for the most beautifully written books people have read. I've picked some of the best suggestions and given you a little bit about each book.
1. If on a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino
"Dude makes prose feel like poetry. Feels like every word was crafted with a paintbrush."
– DangerousNightsCrew2
About the Book: This novel follows a reader who is attempting to read a book called If on a Winter's Night a Traveller. The problem they encounter is that the story is incomplete. In attempting to find the ending, the reader discovers more unfinished stories, from different genres, set in different places, with new characters each time. The reader's search for the elusive conclusions to these tales leads them inwards, to reflect on meaning and reading itself.
2. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Penguin
"My man absolutely COOKED describing the Salinas Valley in the opening."
– Aurelius_KiNG
About the book: This epic novel focuses on two families in California's Salinas Valley. The book follows these families across three generations, delving into the rivalries and connections between them, along with the characters' struggles with identity, right and wrong, the complexities of morality, and the legacies of their predecessors."
3.
Milkweed Editions
"Nonfiction. This was a life-changing book for me. It's an eclectic blend of botany, Native American stories, thoughts on motherhood, and prose. The way she weaves these things together in such a prosaic, important, and just beautiful book is really skilful. I found I could only read one chapter at a time – each one moved me so. It's fabulous if you would like to understand or deepen your relationship with the natural world. 10/10, one of my top five books ever."
– mamapajamas
4. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Harper Voyager
"I read this for the first time last summer and now I'm going to read it every summer. Unbelievably beautiful book."
– HalaKahiki17
About the book: This coming-of-age novel follows 12-year-old Douglas Spaulding, growing up in a the small town of Green Town, Illinois. Told using recollections of his youth, we explore, as Douglas does, the bittersweet magic of adolescence, exploring themes of time, life, death, connections with the natural world, and finding joy in the everyday.
5. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Viking
"People also fail to appreciate the narrative structure and how it functions so beautifully in this book. It uses a double/half structure where the time intervals double each chapter (one day, two days, five days, ten days, three weeks, six weeks, etc) through the early chapters as you get to know the characters then halve in the back portion of the novel as events come to a climax until you're back at one day between chapters.
It lends the book such thoughtful pacing as it covers nearly an entire lifetime without ever getting sucked into mundane, boring details (which, given the subject matter – one man confined to a single building for time immemorial – is a very real danger)."
6. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
Black Swan
"It really did feel like a prayer while reading it. Something... I don't know, not sacred, but personal and truly heartfelt."
– SingleMomWithHusband
About the book: This novel is centred around one remarkable friendship and one mysterious and charismatic man. The story, told through the connection of Johnny Wheelwright to the charismatic, mysterious Owen Meany, is one of fate, meaning, and faith. Owen, believing he is an instrument of God's will, lives his life as an enactor of fate, and his experiences have a profound impact on those around him.
7. Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Penguin Classics
"A beautifully written book."
– mister_ash_h
About the book: We follow David, an American living in Paris, awaiting his fiancée's return from Spain. While in Paris, David meets a Giovanni, an Italian bartender, and they are drawn into an intense, but tumultuous affair. David grapples with identity, his own sexuality, and social pressures, and ultimately must confront the consequences of his repression.
8. A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury Publishing
"A GORGEOUSLY written book, prepare to absolutely be emotionally devastated."
– provoking-puppet
About the book: This haunting novel explores the intertwined lives of two Afghan women, Mariam and Laila. We follow their somewhat unlikely bond as they face hardship, oppression, and political turmoil. Told over decades, the novel encompasses themes of resilience, love, and friendship in the face of oppression, social expectation, and the consequences of war.
9. Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
HarperCollins Publishers
"Good story, interesting characters, very beautiful prose. Has my vote for most beautifully written American novel."
– mom_with_an_attitude
About the book: Set in the Jim Crowe era American South, this is the tale of Janie Crawford, who tells us her story upon returning to her hometown, and recounting her life. Ultimately Janie's story is one of self-discovery and independence, with vast personal hardship, and a series of marriages, Janie's fight towards autonomy against the racial and gender dynamics of the time is beautifully and eloquently told.
10. On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
Vintage
"This one has really struck me, the use of language and metaphor is incredible."
– peacefinder22
About the book: Written with subtle grace, this novel takes the form of a letter from a Vietnamese American son growing up in Connecticut to his illiterate mother. In the letter he speaks of growing up as part of two disparate worlds, and speaks further on the immigrant experience in America. He details the complexities of identity, love, trauma, and his relationship with his mother, while focusing on the fleeting moments of joy and pain that pierce one's life.
11. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Scribner Book Company
"Every single sentence is like cracking a crème brûlée with a spoon, and yet the story is so easy to follow. I adored this book."
– NeckarBridge
About the book: This historical novel is set during World War II, and is centred around the lives of two individuals, a blind French girl called Marie-Laure, and a German soldier, Werner. Their two paths become intertwined in the occupied town of Saint-Malo. It's a story of connection, as both attempt to navigate the horrors of war. Written with poetic elegance, the novel also manages to highlight small moments of beauty that manage to escape the wilderness of pain and darkness.
12. I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
Vintage
"Especially towards the ending her prose went to another level, she was firing on all cylinders."
– knight_ranger840
About the book: 40 women are kept in an underground bunker, guarded by men who never speak. The youngest of the group has no memory of life before the bunker, of anything other than fake days, fake nights, and the inside of her cage. A sudden change leaves the girl on a journey of terrifying rediscovery as she navigates the complete unknown.
13. Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman
Corsair
"It made me tear up a few times because the writing is so beautiful, which really took me by surprise because it's physics-based and the author is a physics professor who writes textbooks. But, man… it's poetic. Sent me into existential anxiety, made me feel tiny, but reminded me how fragile the universe is and how beautiful humans are. I recommend this book often; it's centre stage on my shelf."