!! as much of a big america hater that i am, i must admit that there are amazing authors that are unfortunately american

1. the grapes of wrath, east of eden—john steinbeck. he's complicated. one moment i love him and the other i try to hide my thoughts on him because i run into someone who despises his writing. i had to read of mice and men in middle school but i was already familiar with his other works because my grandma loved james dean and there was a film adaptation for east of eden during her generation or so that got quite popular. not too flashy, but not boring in any sense. i think he's a pretty easy read as his characters are simple to follow and the plot isn't that hard to tell. he's not really someone that requires a lot of time, but he can be interesting with his allegories and the layers he puts in his writing. give him a try.
2. naked lunch, junky, the soft machine—william s. burroughs. the exact opposite of steinbeck. ngl idk if i can even recommend burroughs on this site considering how i do have minors following me (which, if you're looking for books to read DO NOT, i repeat, DO NOT pick up a burroughs book until you're legal). he's not erotica by any means but he writes about drug addiction a lot. junky and naked lunch were the first novels i've read from him and he blew my mind based on how... articulately beautiful he could be when talking about a topic so damning.
3. dhalgren, babel-17—samuel r. delany. sci-fi king. the bane of my existence in the best/worst way possible. he's so... sexy in the way he writes and his entire biography makes me so jealous (HE WAS A TEENAGER WHEN HE WROTE THE MASTERPIECE THAT IS DHALGREN LIKE WHAT ?! GOD IS SO UNFAIR). i basically worship the ground he walks on and everything he writes i've read and enjoyed. can be difficult for first-time readers because he follows a lot of non-linear narratives and surrealist tropes.
4. on the road—jack kerouac. listen i made this list and saved it on the drafts a year ago and now i have a different opinion on this book. i don't like it quite like i used to, and that's okay !! it goes to show how the media you consume can either shape you or break you, and unfortunately this one didn't age well with time for me. i initially loved on the road for its raw narratives, its ability to flesh out the simple joys of life (to be fair that's kerouac's niche), and how transient the book felt. here, a year later, with more books and experience under my belt, i have to say that on the road is unsatisfactory in the sense that it left me wanting more. even if you're writing about a sliver of someone's life (in this case, the protagonist without spoiling too much), each character's decisions and story should carry more weight if you want to write a novel. i'm not saying he's a bad writer, i'm just saying this book didn't do it for me. nonetheless, i'm recommending it for writers who want to improve their prose. perhaps learning from kerouac might benefit your imagery.
5. babbit, it can't happen here—sinclair lewis. ngl i picked his book up because it was only like $5 at a book store and i don't think i've looked back since. i think he should be up there when defining the grounds of "americana literature" just because main street perfectly describes and evokes an image of what is considered americana today. i read somewhere on reddit when i was doing research on him that his later works are bad because of his extreme alcoholism, but i can vouch for babbit as to me, it's what arthur miller's death of a salesman could've been in written form. he just describes the 20s/30s businessmen lifestyle and dilemmas so well, and really gives you a window into the world of middle class america at its finest. muah muah much love to sinclair.
6. gone with the wind—margaret mitchell. only putting this here because my grandma loves this book and the movie starring rhett butler and scarlet o'hara. it's long... but it's great. reads like an epic in the sense that even if some parts felt slow, it wasn't slow or boring enough to get me to put the book down. also birthed one of the greatest moments in cinema so i'm not complaining. always try to read the source material for every adaptation as it can give you new insights, and this easily takes the cake.
7. extremely loud & incredibly close—jonathan safran foer. my god. i put this down and i had a lot of thoughts. then i re-read the book and still had a lot of thoughts buzzing in my head. when authors get you to think, that's when you know you're a good one. i was surprised to see a lot of people hate on this book and a bunch of foer's other works, because quite frankly, i don't think foer is being self-centered by basing his books on his life. everyone does that—myself included in some of my fics—and his writing is clever enough that, to me at least, suspension of disbelief worked in my favor. i saw a lot of myself in the protagonist and the way he tackled grief, and in a way, i just couldn't see it as an autobiography. great read.

The piano (1993), Jane Campion // The Lovers II (1928), Rene Magritte

1. The Infernal Cakewalk (1903)
2. Secrets of the Soul (1912)
3. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1921)
4. Nosferatu (1922)
5. Dr. Mabuse the Gambler (1922)
6. Metropolis (1927)
7. Napoleon (1927)
8. The Power and the Glory (1933)
9. It Happened One Night (1934)
10. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
11. La Grande Illusion (1937)
12. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
13. Stagecoach (1939)
14. The Roaring Twenties (1939)
15. The Rules Of The Game (1939)
16. Citizen Kane (1941)
17. How Green Was My Valley (1941)
18. Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
19. Cat People (1942)
20. Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
21. Rome, Open City (1945)
22. Children Of Paradise (1945)
23. Duel in the Sun (1946)
24. Gilda (1946)
25. A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
26. Paisan (1946)
27. Beauty & The Beast (1946)
28. The Lady From Shanghai (1947)
29. T-Men (1947)
30. I Walk Alone (1947)
31. The Red Shoes (1948)
32. Germany Year Zero (1948)
33. Force of Evil (1948)
34. La Terra Trema (1948)
35. Macbeth (1948)
36. Raw Deal (1948)
37. Bicycle Thieves (1948)
38. Caught (1949)
39. The Third Man (1949)
40. Stromboli (1950)
41. The Flowers of St. Francis (1950)
42. Gun Crazy (1950)
43. Night and the City (1950)
44. An American in Paris (1951)
45. The River (1951)
46. Ace in the Hole (1951)
47. The Magic Box (1951)
48. The Bad and the Beautiful (1952)
49. Europa ’51 (1952)
50. Othello (1952)
51. Umberto D. (1952)
52. Ikiru (1952)
53. The Band Wagon (1953)
54. House of Wax (1953)
55. Julius Caesar (1953)
56. Pickup on South Street (1953)
57. Ugetsu (1953)
58. Tokyo Story (1953)
59. Dial M for Murder (1954)
60. Journey to Italy (1954)
61. Senso (1954)
62. Seven Samurai (1954)
63. Sansho the Bailiff (1954)
64. All that Heaven Allows (1955)
65. Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
66. The Searchers (1956)
67. Forty Guns (1957)
68. Sweet Smell of Success (1957)
69. Some Came Running (1958)
70. Touch of Evil (1958)
71. Vertigo (1958)
72. Ashes and Diamonds (1958)
73. Big Deal On Madonna Street (1958)
74. Shadows (1959)
75. The 400 Blows (1959)
76. Peeping Tom (1960)
77. Rocco and His Brothers (1960)
78. Shoot the Piano Player (1960)
79. Breathless (1960)
80. L’Avventura (1960)
81. The Hustler (1961)
82. One, Two, Three (1961)
83. Cape Fear (1962)
84. The Trial (1962)
85. Two Weeks in Another Town (1962)
86. Salvatore Giuliano (1962)
87. Il Sorpasso (1962)
88. America, America (1963)
89. Jason and the Argonauts (1963)
90. The Leopard (1963)
91. Shock Corridor (1963)
92. High and Low (1963)
93. 8½ (1963)
94. The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
95. Band of Outsiders (1964)
96. Before the Revolution (1964)
97. The Rise of Louis XIV (1966)
98. Blow-Up (1966)
99. Weekend (1967)
100. Faces (1968)
101. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
102. Death by Hanging (1968)
103. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
104. The Butcher (1970)
105. M*A*S*H (1970)
106. The American Friend (1970)
107. Klute (1971)
108. McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)
109. The Merchant of Four Seasons (1971)
110. The Godfather (1972)
111. Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972)
112. The Conversation (1974)
113. Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974)
114. The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
115. The Messiah (1975)
116. Nashville (1975)
117. Kings of the Road (1976)
118. Apocalypse Now (1979)
119. The Marriage of Maria Braun (1979)
120. Health (1980)
121. Heaven’s Gate (1980)
122. Mishima (1985)
123. Born on the Fourth of July (1989)
124. Do the Right Thing (1989)
125. The Player (1992)