Jane Smiley Reading Order

10 books (1990–2009)

Start with Great American Short Stories, the first of 10 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Great American Short Stories 1990Buy 🇺🇸
2	First Fiction: An Anthology of the First Published Stories by Famous Writers 1994Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Best American Short Stories 1995 1995Buy 🇺🇸
4	Body 2000Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Good Parts 2000Buy 🇺🇸
6	Writers on Writing 2001Buy 🇺🇸
7	Best New American Voices 2006 2005Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Best American Erotica 2005 2005Buy 🇺🇸
9	Mr. Wrong: Real-Life Stories about the Men We Used to Love 2007Buy 🇺🇸
10	Dedicated to the People of Darfur 2009Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1987–1989)

Start with The Age of Grief and read in order.

#	Title
1	The Age of Grief 1987Buy 🇺🇸
2	Ordinary Love and Good Will: Two Novellas 1989Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (2018–2020)

Start with Riding Lessons and read in order.

#	Title
1	Riding Lessons 2018Buy 🇺🇸
2	Saddles & Secrets 2019Buy 🇺🇸
3	Taking the Reins 2020Buy 🇺🇸

5 books (2009–2013)

Start with The Georges and the Jewels / Nobody's Horse, the first of 5 books in the Horses Of Oak Valley Ranch series.

#	Title
1	The Georges and the Jewels / Nobody's Horse 2009Buy 🇺🇸
2	A Good Horse / Secret Horse 2010Buy 🇺🇸
3	True Blue / Mystery Horse 2011Buy 🇺🇸
4	Pie in the Sky / Champion Horse 2012Buy 🇺🇸
5	Gee Whiz / Star Horse 2013Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (2014–2015)

Start with Some Luck and read in order.

#	Title
1	Some Luck 2014Buy 🇺🇸
2	Early Warning 2015Buy 🇺🇸
3	Golden Age 2015Buy 🇺🇸

10 books (1200–2023)

Start with The Sagas of Icelanders, the first of 10 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	The Sagas of Icelanders 1200Buy 🇺🇸
2	Catskill Crafts: Artisans of the Catskill Mountains 1987Buy 🇺🇸
3	Charles Dickens 2002Buy 🇺🇸
4	A Year At the Races: Reflections On Horses, Humans, Love, Money And Luck 2004Buy 🇺🇸
5	Thirteen Ways of Looking at the Novel 2005Buy 🇺🇸
6	13 Ways of Looking at the Novel 2008Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Man Who Invented the Computer: The Biography of John Atanasoff, Digital Pioneer 2010Buy 🇺🇸
8	An Innocent Abroad: Life-Changing Trips from 35 Great Writers(With: Dave Eggers) 2014Buy 🇺🇸
9	March Sisters: On Life, Death, and Little Women(With: Carmen Maria Machado,Kate Bolick,Jenny Zhang) 2019Buy 🇺🇸
10	The Questions That Matter Most: Reading, Writing, and the Exercise of Freedom 2023Buy 🇺🇸

32 books (1960–2011)

Start with Abraham Lincoln(By: Thomas Keneally), the first of 32 books in the Penguin Lives series.

#	Title
1	Abraham Lincoln(By: Thomas Keneally) 1960Buy 🇺🇸
2	Crazy Horse(By: Larry McMurtry) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
3	James Joyce(By: Edna O'Brien) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
4	Mao Zedong: A Life(By: Jonathan D. Spence) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
5	Marcel Proust(By: Edmund White) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
6	Mozart: A Life(By: Peter Gay) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
7	Saint Augustine(By: Garry Wills) 1999Buy 🇺🇸
8	Herman Melville(By: Elizabeth Hardwick) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
9	Leonardo da Vinci: A Life(By: Sherwin B. Nuland) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
10	Rosa Parks(By: Douglas Brinkley) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
11	Virginia Woolf(By: Nigel Nicolson) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
12	Woodrow Wilson(By: Louis Auchincloss) 2000Buy 🇺🇸
13	Andy Warhol: A Biography(By: Wayne Koestenbaum) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
14	Buddha(By: Karen Armstrong) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
15	Dante(By: R.W.B. Lewis) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
16	Jane Austen(By: Carol Shields) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
17	Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Life(By: Marshall Frady) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
18	Simone Weil(By: Francine du Plessix Gray) 2001Buy 🇺🇸
19	Charles Dickens 2002Buy 🇺🇸
20	Elvis Presley(By: Bobbie Ann Mason) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
21	Joseph Smith(By: Robert V. Remini) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
22	Pope John XXIII(By: Thomas Cahill) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
23	Winston Churchill: A Life(By: John Keegan) 2002Buy 🇺🇸
24	Robert E. Lee(By: Roy Blount Jr.) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
25	Saint Therese of Lisieux(By: Kathryn Harrison) 2003Buy 🇺🇸
26	Frank Lloyd Wright: A Life(By: Ada Louise Huxtable) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
27	George Herbert Walker Bush(By: Tom Wicker) 2004Buy 🇺🇸
28	Napoleon(By: Paul Johnson) 2006Buy 🇺🇸
29	Julia Child(By: Laura Shapiro) 2007Buy 🇺🇸
30	Joan of Arc(By: Mary Gordon) 2008Buy 🇺🇸
31	Martin Luther(By: Martin E. Marty) 2008Buy 🇺🇸
32	Branch Rickey: A Life(By: Jimmy Breslin) 2011Buy 🇺🇸

1 book (2016–2016)

15 books (1980–2024)

Start with Barn Blind, the first of 15 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Barn Blind 1980Buy 🇺🇸
2	At Paradise Gate 1981Buy 🇺🇸
3	Duplicate Keys 1984Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Greenlanders 1988Buy 🇺🇸
5	A Thousand Acres 1991Buy 🇺🇸
6	Moo 1995Buy 🇺🇸
7	The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton 1998Buy 🇺🇸
8	Horse Heaven 1999Buy 🇺🇸
9	Good Faith 2003Buy 🇺🇸
10	Ten Days in the Hills 2007Buy 🇺🇸
11	Private Life 2010Buy 🇺🇸
12	Twenty Yawns 2016Buy 🇺🇸
13	Perestroika in Paris 2020Buy 🇺🇸
14	A Dangerous Business 2022Buy 🇺🇸
15	Lucky 2024Buy 🇺🇸

7 books (2018–2018)

Start with At the Bottom of New Lake(By: Sonya Larson), the first of 7 books in the Warmer Collection series.