I was trying to hold off til the end of this calendar year, but I’ve been asked several times recently for book recommendations, and have sent this list privately to a few friends. So why not share? Below you will find the best books I’ve read this year, so far. Hopefully there will be more in these last few months!
Some reviews haven’t even posted yet, but here you are, getting a sneak peek at my ratings.
Those that received a rating of 10:
- Have You Seen Marie?*, Sandra Cisneros (fiction)
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry*, Rachel Joyce (fiction)
- Gretel and the Dark, Eliza Granville (fiction)
Those that received a rating of 9:
- Wizard and Glass*, Stephen King (fiction)
- Turtle Island, Gary Snyder (poetry)
- Crossing to Safety, Wallace Stegner (fiction)
- Fives and Twenty-Fives, Michael Pitre (fiction)
- Lisette’s List, Susan Vreeland (fiction)
- The Brothers Lionheart, Astrid Lindgren (fiction)
- The Untold, Courtney Collins (fiction)
- The Vacationers, Emma Straub (fiction)
- How to Build a Girl, Caitlin Moran (fiction)
- So We Read On, Maureen Corrigan (nonfiction)
* = audiobooks.
There have been lots of 8s, too, including for example the latest from Stephen King and James Lee Burke; this lovely novel; a little literary history (oh and here’s another); some plants*; and two that are still to come: We Make Beer, and Older, Faster, Stronger.
What have you read so far this year that’s blown you away?
pagesofjulia 
I had to go look at Goodreads to even remember what I’ve read this year (it’s so sad) and it’s not much (also so sad), but my favorites so far have been Brain on Fire and Netherland. I also liked the YA novel Eleanor & Park and A Widow for One Year.
It’s such a big world. I have heard of exactly one of those (Eleanor & Park). They sound compelling, though – especially Eleanor & Park; and John Irving is always good! In the spirit of Brain on Fire there is also The Answer to the Riddle Is Me…