pagesofjulia

My year-in-review post will be up on Monday, with reading stats. But first, as usual, I want to share the list of my favorite things I read this year. (You can see past years’ best-of lists at this tag.)

My very favorite books of the year, which received ratings of 10 and (in one case) 9.5:

• The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E. Harrow – fiction
• Why Fish Don’t Exist: A Story of Loss, Love and the Hidden Order of Life, Lulu Miller – nonfiction
• H Is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald – nonfiction
• The Once and Future Witches, Alix E. Harrow – fiction
• Lookout, Christine Byl – fiction (book & review forthcoming in the spring).

These books received ratings of 9:

• They’re Going to Love You, Meg Howrey – fiction
• Dawn, Octavia Butler – fiction
• Elsewhere, Alexis Schaitkin – fiction
• Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – fiction
• An Odyssey, Daniel Mendelsohn – nonfiction
• Aurora Rising, and the series!, Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff – fiction
• Odder, Katherine Applegate – fiction
• Revenge of the Librarians, Tom Gauld – cartoons
• The Last Karankawas, Kimberly Garza – fiction
• Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi – fiction (review coming in just a few weeks!)

Honorable mentions:

• Mother Country, Jacinda Townsend – fiction
• Ithaca, Claire North – fiction
• The Old Place, Bobby Finger – fiction
• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue – fiction
• The World’s Wife, Carol Ann Duffy – poetry
• Gilded Mountain, Kate Manning – fiction
• The Spare Man, Mary Robinette Kowal – fiction
• Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes – fiction (review & book forthcoming in the spring)
• anything by N.K. Jemisin.
• anything by Alix Harrow.

I feel lucky to see so many exemplary books each year. This post is always an inspiration. Happy New Year, friends.

Filed under: musings | Tagged: best of, best of the year, lists |