Last year on a whim, I decided to write about the books I had read to meet my reading goal for 2015. At the time I was quite compelled to write it, but it felt like maybe a waste of a post and I had no idea how it would be received. I never could have imagined what an incredible response it would receive from all of you. Not only did you all love it, but so did I! I thoroughly enjoyed finding this new way to connect with so many of you through a common love of reading, and appreciated all of the wonderful recommendations I received.
This year my goal was steady at 30 books and I just met it with one day to spare! Overall, this was a really great year of reading. My tastes are definitely migrating away from fiction and more toward non-fiction, which is very amusing to me as a former die hard fiction reader. I have discussed some of these books already in depth, and some I may review more closely in the future. Below I will list all of the books I read last year in chronological order, as well as put them into one of a handful of categories: must read, pretty wonderful read, good/not great, and don’t bother. As before, I’ll list my top five reads of the year at the bottom of the post, i.e. those that are on my required reading list for all of humanity!
- Me Before You by Jojo Moyes – good/not great
- Half a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – pretty wonderful
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates – must read
- The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah – pretty wonderful
- Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal – good/not great
- I am the Messenger by Markus Zusak – pretty wonderful
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara – must read
- Night Film by Marisha Pessl – don’t bother
- The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion – pretty wonderful
- The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera – pretty wonderful
- Citizen by Claudia Rankine – must read
- The Birth of the Pill by Jonathan Eig – pretty wonderful
- When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi – pretty wonderful
- So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson – pretty wonderful
- Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt – must read
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert – must read
- Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy – good/not great
- The Good Lord Bird by James McBride – good/not great
- Ties That Bind: Stories of Love and Gratitude by Dave Isay – pretty wonderful
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie – must read
- Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein – good/not great
- South of Broad by Pat Conroy – pretty wonderful
- Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik – must read
- Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit – pretty wonderful
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman – pretty wonderful
- Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande – must read
- Lab Girl by Hope Jahren – pretty wonderful
- An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken – don’t bother
- I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai – must read
- Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton – pretty wonderful
If you look carefully, you’ll see that more than five of the above I consider to be “must reads”. Even so, my top five from these 30 titles are:
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
- Pro: Reclaiming Abortion Rights by Katha Pollitt
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Notorious RBG by Irin Carmon and Shana Knizhnik
I cannot stress enough how important reading is in my life, and how much I feel it continues to help me grow as a person. If 30 books in a year seems outrageous to you, start smaller. Set a goal! Make sure it is manageable and will keep you motivated but won’t have you stressing about it. If you would like me to add you as a friend on Goodreads, please let me know either in a comment below or in an email via the contact form. Make sure to include either a username or the email associated with your account so I will be able to find you. Cheers to a fabulous year of reading!
Edited to add: Apparently Goodreads has a limit to the number of friends you can add per day! If I haven’t replied to your comment, your private email, or your instagram comment, it is because I haven’t added you as a friend yet. But I will, I promise! Just hang tight while we wait out this silly limit thing.