Here are the books I loved this year. Many of these were published earlier, but I got around to them this year. The categories are loose, meant to give some shape to the list, but many could fit in multiple categories. The format is just how I read them (kindle, print, audio), of course they available in the other forms. I considered annotating this list, but a one-sentence quip would not do the books justice and more would require surpassing my self-imposed blog word limit. So I will just leave the list here. Feel free to ask questions. I love talking about books.
Favorite Novels (Gorgeous Story, Characters, Language)
Swing Time, Zadie Smith (print)
Idaho, Emily Ruskovich (print)
Spirituality and Philosophy
Upstream, Mary Oliver (print)
Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom, John O’Donohue (print)
Superb writing in books with emotionally difficult content
Salvage the Bones, Jessmyn Ward (audio)
The Sympathizer, Viet Thanh Nguyen (audio)
Pop Culture
The Nix, Nathan Hill (audio)
Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng (audio)
Short Stories
Dear Life, Alice Munro (print)
Anything is Possible, Elizabeth Strout (audible)
Historical Fiction
A Gentleman from Moscow, Amor Towles (audio)
The Nightingale, Kristin Hannah (audio)
Magical Realism
The Magic Strings of Frankie Presto, Mitch Albom (print)
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See (audio)
Autobiographical
What Happened, Hillary Clinton (audio)
You Don’t Have to Say you Love Me: A Memoir, Sherman Alexie (audio)
Biographical
Alexander Hamilton, Ron Chernow (Audio)
Young Adult
Turtles all the Way Down, John Green (kindle)
Change Your Life
The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron, (re-reading, print)
Healing the Heart of Democracy, Parker Palmer (print)
Other books I read this year and would recommend:
This is How You Lose Her, Junot Diaz (kindle)
LaRose, Louise Erdrich (kindle)
Euphoria, Lily King (print)
The Nest, Cynthia Sweeny (print)
Moloka’i, Alan Brennert (audio)
The Secret History, Donna Tartt (audio)
My Brilliant Friend, The Story of a New Name, and Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay (First three Neapolitan Novels), Elena Ferrante (audio)
Rules of Civility, Amor Towles (audio)
TransAtlantic, Colum McCann (audio)
Still Alice, Lisa Genova (audio)