Books of 2022

A new record for me: less than one book per week of the year. No regrets as I've been diversifying my life with other interests the past couple of years.  But man, do I love a year-end recap.

Here's my 2022 books.

1. The It Girl by Ruth Ware

2. The Quiet Ones by Brandon Massey

3. The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager

4. Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune

5. The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams

6. Kindred by Octavia Butler

7. All the Feels by Olivia Dade

8. Bewilderment by Richard Powers

9. The One Hundred Years of Lennies and Margo by Marianne Cronin

10.  Rivals by Katharine McGee

11. Instructions for a Heatwave by Maggie O'Farrell

12. Such a Quiet Place by Megan Miranda

13. The Bodyguard by Katherine Center

14. The Last to Vanish by Megan Miranda

15. Grandma Gatewood's Walk the Inspiring Story of the Woman Who Saved the Appalachian Trail by Ben Montgomery

16. Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

17. Finding Me by Viola Davis

18. The Perfect Stranger by Megan Miranda

19. You Had me at Hola by Alexis Daria

20. The Hidden by Meanie Golding

21. A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria

22. Book Lovers by Emily Henry

23. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

24. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin

25. Upgrade by Blake Crouch

26. Seven Days of Us by Francesca Hornak

27. Scattered Showers by Rainbow Rowell

28. The Vibrant Years by Sonali Dev

My Favorites:

Best Rom Coms

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

The Body Guard by Katharine Center 

Best Sci-Fi

Upgrade by Blake Crouch 

Best Thriller

I didn't really love any of the thrillers I read this year. Typically Riley Sager and Ruth Ware are my favorites. They both had new books out this year that didn't wow me.  Also I read several Megan Mirandas, including her latest.  If you have a thriller rec for me, let me know!

Books of 2020

I set out at the beginning of 2020 to read less. I felt like I was speeding through books, choosing smaller books on purpose and avoiding classic tomes that were 600, 700, 800 pages. I pretty much failed at that goal this year (insert laughing face emoji), partly due to more time at home thanks to the pandemic and partly just because I get caught up in the library hustle.* So next year my one and only reading goal is to read the large book "Middlemarch," because I've always wanted to and I seem to keep putting off.

Anyway, below is my list. Scan all the way to the bottom to get recommendations. And if you want to receive my monthly Book Nerd e-mail, sign up on Tiny Letter.

      1.       The Romanov Empress: A Novel of Tsarina Maria Feodorovna by C.W. Gortner
2.       Educated by Tara Westover
3.       Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
4.       Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
5.       The Scent Keeper by Erica Brauermeister
6.       The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
7.       Recursion by Blake Crouch
8.       The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
9.       Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane
10.   Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson
11.   I Owe You One by Sophie Kinsella
12.   The Heroine’s Bookshelf: Life Lessons from Jane Austen to Laura Ingalls Wilder
13.   Good Night, Mr. Tom by Michelle Magorian (YA)
14.   About My Mother: True Stories of a Horse-Crazy Duaghter and Her Baseball Obsessed Mother by Peggy Rowe
15.   Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
16.   The Humans by Matt Haig
17.   The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters
18.   The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
19.   Our Man in Havana by Graham Greene
20.   The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History by Andy Greene
21.   Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
22.   An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
23.   The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin (YA)
24.   On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness by Andrew Peterson (YA)
25.   Good Behavior by Blake Crouch
26.   On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
27.   An Anonymous Girl by Greer Hendricks
28.   The Wives by Tarryn Fisher
29.   Beach Read by Emily Henry
30.   The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
31.   Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
32.   Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
33.   The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward
34.   The Guest List by Lucy Foley
35.   Well Met by Jen DeLuca
36.   I’m Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown
37.   Bringing Down the Duke by Evie Dunmore
38.   As Much As I Ever Could by Brandy Woods Snow
39.   Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
40.   The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
41.   The Girl from Widow Hills by Megan Miranda
42.   Home Before Dark by Riley Sager
43.   You are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks
44.   Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey
45.   Party of Two by Jasmine Guillory
46.   The Roxy Letters by Mary Pauline Lowry
47.   Becoming by Michelle Obama
48.   What You Wish For by Katherine Center
49.   The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story by Hyeonseo Lee
50.   The Simple Wild by K.A. Tucker
51.   The Half Sister by Sandie Jones
52.   Lucky Caller by Emma Mills (YA)
53.   How to Build a Girl by Caitlin Moran (YA)
54.   Things Jolie Needs to Do Before She Bites It by Kerry Winfrey (YA)
55.   The Eighth Detective by Alex Pavesi
56.   The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee (YA)
57.   In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
58.   American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins
59.   Untamed by Glennon Doyle
60.   You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
61.   How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
62.   The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
63.   A Star is Bored by Byron Lane
64.   Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld
65.   American Royals by Katherine McGee (YA)
66.   All Adults Here by Emma Straub
67.   How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
68.   That Churchill Woman by Stephanie Barron
69.   The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer
70.   Solutions and Other Problems by Allie Brosh
71.   Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
72.   The Winemaker’s Wife by Kristin Harmel
73.   The Lacy Genius Way: Embrace What Matters, Ditch What Doesn’t and Get Stuff Done by Kendra Adachi
74.   Bus Friends Forever: Better Together by Christina Burns
75.   Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center
76.   Nothing Like I Imagined by Mindy Kaling
77.   Smoke Gets in Your Eyes and Other Lessons from the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
78.   The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
79.   The Thousandth Floor by Katherine McGee
80.   Majesty by Katherine McGee
81.   A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
82.   One by One by Ruth Ware
83.   The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
84.   A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
85.   The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
86.   Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
87.   The Wonder Boy of Whistle Stop by Fannie Flagg
88.   Instant Karma by Marissa Meyer
89.   Ready Player Two by Ernest Cline
90.   In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
91.   One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London
92.   The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
93.   Well Played by Jen DeLuca
94.   Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
95.   The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
96.   Faraway: Fairy Tales for the Here and Now by Rainbow Rowell, among others
97.   Older by Pamela Redmond Satran
98.   Girls of Summer by Nancy Thayer
99.   The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
100.  Normal People by Sally Rooney

Best Overall
The Humans by Matt Haig

The Midnight Library by Matt Haig

Best Non-Fiction

Educated by Tara Westover

Best Social Justice

Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
 
Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Recursion by Blake Crouch

Best Thrillers
Home Before Dark by Riley Sager

One by One by Ruth Ware

Best YA

American Royals by Katherine McGee

Best Rom Coms/Chick Lit
Beach Read by Emily Henry
Not Like the Movies by Kerry Winfrey
Well Met by Jen DeLuca

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

What You Wish For by Katherine Center

 

*Library hustle is defined as requesting books, having to wait for them to come in, so requesting other books that you don't have to wait for, then all of your hold books coming in at the same time and then repeating that cycle always and forever.

The Top Ten Best Parts of my 40th Birthday

Let me say right off the bat that I've been thinking about my 40th birthday for years. Because of the pandemic of COVID-19, all of my plans went out the window, and I had to adjust my expectations.
But thanks to some lovely, caring, crafty, clever, amazing people in my life, it was one of my best birthdays ever!

Top Ten Best Things about My 40th Birthday

10. No work

Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed working from home during the pandemic. But working from home kind of leads to feeling like you're on the clock 24/7. Having a true break like this was a wonderful gift.  But also, I had no time in my day available to have done work. I was totally planning on checking email and touching base on a couple of projects, but I when I wasn't with my friends or family, I had a full-time job of keeping up with Facebook wall posts, Instagram stories and Marco Polos from friends and family. Oh and my cousin Sarah mailed me a card that included 40 memories she had of me. Some I remembered well, some not so well, but most of them made me laugh and made me love Sarah for sending them.

9. 40 balloons

I've always wanted my own set of these giant number balloons for years.  They make great photo props, and 40 has been such a big-deal number to me for a long time that I'm glad I got to take photos like this one.

8.  All my favorite foods

My day started with Chic-Fil-A breakfast delivered by my dad and finished with a family dinner with all of my favorites: hamburgers on the grill, my dad's pasta salad, company potatoes, fruit salad and salted caramel cake. For lunch, see #5

7. Rainbow week and custom shirts

It just so happened that my birthday fell during a theme week at the gym that I loved: Rainbow week! A different ROY G. BIV shirt each day led up to a collage of sweaty selfies at the end of the week. But also! I had been planning to have a custom shirt made that I could wear for my 40th, and my friend Michelle came through with not one, but three custom shirts! (the green, blue and purple shirts from the sweaty selfie collage below) I love them so much I've already worn the blue (Aloha Forty) and purple (I make forty look good) ones twice each, and it's only been a couple of days since my birthday.

6. A #Fitby40 Video 

A big part of this particular birthday is that I have been long been working under the mantra #fitby40 (and have lost 120-ish pounds in 18 months!). When I signed my contract at Burn, it was going to take me to my 40th birthday. It seemed like a sign, so I took it and it has transformed me both inside and out. Emily, a trainer at Burn, made a montage video of all the pictures and videos she's taken of me at the gym. It was really special to see the physical transition of me getting stronger and leaner, pic by pic.

5. A Taste of Millstone

The fact that this is rated number five is a testament to how awesome this birthday was, because a Taste of Millstone has been a dream of mine for awhile. Ordering all of my favorite pizzas and having a slice or two of each?? I never thought it would actually happen. But circumstances aligned, and my best friends and I each got a different personal pie (buffalo, sausage and goat, and the Zoe, respectively) and shared slices.

4. Fortune Feimster birthday wishes

My friend Judy texted me a personal video from comedian Fortune Feimster. It was so nice of Fortune to take the time to make it for me, and she specifically called out that we're both 1980 babies and that I have lost 100 pounds. Plus, this officially means I'm only one degree from Mindy Kaling now.

3. Video from Co-workers

I woke up to an email from a co-worker with a video they had compiled for me featuring classic Office birthday clips and wishes from each person that brilliantly showcased their personalities.  Knowing that they all filmed their videos not knowing what other people were doing, and still came together so perfectly added to it.  I was so touched. (I can't figure out how to embed it) so here's a couple of screen shots...)

2. Decorations and posters

Maybe you think this one is is so simple that it shouldn't be rated so highly.  But let me tell you, I had not one, but two, pairs of friends come to decorate the front of my house. I came outside as soon as I woke up just to see if anyone had and that's when I saw streamers, balloons, pinwheels and a beautiful Fabulous & 40 sign from Michelle and Becca.  I went back inside to workout and came out a second time to go for a walk and found memes and drawings from Jen and Glenda.

Plus, I got so many beautiful and thoughtful posters during the parade (#1 below!),  and they've been decorating my house ever since!

1. Personal birthday parade!
THE MAJOR HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY!

Unbeknownst to me, my friends conspired to throw me a surprise birthday parade. It consisted of 26 decorated cars (and more than 35 people!) cruising the block honking and yelling happy birthday to me and throwing me goodies and presents. I was so, so touched. I cried the whole time.

I thought that quarantine meant that my birthday would be a smaller, quiet affair, but to have so many people show up for me was just unbelievable.  And I really loved how it was a mix of people from so many of my different friend groups: Burn, book club, old friends, family and coworkers.  I guess it was maybe a simple thing to them, to come drive around the block (although there were several people who came from all the way from Charlotte) and maybe make a poster or two, but it meant so much to me.  And afterwards, my Burn sisters jumped out to do birthday burpees with me on the curb outside my house.

I feel like I keep saying "it was so special" or "I was so touched" over and over when describing my birthday or particular parts of it. I feel like words are failing me as I try to capture just how amazing my birthday was.  It was so much better than I could've imagined or planned myself.  It's just nice to be thought of, you know?

Here's to the next 40 years!

Books of 2019

1. Stop Starting Over: Transform Your Fitness by Mastering Your Psychology by Devan Kline (NF)
2. A Map for Wrecked Girls by Jessica Taylor

3. Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton

4. Still Lives by Maria Hummel
5. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
6. Happiness: The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After by Heather Harpham
7. All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin
8. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
9. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
10.The Library Book by Susan Orlean (NF)
11.Unscripted by Claire Handscombe
12.Archenemies by Marissa Meyer (YA)
13.I Might Regret This: Essays, Drawings, Vulnerabilities and Other Stuff by Abbi Jacobson (memoir-ish)
14.The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate (YA)
15.My Life as a Goddess: A Memoir through (Un)Popular Culture by Guy Branum (memoir)
16.Famous in a Small Town by Emma Mills (YA)
17.This Adventure Ends by Emma Mills (YA)
18.Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
19.Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
20.Five Presidents: My Extraordinary Journey with Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford by Clint Hill (NF)
21.An Unconditional Freedom by Alyssa Cole
22.Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
23.Less by Andrew Sean Greer
24.First & Then by Emma Mills (YA)
25.1st to Die by James Patterson
26.Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
27.Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
28.Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
29.The Kitchen God’s Wife by Amy Tan
30.Foolish Hearts by Emma Mills
31.If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
32.The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo
33. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
34.Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life: Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush (memoir)
35.The Huntress by Kate Quinn
36.Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West (Memoir)
37.Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
38.The Mountain Between Us by Charles Martin
39.Any Man by Amber Tamblyn
40.Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
41.The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
42.The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
43.Kissing Ted Callahan by Amy Spalding (YA)
44.Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham (YA)
45.The Clockmaker’s Daughter by Kate Morton
46.The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
47.On the Come Up by Angie Thomas (YA)
48.The Ghost in the Electric Blue Suit by Graham Joyce
49.There There by Tommy Orange
50.City of Girls by Elizabeth Gillbert
51.Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
52.Heartburn by Nora Ephron
53.No Hard Feelings: Emotions at Work by Liz Fosslien (NF)
54.Hey Ladies! The Story of 8 Best Friends, 1 Year and Way, Way Too Many Emails by Michelle Markowitz
55.Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham (YA)
56.The Memory Trees by Kali Wallace
57.The Whisper Network by Chandler Baker
58.The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
59.The Clay Lion by Amalie Jahn (YA)
60.Evie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
61.The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda
62.Sherwood by Meagan Spooner (YA)
63.In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
64.The Party by Robyn Harding
65.The First Mistake by Sandie Jones
66.The River by Peter Heller
67.Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson
68.Lock Every Door by Riley Sager
69.A Nearly Normal Family by M.T. Edvardsson
70.The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory
71.The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal
72.The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
73.The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
74.Three Sisters by Susan Mallery
75.Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey
76.The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald
77.Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
78.Over the Top: A Raw Journey to Self-Love by Jonathan Van Ness (memoir)
79.When We Left Cuba by Chanel Cleeton
80.An Unwanted Guest by Shari Lapena
81.Christmas Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella
82.The Institute by Stephen King
83.Supernova by Marissa Meyer
84.Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
85.The Cactus by Sarah Haywood
86.The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck
87.Star-Crossed by Minnie Darke
88.The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
89.Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
90.Final Girls by Riley Sager
91.One Thousand White Women: The Journals of May Dodd by Jim Fergus
92.Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
93.Stillwater by Nicole Helget
94.Conviction by Denise Mina
95.Not the Girl You Marry by Andie Christopher
96.The Secrets We Kept by Lara Prescott
97.Legacy (YA) by Shannon Messenger
98.Wires and Nerve by Marissa Meyer (YA)
99.Gone Rogue by Marissa Meyer (YA)
100. The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
101. My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues by Pamela Paul (Memoir)

According to GoodReads, that’s 35,727 pages.

Honestly, it was not a fantastic year of reading. A lot of just okay books. So, the above list is a lot to wade through, let me boil it down to my top 10 favorite books for you (in no particular order):
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey (best rom com in a long time!)
Lock Every Door by Riley Sager (tied with Turn of the Key for best thrillers!)
Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Giver of the Stars by Jojo Moyes
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Five Presidents by Clint Hill (Best non-fiction)
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham (YA)

If you’re a reader and want more regular recommendations on what books I’m enjoying, sign up for my book newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/booknerd and once a month you’ll get an email from me with a few sentences on each of the books I read the previous month.

Books of 2018

 Books of 2018

1. Invictus by Ryan Graudin
2. Imagine Wanting Only This by Kristen Radtke
3. When I was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds
4. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
5. Lincoln in the Bardo by George
6. Tell Me How it Ends: An Essay in 40 Questions by Valeria Luiselli
7. The Color Purple by Alice Walker
8. City of Thieves by David Benioff
9. Stop! by Alison Bailey
10. Present Perfect by Alison Bailey
11. The Jane Austen Project by Kathleen Flynn
12. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
13. Come to the Edge by Christina Haag
14. 1222 by Anne Holt
15. Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson
16. Armada by Ernest Cline
17. You are Here: An Owner's Manual for Dangerous Minds by Jenny Lawson
18. The Map to Everywhere by Carrie Ryan (YA)
19. Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love and Writing by Jennifer Weiner (memoir)
20. Reading People: How Seeing the World through the Lens of Personality Changes Everything by Anne Bogel
21. I'd Rather Be Reading: A Library of Art for Book Lovers by Guinevere de la Mare
22. The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King
23. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
24. In Conclusion, Don't Worry About It by Lauren Graham
25. The All of It by Jeannette Haien
26. Keeper of the Lost Cities by Shannon Messenger (YA)
27. A Study in Charlotte (Charlotte Holmes 1) by Brittany Cavallaro (YA)
28. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
29. Exhile (Keeper of the Lost Cities 2) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
30. The Man in the High Castle by Phillip Dick
31. Everblaze (Keeper of the Lost Cities 3) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
32. The Last of August (Charlotte Holmes 2) by Brittany Cavallaro (YA)
33. Neverseen (Keeper of the Lost Cities 4) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
34. Baker's Magic by Diane Zahler (YA)
35. Lodestar (Keeper of the Lost Cities 5) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
36. Nightfall (Keeper of the Lost Cities 6) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
37. This is Me: Loving the Person You are Today by Chrissy Metz (Memoir)
38. Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki (YA)
39. So Close to Being the Sh*t, Ya'll Don't Even Know by Retta (memoir)
40. The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
41. Love and First Sight by Josh Sundquist (YA)
42. Good Harbor by Anita Diamant
43. The Awkward Path to Getting Lucky by Summer Heacock
44. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
45. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
46. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon
47. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
48. Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie (YA)
49. Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick (YA)
50. Are You There God? It's Me Margaret by Judy Blume
51. Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
52. Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll
53. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
54. The Favorite Sister by Jessica Knoll
55. The President is Missing by Bill Clinton and James Patterson
56. An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League 1) by Alyssa Cole
57. A Hope Divided (The Loyal League 2) by Alyssa Cole
58. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish (Memoir)
59. The Reece Malcolm List by Amy Spalding (YA)
60. Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu (YA)
61. We Should All be Feminists by Ngozi Chimamanda Adichie
62. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
63. The High Season by Judy Blundell
64. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
65. I'll Have What She's Having: How Nora Ephron's Three Iconic Films Saved the Romantic Comedy by Erin Carlson
66. Meant to be Broken by Brandy Woods Snow
67. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
68. The Power by Naomi Alderman
69. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
70. The Summer of Jordi Perez by Amy Spading
71. Roomies by Christina Lauren
72. The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr (YA)
73. Nine Women, One Dress by Jane Rosen
74. But What if We're Wrong? Thinking About the Past As if it Were the Past by Chuck Klosterman
75. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert (YA)
76. Summerland by Michael Chabon (YA)
77. The Blue Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee by Carolyn Brown
78. Whiskey in a Teacup by Reese Witherspoon
79. Circe by Madeline Miller (YA)
80. An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
81. Girl, Wash Your Face: Stop Believing the Lies About Who You Are so You Can Become Who You Were Meant to Be by Rachel Hollis (Memoir)
82. This Will Only Hurt A Little by Busy Phillips (Memoir)
83. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
84. Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian
85. Lethal White (Cormoran Strike 4) by Robert Galbraith
86. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele
87. The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak (YA)
88. This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
89. Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
90. Marilla of Green Gables by Sarah McCory
91. The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager
92. My Own Words by Ruth Bader Ginsburg
93. The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
94. G'morning, Night! Little Pep Talks for Me & You by Lin-Manuel Miranda
95. Dumplin' by Julie Murphy (YA)
96. Flashback (Keeper of the Lost Cities 7) by Shannon Messenger (YA)
97. We are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (Memoir)
98. The Atlas of Love by Laurie Frankel
99. The Case for Jamie (Charlotte Holmes 3) by Brittany Cavallaro (YA)
100. Goodbye for Now by Laurie Frankel
101. Puddin' by Julie Murphy (YA)
102. From Time to Time by Jack Finney
103. Becoming by Michelle Obama (Memoir)
104. The Other Woman by Sandie Jones
105. Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy (YA)
106. One Day in December by Josie Silver
107. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandela
108. Side Affects May Vary by Julie Murphy (YA)
109. Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman

According to GoodReads, that’s 36,532 pages across the 109 books.

Below are some listings of my favorite books from the year. If you’re a reader and want recommendations on what books I’m enjoying, sign up for my book newsletter at www.tinyletter.com/booknerd and once a month you’ll get an email from me with a few sentences on each of the books I read the previous month.

Best Fiction Books
The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

Best Memoirs
So Close to Being the Sh*t Ya'll Don't Even Know by Retta
Becoming by Michelle Obama

Best YA Books
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
Dumplin' by Julie Murphy
Puddin' by Julie Murphy

Best Romance/Rom Com Books
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillroy
One Day in December by Josie Silver

Sallie

My grandma died last Wednesday. I knew this was coming and yet I still feel so sad to have lost her.  Great sobs escaped me as my parents told me the news and discussed their plans for the next week or so.

I was struck by how selfish it was to be sad.  She had been ready to die for three years at least, since she had a stroke that stole her good health from her. Maybe more, since my grandpa died 10 years ago, and she often wondered why she was left behind without him.

At her 90th birthday party

I was able to visit her two weeks ago, during some of the last good days she had.  During the 48 hours I spent with her she told me over and over how beautiful I was, and how happy she was that I had come to visit. It was, honestly, a little awkward for a girl who doesn't know how to accept compliments, but her joy at my presence made me immensely glad to have made the journey. I will treasure that weekend for a long time.

They posted her obituary today. While it's probably more fulsome than the average obit, it doesn't paint a picture of the grandma I want to remember. My grandma made me feel special. I'm one of four children and one of 12 grandchildren, but my grandma saw me.

As a kid, I stayed with her on my own for several weeks each summer.  Together we would walk to the library a couple of times of week, because we both liked to read. My cousins came over, and she would treat us with a walk to the Homewood Grill, a magical place that served soft serve ice cream and hot dogs -- my two favorite foods.

Just weeks after her stroke. She
told me "Don't ever turn 96. It's
all downhill after 96"

When I became an adult, she was an avid reader of this blog and a fan of my Facebook page.  She couldn't figure out how to leave a comment on the blog, but she would tell my mom how proud she was of me for the work I put into losing weight, and she would call me and tell me the same occasionally.  But she never made me feel bad for being overweight in the first place. Even after I regained the weight, I kept trying to lose it because I knew how happy it would make her.  She joined Facebook when she was 92 and commented "like" on all of my posts for the next four years until she had her stroke and had to move into a nursing home.

Touring her garden

I only ever knew her as an old lady, and I wish I had spent more time getting to know her impressions of life as a young woman.  On my last visit, I was desperate to find out how she fell in love with my grandpa. She could recall the circumstances with vivid detail (he was a boarder at the home of one her sorority sisters in college), but she couldn't articulate the feelings (or maybe I wasn't articulating the point of my questions well enough).

The year I was born, my parents moved our family from our homeland of Illinois to the South.  The rest of my life has been spent making annual or bi-annual visits home where we stayed with Grandma.  She was an amazing hostess who had a magic plate (later Tupperware) that was always full of cookies.  No matter how many cookies we ate in a day, the next morning the plate would be full again.  It's a phenomena I've only ever experienced at Grandma's.

With her only daughter, my mama

She was an avid golfer and lamented, that last weekend I spent with her, that she had never gotten a hole in one.  She helped my grandpa run the family business, Johnson and Sons Funeral Home.  She was an active member of more than the average amount of civic and church and social groups.  Everybody liked Sallie, and if you tried to call her on a weekday during her 70s, 80s or early 90s, you wouldn't catch her because the was out socializing.

I know only the bare bones of her life, where she lived, what her parents were like, what she did for fun as a kid, when she married and when she had babies. I'm lucky enough to have several things of hers in my own home, that make me think of her fondly. Every June when my day lilies bloom, I will think of her garden, where these same blooms originated (day lilies are very hardy and easy to transplant, I've learned from her).

I am lucky to have known her. I am glad she is no longer in pain. I just wish it didn't hurt so much for her to be gone.

Books of 2017

1. Unfamiliar Fishes by Sarah Vowell
2. The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings
3. Talking as Fast as I can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls and Everything in Between by Lauren Graham (memoir)
4. House of Thieves by Kaui Hart Hemmings
5. The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells by Andrew Sean Greer
6. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline (re-read)
7. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo (YA)
8. Scrappy Little Nobody by Anna Kendrick (memoir)
9. Introvert Doodles: An Illustrated Collection of Life's Awkward Moments by Maureen Wilson
10. Adulthood is a Myth by Sarah Andersen
11. And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie (re-read)
12. Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo (YA)
13. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood by Tevor Noah (memoir)
14. Younger by Pamela Satran
15. Heartless by Marissa Meyer (YA)
16. Good in Bed by Jennifer Weiner (re-read)
17. My Not so Perfect Life by Sophia Kinsella
18. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
19. The Wonder Trail: True Stories from Los Angeles to the End of the World by Steve Hely (memoir)
20. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty (re-read)
21. Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the American Dream by Joshua Davis (memoir)
22. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
23. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
24. This is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe (memoir)
25. Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar by Cheryl Strayed (memoir)
26. The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
27. The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (memoir)
28. You're Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day (memoir)
29. The People We Hate at the Wedding by Grant Ginder
30. Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple
31. The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
32. The Nest by Cynthia Sweeny
33. Never Have I Ever: My Life (So Far) Without a Date by Katie Heaney (memoir)
34. Alex and Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz (YA)
35. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie (re-read)
36. This Lullaby by Sarah Design
37. What I Was Doing While You were Breeding by Kristin Newman (memoir)
38. Dear Emma by Katie Heaney
39. A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
40. A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab
41. Torch by Cheryl Strayed
42. A Gathering of Shadows by V.E. Schwab
43. Accidental Saints: Finding God in all the Wrong People by Nadia Bolz-Weber (memoir)
44. A Conjuring of Light by V.E. Schwab
45. The Answers by Catherine Lacey
46. The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
47. Sounds Like Me: My Life (So Far) in Song (memoir)
48. Hyberbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping mechanisms, Mayhem and Other Things That Happened by Allie Brosh (re-read)
49. Fitness Junkie by Lucy Sykes
50. Vicious by V.E. Schwa
51. Dark Matter by Blake Crouch
52. The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance: A Memoir by Elna Baker (memoir, re-read)
53. Chemistry by Weikle Wang
54. Head Scratchers; When the Words of Jesus Don't Make Sense by Talbot Davis
55. Desert Places by Blake Crouch
56. The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson
57. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
58. The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
59. Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin
60. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (YA)
61. Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong (YA)
62. Elsewhere by Gabrielle Kevin
63. Carry This Book by Abbi Jacobson
64. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
65. The Opposite of Everyone by Joshilyn Jackson
66. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
67. Artemis by Andy Weir
68. Camino Island by John Grisham (audiobook)
69. Uncommon Type: Some Stories by Tom Hanks (Short stories)
70. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling (re-read, audiobook)
71. Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
72. A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty by Joshilyn Jackson
73. China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan
74. Saints for All Occasions by Courtney J. Sullivan
75. Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan
76. Far From the Tree by Robin Benway (YA)
77. Renegades by Marissa Meyer (YA)
78. Someone Else's Love Story by Joshilyn Jackson
79. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo (YA, audiobook)
80. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
81. When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon (YA)
82. Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (YA, audiobook)
83. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle (YA)