Best Books of 2020

Wow. What a week. I'm struggling to come up with worlds to describe how I feel about what went down at the Capitol on Wednesday - but surprised is not one of them given the rhetoric of Donald Trump. I'm just glad there will be a transfer of power in the near future. It won't magically solve the issues in our country but it's a huge step in the right direction.

Now back to the topic at hand - reading! 2020 was an amazing reading year! I know some had trouble concentrating on reading in the midst of the pandemic but I read more than ever and finished 107 books, beating out my 2019 reading by 2 books. When I went through my list of books to pick my favorites, I didn't have a number of books in mind for my best of list - so I ended up with an odd number of 11. I didn't want to pare it back or find a 12th book so 11 it is!

Non-Fiction

One consequence of the pandemic was that I read less non-fiction than years past as I craved more lighter/happier books to offset the heaviness of life. So only 2 non-fiction books made my "best of" list. Both are excellent. Know My Name is the memoir of a sexual assault victim - our book club read this and everyone thought it was excellent. It's a great examination of how we treat victims. So You Want to Talk About Race is the best racial justice book that I read in 2020. Each chapter delves into a common argument when discussing racial justice. The author weaves in her personal experience and helps the reader discuss controversial topics. This is a book that I would like to re-read as there is a lot to absorb/take in.

Lighter Reads

I read and enjoyed a lot of lighter reads, especially romances, but these are my top lighter reads. The School of Essential Ingredients is about a cooking class that meets at a restaurant once a week. In each chapter, we meet a different class participant and get to know their back story. It was a delightful read. Party of Two is the last book in Jasmine Guillory's romance series - I read all of them during 2020 so that whole series goes on my "best of" list. You don't need to read them in order but I think it's best if you do as characters from previous books make cameos in future books. The Boston Girl isn't necessarily super light but it's not literary fiction so I felt like it fit better in this category. It's an oral history of the protagonist's life when she was growing up in Boston. It was a super fast read so if you need a page turner, check out this book!

Literary Fiction

Literary fiction is my favorite genre so it's no surprise that 6 ended up on my "best of" list! If You Want to Make God Laugh is written by a South African author and takes place in post-Apartheid South Africa. It deals with poverty, class, and race and has 3 narrators - 2 white sisters and a black woman. I love multiple-narrators books and this one was very well done. This Tender Land is by a Minnesota author and takes place mostly in northern MN. It's about 3 orphans who escape an orphanage to seek out a better life. It's so good! Such a Fun Age is an excellent examination of race and class. It looks at the dynamic between a wealthy white woman and her Black nanny. The Dearly Beloved features 2 couples. The husbands are pastors at a church in NYC. It looks at what happens when 2 people in a relationship have different levels of faith. Rodham imagines what would have happened if Hillary declined Bill Clinton's proposal. I had to keep reminding myself this wasn't a memoir and was fiction! Lastly, The Vanishing Half is the amazing sophomore novel from Brit Bennett. I will read anything this woman writes! It's about 2 twin sisters who are lighter skinned Black women. One passes as white, the other retains her Black identity.

And there you have it! William is screaming so it's time for me to wrap this up! What were your best reads of 2020? Did anything on this list catch you eye?

Best Books of 2018

I was nervous about how much reading - or really how little - I might get done during my first year of parenting. But it turns out I had nothing to be worried about. I ended up reading 87 books and will likely finish another one before the year ends which will make this my biggest reading year ever! I should have known that if I found time to read when I was studying for the CFA (which was a huge time suck), I would find time to read as a new mom.

I get a lot of comments asking how I find the time to read. I definitely got a lot of reading done while I pumped but even if I hadn't pumped, I think I still would have found time to read in 2018. I also read on my bus commute and for 30-60 minutes before bed, depending on how tired I am. And I choose books over tv much of the time. All those snippets of time, both big and small, really add up! 

Now that I've addressed how I found the time to read, here's a list of the best books I read in 2018 in no particular order!

1. Every Note Played by Lisa Genova - I have read and loved every book by this author. She has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard and her expertise in that field is apparent in her books, which are all about different neurological disorders. Her latest book is about ALS. In this book, we meet Richard, an accomplished concert pianist who is diagnosed with ALS> He is in desperate need of a caretaker when the most unlikely person rises to the challenge - his ex-wife. Genova weaves together his experience with this disease with a story of the aftermath of a failed marriage. I could not put this book down and read it in just over 24 hours.

2. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett - This is my favorite Patchett book of the ones I've read. It's about 2 families who merge when the father of 4 children marries the mother of 2 children. It's very much a character-driven novel instead of plot-driven but I tend to like those kind of books. Even if character-driven novels aren't your thing, I still think this one is worth picking up because the story is so rich and the characters are so well-developed. I was sad when the book ended because I wanted to see how their  lived continued to unfold. 

3. This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell - This novel definitely falls more under "literary fiction" but it's still pretty accessible in my opinion. It's a young American professor who falls in love with a famous actress who trades a life lived in the limelight for a life of seclusion in Ireland. The story isn't told in a linear fashion so it can be confusing at times, but it's worth sticking with it!

4. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza - This novel is about an Indian-American family living in CA. When the novel opens, the eldest daughter is getting married and we learn that her younger brother has returned for her wedding after being estrange from the family for years. The novel moves in a non-linear fashion and we learn, through snippets of the family's life, about the 3 children and the parents. It's a heart-breaking novel about faith, parenting/being a siblings of a difficult child, and forgiveness. 

5. Alternate Side by Anna Quindlen - This is definitely another character-driven novel, which seems to be a theme for my favorites! I adore Anna Quindlen so it's no surprise that her latest novel made my best of life for 2018. That said, it gets a pretty low 3.36 rating on Goodreads so if you aren't a Quindlen fan, you should probably skip this one. It's a novel about a couple living on the Upper West Side of NYC. The novel is about tensions - both in a close-knit neighborhood and between a husband and wife.

6. How to Find Love in a Bookshop by Veronica Henry - This is a delightful read set in a book shop in Cotswold, England. It's a light, easy breezy read but sometimes that's just what you need - especially after a heavy read. I'm a sucker for any book set in a book shop!

7. Educated by Tara Westover - This was such an engrossing memoir about a woman that grew up in a family that took an extreme interpretation of the Mormon faith. her parents didn't put them in school but they did not home school them either. Instead they were put to work and asked to do work that put their lives in danger. Her parents' distrust of and paranoia about the government and medical profession is baffling. It was hard to read about the abuse the author suffered but she did find a way to educated herself, and through her education she began to come to terms with the abuse she suffered.

8. The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner - This memoir was one of the most heart-breaking books I have ever read. It’s about a woman’s experience growing up in a religious cult in Mexico. Her parents belonged to a polygamous sect of the Mormon church. It was so difficult to read about the poverty and abuse that this woman and her family experienced. I found myself laying awake at night, thinking about what her and her siblings went through. It’s hard to understand how her mother could have chosen this life and subjected her children to such misery. But even though she could have harbored feelings of resentment for her mom, she writes from a place of acceptance and forgiveness. Because of the way my holds became available at the library, I read this immediately after reading Educated. I do not recommend reading these back-to-back!!

9. The Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne - This novel is about Cyril Avery, an Irish boy born out of wedlock. He gets adopted by a wealthy, eccentric couple and this novel follows his life. Cyril is such a sweet, likeable character. This is one of those books where you are sad when they end because you don't want to say goodbye to the characters!

So 9 is an odd number to end on but I don't want to force myself to add another book to this list just to round it out to an even number!

What were your best reads of 2018?

Year in Review: 12 Best Books of 2015

December is one of my favorite months of the year for many reasons - one of which is the plethora of "Best Of" lists that are floating around in the interwebs. I especially love the best books of the year lists as I'm always curious to see what made the cut for other readers.

As of the writing of this post, I've read  whopping 84 (!!!) books which is the most books I have likely ever read in a year, edging out my record of 79 books in 2013. I read a lot of really awesome books this year, but here are the 12 best books, in no particular order.  I'd confidently recommend all of these to other readers.

1. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - Truth be told, I'm typically not a huge Kristin Hannah fan as some of the books I've read by her felt like the kind of chick lit that makes my skin crawl a bit (e.g., weak and/or helpless female characters). But after hearing others rave about this book, I decided to give Hannah another shot and I am so glad I did! This book falls under the category of WWII historical fiction but what I loved about it was that it mostly focused on the courageous women who did what they could to fight the Nazi's in ways both big and small.

2. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins - Everyone and their mom loved this book, and I loved it, too. It's a psychological thriller that will engage you from the get-go. Some have compared it to Gone Girl as it is a page turner that features an unreliable narrator but unlike Gone Girl, the author is not utilizing the unreliable narrator to manipulate the reader.

3. The Book of Unknown Americans by Cristina Henriquez - This book is a great book to read to gain an understanding of what it is like to come to the U.S. as an immigrant, and if there was ever a time to put yourself in the shoes of an immigrant, now is that time. In this book, we meet several different families that have immigrated to the U.S. from countries such as Mexico and Panama. The families come to the U.S. for varied reasons but the common thread among those reasons is to provide a better life for their families. Each chapter is told from the perspective of a different person but the book comes together seamlessly. It will make you think about how all the seemingly insignificant decisions we make every day form the path our lives will take.

4. Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie - This is another immigrant story as it about a Nigerian woman that immigrates to the U.S., spends about 13 years in the U.S., and then returns to Nigeria. It will make you think about race and our class system. It's a bit long and dense at times but worth the read.

5. The Engagements by J. Courtney Sullivan - Shifting to a lighter book, this novel tells the story of the woman behind the ubiquitous "A Diamond is Forever" campaign. Besides learning about the life of the woman that came up with that slogan, the book also follows 4 other stories which are interconnected. The stories are all about relationships, engagement rings, and the diamond industry.

6. The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar - This is the 3rd book I have read by this author and I loved it just as much as the other two. In this book we meet Lakshmi. She has attempted to commit suicide so is working with a therapist named Maggie. The narration shifts between each character and the book is about the lives of both women as well as their patient/therapist relationship. Both characters have flaws and make poor choices but the author writes about them in a way that helps the reader to feel compassion for both women.

7. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff - Of the books that made my best of list, this is definitely the most "high brow" as it firmly falls under the category of literary fiction. That said, it is excellently written so while the writing techniques went over my head at times, I still loved the book. It tells the story of a marriage and is broken into two parts: the first part is told from the husband's perspective and the second party is told from the wife's perspective. The book left me thinking about how what others observe when viewing relationships from the outside is only the tip of the ice berg. It also raises the question of - how well can you really know another person?

8. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri - I typically am not a huge fan of short story collections, so the fact that this collection made my best of list speaks to how well it was written. Sometimes short stories feel inaccessible and I struggle to feel connected to the characters since they are somewhat brief but that was not the case with this book. For the most part, the stories all made me feel something and I was sad to see each one come to an end.  The writing was so very beautiful - it's likely a book I will re-read down the road.

9. The Martian by Andy Weir - This is a book that I likely would not have read if not for the Read Harder challenge as the cover and topic (space) wouldn't have appealed to me, but I ended up loving it! The voice of the main character is hilarious and the book was so engaging. I also saw the movie and it was probably one of the best book adaptations I've seen!

10. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg - This book made the long list for several awards, so I decided to check it out and am so glad I did. This novel manages to be both a quiet story and a story that takes the reader by storm due to the heavy subject matter (the tragic and sudden loss of a woman's daughter, soon-to-be son-in-law, boyfriend and ex-husband on the eve of her daughter's wedding). The story is told from multiple points at view and at times it is hard to keep the cast of characters straight, but it somehow works - really well. I was really sad when the book came to an end as I wanted to hear more of the story and how the characters carried on, which is the mark of a good book in my opinion. In some ways, the feel of this book reminded me of the book "Every Last One" by Anna Quindlen, so if you enjoyed that book you should check this one out.

11. We Were Liars by E. Lockhart - I read this book in one sitting during a read-a-thon in January. It's one of those books that has become a "Swiss army " recommendation as it's a book that I feel confident recommending to anyone regardless of their reading preferences. It's a gripping page turner with an ending that was stunning for me. It's classified as young adult but don't let that classification turn you away as I think a person of any age will enjoy this.

12.  Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng - This was a great book that grabbed me right from the beginning. It's about a family dealing with the mysterious death of their daughter. The author shows us the aftermath of her death as well as the days, months, and years leading up to the time of her death. It addresses topics like racism, the sacrifices parents make and the weight of expectations of parents. I felt a sense of dread while reading the book and it's one I have continued to think about. It's a great book club book as there are so many topics and issues to discuss.

I can tell that I really focused on reading more diverse books in 2015, thanks to the Read Harder Challenge, as my best of list features a lot of women writers with diverse backgrounds/countries if origin.

What were some of the best books you read this year?  What are you currently reading?  I'm reading and really enjoying The Goldfinch!

Top 10 Books of 2014

I thought I'd sandwich my Best Books of 2014 post between my 2014 recap to break things up a bit.  As of now, I've read 68 books this year, which is fewer than the 79 books I read in 2013 (which was an abnormally high number and a signal of how much time I spent alone), but far more than my goal of 52.  Here are my favorites of the year in no particular order!

1.  Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch - This is a memoir written by a woman who battled the crippling grief of losing her sister by reading a book a day for an entire year.  She learns a lot about herself in the process and most importantly, finds healing.  It sort of reminded me of "The End of Your Life Book Club".  I loved this quote from the final pages:  "The only answer to sorrow is to live. To live looking backward, remembering the ones we have lost, but also looking forward, with anticipation and excitement. And to pass on those feelings of hope and possibility through acts of kindness, generosity, and compassion."

2.  The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein - I bought this book off of one of those BookBub eBook deal of the day emails as I was drawn to it after reading Shoshanah's review. It's about WWII but unlike most of the books I've read about that era, this book was set in Japan.  If you like historical fiction, I highly recommend this book.

3. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent - This book is dark and can be described as slow moving at times but I loved it so much as the writing was so good.  It's set in the 1820s and is about a woman who has been charged with the murder of her master.  She is sent to live with a family on a farm until her death by hanging.  It was a chilling read for me.

4. The Vacationers by Emma Straub - This is another book that was recommended by a blogger, this time by Lisa-Marie.  It looked like it would be pretty light based on the cover but it had a lot of depth to it.  It's about a family who takes a 2 week trip to Mallorca as a celebration of the husband and wife's anniversary and a final hurrah before their daughter heads to college. There's isn't much plot and instead the book delves into the characters and their relationships with each other. 

5. From Here to Paris by Cris Hammond - I read a lot of memoirs set in France but this one was one of my favorites of the year as it was just plain fun to read!  It's about a man who gets laid off and instead of wallowing in self-pity, him and his wife buy a river barge and sail the rivers of France.  Reading this book made me really want to take a river barge tour of France some day!

6.  Still Life with Bread Crumbs by Anna Quindlen - When I was reading this book, I probably wouldn't have guessed that it would make my top books for 2014 list...  but it's one of those books that I liked the more and more I reflected upon it.  It's about a woman who leaves her life in NYC and spends a year in a cabin in upstate New York, as for both financial and personal reasons, she needs a change of scenery. The book is about that year away. There is not a whole lot of plot but it was still a good read. I pretty much love every Quindlen book I read - I think her writing is just excellent.  I found myself highlighting a lot of passages of the book, but this was my favorite as it resonated with me:  "One day she had been out walking and had wondered whether she'd become a different person in the last year... Then when she really thought about it she realized she'd been becoming different people for as long as she could remember but had never really noticed it or had put it down to moods, or marriage, or motherhood. The problem was that she'd thought that at a certain point she would be a finished product. Now she wasn't sure what that might be, especially when she considered how sure she had been about it at various times in the past, and how wrong she'd been."

7.  Us by David Nicholls - I adored Nicholls other book, "One Day" so was excited to read this and it did not disappoint.  It is darker and heavier as it's about a couple who takes a summer vacation through Europe with their son, which sounds marvelous - except before they leave for the trip, the wife tells the husband that she has decided their marriage is over and she will leave him after the trip is over.  Hence the heavy nature of the book.  The husband is the narrator of the book and he tells the story of their trip, city by city, while weaving together reflections of the relationship with his wife and their experiences dating, getting married and raising their son.  It's dark and honest and heartbreaking.

8.  The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult - I am really not a Picoult fan as I find her books to be so formulaic and longer than is necessary but I was urged to read this by others as they said it was different from what she typically writes.  Which was completely the case.  It's about a young Jewish girl who befriends an older man in the community and finds out that he was an SS guard.  He asks the young girl to help him kill himself as he feels that is the punishment he deserves for his involvement in the atrocities of the Holocaust.  If you like WWII books, this is worth checking out.

9. The Girls from Corona Del Mar by Rufi Thorpe - This is another book that I would describe as dark.  It's about the friendship between two girls who meet at a young age.  The books follows their progression through life. It's about friendship, our fates and whether a person deserves what they get. It brings to question how well we ever really know another person.

10.  The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin - OK, this list was not in any particular order but I did save the best book for last.  This was hands down my favorite book of the year.  The characters were delightful and it's one of those books that I really did not want to end.  It's about a bookseller who owns a store on an island near Boston. He's smart and quirky and you will want him to exist in real life so you can shop in his bookstore and talk about books with him. I borrowed it from the library but it's one of those books that I wish I owned and may need to buy.  Read it - I know you'll love it!  Here's one of my favorite passages:  "We are what we love. We are that we love... We aren't the things we collect, acquire, read. We are, for as long as we are here, only love. The things we loved. The people we loved. And these, I think they really do live on."

What were your favorite books of 2014?  What are you looking forward to reading in 2015?  I'm excited to read "The Rosie Effect" which is the sequel to the book "The Rosie Project."  

5 Best Books of 2013

I'm back from my week at home.  I'll tell you more about it later this week, but suffice it to say that I had a wonderful time!

Back to the post topic at hand...  I read a lot in 2013!  As of today, I have read 79 books which is by far the most books I have read in a year.  Between all the flights I took and the extra alone time in a new city, I had a lot of time to read. And luckily, I read some really great books.  Here are my top 5 picks from 2013, in no particular order!

And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini - If you haven't read something by Hosseini, I highly recommend that you do.  His writing is beautiful and his books are always such page-turners for me.  And The Mountains Echoed was a little different than his other books as there were several story lines that were all inter-connected.  It got off to a bit of a slow and confusing start for me initially but I am glad I stuck with it as it was truly a wonderful book.  It was one of those books that I was sad to see end as I just really loved the characters.

Still Alice by Lisa Genova - This has been on my TBR list for years and I finally got around to reading it this year.  It was such a great book.  It's told from the perspective of Alice, a Harvard professor who develops early-onset Alzheimer's over the course of the book.  This book was especially impactful for me as Phil's dad had Alzheimer's so it was especially heart breaking to read about this, knowing his dad was suffering from this disease.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes - I loved this book.  It's about a heavy subject as the main character is a care taker for a quadriplegic.  Despite the heavy topic, the author did a great job of introducing humor along the way and I actually laughed out loud occasionally, which doesn't happen very often when I am reading.  This book is a tear jerker, so have some Kleenexes on hand.

The Little Way of Ruthie Leming by Rod Dreher - My aunt/God-mom is a retired English teacher so every time I see her, I ask her about her latest and greatest reads. She recommended this book when I saw her at Julia Child Night so I downloaded it onto my nook for my Paris trip.  I ended up starting and finishing this book on my flight back to Charlotte.  It was so, so good.  It falls under the memoir category as the author writes about the life of his younger sister. But there are other elements in the book such as the decision to live far from family to pursue your career, and whether it's worth the sacrifices (which obviously hit home for me).  Warning:  it's another tear jerker.  I started crying when I got to a really sad part of the book and could not stop!  Which was a little embarrassing since I was in such a public place but oh well!

Those Who Save Us by Jenna Blum - My best of list wouldn't be complete without a WWII book!  I have owned this one for years but finally got around to reading it for my online book club.  It was such a great book.  There is a modern-day story as the main character, Trudy, researches her family's past and it's potential tie to a Nazi soldier, and then the book flashed back to the time of WWII.  I especially loved that it was partially set in Minnesota as it's always fun to read books that are set in a city you know and love.





What were your best reads of 2013?

Best Books of 2012

Greetings and Happy Friday!  It's hard to believe it's the last Friday of the year, isn't it?  I'm still amazed at how fast this year flew by.  I have a pretty quiet weekend ahead of me.  My boyfriend and I are going to happy hour at my favorite Mexican place, so thoughts of a yummy cucumber margarita are definitely going to pull me through what will likely be a quiet work day!

One of my favorite parts about the end of the year is all the "best of" lists that come out.  Best books.  Best movies.  Best moments.  So today I thought I'd share the 10 best books that I read this year (out of the 56 that I have finished thus far)!

Here they are in no particular order!

10.  Blackberry Winter by Sarah Jio - I love all of Jio's books, but I think this one was my favorite!

9.  The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh - This book sucked me in right from the get go and was a page turner for me.

8.  The Moment by Douglas Kennedy - This was probably the book that I highlighted the most passages of.  It's really beautifully written.

7.  Looking for Alaska by John Green - This was the 2nd book that I read by this YA author and it did not disappoint.  In some ways it reminds me of the movie "Dead Poet's Society".  I think any adult would enjoy it.

6.  Room by Emma Donoghue - This was probably the most disturbing book that I read in 2012, but I am glad I read it.  It took awhile to get used to the narrator since the story was told by a young boy, but it was worth sticking with.

5.  The Fault in Our Stars by John Green - I LOVED this book.  It is a YA book, but it so does not fit into that genre in my opinion.  It was so beautifully written and was just so good.  Read it. You'll love it.

4.  The Violets of March by Sarah Jio - This is Jio's first book.  It makes me want to visit more of the Pacific Northwest.

3.  The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern - This was such a magical and intriguing book.  I did not want the story to end!

2.  Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - Ok, this book was totally and completely messed up and by the end of the book, I could not stand either of the main characters, but I still love it.

1.  The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky - I love how this book was told in the form of letters written by the main character.  I would highly recommend watching the movie after reading the book!

What were some of the best books you read in 2012?

PS - Happy Birthday to my dear dad!  I'll have a margarita (or two) in your honor tonight!  :)