The books just keep coming, people, and we'll never catch up. There are always more books to read than hours in the day and I know every time I pick up a book (kindle) that I'm NOT choosing several others in that moment! But...I really liked almost everything I read this year!
As usual, a lot of mishmash here - I've decided that I'm definitely a fan of romance novels (yep, that's an announcement) and I still love YA and middle grade books so much. I can't gush enough about how wonderfully diverse these books have become, especially in the way of LGBTQ representation. Lots of Jewish books here, no surprise. I've also found some fun things over on TikTok's "booktok" - I love seeing how people put their favorite passions (reading! books!) into every form of social media. (You can find me on TikTok at imabima613)
Two final notes: I missed a book! I realized that I had never recorded that I read The Guncle, so I never wrote a review, and it never made it onto my list, until about a week ago. So...oops. Also, I decided to stop at 99 rather than get myself to the 100 mark and then feel like I could never reach it again. So....here's to reasonable and attainable goals! Also, everyone was posting their lists already and I felt a little bit of FOMO so....
Okay, so here's the list:
- When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn
- To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn
- Sea Wife by Amity Gage
- It's in His Kiss by Julia Quinn
- Admission by Julie Buxbaum
- On the Way to the Wedding by Julia Quinn
- You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman
- Caste: The Origins of our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson
- Dear Martin by Nic Stone
- The Inquisitor's Apprentice by Chris Moriarty
- Hope and Other Punchlines by Julie Buxbaum
- A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet
- A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum
- Every Stolen Breath by Kimberly Gabriel
- The Way Back by Gavriel Savit
- The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
- The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly
- The Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan
- It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover
- The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin
- You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson
- Send for Me by Lauren Fox
- Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris
- The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
- Beheld by TaraShea Nesbit
- Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu
- Anxious People by Fredrik Backman
- Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
- The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
- The Consequences of Fear by Jacqueline Winspear
- Adulting by Liz Talley
- The Children's Blizzard by Melanie Benjamin
- Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May
- The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
- The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson
- Sweetshop of Dreams by Jenny Colgan
- Our Year of Maybe by Rachel Lynn Solomon
- Rebel Daughter by Lori Banov Kaufmann
- Majesty by Katharine McGee
- The Lines Between Us by Rebecca D'Harligue
- Evening by Nessa Rapoport
- The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- While Justice Sleeps by Stacey Abrams
- Becoming Duchess Goldblatt by Duchess Goldblatt
- One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston
- And the Bride Closed the Door by Ronit Matalon
- Raising A+ Human Beings by Dr. Bruce Powell
- Last Summer at the Golden Hotel by Elyssa Friedland
- The Woman with the Blue Star by Pam Jenoff
- To Be A Man by Nicole Krauss
- Fat Chance, Charlie Vega by Crystal Maldonado
- The Marrying of Chani Kaufman by Eve Harris
- How to Disappear Completely by Ali Standish
- The Chicken Sisters by K.J. Dell'Antonia
- Float Plan by Trish Doller
- The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer
- The Cellist by Daniel Silva
- The Assignment by Liza Wiemer
- That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
- While We Were Dating by Jasmine Guillory
- Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith
- The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Verity by Colleen Hoover
- I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika Sanchez
- The Queer Principes of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian
- When the English Fall by David Williams
- Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
- Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro
- Hour of the Witch by Chris Bohjalian
- The Heart Principle by Helen Hoang
- The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
- The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee
- The Book of Jeremiah: A Novel in Stories by Julie Zuckerman
- The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles
- The Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
- I, Sarah Steinway by Mary E. Carter
- The Song of Achilles by Madeline miller
- The Best Place on Earth by Ayelet Tsabari
- Motherland by Vineeta Vijayaraghavan
- Beach Read by Emily Henry
- Joyful by Ingrid Fetell Lee
- The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams
- People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
- How to Find What You're Not Looking For by Veera Hiranandani
- Music of Bees by Eileen Garvin
- Israel by Noa Tishby
- Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner
- Linked by Gordan Korman
- The Guncle by Steven Rowley
- The Lost Daughter by Elena Ferrante
- We are Not Like Them by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza
- Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire
- Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
- Before the Coffee Gets Cold by Toshikazu Kawaguchi
- The Lost Things Club by J.S. Puller
- Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden
- The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan
- Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling
It's always really hard to choose favorites, but here are some of mine from the list above (I picked 1 per month) and I made a tiktok of them (I was going to write "cuz I'm cool that way" but I think if I'm writing that, I'm probably definitely not cool.) They might not be your favorites, but I liked them!
You Asked for Perfect
The Four Winds
The Rose Code
Firekeeper's Daughter
Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
The Matzah Ball
House in the Cerulean Sea
Hour of the Witch
Dictionary of Lost Words
The Reading List
Before the Coffee Gets Cold
Special mention: I have to put People Love Dead Jews on this list of "best" books I've read this year even though I might not say "favorite" to describe it. As you can see, I mostly read fiction but this one stood out and I can't stop thinking about it.
Here are my monthly review posts:
Previous years' book lists are here: