As promised, here are the books I read last year that I liked best. The top ten are arranged chronologically in the order I read them (first the six five-star reads and then the best of the four-star reads), because I don’t really think one stood out above the rest. And I share my other four-star reads at the end, since I didn’t do book reviews last year. Ultimately, this is about half the books I read last year, and I recommend them all:<\/p>\n
Five-Star Reads<\/strong><\/p>\n Rounding Out the Top Ten<\/strong><\/p>\n Other Four-Star Reads\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Mystery<\/span><\/p>\n Fantasy\/Romantasy<\/span><\/p>\n Romance<\/span><\/p>\n The Rest<\/span><\/p>\n As promised, here are the books I read last year that I liked best. The top ten are arranged chronologically in the order I read them (first the six five-star reads and then the best of the four-star reads), because I don’t really think one stood out above the rest. And I share my other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books"],"yoast_head":"\n\n
\nAn older, lonely man who delivers books for a shop finds himself joined on his rounds by a young girl. And suddenly, his life — and those of his customers — begin to change in unexpected ways.<\/li>\n
\nA teen girl growing up in Dust Bowl-era Oklahoma sees no opportunities for her life to get better after her mother dies, she suffers tremendous injuries, and her father founders in grief. But, maybe, even in all the darkness, there is still light. Told in verse.<\/li>\n
\nA heartbreaking parable about losing a loved one to a devastating illness.<\/li>\n
\nA reread, this story is about a man who only discovers his humanity after he dies.<\/li>\n
\nWhen an elderly woman inadvertently brings a mouse into her home, she finds there is a ripple effect, and her solitary and regimented days are suddenly filled with chaos and characters.<\/li>\n
\nOn her 11th birthday, a young girl who lives alone in the woods with her father finds her life upended when he is suddenly hospitalized and she must stay in London with her mother, who moved away many years ago.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\nA young woman must figure out how to respond when her oft-traveling father disappears, her guardian (her father’s well-off employer) curtails her freedom, and a book suddenly lands in her lap, inspiring a harrowing flight across space in pursuit of family and truth.<\/li>\n
\nTranslated from the French, this novel focuses on the caretaker of a graveyard. It alternates between flashbacks to how she arrived at her current profession, diary entries from a woman recently buried at the cemetery, and a more linear story about the caretaker and the woman’s son. Again, a novel about grief and awakening from it.<\/li>\n
\nA post-COVID novel told in alternating points of view between a male teacher who loves hiking and is battling PTSD and a female editor who has trouble leaving her London apartment until a friend from her past won’t take no about a walking holiday with her godson and some other friends. Ultimately a story about breaking out of your comfort zone and taking chances, even when that feels like the last thing you should do.<\/li>\n
\nA young community college student is impregnated by her English professor and then must find a way to stay afloat when she chooses to have the baby. After her ex-pro wrestler father moves in (fresh out of rehab for an addiction to pain meds) and she starts an OnlyFans account (where people will pay her for nude content), she must deal with the continued impact of people judging the decisions she makes for herself and her family.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n
\n
\n
\n