What are the best books that you have read throughout this year? Unfortunately, I have not read as much this year as I have in other years. My Goodreads list tells me I’m 28 books behind my goal for the year! Yikes. However, I have appreciated what I have read. Published dates are dates items were first published. * denotes a reread; everything else is a first read-through for me.

My current reads (I tend to read multiple books at a time):

At First Light (Dr. Evan Wilding #1) by Barbara Nickless, pub. 2021

The School I Deserve: Six Young Refugees and Their Fight for Equality in America by Jo Napolitano, pub. 2021

A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories, by Chelsea T. Hicks

* The Book of Joy: Lasting Happiness in a Changing World by Dalai Lama XIV, Desmond Tutu, Douglas Carlton Abrams, pub. 2016 (I put down this book back in 2017 when I first started reading it as I was trying to break down what I was reading and absorb the lessons. I recently picked it back up as I am on a different journey of finding joy in a different environment. I am still consuming the lessons in short bursts, but I want to finish by end of this year.)

Completed reads for the year (listed below in the order I read them, starting with most recently finished book):

A Conspiracy of Bones by Katy Reichs, pub. 2020

Hideaway by Nora Roberts, pub. 2020

The Butcher and The Wren by Alaina Urquhart, pub. 2022

Wreckage by Emily Bleeker, pub. 2015

On Beauty by Zadie Smith, pub. 2005

The Hike by Susi Holliday, pub. 2022

Prison Ramen: Recipes and Stories from Behind Bars by Clifton Collins, et al., pub. 2015

Split Second (Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, #1) by David Baldacci, pub. 2002

The Woods by Harlan Coben, pub. 2007

Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson, pub. 2020

The Puma Years by Laura Coleman, pub. 2021

The Other Emily by Dean Koontz, pub. 2021

If You Tell: a True Story of Murder, Family Secrets, and the Unbreakable Bond of Sisterhood by Gregg Olsen, pub. 2019

Say Her Name by Dreda Say Mitchell and Ryan Carter, pub. 2022

The Legend of the Firewalker by Steve Bevil, pub. 2013

* The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, pub. 1892

I am working on writing reviews for these book and will come back to link reviews once written. As you can tell, I am an eclectic reader.

What books have you read this year? Would you recommend them? Why or why not?