From January 2010 to December 2019, I read 631 books. Of those, 30 were repeat reads of personal favorites – I will never ever tire of Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic – or childhood favorites I read to my son. All-time faves: The Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle Series by Betty MacDonald, The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin, and One Hundred and One Dalmatians by Dodie Smith. Original illustrations a must!
I reread John Irvings’ The World According to Garp and didn’t like it for a second time. A third read of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (once each in my 20s, 30s, and 40s) yielded the same anger and hope for justice, though it was strange this time to realize that I would now be a Martha, not a Handmaid due to my age.
In lieu of any “best” designations, here is a selection of five books that I enjoyed each year of this decade:
2010 (77 books)
The Woman in White – Wilkie Collins
Life Among the Savages – Shirley Jackson
Maisie Dobbs – Jacqueline Winspear
Room – Emma Donoghue
A Visit from the Good Squad – Jennifer Egan
Bonus: Do yourself a favor and read the Nicolas series by René Goscinny and Jean-Jacques Sempé to your favorite kid or to yourself.
2011 (59 books)
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee – Wendy Mosel, Ph.D.
A Discovery of Witches – Deborah Harkness
The Social Animal – David Brooks
True Grit – Charles Portis
The Dovekeepers – Alice Hoffman
2012 (70 books)
Anybody Can Do Anything – Betty McDonald
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton – Jane Smiley
Hedy’s Folly: The Life and Breakthrough Inventions of Hedy Lamarr, the Most Beautiful Woman in the World – Richard Rhodes
The Big Burn – Tim Egan
People of the Book – Geraldine Brooks
Bonus: The Underland Chronicles – Suzanne Collins. I read this series of five books out loud to my son who then reread them obsessively for several years.
2013 (51 books)
Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed
The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Neil Gaiman
Life After Life – Kate Atkinson
Longbourn – Jo Baker
Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
2014 (65 books)
Fin and Lady – Cathleen Schine
The Newlyweds – Nell Freundenberger
O Pioneers! – Willa Cather
The Boys in the Boat – Daniel James Brown
The Twelve Tribes of Hattie – Ayana Mathis
2015 (63 books)
The Art of Asking: How I Stopped Worrying and Let People Help – Amanda Palmer
Lila – Marianne Robinson
In the Unlikely Event – Judy Blume
Truth and Beauty: A Friendship – Ann Patchett
Autobiography of a Face – Lucy Grealy
Read those last two together.
2016 (51 books)
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage – Ann Patchett
The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
The Girl with All the Gifts – MC Carey
The Argonauts – Maggie Nelson
The Source – James Michener
2017 (52 books)
The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
Strangers in their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right – Arlie Russell Hochschild
A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body – Roxane Gay
Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years – David Litt
2018 (75 books)
The Power – Naomi Alderman
Sing, Unburied, Sing – Jessamyn Ward
This Is How It Always Is – Laurie Frankel
The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
The Mars Room – Rachel Kushner
2019 (68 books)
American Spy – Lauren Wilkenson
Sacred Smokes – Theodore C. van Alst, jr.
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup – John Carryrou
The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock – Imogen Hermes Gowan
A Month in the Country – J.L. Carr
This decade I’m three books in and am currently reading Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe. My favorites for the 20s may not even be written yet! Isn’t that something to look forward to?