Hi, friends, and Happy New Book Year! Last year I set no resolutions but chose instead to indulge one of my deepest passions: READING. I decided to let myself read as much as I liked and now, 143 books later, I can say this intention brought me great JOY and satisfaction (and that I’m continuing it this year).

I read hungrily, with great curiosity and enjoyment. I read fiction, biography, poetry, folklore, self-help, memoir, short stories, auto-biography, non-fiction. I don’t choose books because they’ll be edifying; I choose them because I’m interested in reading them. I didn’t like everything I read, but I did like most of it. One book even scared me silly – Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None. I read books about Hygge and Scandinavian educational theories, a book about developing assertiveness skills, a gigantic biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, some wonderful poem-books by Carol Ann Duffy, some neglected classics, and some books I’d read before. No set program or aims. How lovely to follow whims, reading trails, and curiosity!

I tried to narrow down my list to 20 favorites and found it hard but fun. Here they are, in the order I read them. You’ll notice the genres are all scrambled together, and I hope you’ll regard that as a fun jumble-bag of suggestions. Please feel most welcome to ask me about any of these!

1. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street – Karina Yan Glaser
2. The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman
3. Uncommon Type: Some Stories – Tom Hanks
4. The Lost Words – Robert MacFarlane and Jackie Morriss
5. Wishtree – Katherine Applegate
6. John Adams – David MacCullough
7. Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
8. My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues – Pamela Paul
9. Circe – Madeline Miller
10. Theophilus North – Thornton Wilder
11. The Summer Book – Tove Jansson
12. Lucky Jim – Kingsley Amis
13. The Song of Achilles – Madeline Miller
14. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
15. Lincoln in the Bardo – George Saunders
16. Rules of Civility – Amor Towles
17. Fair Play – Tove Jansson
18. Field Work – Seamus Heaney
19. Will We Be Brilliant or What? – John Spillane
20. Christmas Days: 12 Stories & 12 Feasts for 12 Days – Jeanette Winterson

Favorite new-to-me author: Tove Jansson; OK, and Amor Towles
Best laughs: Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis
Most stunning and genre-busting and remarkable: Lincoln in the Bardo
Best addition to a series: The Book of Dust by Philip Pullman
Most gorgeous words and images: The Lost Words
Best company: John Spillane in Will We Be Brilliant or What?
Pure Pleasure: Christmas Days by Jeanette Winterson