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Tag: top twenty books
- Top Twenty Books 2022
  
  Posted at 9:04 am by Jeddarae, on December 31, 2022
  
  Hey strangers! I thought I would resurrect my mostly deceased blog for my annual favorite reads of the year post.
  
  According to Goodreads, I’ve read 164 books so far this year. (I’m still hoping to make that number 166 before the ball drops tonight. Wish me luck!) I read so many good books that it was hard to choose just twenty, so at the end of the post, you’ll find twenty honorable mentions.
  
  For your sanity and mine, I left off all poetry collections and rereads.
  
  Prepare yourself, it’s giving lots of fantasy and celebrity memoirs. But there are some romances and thrillers to balance out the overabundance of witches and A-lister tea.
  
  Without further ado, here we go (in absolutely no particular order–except the five-star reads come first, of course.)
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy–published 2022–320 pages–memoir.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel–published 2022–255 pages–science fiction.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young–published 2022–350 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R.F. Kuang–published 2022–545 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher–published 2022–245 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Ghosts by Dolly Alderton-published 2020–352 pages–contemporary fiction.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Now Is Not the Time to Panic by Kevin Wilson–published 2022–256 pages–contemporary fiction.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  I’ll Show Myself Out: Essays on Midlfe & Motherhood by Jessi Klein–published 2022–288 pages–nonfiction.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Wrong Place Wrong Time by Gillian McAllister–published 2022–416 pages–thriller.
  
  Rating: 5 out of 5.
  
  Cursed Fates (Zodiac Academy #5) by Caroline Peckham and Susanne Valenti–published 2020–886 pages–fantasy/romance.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  You Made a Fool of Death with Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi–published 2022–288 pages–LGBTQ+ romance.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  Disorientation by Elaine Hsieh Chou–published 2022–403 pages–contemporary fiction.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  The Golden Enclaves (The Scholomance #3) by Naomi Novik–published 2022–407 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  The Atlas Series Books 1 & 2 by Olivie Blake–published 2020 and 2022–383 and 400 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  The Storyteller: Tales of Life and Music by Dave Grohl–published 2021–384 pages–nonfiction.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari–published 2018–372 pages–nonfiction.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  Olga Dies Dreaming by Xóchitl González–published 2022–369 pages–contemporary fiction.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston–published 2022–368 pages–paranormal romance.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  A Far Wilder Magic by Allison Saft–published 2022–384 pages–fantasy.
  
  Rating: 4 out of 5.
  
  Daughter of the Moon Goddess (The Celestial Kingdom Duology #1) by Sue Lynn Tan–published 2022–512 pages–fantasy.
  
  Honorable Mentions
  
  All cover art is taken from Goodreads.com.
  
  Posted in book reviews, books, reading | 0 Comments | Tagged best books 2022, book reviewer, book reviews, books, top twenty books
- Top Twenty Books 2019
  
  Posted at 2:15 pm by Jeddarae, on January 2, 2020
  (featured photo credit)
  
  Sorry for my unannounced extended hiatus . . . but life happens (e.g. two teaching preps, new curriculum, remodeling the kitchen, traveling for the holidays, and obsessively listening to Taylor Swift’s Red and Lover albums whilst procrastinating). But I’M BAAAAACCCCKKKK on the 2020 blogging train with one of my favorite yearly posts–my favorite reads of 2019.
  
  And choosing my favorite reads this year proved more difficult than it was the previous year. I’m #sorrynotsorry for the lack of book reviews for my faves, but trying to decide which of the 153 books I read deserved to be ranked sucked my time for this post dry. Quite frankly, there are nearly 40 more books that I’d recommend; if you want to see a full list of my 2019 reads and how I rated them, check out my 2019 book challenge on Goodreads.
  
  Anyway, drumroll please . . . here are my favorite books read in 2019:
  1. Not That Bad: Dispatches from Rape Culture edited by Roxane Gay–nonfiction essays–five stars–published 2018
  2. Recursion by Black Crouch–science fiction–five stars–published 2019
  3. Arc of a Scythe series (Scythe, Thunderhead, and The Toll) by Neal Shusterman–dystopian YAL–five stars–published 2016-2019
  4. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza–contemporary fiction–five stars–published 2019
  5. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid–historical/contemporary fiction–five stars–published 2019
  6. Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy–political nonfiction–five stars–published 2018
  7. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander–political nonfiction–five stars–published 2010
  8. The Library Book by Susan Orlean–historical nonfiction–five stars–published 2018
  9. The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill–middle grade fantasy–five stars–published 2016
  10. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate–middle grade–five stars–published 2012
  11. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman–chick lit/books about books–five stars–published 2019
  12. Inside Out & Back Again by Thanhha Lai–middle grade poetry/historical fiction–five stars–published 2011
  13. The Common Good by Robert B. Reich–political nonfiction–five stars–published 2018
  14. The Trouble with Poetry – And Other Poems by Billy Collins–poetry–five stars–published 2007
  15. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid–historical/contemporary fiction–four stars–published 2017
  16. Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb–autobiographical nonfiction–four stars–published 2019
  17. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong–fiction/poetry–four stars–published 2019
  18. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane–contemporary fiction–four stars–published 2019
  19. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead–historical fiction–four stars–published 2019
  20. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou–business nonfiction–four stars–published 2018
  There you have it! I’ll be back next week with my New Year’s resolutions post.
  
  (All book art taken from Goodreads.com)
  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 4 Comments | Tagged blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, books in 2019, read, reading, top twenty, top twenty books, writing, yoga
- Top Twenty Books 2018
  
  Posted at 12:19 am by Jeddarae, on December 29, 2018
  (All book art taken from Goodreads.)
  
  As per requested, here are my top twenty reads of the year.
  
  I’m currently sitting at 132 books under my belt and am hoping to hit 135 before year’s end. Not only did I read more than I did last year, but I made an effort to read more nonfiction. And because I’ve already reviewed most of these books on this list, I’m taking the laziest route possible and not re-reviewing them. (Please feel free to check out my previously posted book reviews. Next week’s post will be reviews of my reads from December.) However, I did rank them from most favorite to not-my-favorite-but-still-really-good.
  1. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah–five stars–published 2018–historical fiction
  2. Uprooted by Naomi Novik–five stars–published 2015–fantasy
  3. So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo–five stars–published 2018–nonfiction
  4. Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1) by Ernest Cline–five stars–published 2011–science fiction
  5. The Bear and the Nightingale (Winternight Trilogy, #1) by Katherine Arden–five stars–published 2017–fantasy
  6. The Girl in the Tower (Winternight Trilogy, #1) by Katherine Arden–five stars–published 2017–fantasy
  7. Six of Crows (Six of Crows, #1) by Leigh Bardugo–five stars–published 2015–fantasy/YAL
  8. Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows, #2) by Leigh Bardugo–five stars–published 2016–fantasy/YAL
  9. Stardust by Neil Gaiman–five stars–published 1999–fantasy/YAL
  10. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari–five stars– published 2011–nonfiction
  11. The Martian by Andy Weir–five stars–published 2011–science fiction
  12. Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 Hardest Things I’m Learning to Say by Kelly Corrigan–five stars–published 2018–nonfiction/memoir-ish
  13. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson–five stars–published 2015–nonfiction/memoir-ish
  14. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones–five stars–published 2018–contemporary fiction
  15. Red Rising (Red Rising, #1) by Pierce Brown–five stars–published 2014–science fiction
  16. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal–four stars–published 2017–contemporary fiction
  17. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain–four stars–published 2014–nonfiction
  18. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn–four stars–published 2006–mystery/thriller
  19. Circe by Madeline Miller–four stars–published 2018—fantasy
  20. Less by Andrew Sean Greer–four stars–published 2017–contemporary fiction
  As always, I’d love to hear what you have to say about these books if you’ve read them. Cheers!
  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized, writing | 4 Comments | Tagged best books 2018, blogging, blogs, book reviews, books, reading, top twenty, top twenty books
- Top Twenty Books of 2017
  
  Posted at 4:27 pm by Jeddarae, on January 4, 2018
  Here’s my promised list of my favorite reads from 2017. My 2017 goal was to read 100 books, and I hit 119 over the course of the year.
  
  And did I go broke? No. I bought ONE book out of 119 to support an old acquaintance who published her first book. I borrowed two books from friends. All the rest were library books. You can read more here, Thirty Seven More to Go, about how the internet and the library have revolutionized my reading habits.
  
  Anyway, so many of these books were so so so so good. I couldn’t narrow it down to just a top ten.
  
  Will a top 20 suffice?
  1. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson. This one is my favorite. It’s the funniest thing I have ever read. You think you’re crazy? Your crazy might be able to compete with Jenny Lawson’s crazy, but there’s no way you can recount personal anecdotes about your own life as hilariously as she does.
  2. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. This one is my second favorite. Even though it’s YAL, it’s an important book about racism and police brutality. The writing appears deceptively simple but stuns with complexity, revealing Thomas’s show stopping story telling prowess.
  3. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman. I hate that this lovely book falls into third. It’s hilarious and endearing. It’s like the best kind of mash-up of The Rosie Project and A Man Called Ove.
  4. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Do you remember that movie Stardust with Claire Danes and Michelle Pfeiffer? I adored it when I saw it in the movie theater. I had no idea Neil Gaiman wrote the book (He also wrote Coraline.), let alone who he was at the time. He’s now one of my favorite fantasy authors ever. This book is a must read for fantasy fans.
  5. We Need to Talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver. Sinister. Disturbing. Epistolary, which I normally despise thanks to TWO forced readings of Pamela in college, but I didn’t let that get in the way of inhaling this accidental reread about a school massacre. (And since it is an accidental reread, I do feel guilty about putting it in my top five. But what evs. It’s my top five dammit. I can do what I want.)
  Here’s the point where I stop ranking and describing and start listing. Because I could go on and on and on about all of these books, and ain’t nobody got time for that. But in particular, me. I don’t have time for that!!!
  - Beneath a Scarlet Sky by Mark T. Sullivan.
  - The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena.
  - A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman.
  - Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me by Mindy Kaling.
  - The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
  - The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware.
  - Bittersweet by Miranda Beverly-Whitemore.
  - Beartown by Fredrik Backman.
  - American Gods by Neil Gaiman.
  - A Conjuring of Light (Shades of Magic Series Book 3) by V.E. Schwab.
  - The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt
  - Saints for All Occasions by J. Courtney Sullivan.
  - The Keepers of the House by Shirley Ann Grau.
  - The Good Girl by Mary Kubica.
  - Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng.
  Most of the books I read last year were very enjoyable, and I would recommend 85 percent of them.
  
  For a full list of books read or quit during 2017, you can check out this post, The Books I Read in 2017.
  
  If you have any questions about any of the books or would like to discuss them because you’ve read them too, please feel free to drop a comment on Facebook or below.
  Posted in books, reading, Uncategorized | 3 Comments | Tagged books, books in 2017, favorite books, reading, top twenty, top twenty books
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