I read a lot of good books this year

I wanted to end my reading list at 69 books, because why not, but then I couldn't stop

I’ve always been a reader, but as with writing, I fell out of it doing it for fun for a while. I let the idea that I had to read the “right” books snuff out the enjoyment.

In 2020, getting into romance and thrillers reminded me how entertaining books could be. In 2021, as a bit but also because I like them, I read as many domestic thrillers with the word “wife” in the title as I could (The Wife Upstairs, The Wife Between Us, Pretty Little Wife etc). This year, I replaced podcasts with audiobooks and finished more books (78) than last year (59). I don’t necessarily believe in reading more just for the sake of the number, but it is easier for me to do anything if I gameify it.

People sometimes ask me how I read so much: I’m behind on movies, music, and TV. My Kindle is one of my favorite purchases ever, and I read almost exclusively library books. (When I want to feel like I’ve shopped without spending money, I put books on my library wishlist.) At all times, I have at least a nonfiction book, a light book, and an audiobook going. If I’m alone and not actively writing, I’m listening to something.

I set aside one good book that I read only while I’m on the stationary bike, which motivates me to both read and move. The combination of eating an edible and then reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic while doing a long, hard bike ride was one of the best things I’ve done all year for my spiritual and emotional well-being.

I generally consider nonfiction food books, as well as cookbooks, to be work reading and not recreational reading. But a few — Tamar Adler’s An Everlasting Meal, Danny Licht’s Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, Rebecca May Johnson’s Small Fires, and Shaina Loew-Banayan’s Elegy for an Appetite — were so good I couldn’t go without mentioning them. I finally read and loved Laurie Colwin.

This year, I also accepted that it’s okay to stop reading a book I don’t like, so I can endorse everything on this list. If you want a shortlist though, my favorites are in bold:

1. Hurts So Good, Leigh Cowart

2. In My Dreams I Hold a Knife, Ashley Winstead

3. The Replacement Wife, Darby Kane

4. A Touch of Jen, Beth Morgan

5. My Darling Husband, Kimberly Belle

6. The Last Affair, Margot Hunt

7. For Better and Worse, Margot Hunt

8. Boy Parts, Eliza Clark

9. A Slow Fire Burning, Paula Hawkins

10. Win Me Something, Kyle Lucia Wu

11. Verity, Colleen Hoover

12. Vladimir, Julia May Jonas

13. My Sweet Girl, Amanda Jayatissa

14. The Hawthorne Legacy, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

15. Cultish, Amanda Montell

16. Yerba Buena, Nina LaCour

17. Greenwich Park, Katherine Faulkner

18. God Spare the Girls, Kelsey McKinney

19. Fake, Erica Katz

20. The Margot Affair, Sanae Lemoine

21. Find Me, Alafair Burke

22. Like a Sister, Kellye Garrett

23. The Golden Couple, Greer Hendricks and Sara Pekkanen

24. The Wife, Alafair Burke

25. The Family Plot, Megan Collins

26. A Novel Obsession, Caitlin Barasch

27. The Violence, Delilah S. Dawson

28. The Night Shift, Alex Finlay

29. The Night She Disappeared, Lisa Jewell

30. Reckless Girls, Rachel Hawkins

31. I Kissed Shara Wheeler, Casey McQuiston

32. Book Lovers, Emily Henry

33. The Better Sister, Alafair Burke

34. Glitch Feminism, Legacy Russell

35. No One Will Miss Her, Kat Rosenfield

36. How to Read Now, Elaine Castillo

37. Counterfeit, Kirstin Chen

38. Portrait of a Thief, Grace D. Li

39. The Book of Cold Cases, Simone St. James

40. Educated, Tara Westover

41. The Woman in the Library, Sulari Gentill

42. The House Across the Lake, Riley Sager

43. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

44. X, Davey Davis

45. All This Could Be Different, Sarah Thankam Mathews

46. Black Cake, Charmaine Wilkerson

47. The Therapist, B.A. Paris

48. The Counselors, Jessica Goodman

49. Elegy for an Appetite, Shaina Loew-Banayan

50. Stay Awake, Megan Goldin

51. The Last Housewife, Ashley Winstead

52. What My Bones Know, Stephanie Foo

53. Cover Story, Susan Rigetti

54. Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, Rabia Chaudry

55. The Last to Vanish, Megan Miranda

56. The Vicious Circle, Katherine St. John

57. More Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin

58. Dress Code, Veronique Hyland

59. Year of the Tiger, Alice Wong

60. Partners in Crime, Alisha Rai

61. Home Cooking, Laurie Colwin

62. Big Magic, Elizabeth Gilbert

63. Best Served Hot, Amanda Elliot

64. Thank You for Listening, Julia Whelan

65. Heretic, Jeanna Kadlec

66. The Cloisters, Katy Hays

67. Small Fires, Rebecca May Johnson

68. The Villa, Rachel Hawkins

69. The Final Gambit, Jennifer Lynn Barnes

70. Just the Nicest Couple, Mary Kubica

71. You’re Invited, Amanda Jayatissa

72. The Family Game, Catherine Steadman

73. Essential Labor: Mothering as Social Change, Angela Garbes

74. Abolish the Family, Sophie Lewis

75. Cooking As Though You Might Cook Again, Danny Licht

76. Hidden Pictures, Jason Rekulak

77. The Lies I Tell, Julie Clark

78. An Everlasting Meal, Tamar Adler

I’m currently working my way through, and will probably finish before the year ends: All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris, and Some of My Best Friends by Tajja Isen. I’m still chipping away at Babel by R.F. Kuang. And over the break, I plan to read It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, just to understand the hype.