Reading list

Each year since late 2015, I've kept track of my reading habits here, and noted which books have left a mark on me.

2025

All books

Meander, Spiral, Explode, Jane Alison
The Sense of an Ending, Julian Barnes
Story Engineering, Larry Brooks
888 Love and the Divine Burden of Numbers, Abraham Chang
Piranesi, Susanna Clarke
Mr. Bridge, Evan S. Connell
Mrs. Bridge, Evan S. Connell
Welcome to Murder Week, Karen Dukess
The Correspondent, Virginia Evans
The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill
The Comfort Book, Matt Haig
The Killer Question, Janice Hallett
Orbital, Samantha Harvey
The Price of Salt, Patricia Highsmith
The Middle Passage, James Hollis
Close to Death, Anthony Horowitz
Are You Mad at Me?, Meg Josephson
Heart the Lover, Lily King
The Deep Sky, Yume Kitasei
Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri
Murder Takes a Vacation, Laura Lippman
Planet Paradise, Jesse Lonergan
Draft No. 4, John McPhee
The Expert of Subtle Revisions, Kirsten Menger-Anderson
All-Star Superman, Grant Morrison, Frank Quitely, Jamie Grant
Eileen, Ottessa Moshfegh
The Index Card, Helaine Olen
Upstream, Mary Oliver
The Bullet That Missed, Richard Osman
We Solve Murders, Richard Osman
The Book of Form and Emptiness, Ruth Ozeki
The Doorman, Chris Pavone
The Moviegoer, Walker Percy
If You Love it Let it Kill You, Hannah Pittard
The Hard Switch, Owen D. Pomery
The Mystery Guest, Nita Prose
Superman: Red & Blue, John Ridley, etc.
Letters to a Young Poet, Rainer Maria Rilke
The Creative Act, Rick Rubin
The Underground Library, Jennifer Ryan
The Treasure Hunters Club, Tom Ryan
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Broken Prey, John Sandford
Certain Prey, John Sandford
Chosen Prey, John Sandford
Easy Prey, John Sandford
Hidden Prey, John Sandford
Lethal Prey, John Sandford
Mortal Prey, John Sandford
Naked Prey, John Sandford
Journal of a Solitude, May Sarton
No Bad Parts, Richard Schwartz
Dear Writer, Maggie Smith
Custodians of Wonder, Eliot Stein
East of Eden, John Steinbeck
Travels with Charley, John Steinbeck
Letters from the Ginza Shihodo Stationery Shop, Kenji Ueda
Superman: Phantoms, Mark Waid
Batman & Superman: World’s Finest: The Devil Nezha, Mark Waid
Dylan Goes Electric!, Elijah Wald
The Murderbot Diaries: All Systems Red, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: Artificial Condition, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: Rogue Protocol, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: Exit Strategy, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: Fugitive Telemetry, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: Network Effect, Martha Wells
The Murderbot Diaries: System Collapse, Martha Wells
Run For the Hills, Kevin Wilson

2024

Year-end favorites

Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
The New Wilderness, Diane Cook
The Word is Murder, The Sentence is Death, A Line to Kill, The Twist of a Knife, Anthony Horowitz
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Shopkeeping, Peter Miller
The Eighth Detective, Alex Pavesi
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Maggie Smith
Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter

All books

Transcription, Kate Atkinson
1000 Words: A Writer's Guide to Staying Creative, Focused, and Productive All Year Round, Jamie Attenberg
Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett
Killer Content, Olivia Blacke
Rabbit Hole, Kate Brody
Meditations for Mortals, Oliver Burkeman
Parable of the Sower, Octavia Butler
The New Wilderness, Diane Cook
Notebook, Tom Cox
The Terrible, Yrsa Daley-Ward
The Bookshop, Evan Friss
The Lonely Stories, ed. Natalie Eve Garrett
The Mystery Writer, Sulari Gentill
The Examiner, Janice Hallett
Anger, Thich Nhat Hanh
The Warehouse, Rob Hart
Self-Esteem and the End of the World, Luke Healy
The Word is Murder, Anthony Horowitz
The Sentence is Death, Anthony Horowitz
A Line to Kill, Anthony Horowitz
The Twist of a Knife, Anthony Horowitz
The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
French Windows, Antoine Lauraine
Let's Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
Sign Here, Claudia Lux
Wrong Way, Joanne McNeil
Solar Bones, Mike McCormack
Tabula Rasa, John McPhee
The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder, C.L. Miller
Shopkeeping, Peter Miller
Cloud Atlas, David Mitchell
This Year You Write Your Novel, Walter Mosley
What Are You Going Through, Sigrid Nunez
Weather, Jenny Offill
The Eighth Detective, Alex Pavesi
Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter
Nothing is Impossible, Christopher Reeve
Attachments, Rainbow Rowell
Dusk, James Salter
Eyes of Prey, John Sandford
Mind Prey, John Sandford
Night Prey, John Sandford
Rules of Prey, John Sandford
Secret Prey, John Sandford
Shadow Prey, John Sandford
Silent Prey, John Sandford
Sudden Prey, John Sandford
Toxic Prey, John Sandford
Winter Prey, John Sandford
Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris
Runaways, Michael J. Seidlinger
Think Like a Monk, Jay Shetty
Little Weirds, Jenny Slate
Goldenrod, Maggie Smith
Keep Moving, Maggie Smith
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, Maggie Smith
Q&A, Adrian Tomine
Gentle Writing Advice, Chuck Wendig

2023

Year-end favorites

All the Queen's Men, SJ Bennett
Small Game, Blair Braverman
Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
The Appeal, Janice Hallett
New and Selected Poems, Volume One, Mary Oliver
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse Q. Sutanto

All books

This Was Not the Plan, Cristina Alger
The Writing Retreat, Julia Bartz
All the Queen's Men, SJ Bennett
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Small Game, Blair Braverman
Directed by James Burrows, James Burrows
Twenty Bits I Learned About Design, Business and Community, Dan Cederholm
Twenty Bits I Learned About Making Fonts, Dan Cederholm
Microserfs, Douglas Coupland
Abandon, Blake Crouch
The Antiques, Kris D'Agostino
The Sunlit Night, Rebecca Dinerstein
A Career in Books, Kate Gavino
This is How You Lose the Time War, Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone
The Appeal, Janice Hallett
The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels, Janice Hallett
The Twyford Code, Janice Hallett
Scary Stories for Young Foxes, Christian McKay Heidecker
Fairy Tale, Stephen King
The Splendid and the Vile, Erik Larson
Attached, Amir Levine & Rachel S. F. Heller
Moneyball, Michael Lewis
Pretty as a Picture, Elizabeth Little
This Country, Navied Mahdavian
A Memory Called Empire, Arkady Martine
All Our Wrong Todays, Elan Mastai
Welcome to the Circus of Baseball, Ryan McGee
Novelist as a Vocation, Haruki Murakami
Come As You Are, Emily Nagoski
Charm City Rocks, Matthew Norman
Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
Weather, Jenny Offill
New and Selected Poems, Volume One, Mary Oliver
The Thursday Murder Club, Richard Osman
The Man Who Died Twice, Richard Osman
We Are Too Many, Hannah Pittard
The Maid, Nita Prose
The Imperfectionists, Tom Rachman
Contact, Carl Sagan
Dark Angel, John Sandford
Judgment Prey, John Sandford
One Continuous Mistake: Four Noble Truths for Writers, Gail Sher
Shovel Ready, Adam Sternbergh
Saturday Night at the Lakeside Supper Club, J. Ryan Stradal
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore, Matthew Sullivan
Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, Jesse Q. Sutanto
Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization, Neil deGrasse Tyson
The Family Fang, Kevin Wilson
Last Year, Robert Charles Wilson
The Infinite Future, Tim Wirkus
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Beneath the Moon, Yoshi Yoshitani

2022

Year-end favorites

Ghost Forest, Pik-Shuen Fung
Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri
Sea of Tranquility and The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin

All books

Invincible Summer, Alice Adams
The Banker's Wife, Cristina Alger
The Darlings, Cristina Alger
Girls Like Us, Cristina Alger
Who is Maud Dixon?, Alexandra Andrews
I Came All This Way to Meet You, Jami Attenberg
The Child, Fiona Barton
Local Gone Missing, Fiona Barton
The Suspect, Fiona Barton
The Widow, Fiona Barton
A Line Made by Walking, Sara Baume
The Mutual Friend, Carter Bays
Ducks, Kate Beaton
Refuse to be Done: How to Write and Rewrite a Novel in Three Drafts, Matt Bell
The Windsor Knot, S.J. Bennett
We Had to Remove This Post, Hanna Bervoets
They Call Me Guero, David Bowles
The Light Pirate, Lily Brooks-Dalton
Anya's Ghost, Vera Brosgol
The Old Woman with the Knife, Gu Byeong-mo
Onion Skin, Edgar Camacho
Rave, Jessica Campbell
Need to Know, Karen Cleveland
The New Neighbor, Karen Cleveland
Finding Langston, Lesa Cline-Ransome
Upgrade, Blake Crouch
How to Be Happy, Eleanor Davis
The Candy House, Jennifer Egan
Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self, Danielle Evans
Fatty Legs, Christy Jordan-Fenton & Margaret Pokiak-Fenton
Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank
Ghost Forest, Pik-Shuen Fung
Our Short History, Lauren Grodstein
Lost Connections: Why You’re Depressed and How to Find Hope, Johann Hari
How to Survive in the North, Luke Healy
The Con Artists, Luke Healy
The Wanderers, Meg Howrey
Island, Siri Ranva Hjelm Jacobsen
The True Deceiver, Tove Jansson
The Fifth Season, N.K. Jemisin
Five Tuesdays in Winter, Lily King
The Pleasing Hour, Lily King
French Milk, Lucy Knisley
The Plot, Jean Hanff Korelitz
Yerba Buena, Nina LaCour
Whereabouts, Jhumpa Lahiri
Dear Friend, from My Life I Write to You in Your Life, Yiyun Li
Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman
The Girl in the Green Raincoat, Laura Lippman
Seasonal Work, Laura Lippman
No One is Talking About This, Patricia Lockwood
The Glass Hotel, Emily St. John Mandel
Sea of Tranquility, Emily St. John Mandel
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
Meteor Shower, Steve Martin
Number One is Walking, Steve Martin & Harry Bliss
The Atmospherians, Alex McElroy
In, Will McPhail
Tokyo Ueno Station, Yu Miri
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
Planetfall, Emma Newman
True Biz, Sara Novic
Last Things, Jenny Offill
Rooms, Lauren Oliver
100 Things We've Lost to the Internet, Pamela Paul
Two Nights in Lisbon, Chris Pavone
The Best American Short Stories 2014, ed. Heidi Pitlor, Jennifer Egan
Victory Point, Owen D. Pomery
Paul Has a Summer Job, Michel Rabagliati
Paul Goes Fishing, Michel Rabagliati
Paul at Home, Michel Rabagliati
Paul Joins the Scouts, Michel Rabagliati
Paul Moves Out, Michel Rabagliati
Paul Up North, Michel Rabagliati
The Song of Roland, Michel Rabagliati
Dear Mr. Knightley, Katherine Reay
Cover Story, Susan Rigetti
Esperanza Rising, Pam Muñoz Ryan
The Investigator, John Sandford
Righteous Prey, John Sandford
Great Circle, Maggie Shipstead
This Time Tomorrow, Emma Straub
This One Summer, Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
Killing and Dying, Adrian Tomine
The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist, Adrian Tomine
Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine
Minecraft: The End, Catherynne M. Valente
I Hold a Wolf by the Ears, Laura Van Den Berg
The Isle of Youth, Laura Van Den Berg
The Third Hotel, Laura Van Den Berg
One by One, Ruth Ware
The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware
The Book Tour, Andi Watson
Now is Not the Time to Panic, Kevin Wilson
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, Gabrielle Zevin
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin
Young Jane Young, Gabrielle Zevin

2021

Year-end favorites

Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North, Blair Braverman
In the Quick, Kate Hope Day
The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
Several People Are Typing, Calvin Kasulke
Weather, Jenny Offill

All books

Bury Me, K.R. Alexander
Supergirl Vol. 1: The Killers of Krypton, Marc Andreyko, Kevin Maguire, etc.
Supergirl Vol. 2: Sins of the Circle, Marc Andreyko, Kevin Maguire, etc.
Supergirl Vol. 3: Infectious, Marc Andreyko, Kevin Maguire, etc.
Light From Uncommon Stars, Ryka Aoki
Company, Max Barry
The Idiot, Elif Batuman
Naomi, Season One, Brian Michael Bendis, Jamal Campbell, etc.
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 1: Invisible Mafia, Brian Michael Bendis, Ryan Sook, etc.
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 2: Leviathan Rising, Brian Michael Bendis, Ryan Sook, etc.
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 3: Leviathan Hunt, Brian Michael Bendis, Ryan Sook, etc.
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 4: Metropolis Burning, Brian Michael Bendis, Ryan Sook, etc.
Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube: Chasing Fear and Finding Home in the Great White North, Blair Braverman
The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking, Oliver Burkeman
Superman: Back in Action, Kurt Busiek, Fabian Nicieza, etc.
Superman: Camelot Falls, Vol. 1, Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco
Superman: Camelot Falls, Vol. 2, Kurt Busiek, Carlos Pacheco
Superman: Secret Identity, Kurt Busiek, Stuart Immonen
Better Off Dead, Lee Child & Andrew Child
If, Then, Kate Hope Day
In the Quick, Kate Hope Day
Factory Summers, Guy Delisle
The Every, Dave Eggers
Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, David Epstein
Fresh Complaint, Jeffrey Eugenides
Broad Band: The Untold Story of the Women Who Made the Internet, Claire L. Evans
The Office of Historical Corrections, Danielle Evans
Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball, John Feinstein
A Calling for Charlie Barnes, Joshua Ferris
The Dinner Party, Joshua Ferris
The Unnamed, Joshua Ferris
The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler
Lost and Found, Nell Freudenberger
The Peripheral, William Gibson
The Encyclopedia of Early Earth, Isabel Greenberg
You, Austin Grossman
The Strangers, Margaret Peterson Haddix
Console Wars, Blake Harris
Beach Read, Emily Henry
Etta and Otto and Russell and James, Emma Hooper
Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks, Keith Houston
Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro
Nocturnes, Kazuo Ishiguro
Escape Routes, Naomi Ishiguro
Superman: Last Son, Geoff Johns, Richard Donner, etc.
Superman: The Men of Tomorrow, Geoff Johns, John Romita, Jr., etc.
Superman: Secret Origin, Geoff Johns, Gary Frank, etc.
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 1: Path of Doom, Dan Jurgens
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 2: Welcome to the Planet, Dan Jurgens
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 3: Men of Steel, Dan Jurgens
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 4: The New World, Dan Jurgens
Superman, Action Comics Vol. 5: Booster Shot, Dan Jurgens
Superman: Lois & Clark, Dan Jurgens, Lee Weeks, etc.
Superman: The Oz Effect, Dan Jurgens
Superman: Reborn, Dan Jurgens, Patrick Gleason, etc.
The Invoice, Jonas Karlsson
Several People Are Typing, Calvin Kasulke
People From My Neighborhood, Hiromi Kawakami
A Truck Full of Money: Coding, Mania, Love, Genius: The Life of an American Entrepreneur, Tracy Kidder
Several Short Sentences About Writing, Verlyn Klinkenborg
Superman: Up in the Sky, Tom King, Andy Kubert
The Vision, Tom King, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, etc.
Who is Rich?, Matthew Klam
Superman: American Alien, Max Landis
The MVP Machine: How Baseball’s New Nonconformists are Using Data to Build Better Players, Ben Lindbergh, Travis Sawchik
Dream Girl, Laura Lippman
My Life as a Villainess, Laura Lippman
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories, Ken Liu
Superman for All Seasons, Jeph Loeb
Severance, Ling Ma
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena, Anthony Marra
Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times, Katherine May
Identity Crisis, Brad Meltzer, Rags Morales, etc.
Superman: Year One, Frank Miller, John Romita, Jr.
Superman: Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Alan Moore, Curt Swan
All Together Now, Matthew Norman
Domestic Violets, Matthew Norman
Dept. of Speculation, Jenny Offill
Weather, Jenny Offill
Supergirl Vol. 1: Reign of the Cyborg Supermen, Steve Orlando, Brian Ching, etc.
Supergirl Vol. 2: Escape From the Phantom Zone, Steve Orlando, Brian Ching, etc.
Supergirl Vol. 3: Girl of No Tomorrow, Steve Orlando, Brian Ching, etc.
Supergirl Vol. 4: Plain Sight, Steve Orlando, Brian Ching, etc.
Fake Accounts, Lauren Oyler
The Impossible Fortress, Jason Rekulak
Do Better: Spiritual Activism for Fighting and Healing from White Supremacy, Rachel Ricketts
Why Did I Ever, Mary Robison
Beautiful World, Where Are You, Sally Rooney
Wonder Woman, Vol. 1: The Lies, Greg Rucka, Liam Sharp, etc.
88 Names, Matt Ruff
Miles Away From You, A.B. Rutledge
Ocean Prey, John Sandford
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain, George Saunders
Blood, Sweat, and Pixels: The Triumphant, Turbulent Stories Behind How Video Games Are Made, Jason Schreier
Press Reset: Ruin and Recovery in the Video Game Industry, Jason Schreier
The Sopranos Sessions, Matt Zoller Seitz, Alan Sepinwall
LaserWriter II, Tamara Shopsin
Superman: Grounded, Vol. 1, J. Michael Stracyznski, Chris Roberson, etc.
Superman: Grounded, Vol. 2, J. Michael Straczynski, Chris Roberson, etc.
Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout
The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love, Sonya Renee Taylor
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
Action Comics #1000, Peter J. Tomasi, Dan Jurgens, etc.
The Final Days of Superman, Peter J. Tomasi, Doug Mahnke, etc.
Superman Vol. 1: Son of Superman, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 2: Trials of the Super Son, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 3: Multiplicity, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 4: Black Dawn, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 5: Hopes and Fears, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 6: Imperius Lex, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Superman Vol. 7: Bizarroverse, Peter J. Tomasi, Patrick Gleason, etc.
Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir
Billion Dollar Loser: The Epic Rise and Spectacular Fall of Adam Neumann and WeWork, Reeves Wiedeman
A Borrowed Man, Gene Wolfe
Superman Smashes the Klan, Gene Luen Yang, Gurihiru
Version Zero, David Yoon

2020

Year-end favorites

The Vanishing Half, Brit Bennett
Days of Distraction, Alexandra Chang
Essays After Eighty, Donald Hall
The Summer Book, Tove Jansson
The Housekeeper and the Professor, Yoko Ogawa

All books

Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
Jonathan Livingston Seagull, Richard Bach
The Operator, Gretchen Berg
Radical Acceptance, Tara Brach
Nomadland, Jessica Bruder
The Best We Could Do, Thi Bui
Robert Redford: The Biography, Michael Feeney Callan
Await Your Reply, Dan Chaon
The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, Michael Chabon
The Sentinel, Lee Child, Andrew Child
Emergency Contact, Mary H.K. Choi
Leviathan Wakes, James S.A. Corey
Caliban’s War, James S.A. Corey
Abbadon’s Gate, James S. A. Corey
Dark Matter, Blake Crouch
Recursion, Blake Crouch
West, Carys Davies
Cosmos: Possible Worlds, Ann Druyan
Offshore, Penelope Fitzgerald
The Trick of It, Michael Frayn
Agency, William Gibson
The Old Man and the Gun (and Other Tales of True Crime), David Grann
The Office: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sitcom of the 2000s: An Oral History, Andy Greene
The Whistler, John Grisham
The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
84, Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street, Helene Hanff
Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
Americana, Luke Healy
The Dog Stars, Peter Heller
The Last Pilot, Benjamin Johncock
Fortune Smiles, Adam Johnson
Death Without Company, Craig Johnson
Writers & Lovers, Lily King
Out of Left Field, Ellen Klages
Everything Leads to You, Nina LaCour
Watch Over Me, Nina Lacour
You Know Me Well, Nina Lacour and David Levithan
Paul Newman: A Life, Shawn Levy
Disrupted: My Misadventure in the Start-Up Bubble, Dan Lyons
A River Runs Through It and Other Stories, Norman Maclean
Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book, Courtney Maum
Touch, Courtney Maum
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer, Michelle McNamara
Superman: Red Son, Mark Millar, Dave Johnson, etc.
Hotels of North America, Rick Moody
Long Bright River, Liz Moore
The Atlas Obscura Explorer’s Guide for the World’s Most Adventurous Kid, Rosemary Mosco, Dylan Thuras
The Cactus League, Emily Nemens
New Waves, Kevin Nguyen
Last Couple Standing, Matthew Norman
We’re All Damaged, Matthew Norman
A Promised Land, Barack Obama
Last Night at the Lobster, Stewart O’Nan
The Library Book, Susan Orlean
Consider This: Moments in My Writing Life After Which Everything Was Different, Chuck Palahniuk
Dear Mrs. Bird, AJ Pearce
Trajectory, Richard Russo
Masked Prey, John Sandford
The Last Draft: A Novelist’s Guide to Revision, Sandra Scofield
The Comet Seekers, Helen Sedgwick
Where’d You Go, Bernadette?, Maria Semple
In Five Years, Rebecca Serle
Live Long And…: What I’ve Learned Along the Way, William Shatner
Ghostly Campfire Stories of Western Canada, Barbara Smith
The Lager Queen of Minnesota, J. Ryan Stradal
All Adults Here, Emma Straub
Other People We Married, Emma Straub
The Vacationers, Emma Straub
The Queen’s Gambit, Walter Tevis
Back When We Were Grownups, Anne Tyler
Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), Tom Vanderbilt
The Perfection of the Paper Clip: Curious Tales of Invention, Accidental Genius, and Stationery Obsession, James Ward
Pencils You Should Know: A History of the Ultimate Writing Utensil in 75 Anecdotes, Caroline Weaver
Uncanny Valley: A Memoir, Anna Weiner
Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine, Kevin Wilson
Nothing to See Here, Kevin Wilson
Meet Me at the Museum, Anne Youngson

2019

Year-end favorites

The Mothers, Brit Bennett
Motorcycles I've Loved, Lily Brooks-Dalton
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee
Through a Life, Tom Haugomat
Perfect Little World, Kevin Wilson

All books

You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott
When You Read This, Mary Adkins
The Secret Miracle: The Novelist’s Handbook, ed. Daniel Alarcon
The Line Tender, Kate Allen
This Was Our Pact, Ryan Andrews
Mosquitoland, David Arnold
Transcription, Kate Atkinson
If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin
The Martian Chronicles, Ray Bradbury
Small Fry, Lisa Brennan-Jobs
The New Me, Halle Butler
Blue Moon, Lee Child
No Middle Name, Lee Child
Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones, James Clear
Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Beverly Cleary
Ramona Forever, Beverly Cleary
The Beautiful Struggle, Ta-Nehisi Coates
How to Be Happy, Eleanor Davis
The Hard Tomorrow, Eleanor Davis
Some Trick, Helen DeWitt
White Fragility: Why It's So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, Robin DiAngelo
Mindset, Carol S. Dweck
The Black Stallion, Walter Farley
The Princess Diarist, Carrie Fisher
Wishful Drinking, Carrie Fisher
Harriet the Spy, Louise Fitzhugh
A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life of Music and Cheap Lessons, Ben Folds
The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore, Kim Fu
Never Tell, Lisa Gardner
Write Away: One Novelist’s Approach to Fiction and the Writing Life, Elizabeth George
Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within, Natalie Goldberg
Friendship, Emily Gould
Otis Redding: An Unfinished Life, Jonathan Gould
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, David Grann
Turtles All the Way Down, John Green
Less, Andrew Sean Greer
The Secret Life of the Pencil: Great Creatives and Their Pencils, Alex Hammond, Mike Tinney
Bunnicula, James and Deborah Howe
Howliday Inn, James and Deborah Howe
A Single Man, Christopher Isherwood
My Twentieth Century Evening and Other Small Breakthroughs: The Nobel Lecture, Kazuo Ishiguro
When We Were Orphans, Kazuo Ishiguro
The Last Equation of Isaac Severy, Nova Jacobs
The Best of Everything, Rona Jaffe
Negroland, Margo Jefferson
The Hidden Writer: Diaries and the Creative Life, Alexandra Johnson
Leaving a Trace: On Keeping a Journal, Alexandra Johnson
The Alaskan Laundry, Brendan Jones
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), Mindy Kaling
Why Not Me?, Mindy Kaling
The Stationery Shop, Marjan Kamali
Far Afield, Susanna Kaysen
The Learners, Chip Kidd
Still Life with Tornado, A.S. King
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
Keep Going: 10 Ways to Stay Creative in Good Times and Bad, Austin Kleon
Going Solo: The Extraordinary Rise and Surprising Appeal of Living Alone, Eric Klinenberg
The Incendiaries, R. O. Kwon
Hold Still, Nina LaCour
We Are Okay, Nina LaCour
Since We Fell, Dennis Lehane
A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Madeleine L’Engle
The Fifth Risk, Michael Lewis
Another Thing to Fall, Laura Lippman
I’d Know You Anywhere, Laura Lippman
Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman
The Last Place, Laura Lippman
The Emotional Craft of Fiction, Donald Maass
Early Work, Andrew Martin
The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother, James McBride
Letters to a Young Writer, Colum McCann
On Chesil Beach, Ian McEwan
The Mindful Writer, Dinty Moore
Heft, Liz Moore
The Words of Every Song, Liz Moore
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage, Haruki Murakami
Between You & Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen, Mary Norris
Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, Barack Obama
Becoming, Michelle Obama
How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, Jenny Odell
A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
The Paris Diversion, Chris Pavone
Second Wind, Nathaniel Philbrick
The Fates Will Find Their Way, Hannah Pittard
Yes, Please, Amy Poehler
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, Steven Pressfield
Inward, Yung Pueblo
Creative Quest, Questlove
Fangirl, Rainbow Rowell
The Star Trek Book: Strange New Worlds Boldly Explained, Paul Ruditis
The Destiny Thief: Essays on Writing, Writers, and Life, Richard Russo
Holes, Louis Sachar
Gratitude, Oliver Sacks
For Small Creatures Such as We: Rituals for Finding Meaning in Our Unlikely World, Sasha Sagan
Bloody Genius, John Sandford
Neon Prey, John Sandford
Civilwarland in Bad Decline, George Saunders
Calypso, David Sedaris
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, David Sedaris
Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls, David Sedaris
TV (The Book): Two Experts Pick the Greatest American Shows of All Time, Matt Zoller Seitz, Alan Sepinwall
The Future for Curious People, Gregory Sherl
Challenger Deep, Neal Shusterman
Glaciers, Alexis M. Smith
Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
Dear Martin, Nic Stone
The Lager Queen of Minnesota, J. Ryan Stradal
Light from Other Stars, Erika Swyler
The Opposite of Fate: Memories of a Writing Life, Amy Tan
Swimmer Among the Stars, Kanishk Tharoor
On the Come Up, Angie Thomas
The Hobbit, J.R.R. Tolkien
An Honorable Man, Paul Vidich
On a Sunbeam, Tillie Walden
The Color Purple, Alice Walker
The Woman in Cabin 10, Ruth Ware
Where Things Come Back, John Corey Whaley
Sag Harbor, Colson Whitehead
American Spy, Lauren Wilkinson
I Am Brian Wilson: A Memoir, Brian Wilson
The Andromeda Evolution, Daniel H. Wilson
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life, Ali Wong
Front Desk, Kelly Yang
Disturbing the Peace, Richard Yates
The Easter Parade, Richard Yates
Frankly in Love, David Yoon
Meet Me at the Museum, Anne Youngson
The Leisure Seeker, Michael Zadoorian
The Making of a Manager: What to Do When Everyone Looks to You, Julie Zhou

2018

Year-end favorites

Americanah, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Good Morning, Midnight, Lily Brooks-Dalton
You & a Bike & a Road, Eleanor Davis
Exit West, Mohsin Hamid
Goodbye, Vitamin, Rachel Khong

All books

Stay with Me, Ayobami Adebayo
Letter to My Daughter, Maya Angelou
What it Means When a Man Falls from the Sky, Lesley Nneka Arimah
Be Prepared, Vera Brosgol
The Wild Robot Escapes, Peter Brown
Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces, Michael Chabon
Past Tense, Lee Child
We Were Eight Years in Power: An American Tragedy, Ta-Nehisi Coates
The Gum Thief, Douglas Coupland
Americana, Don DeLillo
South and West: From a Notebook, Joan Didion
The Writing Life, Annie Dillard
Things We Lost in the Fire, Mariana Enriquez
Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process, ed. Joe Fassler
To Rise Again at a Decent Hour, Joshua Ferris
The Dry, Jane Harper
Sociable, Rebecca Harrington
Speak No Evil, Uzodinma Iweala
The Way of the Writer, Charles Johnson
Train Dreams, Denis Johnson
Superman: Action Comics Vol. 4: The New World, Dan Jurgens
Enter Title Here, Rahul Kanakia
The Room, Jonas Karlsson
Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative, Austin Kleon
Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered, Austin Kleon
Disclaimer, Renee Knight
Jedi Academy: A New Class, Jarrett J. Krosoczka
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
Conversations on Writing, Ursula K. Le Guin
The Forest for the Trees: An Editor's Advice to Writers, Betsy Lerner
Dear Cyborgs, Eugene Lim
Home Land, Sam Lipsyte
After I'm Gone, Laura Lippman
And When She Was Good, Laura Lippman
Baltimore Blues, Laura Lippman
Butchers Hill, Laura Lippman
Charm City, Laura Lippman
In a Strange City, Laura Lippman
In Big Trouble, Laura Lippman
Life Sentences, Laura Lippman
The Sugar House, Laura Lippman
Sunburn, Laura Lippman
What the Dead Know, Laura Lippman
Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman
Black Water Rising, Attica Locke
Her Body and Other Parties, Carmen Maria Machado
Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living, ed. Manjula Martin
Draft No. 4: On the Writing Process, John McPhee
This Could Hurt, Jillian Medoff
Lions, Bonnie Nadzam
The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen
Hilda and the Bird Parade, Luke Pearson
Hilda and the Black Hound, Luke Pearson
Hilda and the Midnight Giant, Luke Pearson
Still Life, Louise Penny
The Assistants, Camille Perri
Listen to Me, Hannah Pittard
Reunion, Hannah Pittard
Visible Empire, Hannah Pittard
Wonder Valley, Ivy Pochoda
Attachments, Rainbow Rowell
The Transcriptionist, Amy Rowland
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, J.K. Rowling
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz
Holy Ghost, John Sandford
Twisted Prey, John Sandford
The Revenge of Analog: Real Things and Why They Matter, David Sax
Dear Committee Members, Julie Schumacher
Super Sad True Love Story, Gary Shteyngart
Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters, John Steinbeck
Lumberjanes Vol. 7: A Bird's Eye View, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 8: Stone Cold, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes: Bonus Tracks, Noelle Stevenson
What Comes Next and How to Like It, Abigail Thomas
Superman Vol. 4: Black Dawn, Peter J. Tomasi
Superman Vol. 5: Hopes and Fears, Peter J. Tomasi
Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward
The Pencil Perfect: The Untold Story of a Cultural Icon, Caroline Weaver
Lucky Wander Boy, D.B. Weiss
Valley of the Gods, Alexandra Wolfe
The Wife, Meg Wolitzer
Sophia of Silicon Valley, Anna Yen

2017

Year-end favorites

The Paper Menagerie, Ken Liu
The Unseen World, Liz Moore
Mad Men: Carousel, Matt Zoller Seitz
The Fire This Time, ed. Jesmyn Ward
The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead

All books

The Tetris Effect: The Game That Hypnotized the World, Dan Ackerman
Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Modern Romance, Aziz Ansari
The Fountain, Darren Aronofsky
Faceoff, ed. David Baldacci
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
Moonglow, Michael Chabon
The Midnight Line, Lee Child
What Happened, Hillary Clinton
Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet: Book 1, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere), Lisa Cron
Universal Harvester, John Darnielle
Buried Secrets, Joseph Finder
The Fixer, Joseph Finder
Guilty Minds, Joseph Finder
Vanished, Joseph Finder
Mooncop, Tom Gauld
Hide, Matthew Griffin
Camino Island, John Grisham
The Rooster Bar, John Grisham
IQ, Joe Ide
The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro
Superman: Lois and Clark (Road to Rebirth), Dan Jurgens
Superman: Action Comics Vol. 1: Path of Doom, Dan Jurgens
Superman: Action Comics Vol. 2: Welcome to the Planet, Dan Jurgens
Superman: Action Comics Vol. 3: Men of Steel, Dan Jurgens
The Phantom Tollbooth, Norton Juster
The Vision Vol. 1: Little Worse Than a Man, Tom King
The Vision Vol. 2: Little Better Than a Beast, Tom King
Superman: American Alien, Max Landis
The Pigeon Tunnel: Stories from My Life, John LeCarre
A Wrinkle in Time: The Graphic Novel, Hope Larson
Warcross, Marie Lu
The Singer's Gun, Emily St. John Mandel
Why We Write About Ourselves: Twenty Memoirists on Why They Expose Themselves (and Others) in the Name of Literature, ed. Meredith Maran
Off Speed: Baseball, Pitching, and the Art of Deception, Terry McDermott
Sweet Tooth, Ian McEwan
Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami
Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
The Tiger's Wife, Tea Obreht
Version Control, Dexter Palmer
A Single Shard, Linda Sue Park
The Expats, Chris Pavone
The Accident, Chris Pavone
The Travelers, Chris Pavone
Thrill Me: Essays on Fiction, Benjamin Percy
A Hundred Thousand Worlds, Bob Proehl
Sorta Like a Rock Star, Matthew Quick
Serenity: No Power in the 'Verse, Chris Roberson
Eleanor & Park, Rainbow Rowell
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Deep Freeze, John Sandford
Golden Prey, John Sandford
Saturn Run, John Sandford & Ctein
Startup, Doree Shafrir
The World of Flashpoint: Superman, Scott Snyder
Lumberjanes Vol. 1: Beware the Kitten Holy, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 2: Friendship to the Max, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 3: A Terrible Plan, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 4: Out of Time, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 5: Band Together, Noelle Stevenson
Lumberjanes Vol. 6: Sink or Swim, Noelle Stevenson
Superman Vol.1: Son of Superman, Peter J. Tomasi
Superman Vol. 2: Trials of the Super Son, Peter J. Tomasi
Superman: Vol. 3: Multiplicity, Peter J. Tomasi
Spinning, Tillie Walden
Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward
How to Ruin Everything, George Watsky
Serenity: Leaves on the Wind, Zack Whedon
The Animators, Kayla Rae Whitaker
The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit, Sloan Wilson
The Swimmer, Joakim Zander

2016

Year-end favorites

Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
Life Among the Savages, Shirley Jackson
The Tsar of Love & Techno, Anthony Marra
Contact, Carl Sagan
Marrow Island, Alexis M. Smith

All books

The Hours Count, Jillian Cantor
Night School, Lee Child
Fire Season: Field Notes from a Wilderness Lookout, Philip Connors
Every Anxious Wave, Mo Daviau
The Charm School, Nelson DeMille
The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity, Louise DeSalvo
The Flood Girls, Richard Fifield
Suspicion, Joseph Finder
Kevin Kramer Starts on Monday, Debbie Graber
Playing Dead: A Journey Through the World of Death Fraud, Elizabeth Greenwood
In Progress: See Inside a Lettering Artist's Sketchbook and Process, from Pencil to Vector, Jessica Hische
The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
To the Bright Edge of the World, Eowyn Ivey
Wait for Signs, Craig Johnson
Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger
A Wrinkle in Time, Madeleine L'Engle
Get in Trouble, Kelly Link
Two Kisses for Maddy: A Memoir of Loss and Love, Matthew Logelin
A Burglar's Guide to the City, Geoff Manaugh
A Place of My Own: The Education of an Amateur Builder, Michael Pollan
Escape Clause, John Sandford
Extreme Prey, John Sandford
All the Old Knives, Olen Steinhauer
My Documents, Alejandro Zambra

2015

In 2015, I began tracking my reading, but only late in the year; this one is a short list as a result.

Year-end favorites

Man v. Nature, Diane Cook
Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, Haruki Murakami
Gratitude, Oliver Sacks

All books

Step Aside, Pops, Kate Beaton
Fortunately, the Milk, Neil Gaiman
Mortality, Christopher Hitchens
Dead Wake, Erik Larson
This is the Story of a Happy Marriage, Ann Patchett
Contact, Carl Sagan
Kitchens of the Great Midwest, J. Ryan Stradal