You can learn a lot about a person by what’s on her bookshelves or nightstand. Here’s what I’ve been reading… (Fellow book lovers can also find me on Goodreads.)

2016 || 2015 || 2014 || 2013 || 2012 || 5-Year Classical Reading List

2016 Reading List

1. Paradise Lost by John Milton — loved! A brilliant & moving epic.
2. Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives by Gretchen Rubin — great
3. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce — lovely
4. The Misanthrope and Tartuffe by Molière (trans. Richard Wilbur)
5. Darkness Visible: A Memoir of Madness by William Styron
6. Second Treatise of Government by John Locke
7. Romantic Outlaws by Charlotte Gordon — fascinating!
8. Gulliver’s Travels by Jonathan Swift — good. I love Swift!
9. The Hours by Michael Cunningham — now I’m in the mood for more Virginia Woolf
10. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
11. Longitude by Dava Sobel — short, fascinating & surprisingly charming
12. Elements of Style by Erin Gates
13. Gilead by Marilynne Robinson — lovely
14. Habitat: The Field Guide to Decorating by Lauren Liess
15. Candide by Voltaire (trans. Henry Morley)
16. How Reading Changed My Life by Anna Quindlen
17. Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie — a beautifully-designed clothbound edition
18. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi — profound & moving
19. Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
20. The Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (trans. Maurice Cranston)
21. The Mother Tongue by Bill Bryson — ok, but seemed a bit dated
22. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
23. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda & Jeremy McCarter — loved!
24. Common Sense by Thomas Paine
25. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis
26. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates — loved!
27. The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson Walker
28. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi — such a powerful story!
29. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin — American Dream 1.0
30. Suburban Nation by Andres Duany, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk & Jeff Speck
31. The Art of Work by Jeff Goins
32. The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
33. To be continued…

2015 Reading List

1. The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse — a jolly good romp
2. Yes Please by Amy Poehler — I recommend the audiobook
3. Sailing Alone Around the Room by Billy Collins
4. King Lear by Shakespeare — intense & complex. Tragedy at its finest.
5. One Thousand Gifts by Ann Voskamp
6. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
7. Maybe Baby edited by Lori Leibovich — meh.
8. Don Quixote by Cervantes (trans. Edith Grossman) — funny but lo-o-ong!
9. Rainbow Valley by L. M. Montgomery
10. From Sweetness by Debra Marquart
11. History of the Rain by Niall Williams — loved! A strange & charming novel for book lovers.
12. Thunder Dog by Michael Hingson
13. Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography by Laura Ingalls Wilder — excellent!
14. The Things That Matter by Nate Berkus — lovely
15. Rilla of Ingleside by L. M. Montgomery — one of my childhood favorites
16. A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson
17. Young House Love by Sherry & John Petersik — meh.
18. The Martian by Andy Weir — great story idea, but mediocre execution.
19. The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander — a must read!
20. Styled by Emily Henderson
21. Meditations by Descartes (trans. Desmond Clark) — Cogito ergo sum. “I think, therefore I am.”
22. Artful by Ali Smith — loved! Clever, mysterious, inspiring… this book defies categorization.
23. The Signature of All Things by Elizabeth Gilbert — some parts I loved, some parts I hated
24. Show Your Work by Austin Kleon — fun & encouraging, as always
25. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin — wow!
26. God Is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer — my favorite Advent devotional

2014 Reading List

1. On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King
2. The Prince by Machiavelli (trans. Wayne Rebhorn) — better than I expected!
3. The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
4. Yellowrocket: Poems by Todd Boss — loved!
5. The Light Between Oceans by M. L. Stedman
6. Anne of Avonlea by L. M. Montgomery — I re-read this series every few years
7. Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery
8. Quiet: The Power of Introverts… by Susan Cain
9. Utopia by Thomas More (trans. Logan/Adams) — fascinating
10. The Antelope in the Living Room by Melanie Shankle
11. Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel — literary historical fiction is my (secret) love!
12. Bring Up the Bodies by Hilary Mantel — sequel to Wolf Hall
13. Still Writing: The Perils & Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro — good
14. The Triggering Town by Richard Hugo
15. Complete Essays by Montaigne (trans. M.A. Screech) — erudite, charming & inexhaustible!
16. The Nesting Place by Myquillyn Smith
17. Anne’s House of Dreams by L. M. Montgomery
18. The Immortal Profession by Gilbert Highet — essays on teaching & lifelong learning
19. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
20. A Thousand Mornings: Poems by Mary Oliver
21. The Guns of August by Barbara Tuchman — so good! I’m obsessed with WWI history.
22. Rabbit Redux by John Updike
23. Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation… by Keith Houston
24. Truth & Beauty by Ann Patchett
25. Richard III by Shakespeare — one of my favorite Shakespearean characters!
26. The New Lifetime Reading Plan by Fadiman & Major
27. Shakespeare After All by Marjorie Garber — Highly recommended!
28. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
29. Twelfth Night by Shakespeare — a strangely melancholy comedy
30. The Children Act by Ian McEwan — loved!
31. The Life of Elizabeth I by Alison Weir — ok. I love Tudor history but found this overly long & repetitive.

2013 Reading List

1. The End of Your Life Bookclub by Will Schwalbe — loved it!
2. Ariel by Sylvia Plath
3. The Aeneid by Virgil (trans. Sarah Ruden) — a beautiful translation!
4. The Storytelling Animal by Jonathan Gottschall
5. Rabbit, Run by John Updike — brilliant writing, vexatious characters
6. Metamorphoses by Ovid (trans. Allen Mandlebaum)
7. Einstein’s Dreams by Alan Lightman — clever and imaginative, an old favorite
8. Library: An Unquiet History by Matthew Battles
9. Happier at Home by Gretchen Rubin
10. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
11. Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín
12. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
13. Storycatcher by Christina Baldwin — good!
14. Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls by David Sedaris
15. Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
16. City of God by Saint Augustine (abridged ed. Vernon J. Bourke) — exhaustive but amiable
17. Native Son by Richard Wright
18. Bee Season by Myla Goldberg
19. Saturday by Ian McEwan
20. Wild by Cheryl Strayed
21. An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin
22. An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis — thoughtful and stimulating
23. Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose — great! (includes a good reading list too)
24. Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery — a beloved lifelong favorite!
25. Beowulf (translated by Seamus Heaney) — I read along while listening to Heaney’s audio recording & loved it!
26. 7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker
27. A Peace to End All Peace by David Fromkin
28. Inferno by Dante (trans. Robert Pinsky) — brilliant!
29. Seize the Day by Saul Bellow
30. Do the Work by Steven Pressfield
31. The Canterbury Tales by Chaucer (trans. Neville Coghill) — meh.

2012 Reading List

1. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
2. Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner — favorite book of the year!
3. In the Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson
4. Desperation by Stephen King — didn’t like
5. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
6. Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
7. Little Bee by Chris Cleave — didn’t like
8. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak — loved it!
9. We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver — didn’t like
10. Flapper by Joshua Zeitz
11. Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier
12. The Perfectly Imperfect Home by Deborah Needleman
13. The Storm of War by Andrew Roberts
14. Suite Francaise by Irène Némirovsky
15. Paradise of Bombs by Scott Russell Sanders — good collection of personal essays
16. Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
17. Bird in Hand by Christina Baker Kline — didn’t like
18. The Odyssey by Homer (trans. Robert Fagles) — loved it!
19. Hiroshima by John Hersey — haunting
20. Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules (ed. David Sedaris) — good short story collection
21. Gods & Goddesses of Classical Mythology by S. W. Crompton
22. Grayson by Lynne Cox
23. The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
24. The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles (trans. Robert Fagles) — loved!
25. Bossypants by Tina Fey — I recommend listening to the audiobook
26. The Idea That Is America by Anne-Marie Slaughter
27. Sweet Tooth by Ian McEwan
28. The Republic by Plato (trans. Desmond Lee)
29. God Is in the Manger by Dietrich Bonhoeffer — a great devotional for the Advent season