Angieville

This year really came through reading-wise. Initially, I didn't know what to expect. And I think I was a little surprised to find myself feeling a strong pull right from the beginning of the year to published books. I tried quite a few new-to-me authors with more abandon than I have in recent years—something I'm proud of and hope to continue. Not all of them worked in just an Angie-like way, but regret never entered the room. I passed them on. To the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood, to the used bookstore down the street that I love, to my own public library in donations. Someone will love them. It didn't have to be me. And I loved giving them that little push along their way to the homes of the people who would soak up their words and hold them tight.  What a gift books are. How much I need them and how grateful I am at the end of this year for the ones that came and continued on their way—but most especially for the ones that came to stay.  And so, as has long bee...

Looking back at it now, it was a really solid reading year. I mean, it did its usual (for me) thing and meandered its merry way, here and there, up and down, and in fits and starts across the span of all twelve months. But it really did shape up nicely. Which is a good thing, because it was—shockingly, I know—another year in which we so desperately needed the authors and books and words of the world to come through for us. And they did, didn't they?  I am, as ever, so grateful for them and their willingness to push through every barrier and battle that I know must try to keep them from putting their visions on paper. And so, as has long been my custom, I record here my list of published books that saw me through the year. Gifts, every one.   (listed in the order in which I read them) The Atlas Complex by Olivie Blake Bride by Ali Hazelwood You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian Once Persuaded, Twice Shy by Melodie Edwards Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary Lips Like Sugar by Jes...

I've had a number of conversations recently with friends and coworkers. They go something along the lines of "Remember in 2016, when we didn't know what was coming?" followed closely by "Remember in 2020, when we didn't know what was coming?" This shared and recurrent haunting that we seem to be collectively living is simultaneously comforting and unnerving. Which is, perhaps not coincidentally, also a fairly apt description of my adult life. The conversation I have been having primarily with myself this month has gone something along the lines of "Remember in January, when you didn't know what was coming?"  I am actually not all that given to vast quantities of rumination in December regarding how the year has gone. I tend to reserve those thoughts for my reading year, where they trend in the fundamentally happy and filled to the brim with gratitude direction. But this year was somewhat ferociously unique in that my life as a whole was we...

  Somehow the end of the year is here. And we're all here. And I still feel like placing this post in this space. So I shall. With gratitude and a certain wistful hope. For us all. But especially for these books, the people that walk them, their words, and their creators. (listed in the order in which I read them) Hook, Line, and Sinker by Tessa Bailey The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long Impossible by Sarah Lotz Book Lovers by Emily Henry Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher The Bodyguard by Katherine Center The Worst Guy by Kate Canterbary Fire Season by K.D. Casey Husband Material by Alexis Hall Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson Heartbreaker by Sarah MacLean Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood Lore Olympus, Vol. 3 by Rachel Smythe Greywaren by Maggie Stiefvater The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion, Vol. 6 by Beth Brower Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian Scattered Showers ...

We have come to the end of the year, you and I. It has been even quieter around these parts than last year at this time. And yet I find myself here once more, feeling the familiar and precious gratitude for this space and for all of these words. Despite it all. And so even in the quiet, I leave with you my best books of the year. They have been a light in dark places. Perhaps they also were for you. Perhaps they will be. (listed in the order in which I read them) The Sweetest Fix by Tessa Bailey Roommate by Sarina Bowen Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert Fence: Disarmed by Sarah Rees Brennan Mister Impossible by Maggie Stiefvater Subtle Blood by K.J. Charles Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell Peter Darling by Austin Chant Bombshell by Sarah MacLean Flirting with Forever by Cara Bastone Portrait of a Scotsman by Evie Dunmore The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney In the Ballroom with the Candlestick by Diana Peterfre...

 It is the last day of the year. Of this year specifically. "Well done," is all have to say if you're reading this. Well done, you. It's been quiet for awhile now around these parts. For obvious reasons. But I've been reading continuously and ever so gratefully. I have felt such a profound sense of gratitude this year for all of the creators in this world who have been tirelessly and so lovingly creating art for all of us. We have needed it so much. I have needed it so much. And this year of all years, the creation of art has felt like such a fierce act of love. So thank you. And so here I leave my best books of the year. My list stands at fourteen titles. And that feels just right. photo by @aamith (in the order in which I read them) A Heart So Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane Slippery Creatures by K.J. Charles Christmas at the Island Hotel by Jenny Colgan Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall The Great Godden by Meg R...

I am winded, you guys. Winded  from laboring over this list. This is the first time I've attempted to cobble together a Best Books of the Decade list, and I can't say I'll be up to it for another ten years or so. But my, I couldn't resist the challenge (or profound pleasure, if we're being honest). I kept trying to winnow it down, kept forcing myself to be ruthless. Like somehow I could (or should) keep it to a top ten (flat impossible) or at least a top twenty-five (who are we kidding?). But after bidding those constraints good riddance, I really did press myself to take a hard, clear look at what hurts (to mangle my favorite Hemingway quote). Because these novels hurt in the best way. Each entry on this list is a five-star book in my books. Which means I wouldn't change a single thing about a single one of them. They are the ones I call perfect when I recommend them to friends and strangers. They are the ones I have read and reread over the past ten years and...