The Bandit Queens is a smart, darkly funny novel about a community of women who team up to kill their abusive husbands. It’s equal parts delightful and devastating.

The New Life is a well-written and deeply emotional novel about experiences of queerness in late-1800s London. I loved it.

The Good Life is one of those rare “self-help” books that actually uses all its pages well. I really appreciated the way it not only presented the research but also provided helpful, actionable tools to carry to its advice in real life.

Elizabeth Strout has done it again. Anything Is Possible is a beautiful and tender of a portrait of a community told through the eyes of its people, one story at a time.

The Shadow of the Wind is a beautifully told, immersive, wonderfully bibliophilic mystery that takes place in Barcelona in 1945. I loved it.

The Witch’s Heart is a great addition to the feminist mythology retelling subgenre. Genevieve Gornichec gives Angrboda so much richness and depth, and I read it in a day.

Small Things Like These is a deceptively simple, deeply resonate little book about a dark part of Ireland’s (not so distant) past and the danger of community complacency. I really, really liked it.

When We Were Sisters is a gorgeously written novel about three Pakistani-American sisters who grow up neglected. I sunk into it and was sad to finish; just beautiful.

Hamnet is an immersive, engrossing novel that fictionalizes the life of an Italian Duchess in the 1550s. To put it simply, Maggie O’Farrell has done it again.

Daughter of the Moon Goddess is a fun and exciting story that really just checks all the boxes: magic, action, romance, mythology, a plot twist! Can’t wait for book two.

The Trees is a super-smart, darkly satirical novel about racial lynching in the US. Very few writers could have pulled this off — I liked it a lot and respected it even more.

Liberation Day is just plain short story writing at its best. George has given us a deeply human collection of unforgettable characters and plenty to think about.

Maria, Maria is a playful, witchy collection of short stories written in different experimental formats. While I didn’t fall head over heels, I had a lot of fun reading this one.

Best of Friends is a quieter, lower-stakes novel than Home Fire, but it still crackles with scenic electricity. The character work here is also excellent. I liked it a lot.

If I Survive You is a strong, compelling collection of connected stories about a family of Jamaican men living in Miami. I enjoyed it quite a lot.

The Undocumented Americans is a moving, well-written memoir-in-essays that does exactly what I want from nonfiction: it helps open my understanding of the world and other people.

The Spear Cuts Through Water is a sweeping, imaginative, gorgeously and uniquely told story that completely knocked my socks off. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook as you read along in print.

Book Lovers is a compulsively readable, super smart book that takes a common trope (small-town romance) and and subverts every single element. Reading it was very fun.

The Overstory is a sprawling, beautiful novel about trees, activism, and interconnectedness — both between us and the planet, and with one another.

A Taste of Gold and Iron is a standalone fantasy with a queer central romance, and it hooked me HARD. The characters and their arcs are so exquisitely crafted that I didn’t even mind the slow burn. LOVED.