Godkiller is a well-written, well-built start of a new fantasy series with characters you’ll love and worldbuilding you’ll swoon over. I definitely recommend it!

Shy is a tiny book that packs a gigantic punch like only Max Porter can. Dark but emotionally poignant, this book will break your heart in the best way. I loved it.

Spear is a gender-bent, queer, Arthurian/Percival retelling that’s rich, stunning, and timely. It’s especially good on audio. I’m so glad I read it!

Legends & Lattes is a warm and fuzzy book about the healing power of friendship and found family that pulls on the heart strings and offers a respite from the real world. I loved it.

Red, White & Royal Blue is a feel-good story with left-wing political fanfiction, lots of spice, and a rare and deep emotional punch. I loved it.

Fourth Wing doesn’t do much that’s new — it’s a tropey hero’s journey — but it was super bingeable and a hell of a fun time. Can’t wait for book two.

The Vaster Wilds is another work of genius from Groff, intimate and visceral. You have to be in the mood for a book like this (it has almost no dialogue), but if you are, I think you’ll love it.

The Fragile Threads of Power is everything I hoped it would be. V.E. Schwab is a master plotter, a master of the details, a master of sentences — just a master of everything

Part memoir, part manifesto, Good for a Girl is perspective-shifting and deeply important, all while deftly carrying the narrative of Fleshman’s memoir. I loved it.

Like, Literally, Dude is a joyfully fun, delightfully nerdy book that I absolutely loved. In the running for a top nonfiction of the year for sure!

Good Strategy/Bad Strategy is the first business book I’ve read in years that didn’t feel like it should have been a TED Talk instead. It really lit my brain up and energized me — highly recommend!

Written by the first American woman to win the Boston Marathon in 33 years, Choosing to Run is exactly what I love in a memoir. It was engaging, taught me something new, and made my world a little bigger.

Black Butterflies is a well-researched, captivating, deeply moving novel about war and art set during the siege of Sarajevo. I couldn’t put it down and ultimately loved it.

Demon Copperhead is a smart, hard-hitting modern retelling of David Copperfield that hits all the right notes. I’m not surprised it’s winning so many awards.

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a fast-paced, well-written, bookish standalone fantasy that I absolutely adored. It’s been a long time since a book made me want to text live updates to someone who’d already read it!

Chain-Gang All-Stars is a searing, extremely smart, and compulsively readable novel about incarceration, the use of Black lives as entertainment, and so much more. You gotta read it.

Emily Henry does it again! Happy Place is not only a fun read with a fun combination of tropes, it’s also deeply felt with a realistic, heartbreaking central conflict.

Take What You Need is a quick but heartbreaking read about an estranged stepmother and stepdaughter with geographic, class, and political divides. The character and conflict work is just incredible.

White Cat, Black Dog is a delightfully weird little collection of stories inspired by fairy tales and folklore. It’s funny and layered and excellent.

Running While Black is the perfect blend of memoir and hard-hitting social commentary. Desir’s focus on the running world is both narrow (making it feel particularly fascinating) and broad (illustrating its necessity.