Better late than never, right?! Here are my favorite 10 books of all the 26 books I read last year, in descending order, complete with links to full reviews of each of them. You’ll notice a small handful of Colleen Hoover books; that’s because I did a Colleen Hoover binge last summer and discovered they are a true guilty pleasure for me. Last year happened to be a year of great reads for me, and the top 5 on this list could have really gone in any order. Each of them was incredible.
10. Ugly Love by Colleen Hoover. It’s the ultimate story of “girl tries to fix boy,” but in this one, she actually does it. While people may hate that trope, I couldn’t put this book down.
9. November 9 by Colleen Hoover. Two lovers meet on November 9 every year as their love story grows. It’s a silly trope that’s been done before, and yet here, it still works.
8. Naturally Tan by Tan France. The Queer Eye host uses his memoir as a vehicle for also offering fashion advice and self-help tips he’s learned along the way. Eloquent and fashionable, just like Tan, himself.
7. Verity by Colleen Hoover. A thriller and page-turner that will make you feel a little icky, but that you won’t be able to put down. For those who like Gone Girl.
6. The Incomplete Book of Running by Peter Sagal. It will make you laugh, and it will make you cry. NPR Host Peter Sagal writes a compelling memoir about how running is not just for physical health, but for mental and emotional health and gets you through the hardest of hard times.
5. Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This is a fun novel for anyone who loves novels about: love, feminism, chemistry, cooking or parenting. Yes, it manages to tackle all of that into one powerful story.
4. The Candy House by Jennifer Egan. Egan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of A Visit from the Goon Squad revisits many of the characters from that original book, telling what feels less like a novel and more like a collection of short stories about characters who are all somehow connected.
3. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. This is a one helluva page-turner told through the eyes of a journalist reporting on an elderly actress who recalls all the men she married over the years. But the real story is who Evelyn Hugo’s true love was, and how she and this journalist are connected.
2. Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin. A sad and yet still hopeful novel, Tomorrow tells the story of soulmates, not in love, but in video game creating.
- Fleishman Is In Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner. A statement on mid-life in New York City, Fleishman is depressing in how deeply relatable the characters are as well as their perspectives on marriage, parenthood, anxiety and meltdowns.
Lara's Book Club 