Favourites
You can see in-depth reviews of some of my favourite books here. I post my favourite books every few months here. You can also find me on GoodReads.
Note: some of the links below are affiliate links, but I have personally read and enjoyed all of these books.
Books By Year
2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015
* = favourite
Books Read in 2015
- The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet – David Mitchell*
- Landline – Rainbow Rowell
- Fangirl – Rainbow Rowell
- Fantastic Mr. Fox – Roald Dahl
- The Celestine Prophecy – James Redfield
- The Castaways – Elin Hilderbrand
- An Abundance of Katherines – John Green
- A Path Appears – Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryll WuDunn
- Lizzy and Jane – Katherine Reay
- Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
- What Do Women Want? – Daniel Bergner
- First Frost – Sarah Addison Allen
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up – Marie Kondo
- The Go-Giver – Bob Burg
- Station Eleven – Emily St. John Mandel*
- By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept – Elizabeth Smart
- Emma – Jane Austen
- Yes Please – Amy Poehler
- Small Victories – Anne Lamott
- The Art of Communicating – Thich Nhat Hanh
- 10% Happier – Dan Harris
- Too Much Happiness – Alice Munro
- The Body Book – Cameron Diaz
- Going to Pieces Without Falling Apart – Mark Epstein
- Being Mortal – Atul Gawande
- #Girlboss – Sophia Amoruso
- Man’s Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl
- The Beach Club – Elin Hilderbrand
- Northanger Abbey – Jane Austen
- Essentialism – Greg McKeown
- In the Woods – Tana French*
- The One Thing – Gary Keller
- Self-Help – Lorrie Moore
- Lost Lake – Sarah Addison Allen
- Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie*
- How to Be Parisian – Anne Berest
- Present Moment, Wonderful Moment – Thich Nhat Hanh
- The Rumor – Elin Hilderbrand
- Outlander – Diana Gabaldon
- Winter Street – Elin Hilderbrand
- Being Peace – Thich Nhat Hanh
- This is How You Lose Her – Junot Diaz*
- Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer*
- All I Really Need To Know I Learned in Kindergarten – Robert Fulghum
- Seating Arrangements – Maggie Shipstead
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
- Broken Harbour – Tana French
- Better Than Before – Gretchen Rubin*
- Everything Is Going to Be Okay – Chronicle Books
- Faithful Place – Tana French
- Committed – Elizabeth Gilbert
- Rising Strong – Brené Brown*
- Let the Elephants Run – David Usher
- Missoula – Jon Krakauer
- Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert*
- The Fire Starter Sessions – Danielle Laporte
- Why We Get Fat – Gary Taubes
- The Gifts of Imperfection – Brené Brown*
- Eat Move Sleep – Tom Rath
- I Thought It Was Just Me – Brené Brown
- Self-Knowledge – Mark Manson
- Middlesex – Jeffrey Eugenides*
- Fates and Furies – Lauren Groff
- Kitchens of the Great Midwest – J. Ryan Stradal
- Carry On – Rainbow Rowell
- Journey to the Heart – Melody Beattie
- Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff – Richard Carlson
- Enjoy Every Sandwich – Lee Lipsenthal
- Make Good Art – Neil Gaiman
- Being Perfect – Anna Quindlen
- The Dip – Seth Godin
- Show Your Work – Austin Kleon
- Brave Enough – Cheryl Strayed
- The Happiness of Pursuit – Chris Guillebeau
- All the Money in the World – Laura Vanderkam*
Books Read in 2014
- The Defining Decade – Meg Jay*
- Sisterland – Curtis Sittenfeld
- Me Before You – Jojo Moyes
- What I Wore – Jessiva Quirk
- A Short Guide to a Happy Life – Anna Quindlen
- The Power of Now – Eckhart Tolle
- The Remains of the Day – Kazuo Ishiguro
- Make Every Man Want You – Marie Forleo
- Run – Ann Patchett
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette – Maria Semple*
- The Four Agreements – Miguel Ruiz
- The Art of Non-Conformity – Chris Guillebeau
- David and Goliath – Malcolm Gladwell
- Turning Pro – Steven Pressfield
- Bird by Bird – Anne Lamott*
- The Art of Possibility – Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander*
- The Maker Movement Manifesto – Mark Hatch
- Daily Rituals: How Artists Work – Mason Currey
- Looking For Alaska – John Green
- Daring Greatly – Brené Brown*
- The Promise of a Pencil – Adam Braun*
- Charlotte’s Web – E.B. White
- Thrive – Arianna Huffington*
- Paper Towns – John Green
- The Master and Margarita – Mikhail Bulgakov
- Ugly Koreans, Ugly Americans – Byoung-chul Min
- Waking Kate – Sarah Addison Allen
- Lost Lake – Sarah Addison Allen*
- Behind the Beautiful Forevers – Katherine Boo
- Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi
- Fascinate – Sally Hogshead
- Breaking Free From Emotional Eating – Geneen Roth
- The Vacationers – Emma Straub*
- Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck*
- The Blue Bistro – Elin Hilderbrand*
- The Giver – Lois Lowry
- The Lost Recipe for Happiness – Barbara O’Neal
- Astonish Me – Maggie Shipstead
- The Tailgate – Elin Hilderbrand
- On Mystic Lake – Kristin Hannah
- 168 Hours – Laura Vanderkam
- Eleanor & Park – Rainbow Rowell
- Frog Music – Emma Donoghue
- The School of Essential Ingredients – Erica Baumeister
- The Matchmaker – Elin Hilderbrand
- Women Food and God – Geneen Roth
- The Rosie Project – Graeme Simsion
- The Island – Elin Hilderbrand
- The Success Principles – Jack Canfield
- This I Believe – Jay Allison
- What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast – Laura Vanderkam
- The Belly Fat Cure – Jorge Cruise
- Night – Elise Wiesel
- The Bridges of Madison County – Robert James Waller
- Help Thanks Wow – Anne Lamott
- This is the Story of a Happy Marriage – Ann Patchett
- The Original Chicken Soup for the Soul – Jack Canfield
- We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves – Karen Joy Fowler
- The Peach Keeper – Sarah Addison Allen
- Will Grayson, Will Grayson – John Green and David Levithan
- American Savage – Dan Savage
- Food Rules – Michael Pollan
- The Joy Diet – Martha Beck
- The Slight Edge – Jeff Olson
- Not That Kind of Girl – Lena Dunham
- Diary of a Wimpy Kid – Jeff Kinney
- The Magic Finger – Roald Dahl
- The Happiness Advantage – Shawn Achor
- What I Know For Sure – Oprah Winfrey
- The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
- The E Myth Revisited – Michael E. Gerber
- On the Shortness of Life – Seneca
- Essays in Love – Alain de Botton
- Think and Grown Rich – Napoleon Hill
- Summer People – Elin Hilderbrand
Books Read in 2013
- Paris, My Sweet – Amy Thomas
- I Remember Nothing – Nora Ephron
- What I Talk About When I Talk About Running – Haruki Murakami
- Eat & Run – Scott Jurek
- The Sisters Brothers – Patrick deWitt
- I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman – Nora Ephron
- How NOT to Move Back In With Your Parents – Rob Carrick
- Heads in Beds – Jacob Tomsky
- The War of Art – Steven Pressfield
- The Age of Miracles – Karen Thompson Walker
- Imagine – Jonah Lehrer
- Without Reservations – Alice Steinbach
- The Tiger’s Wife – Tea Obreht
- A Doll’s House – Henrik Ibsen
- The End of Your Life Book Club – Will Schwalbe
- All My Friends Are Superheroes – Andrew Kaufman*
- Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
- Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Quest For Identity – Donald Taylor
- The Peach Keeper – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Girl Who Chased the Moon – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Geography of Bliss – Eric Weiner
- The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Power of Habit – Charles Duhigg
- Jitterbug Perfume – Tom Robbins
- State of Wonder – Ann Patchett
- How to Be a Woman – Caitlyn Moran
- A Short History of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
- Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed*
- Steal Like An Artist – Austin Kleon
- Happier at Home – Gretchen Rubin
- Oryx and Crake – Margaret Atwood
- The Lost Girls – Jennifer Baggett
- The Da Vinci Code – Dan Brown
- Mediterranean Holiday – Kate Cann
- Spanish Holiday – Kate Cann
-
The Fault in Our Stars – John Green*
- How We Decide – Jonah Lehrer
- Lean In – Sheryl Sandberg
- Speaking From Among the Bones – Alan Bradley
- Cinnamon and Gunpowder – Eli Brown
- Let’s Explore Diabetes with Owls – David Sedaris
- A Moveable Feast – Ernest Hemingway
- The Girl Who Chased the Moon – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen*
- Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Peach Keeper – Sarah Addison Allen*
- Inferno – Dan Brown
- The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion*
- One Day – David Nicholls
- Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed*
-
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail – Cheryl Strayed*
- The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry – Rachel Joyce
- Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – Robin Sloan
- Blue Nights – Joan Didion
- Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
- Torch – Cheryl Strayed
- The Book Thief – Markus Zusak
- Finding Ultra – Rich Roll
- Blood, Bones and Butter – Gabrielle Hamilton
- The Wealthy Barber – David Chilton
- The Abortionist’s Daughter – Elisabeth Hyde
- S.E.C.R.E.T. – L. Marie Adeline
- What Should I Do With My Life – Po Bronson*
- Yoga Bitch – Suzanne Morrison
- Female Chauvinist Pigs – Ariel Levy
- Super Immunity – Joel Fuhrman
- Poser: My Life in 23 Yoga Poses – Claire Dederer
- Bel Canto – Ann Patchett
- Lost Girls: An Unsolved American Mystery – Robert Kolker
- Home – Toni Morrison
- I’ll Seize the Day Tomorrow – Jonathan Goldstein
- Adulting – Kelly Brown Williams*
- The Desire Map – Danielle LaPorte
- A Stolen Life – Jaycee Dugard
Books Read in 2012
- A Visit From the Goon Squad – Jennifer Egan*
- Where the Girls Are – Susan Douglas
- The Art of Choosing – Sheena Iyengar
- Dead Until Dark – Charlaine Harris
- Plate to Pixel – Helen Dujardin
- Black Swan Green – David Mitchell
- Bride of New France – Suzanne Desrochers
- Ready Player One – Ernest Cline*
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – Stephen Covey
- The Importance of Being Earnest – Oscar Wilde
- Let the Great World Spin – Colum McCann*
- Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire – George R.R. Martin
- An Everlasting Meal – Tamar Adler
- Born to Run – Christopher McDougall
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened – Jenny Lawson*
- The Art of Non-Conformity – Chris Guillebeau
- The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry – Kathleen Flinn
- Fifty Shades of Grey – E.L. James
- Fifty Shades Darker – E.L. James
- Fifty Shades Freed – E.L. James
- The Good Mayor – Andrew Nicoll*
- Kitchen Counter Cooking School – Kathleen Flinn
- The $100 Startup – Chris Guillebeau
- The Creative Habit – Twyla Tharp*
- The Art of Fielding – Chad Harbach*
- Quiet – Susan Cain
- Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen
- A Life of Fiction – Stephanie Pellett
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver
- The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin
- Number9Dream – David Mitchell
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) – Mindy Kaling
- The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway
- Charmed Life – Diana Wynne Jones
- The Prisoner of Heaven – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
- An Economist Gets Lunch – Tyler Cowen
- Ru – Kim Thuy
- The Magicians – Lev Grossman
- Gone Girl – Gillian Flynn
- Divergent – Veronica Roth
- Garden Spells – Sarah Addison Allen*
- The Peach Keeper – Sarah Addison Allen
- The Sugar Queen – Sarah Addison Allen
- Willpower – Roy Baumeister and John Tierney
- The Wind Up Bird Chronicle – Haruki Murakami
- The Girl Who Chased The Moon – Sarah Addison Allen*
- Chocolat – Joanne Harris
- The Talent Code – Daniel Coyle
- Ghostwritten – David Mitchell
- Come, Thou Tortoise – Jessica Grant*
- Secrets to a Healthy Metabolism – Maria Emmerich
- The Cat’s Table – Michael Ondaatje
- Paris In Love – Eloisa James
- Why We Do What We Do – Edward Deci
- Yes, Chef – Marcus Samuelsson
- Tiny Beautiful Things – Cheryl Strayed*
Books Read in 2011
- The Alchemist – Paulo Coehlo
- The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest – Steig Larsson
- The Phantom of the Opera – Gaston Leroux
- Crazy Sexy Diet – Kris Carr
- The Disappeared – Kim Echlin
- Based Upon Availability – Alix Strauss
- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Lewis Carroll
- The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Still Alice – Lisa Genova
- The Happiness Project – Gretchen Rubin*
- Poke the Box – Seth Godin
- In Cold Blood – Truman Capote
- Plato and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar – Daniel Klein and Thomas Cathcart
- The History of Love – Nicole Krauss
- The Hunger Games – Suzanne Collins*
- Catching Fire – Suzanne Collins
- Mockingjay – Suzanne Collins
- The Imperfectionists – Tom Rachman*
- The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood – Rebecca Wells*
- The Forgotten Garden – Kate Morton
- Ape House – Sara Gruen
- The Condition – Jennifer Haigh
- The Help – Kathryn Stockett
- Eats, Shoots and Leaves – Lynne Truss
- A Red Herring Without Mustard – Alan Bradley
- Do the Work – Steven Pressfield
- Columbine – Dave Cullen
- Garlic & Sapphires – Ruth Reichl
- My Life in France – Julia Child
- Julie & Julia – Julie Powell*
- Medium Raw – Anthony Bourdain
- Left Neglected – Lisa Genova
- The Sweet Life in Paris – David Lebovitz
- Blood, Bones & Butter – Gabrielle Hamilton*
- The Year of Living Biblically – A.J. Jacobs
- Bossypants – Tina Fey
- Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man – Bill Clegg
- Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain
- The Night Circus – Erin Morgenstern*
- The 4-Hour Workweek – Timothy Ferriss
- Rich Dad Poor Dad – Robert Kiyosaki
- Food Photography: From Snapshots to Great Shots – Nicole S. Young
- The Richest Man in Babylon – George S. Clason
- The Getaway Car – Ann Patchett
- The Right to Write – Julia Cameron*
- Cooking Solves Everything – Mark Bittman
- The Artist’s Way – Julia Cameron
- The 4-Hour Body – Timothy Ferriss
- The Beauty of Humanity Movement – Camilla Gibb
- The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – Douglas Adams
Books Read in 2010
- Classy – Derek Blasberg
- I Loved, I Lost, I Made Spaghetti – Giulia Melucci
- Eating Animals – Jonathan Safran Foer
- Her Fearful Symmetry – Audrey Niffenegger
- Sway – Ori and Rom Brafman
- Orange is the New Black – Piper Kerman
- Nickel and Dimed – Barbara Ehrenreich
- Freakonomics – Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner
- InStyle Parties – InStyle Editors
- Shutter Island – Dennis Lehane
- The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
- What the Dog Saw – Malcolm Gladwell
- The Kind Diet – Alicia Silverstone
- The One Hundred – Nina Garcia
- Waiter Rant – Steve Dublanica
- Citizen Girl – Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus
- Eat Pray Love – Elizabeth Gilbert
- The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry – Kathleen Flinn*
- Gods Behaving Badly – Marie Phillips
- Prep – Curtis Sittenfeld*
- A Million Little Pieces – James Frey
- The Bell Jar – Sylvia Plath
- My Stroke of Insight – Jill Bolte Taylor
- The Man of My Dreams – Curtis Sittenfeld*
- American Wife – Curtis Sittenfeld
- Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell
- The Quality of Life Report – Meghan Daum
- Unhinged – Daniel Carlat
- Skinny Bitch – Kim Barnouin and Rory Freedman
- Men and Dogs – Katie Crouch
- Within Our Reach: Ending the Mental Health Crisis – Rosalynn Carter
- Diary – Chuck Palahniuk
- The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie – Alan C. Bradley
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society – Mary Ann Shaffer, Annie Barrows
- The Te of Piglet – Benjamin Hoff
- Quantum Wellness – Kathy Freston
- The Weed That Strings the Hangman’s Bag – Alan C. Bradley
- Eccentric Glamour – Simon Doonan
- The Book of Awesome -Neil Pasricha
- Crazy Salad – Nora Ephron
- Summer at Tiffany – Marjorie Hart
- Live The Life You Love – Barbara Sher
- The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake – Aimee Bender
- Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
- Gone With The Wind – Margaret Mitchell
- The Fellowship of the Ring – J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Two Towers – J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Return of the King – J.R.R. Tolkien
- Brave New World – Aldous Huxley
- The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo – Steig Larsson
- The Hour I First Believed – Wally Lamb
- The Girl Who Played With Fire – Steig Larsson
- Holidays on Ice – David Sedaris
- Room – Emma Donoghue
Books Read in 2009
- Candide – Voltaire
- How to Talk to Girls – Alec Greven
- Pride and Prejudice and Zombies – Seth Grahame-Smith
- Direct Red – Gabriel Weston
- Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
- Choke – Chuck Palahniuk
- Revolutionary Road – Richard Yates
- The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- The Film Club – David Gilmour
- Franny and Zooey – J.D. Salinger
- Blue Like Jazz – Donald Miller
- Watchmen – Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons
- Slaughterhouse Five – Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- The Tales of Beetle the Bard – J.K. Rowling
- Things Fall Apart – Chinua Achebe
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma – Michael Pollan
- The Tipping Point – Malcolm Gladwell
- Style: A to Zoe – Rachel Zoe