What to read next? It’s a perpetual question in my life.
I love to read. I really love to read.
One day, when I was a kid, maybe 9 or 10, my dad took my brother and me to a professional baseball game. It was a double header, the Yankees or the Mets against who knows. My brother hung on every pitch. I brought a book (something by Laura Ingalls Wilder, I think) and only looked up when a foul ball came into the stands. My dad must have been mortified; who goes to a baseball game with a novel? But mortification notwithstanding, that’s who I was—and still am. I’m always with a book in my bag or on my phone, ready to grab a free few minutes to immerse myself in a great story.
In the time before kids, I went through several books each a week (I also slept more and weighed less, but I digress). Since kids, I still read a lot, I’m in a book club, and I’ve, miraculously, stayed on top of my New Yorker subscription. I’m proud to have 97 books in 2016, keeping track of what I’ve read and what I want to read on Goodreads (Are you on Goodreads? If so, let’s follow each other!).
I’m always on the look out for the next book, so please share your suggestions in the comments. If you’re looking for something to read, check out my reviews below, organized by book type. And, enjoy.
Before you head into the reviews…
— These are my favorite books of 2016.
— Here are my 2015 and 2014 reading lists.
— How I Stay Sane by Reading Books
—Here’s a post about the snow day I was home with kids and decided to reorganize our books by color.
—How I’m raising readers
Books I’ve written about and reviewed here on Red Shutters include…
My Must-Reads
- A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan
- Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
- Our Souls at Night by Kent Haruf
- H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
- Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The Summer Before the War by Helen Simonson
- Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
- Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
- Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner
- Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
Fiction
- Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
- The Immoralists by Chloe Benjamin
- Have You Met Nora? by Nicole Blades
- The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
- Kindred by Octavia Butler
- The Dream Daughter by Diane Chamberlain
- Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler
- The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
- The Ramblers by Aidan Donnelly Rowley
- Just Between Us by Rebecca Drake
- In the Woods by Tana French
- The Likeness by Tana French
- Juliet by Anne Fortier
- A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon
- Lord John and the Brotherhood of the Blade by Diana Gabaldon
- The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon
- The Space Between by Diana Gabaldon
- The Bride by Julie Garwood
- The Death of Rex Nhongo by C.B. George
- In Praise of the Bees by Kristin Gleeson
- Victoria by Daisy Goodwin
- Someday, Someday, Maybe by Lauren Graham
- The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
- The Explanation for Everything by Laura Grodstein
- The Grief of Others by Leah Hager Cohen
- The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
- Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
- The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
- Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
- And The Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
- Lemongrass Hope by Amy Impellizzeri
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King
- Crazy Rich Asians trilogy by Kevin Kwan
- Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
- The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
- Me Before You by JoJo Moyes
- After You by JoJo Moyes
- Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
- 1984 by George Orwell
- State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
- The Best of Us by Sarah Pekkanen
- Delicious! by Ruth Reichl
- The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling
- Matchpoint by Elise Sax
- The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
- The Art Forger by BA Shapiro
- The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simison
- Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter
- Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
- The Martian by Andy Weir
- The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer
- The Secret Life of Book Club by Heather Woodhaven
- Mislaid by Nell Zink
Memoir/Biography
- Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cumming
- In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
- Bossypants by Tina Fey
- Getting Off: One Woman’s Journey Through Sex and Porn Addiction by Erica Garza
- Personal History by Katherine Graham
- The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
- Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
- Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns) by Mindy Kaling
- Some Girls: My Life in a Harem by Jillian Lauren
- Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
- Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
- Primates of Park Avenue by Wednesday Martin
- Notes From a Blue Bike: The Art of Living Intentionally in a Chaotic World by Tsh Oxenreider
- White Dresses: A Memoir of Love and Secrets, Mothers and Daughters
by Mary Pflum Peterson
- The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe
- Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti
- I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
Nonfiction
Parenting
- Bringing Up Bébé: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting by Pamela Druckerman
- The Dolphin Way: A Parent’s Guide to Raising Healthy, Happy, and Motivated Kids—Without Turning into a Tiger by Shimi K. Kang, MD
- Minimalist Parenting by Christine Koh and Asha Dornfest
- The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed by Jesssica Lahey
Cookbooks
- Conquering Your Kitchen by Annemarie Rossi
- The Perfect Portion Cookbook by Anson Williams, Bob Warden, and Mona Dolgov
Other
- “I Give You My Body…”: How I Write Sex Scenes by Diana Gabaldon
- Organize & Create Discipline by Justin Klosky
Kids
- Our Favorite Kids’ Board Books
- Book Recommendations for Elementary-School Age Kids
- The Giant Turnip adapted by Henriette Barkow and illustrated by Richard Johnson
- Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume
- Meet Polkadot by Talcott Broadhead
- Be Who You Are by Jennifer Carr and illustrated by Ben Rumback
- 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert and illustrations by Rex Ray
- I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings with pictures by Shelagh McNichols
- MVP#1: The Gold Medal Mess by David A. Kelly
- The Hunter’s Promise by Joseph Bruchac
- Whispers of the Wolf by Pauline Ts’o