books of yesteryear and building my 2018 reading list

I started keeping track of the books I read a couple years ago and I thought it’d be fun to share what I ended up reading in 2017, with a top 5 fave list. And then, if you make it through, what’s on my list for 2018!

2017 Reading List

(I keep track of the books I’m reading each month. Some take me a few months to finish! The asterisk means started but didn’t finish. I’m a big believer in books having a right time. So, maybe I’ll finish those books someday, or maybe life’s too short to keep reading a book I don’t want to read. YOLO.)

January

• Americanah – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
• The Girls – Emma Cline
• The Enneagram: A Journey of Self-Discovery – Maria Beesing, Robert J. Nogosek, Patrick H. O’Leary
• The Story of A Soul* – St. Therese of Lisieux

February

• Lila – Marilynne Robinson
• We Should All Be Feminists – Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
• The Road Back To You: An Enneagram Journey to Self Discovery* – Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile
• Transitions* – William Bridges (reread)

March

• Transitions* – William Bridges
• The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
• Liturgy of the Ordinary: Sacred Practices in Everyday Life – Tish Harrison Warren

April

• The Outlander Series – Diana Gabaldon (my post-partum nursing reads)
• Lilac Girls* – Martha Hall Kelly (could not handle concentration camps anymore)

May

• The Blue Castle – L.M. Montgomery
• Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting – Laura Kelly Fanucci
• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
• Father Brown: The Essential Tales* – G.K. Chesterton 

June/July – either I didn’t read anything, or I just didn’t write it down. that’s when we packed and moved and drove cross country with 2 babies under 2 so it’s possible I didn’t read anything.

August

• Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
• Father Brown: The Essential Tales* – G.K. Chesterton
• Oh Crap! Potty Training – Jamie Glowacki
• Spiritual Lessons from St. Francis* – John Michael Talbot
• Born a Crime – Trevor Noah

September

• The Sympathizer* – Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The Righteous Mind* – Jonathan Haidt

October

• The Sympathizer – Viet Thanh Nguyen
• The Righteous Mind* – Jonathan Haidt
• Station Eleven – Emily Mandel
• Ginny Moon – Benjamin Ludwig
• Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng

November

• I Let You Go – Clare Mackintosh
• Reading People – Anne Boyle
• Devout Life* – St. Francis de Sales

December

• “Wonders Never Cease” – essay by Marilynne Robinson
• Til We Have Faces* – C.S. Lewis (reread)
• The Hate You Give* – Angie Thomas
• My Life With The Saints* – James Martin, S.J.

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Top 5 Faves from 2017

• Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
• Station Eleven – Emily Mandel
• Everyday Sacrament: The Messy Grace of Parenting – Laura Kelly Fanucci
• The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
• Born a Crime – Trevor Noah

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2018 Reading List (so far)

• The Tech-Wise Family – Andy Crouch (Chris and I listened to the audio book on our drive home from New Jersey)
• Animal, Vegetable, Miracle – Barbara Kingsolver (started on Hoopla, already feel like I can’t shop at our cheap-o grocery store anymore…)
• A Severe Mercy – a love story by C.S. Lewis’s friend whose wife died young. my neighbor lent me this and I’m convicted/challenged by how much they loved their love.
• The Ninth Hour – Alice McDermott (haven’t read any of her novels yet, but read an interview in Commonweal that had me intrigued. nuns!)
• My Absolute Darling – Gabriel Tallent (don’t know anything about this, Maya just recommended it)
• The World Will Be Saved by Beauty – Kate Hennessey (Dorothy Day’s granddaughter. recommended by my friend, who also recommended Station Eleven, which was amazing. Kathleen, if you read this, you really should share all the books you read with the world.)
• and I want to read my way through Obama’s fave books of 2017, starting with these: The Power by Naomi Alderman, Exit West by Mohsin Hamid, Anything Is Possible by Elizabeth Strout, and Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.

What else should I read? What’s on your list? Gimme yo recs 🙂