This year – the year I turned 50 – my reading goal was to complete 50 books. Lo and behold, I read 60!

Here’s my list, followed by a short list of my favorites for the year:

JANUARY

1. This Must Be the Place: A Novel – Maggie O’Farrell
2. Young Jane Young – Gabrielle Zevin
3. Delores Claiborne – Stephen King
4. How Dante Can Save Your Life: The Life-Changing Wisdom of History’s Greatest Poem – Rod Dreher
5. The Temptation of Adam – Dave Connis

FEBRUARY

6. Death Comes for the Deconstructionist– Daniel Taylor
7. In Fairleigh Field – Rhys Bowen
8. The Whole30 Day By Day – Melissa Hartwig
9. Not Perfect – Elizabeth LaBan
10. Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro

MARCH

11. Fates and Furies – Lauren Groff
12. Sous Chef: 24 Hours on the Line – Michael Gibney

APRIL

13. My Berlin Kitchen: Adventures in Love & Life – Luisa Weiss
14. Better Than Before: What I Learned About Making and Breaking Habits– Gretchen Rubin
15. An American Marriage – Tayari Jones
16. Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – Alexandra Fuller
17. Columbine – Dave Cullen
18. The Dry – Jane Harper
19. Then She Was Gone – Lisa Jewell

MAY

20. Last Train to Istanbul – Ayse Kulin
21. The Discipline of Grace: God’s Role and Our Role in the Pursuit of Holiness – Jerry Bridges
22. A Week in Winter -Maeve Binchy

JUNE

23. The Dinner – Herman Koch
24. Rainbirds – Clarissa Goenawan
25. The Relationship Cure – John M. Gottman
26. The Lake House – Kate Morton
27. The Lola Quartet – Emily St. John Mandel
28. Kitchen Confidential – Anthony Bourdain

JULY

29. Crazy Rich Asians – Kevin Kwan
30. The Psychopath Test: A Journey Through the Madness Industry – Jon Ronson
31. This Is How It Always Is – Laurie Frankel
32. Sunburn – Laura Lippman
33. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson

AUGUST

34. My Brilliant Friend – Elena Ferrante
35. Charity Detox: What Charity Would Look Like If We Cared About Results – Robern D. Lupton
36. Grocery: The Buying and Selling of Food in America – Michael Ruhlman
37. Visible Empire – Hannah Pittard
38. The Supper of the Lamb – Robert Farrar Capon
39. The Paris Wife – Paula McLain
40. Off Season – Anne Rivers Siddons
41. The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street – Karina Yan Glaser
42. Snap Judgment (Samantha Brinkman Book 3) – Marcia Clark
43. The Widows of Malabar Hill – Sujata Massey

SEPTEMBER

44. An American Princess: The Many Lives of Allene Tew – Anejet van der Zijl
45. China Rich Girlfriend – Kevin Kwan
46. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – David Grann
47. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton
48. The Means – Douglas Brunt
49. Love and Ruin – Paula McLain
50. The End of the Affair – Graham Greene

OCTOBER

51. Suicide of the West – Jonah Goldberg
52. I’d Rather Be Reading – Anne Bogel
53. If I’m Dead: A Rachel Knight Story – Marcia Clark
54. PainFree: A Revolutionary Method for Stopping Chronic Pain – Pete Egoscue 

NOVEMBER

55. The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America – Erik Larson

DECEMBER

56. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone – J.K. Rowling
57. Decades of Dominance: Auburn Football in the Modern Era – Van Allen Plexico and John Ringer
58. Defending Jacob – William Landay
59. The Keto Diet – Leanne Vogel
60. The Wondering Years: How Pop Culture Helped Me Answer Life’s Biggest Questions – Knox McCoy

Some mighty fine books this year! Here are my top 5 in no particular order:

1. This Must Be the Place: A Novel – Maggie O’Farrell
2. The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row – Anthony Ray Hinton
3. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption – Bryan Stevenson
4. The Paris Wife – Paula McLain
5. The Lake House – Kate Morton

If you kept a list, let me know, and please share your favorites!

Happy reading!