It’s that time of year for sharing some of my favorite books! I’ve always loved the written word and that seems to only be intensifying as I age. I distinctly remember hiding under the covers with my flashlight and the latest book in the Thoroughbred series trying to sneak in just a few extra pages past my bedtime without my parents noticing.

Landon recently told me if I stay up too late reading I’ll feel tired the next morning. Although he’s spot-on, I still stay up too late many nights thinking, “Just one more chapter.”

I consumed 115 books in 2024, which includes audiobooks, Kindle books and actual books. This does not, however, include the dozens of children’s books I’ve read hundreds of times.

Related Reading: My Top Books from 2020-present

Because reading is such an escape for me, most of my reading is for entertainment, which can range from historical fiction to lighter “beach reads.” I try to sprinkle some nonfiction and educational reading in there, too.

I keep my active reading, read and to-read lists updated regularly on GoodReads. Follow along and let’s share our books all year long!

The List

Same as It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo

I loved this author’s first book, The Most Fun We Ever Had, so was eager to dive into this book. Although I didn’t like it as much, it was still very good. It’s not a particularly pretty or fast read and there were many times I flat out disliked Julia, the main character. What I appreciate about Lombardo’s books are how incredibly real her characters are. I love how she shows how flawed they are and how human they are—just like us. As much as I like to read for fluff, fun and escape, the books like this are the ones that stick with me. I also gravitate toward books that show character development through a huge chunk of the person’s life, as we do with Julia.

Bearing the Unbearable: Love, Loss and the Heartbreaking Path of Grief by Joanne Cacciatore

I’ve been sitting on this grief book since the early days of Brian’s death. I don’t know what drove me to pick it up after a hiatus of not reading any grief-related books, but I’m so glad I did. It’s exceptional.

You don’t need to be grieving to appreciate and learn from this book. It’s a great book to read for anyone who just wants to be a better, more understanding, compassionate human being. The author focuses largely on traumatic grief, which is its own animal. I love that she doesn’t talk about “getting over” grief or minimizing it. Rather, she talks about how to honor your grief and how traumatic, big grief has the ability to expand your heart and be a more loving person. This certainly comes with a lot of work, effort and heartbreak.

She doesn’t try to tell the reader that they’ll just stop feeling sad again. On the contrary, she acknowledges your grief might come out and floor you years, even decades, down the road. But she likens it to a wave. It starts, it peaks, it ends. Another wave will come. It will ebb and flow forever. Some waves will be gentler; some fiercer.

I went through this book with a pen and highlighter and my copy is well marked up. One line that resonated and that I’d like others to know: “The weight I needed to bear never changed–only my ability to carry it.”

The Perfumist of Paris by Alia Joshi

This was the final book in the Henna Artist trilogy and my second favorite. What a gift of a series that was meaningful, entertaining, beautiful, sad and so educational for me about Indian culture.

This book followed Lakshmi’s younger sister, Radha, in her professional journey as an up-and-coming perfumer, as a mom and wife, and as a woman from India whose past catches up with her. This entire series was really well done and so very interesting. I especially loved the parts about Indian culture and the author’s descriptions of the food, scents, colors, crowds and more. Radha is incredibly likable, incredibly strong and seeing her character develop so much through the course of three books (though she rarely appeared in the second one) was a delight. Four stars to this book. Five stars to the entire trilogy.

The God of the Woods by Liz Moore

This was such a wonderfully written and engaging book. It followed the disappearance of two children in the same family set about 15 years apart. The author wrote compelling characters with a lot of depth and development. The women especially defied the times in which they lived (1960s and 70s), which I always appreciate and enjoy reading about. The storylines intertwined beautifully where it made sense and also held their own when needed. I look forward to exploring more of this author’s work.

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom by Corrie Ten Boom

I’ve long known about Corrie Ten Boom and regret not picking this up years before I did. What an inspiring, remarkable woman she was. The atrocities she lived through, the losses she endured, yet how she seemed to never waver from her desire to help others and her faith, love and trust in God takes a strength and grit I’d imagine very few possess.

Hello Beautiful by Ann Napolitano

This was such a great book. As with many of my other top reads, this is one that follows a family through decades. The relationships among the four sisters in this book, plus William (a boyfriend-turned-husband), were so intertwined and complex in many ways, but also mostly just full of love, acceptance and forgiveness. This book drew me in and made me feel like I truly was getting to know the family and like I wanted to get to know them better. There were many moments in this book where I wondered, “What would I do in this situation?” The answer often was, “I have no idea.” More often, it was, “I don’t know if I could have navigated this with the grace with which she did.”

This is a book I could easily revisit.

Here After by Amy Lin

Any widow—any person, really—who shares their experience so honestly gets five stars.

This book struck a very personal chord for me. I read it in one afternoon; this is a quick read and reading it straight through is preferable given the extremely short chapters (most not more than 1 page, some only 1 sentence.) It’s honest, it’s raw, it’s the uncomfortable truth that will leave those who haven’t lived this squirming in their seats.

Lin expresses several truths in her writing about young widowhood. Some of the most powerful ones:

• “Silence only isolates the bereaved even more than death already has.”
• “Being widowed young literally puts one’s life at higher risk. This increased vulnerability is termed the widowhood effect.” (This was after a section explaining the huge increase of young widows in their 40s and 50s being 2.5x more likely to die of a cerebral or cardiac event. There aren’t enough widows in their 30s to have measurable data.)
• “I find the more I learn of the commonly held beliefs about grief, the more I cannot understand how such grossly reductive and inaccurate ideas about bereavement can exist. How can grief be so universal and yet be so widely misunderstood?”
• “Everyone is so afraid of grief and this fear is dangerous to the grieving.”
• “What are our options? We can’t ball up and cry forever. We’re not ‘okay’ and what other people call ‘strength’ is really just the fact that we do not have any other choice.”
• “Grief is chronic pain. When will others allow the mourning to live without expecting them to be ‘cured’?”

The Women by Kristin Hannah

Kristin Hannah does it again with another remarkable historical fiction book. She tackled a rare topic I’ve not read about: women in the Vietnam War. This was an emotional, raw read following one woman’s (Frankie’s) story through her nursing years in Vietnam and the perhaps even more difficult life that came afterward. The terrible homecoming reception from family and strangers alike, the PTSD, the inability to get help and the relationship struggles. Despite this being a work of fiction, I know her experience encompasses so much real experience of Vietnam veterans. This is a humbling, emotional, terrific, horrific book that will stick with me for a very long time. Everyone should read this.

Great and Precious Things by Rebecca Yarros

Rebecca Yarros was an accidental, but very happy, find of an author. I’ve enjoyed most of her books, including the modern women novels like this and her romantasy series, The Fourth Wing.

On the surface this book is a bit of a romance, he fell for her she fell for him, type of book. But what I took out of it was the struggle and beauty of family dynamics, even when and especially when they’re tough. The reconnection of old friendships, relationships, romantic relationships. Learning to communicate rather than assume. And finding peace with an unexpected life after a tragic death. The author crafted a really lovely story with sweet, powerful messages and engaging characters.

Family Family by Laurie Frankel

I really fell in love with Laurie Frankel a few years ago when I read “This Is How It Always Is,” and also read “One, Two, Three” last year. Her latest book did not disappoint. Frankel tackles what can be misunderstood topics, in this case adoption, how families are formed and what makes a family. This story follows the main character, India, through her senior year of high school, college years and career as she aspires to become an actress. Through it all, adoption changes her life many times over. We meet those she loves, including boyfriends, children and adoptive parents. Frankel weaves all their stories together and illustrates just what creates a family–the good, the bad, the sorrowful moments, the moments in which we all rejoice. As always, I look forward to Frankel’s next work. She writes memorable, real, lovely people. As she said in her author’s notes, as a novelist she makes up stories with fictional characters to talk about very real topics and very real life.

Go As a River by Shelley Read

I listened to this book and wasn’t sure about it for the first 20 percent or so, but I’m glad I stuck with it. It was really beautifully written and I generally enjoy books that span a person’s lifetime and really show their growth as this one did with Victoria (the main character). She had some really difficult circumstances and decisions to make, some of which significantly altered the course of her life and the lives of others. The author did a nice job weaving it all together. The part of the book that explains where the book got its title brought tears to my eyes.

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

This book was phenomenal. It’s one of those books I miss now that it’s over. Elizabeth Zott is such a wonderful character who defies all odds and societal expectations during the 1950s. She is true and steady toward holding her ground, her values and empowering her daughter and other women to do the same. Chemistry (tied with physics) was my least favorite class in all of high school, but this book made chemistry accessible and even fun while we followed Elizabeth’s story, alongside her dog Six-Thirty, daughter Mad and her other chosen family.

What I really took away from this book, though, was the strength of a woman left tragically and suddenly alone after her great love, her soulmate, died unexpectedly. She was left to be a single mother and the sole provider in every way. Even five years after the fact and successful by outward appearances, she still deeply mourned and missed him. She carried that suffocating weight of grief always and that is so, so real. I know she’s a fictional character, but I found her perseverance when she had no other choice but to persevere to be inspiring and relatable and gut-wrenching.

I also watched the miniseries by the same title on Apple TV, which was well done.

The Paris Agent by Kelly Rimmer

My reading list contains a hugely disproportionate amount of historical fiction WWII books, including this one. Kelly Rimmer writes terrific, well-researched, heart-wrenching historical fiction books—mostly based around WWII (at least those of hers I’ve read.) This one focused on female agents in depths of Europe risking their lives for the cause and uprooting their lives and the lives of their families. This book wove three perspectives—two of female agents from WWII, and one of a woman from the 1970s whose father was also an agent.

What really struck me was the part in the book that said how some scars, even and perhaps most especially the invisible ones, forever shape you. Some events are so huge that there is a clear differentiation of “before” and “after.”

---

Honorable Mentions

These were among some of the other books and series I enjoyed this year that are worth a mention, but perhaps not a full review.

• Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger
• The Inheritance Games series by Jennifer Lynn Barnes
• The Bedwyn Saga by Mary Balogh
• The Guncle by Steven Rowley
• In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
• Drowning by T.J. Newman
• The Breakaway by Jennifer Weiner
• The Fourth Wing Series by Rebecca Yarros