I do a lot of reading. As you might have guessed by my book about how to read a lot. So it seems fair to share some of my favorites. I couldn’t possibly rank them, but a simple list seems worthwhile.

(this page is under construction as I play with the best way to do this)

My Reading

My Top Reading Lists From Each Year

(These are my favorites from each year of reading, so books I read that year, not books published that year. I also don’t stand by the ranking—my opinions often change over time)

Fiction:

Nonfiction:

Top 15 of 2012

My Full Reading Lists:

(every book I read that year)

2017 , 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002 and 2001.

Random Lists

This is where I collect recommended books in various categories. These aren’t be-all, end-all lists. But they are books I’ve read that I’d recommend and I could categorize in some way. It definitely leans toward YA and middle-grade books, since that categorization seems more helpful.

My Super-Awesome Books to Read Aloud to My Kids List:

Flora & Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick
The Boy at the End of the World by Greg Van Eekhout
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate
Frindle by Andrew Clements
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate

Fiction About Writers:

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrille Zevins

Books for Writers:

Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
On Writing by Stephen King
Walking on Water by Madeleine L’Engle
The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson
Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
Just Write: Here’s How by Walter Dean Myers

Self Help/Productivity/Get It Done:

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person by Shonda Rhimes
Busy: How to Thrive in a World of Too Much by Tony Crabbe
Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending by Elizabeth Dunn

Social Issues

Non-Fiction Exploring Racism:

Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon for White America by Michael Eric Dyson
The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria by Beverly Daniel Tatum
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson
A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota by Sun Yung Shin
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine (poetry)

Fiction Exploring Racism:

The Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes
Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith
American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel)
How it Went Down by Kekla Magoon (YA)
All-American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brian Kiely
Grant Park by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Your Face in Mine by Jess Row (racial reassignment surgery)
Hush by Jacqueline Woodson (YA)

Stories Related to Slavery

Roots by Alex Haley
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper (YA)
Freeman by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Kindred by Octavia Butler
The Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes
Forty Acres by Dwayne Alexander Smith
12 Years a Slave by Solomon Northrup
Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Underground Airlines by Ben Winters
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (MG)
The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing 1 & 2 by M.T. Anderson (YA)

Young Adult/Middle-Grade Fiction About Homelessness:

How to Steal a Dog by Barbara O’Connor (MG)
Sorta Like a Rock Star by Matthew Quick (YA)
Rich: A Dyamonde Daniel Book by Nikki Grimes (MG)
Hold Fast by Blue Balliett (MG)
8th Grade Super Zero by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich (MG)
Tyrell by Coe Booth (YA)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (MG)
Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate (MG)

Fiction About Adoption/Foster Care:

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Counting by 7s by Holly Goldberg Sloan (MG)
Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata (MG)
The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson (MG)
When the Black Girl Sings by Bil Wright (YA)
The Last Chance Texaco by Brent Hartinger (YA)
The Road to Paris by Nikki Grimes (MG)
Locomotion & Peace, Locomotion by Jacqueline Woodson (MG/YA?)
The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond by Brenda Woods (YA)
Patina by Jason Reynolds (MG)
Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis (MG)
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (MG)
How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr (YA)
Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Giff Reilly (MG)
Orphan Train by Christina Kline Baker
Bird by Crystal Chan (YA) (a secondary character is adopted, but how it’s addressed and his struggles make it unique)

Young Adult/Middle Grade/Picture Books About International Adoption:

Half a World Away by Cynthia Kadohata (MG)
Breadcrumbs by Anne Ursu (MG) (character is adopted, focus of the story is not adoption)
Yafi’s Family: An Ethiopian Boy’s Journey of Love, Loss & Adoption by Linda Pettitt, Sharon Darrow and Jan Spivey Gilchrist (PB)

Young Adult/Middle-Grade Fiction About Disabilities:

Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper (older MG) (cerebral palsy)
Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern (YA) (cerebral palsy & OCD)
100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith (YA) (epilepsy)
When I Was the Greatest by Jason Reynolds (YA) (Tourrettes)
Follow My Leader by James Garfield (MG) (blindness)
Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick (MG) (unspecified birth defect, small & leg braces)
Wonder by R.J. Palacio (MG) (facial deformity)
Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (YA) (OCD)

Cancer Fiction:

The Fault in Our Stars by John Greene (YA)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews (YA)

Suicide/Depression Fiction:

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Looking for Alaska by John Green (YA)
13 Reasons Why by Jay Asher (YA)
Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock by Mathew Quick (YA)
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (YA)
Paper Towns by John Green (YA)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA)
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan (YA)
My Heart and Other Black Holes by Jasmine Warga (YA)
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson (YA) (rape)

Transgender Stories:

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kristin Cronn-Mills (YA)
Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky (MG)
Rethinking Normal by Katie Rain Hill (Memoir)
Every Day by David Levithan (YA)

Indigenous People Fiction:

Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past by Diane Wilson
Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O’Dell (MG)
My Name Is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson (YA)
The Birchbark House by Louise Edrich (MG)
Brothers of the Buffalo by Joseph Bruchac (YA)
Starfish by James Crowley (MG)
The Whale Rider by Witi Ihimaera (MG)
In the Footsteps of Crazy Horse by Joseph Marshall III (MG)
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac (YA)
March Toward Thunder by Joseph Bruchac (MG)

Love Story Fiction:

Like No Other by Una LaMarche (YA)
Elanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
Ask the Passengers by A.S. King (YA)
Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell (YA)
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Every Day by David Levithan (YA)
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (YA)
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz (YA)
If You Could Be Mine by Sara Farizan (YA)

Science Fiction

Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

I’m a sucker for post-apocalyptic stories.

Near-Term, Nuclear Apocalypse:

The Last Ship by William Brinkley
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
Z for Zachariah by Robert O’Brien (YA)
Farnham’s Freehold by Robert Heinlein
Warday by Whitley Strieber

Near-Term, Plague Apocalypse:

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
Earth Abides by George Stewart
The Stand by Stephen King
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
Plague Year/Plague War/Plague Zone by Jeff Carlson (nanobot plague)
The Loners by Thomas Lex (YA)

Near-Term, Unspecified Apocalypse:

The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler

Near-Term, EMP Apocalypse:

One Second After by William Forstchen
Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling (unexplained magic/alien EMP)
Directive 51 by John Barnes

Near-Term, Ecological Apocalypse:

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (alien/mutant plants)
Ashfall by Mike Mullin (YA) (super volcano)
The Death of Grass by John Christopher (plant plague)
Slow Apocalypse by John Varley (oil fires?)
After the Snow by S.D. Crocket (YA) (ice age)
Not a Drop to Drink / A Handful of Dust by Mindy McGinnis (YA) (water)
Monument 14 by Emmy Laybourne (YA) (electric storm?)

Near-Term, Economic/Combination Apocalypse:

World Made By Hand/The Witch of Hebron/A History of the Future by James Howard Kunstler
Patriots by James Wesley Rawles
A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren
Parable of the Sower/Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler
Soft Apocalypse by Will McIntosh
Orleans by Sherri Smith (YA)

Near-Term, Other Apocalypse:

Robopocalypse by Daniel Wilson (robot uprising)
Without Warning/After America/Angels of Vengeance by John Birmingham (giant dome?)
More Than This by Patrick Ness (YA) (just weird)
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith (giant mutant insects)
American War by Omar El Akkad (war/terrorism/plague)
Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler (alien microbe)

Long-Term Post-Apocalyptic:

Wool by Hugh Howey
The Postman by David Brin
The City of Ember by Jean DuPrau (MG)
Wool/Shift/Dust by Hugh Howey
Eternity Road by Jack McDevitt
Enclave/Outpost/Horde by Ann Aguire
Blood Red Road by Moira Young (YA)
The Boy at the End of the World by Greg Van Eekhout (MG)
Killer of Enemies by Joseph Bruchac (YA)
River Rats by Caroline Stevermer (MG)
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
Snowfall by Mitchell Smith
The Dead Lands by Benjamin Percy
Patternmaster by Octavia Butler

Vampire Fiction:

Fledgling by Octavia Butler
The Passage/The Twelve by Justin Cronin
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith
V-Wars by John Maberry
Fat Vampire by Johnny Truant
The Reformed Vampire Support Group by Catherine Jinks (YA)

Zombie Fiction:

World War Z by Max Brooks
The Girl With All The Gifts / The Boy on the Bridge by M.R. Carey
Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion
Zone One by Colson Whitehead
Feed/Deadline/Blackout by Mira Grant
Ashes by Ilsa Bick (YA)
The First Days by Rhiannon Frater
The Remaining by D.J. Molles
Domino Falls/Devils Wake by Steven Barnes & Tananarive Due
Ex-Heroes by Peter Clines
Zombies vs. Unicorns by Holly Black (selected short stories)
Undead by Kirsty McKay (YA)

Other Sci-Fi

Time Travel Fiction:

Kindred by Octavia Butler (unexplained time travel by modern black woman to slavery times)
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audry Niffenegger (time travel as genetic disorder)
11/22/63 by Stephen King (time travel to stop JFK assassination)
All Our Wrong Todays be Elan Mastai (alternate world time travel origin story)
Dark Matter by Blake Crouch (technically this is alternate realities)
Landline by Rainbow Rowell (talking with the past via phone call)
The Accidental Time Machine by Joe Haldeman (time machine only goes forward, exponentially farther w/ each trip)
Time Travelers Never Die by Jack McDevitt (trying to stay one step ahead of death)
Time Salvager by Wesley Chu (far-future time travel to salvage resources from the past)
Weapons of Choice/Designated Target/Final Impact by John Birmingham (21st Century U.S. fleet is transported back to WWII)
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Every Anxious Wave by Mo Daviau (time travel to watch indie rock concerts)
Time and Again by Jack Finney (time travel via thinking hard enough)
Guardians of Time by Poul Anderson (collection of loosely related short stories about the cops of time travel)
Blackout by Connie Willis (time travel is reserved for historical study [though I thought it was way too long])
A Wish After Midnight by Zetta Elliott (YA) (modern black teen transported back to slavery times)
The Shining Girls by Lauren Beukes (serial killer time traveler)

Alternate History:

Weapons of Choice/Designated Target/Final Impact by John Birmingham
The Lion’s Blood by Steven Barnes
The Impeachment of Abraham Lincoln by Stephen Carter
Underground Airlines by Ben Winters

Best Space Stories:

The Martian by Andy Weir
Old Man’s War by John Scalzi
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein
Binti by Nnedi Okorofor
Behind the Throne by K.B. Wagers

Fantasy:

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
Nimona by Noelle Stevenson (GN)

Still Other Sci Fi:

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Every Day by David Levithan
For the Win by Cory Doctorow

History

Historical Events Fiction:

Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick (YA) (Cambodian genocide)
When My Name Was Keoko by Linda Sue Park (MG) (Japanese occupation of Korea)
Flygirl by Sherri Smith (YA/MG) (black female pilot passing during WWII)
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson (MG) (slave in Revolutionary War)
Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (YA) (homesteading Montana)
One Crazy Summer / P.S., Be Eleven / Gone Crazy in Alabama by Rita Williams Garcia (black power late 60s early 70s)
The Dreamer by Pam Munoz Ryan (MG) (Pablo Neruda)
Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan (MG) (migrant workers in California)
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne (MG) (Holocaust)
Bud Not Buddy / The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Curtis (MG) (Great Depression)
Bamboo People by Mitali Perkins (YA) (Burma child soliders/refugees)
Boxers / Saints by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel) (Boxer Rebellion)
The Bomb by Theodore Taylor (MG) (nuclear testing on Pacific islands)
Invasion by Walter Dean Meyers (YA) (World War II)
Inside Out and Back Again by Thanhaa Lai (YA) (Vietnamese refugees)
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (YA/MG) (female pilot/spy in WWII)
Starfish by James Crowley (MG) (forced education of native children)
Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder (MG) (settling the west)
The Return by Sonia Levitin (MG) (exodus of Ethiopian Jews)
The Storyteller’s Beads by Jane Kurtz (MG) (exodus of Ethiopian Jews)
Copper Sun by Sharon Draper (YA) (slavery)
Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan (MG) (1930s Germany/Depression era U.S./WW II U.S.)
Brothers of the Buffalo by Joseph Bruchac (YA) (Red River War)
Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata (MG) (Japanese family in the 1960s South)
I Lived on Butterfly Hill by Marjorie Agosin (MG)(Pinochet’s coup in Chile)
Spirit Car: Journey to a Dakota Past by Diane Wilson (Dakota war and aftermath in Minnesota)
The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (LGBT issues, 1945-present, specificallyIrish non-acceptance and AIDS crisis in 1980s)
Code Talker by Joseph Bruchac (YA) (World War II)
March Toward Thunder by Joseph Bruchac (MG) (Civil War)

Civil Rights Movement Fiction:

March by John Lewis (graphic novel) (civil rights movement)
1963: The Watsons Go to Birmingham by Christopher Paul Curtis (MG) (Sunday School bombing)
Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood (MG) (Freedom Summer in Mississippi)
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller by Vanda Michaux Nelson (YA) (Lewis Michaux)

Books on Sudan:

The Red Pencil by Andrea Davis Pinkney (MG)
The Good Braider by Terry Farish (YA)
A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (MG)
What is the What by Dave Eggers
Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate (MG)
Running for My Life: One Lost Boy’s From the Killing Fields of Sudan to the Olympic Games by Lopez Lomong

Faith & Spirituality

Faith Fiction:

Ordinary Grace by William Kent Kruegger
Boxers / Saints by Gene Luen Yang (graphic novel) (Boxer Rebellion)
Silence by Shusako Endo
Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Devoted by Jennifer Mathieu (YA)

Jesus Fiction:

Coaltown Jesus by Ron Koertge (YA)
Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal by Christopher Moore

Spiritual Memoir:

When We Were On Fire: A Memoir of Consuming Faith, Tangled Love and Staring Over by Addie Zierman
Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner and Saint by Nadia Bolz-Weber
Traveling Mercies: Some Thoughts on Faith by Anne Lamott
Jesus Sound Explosion by Mark Curtis Anderson
Blue Like Jazz: Non-Religious Thoughts on Christian Spirituality by Donald Miller
Take This Bread by Sarah Miles
Night Driving: A Story of Faith in the Dark by Addie Zierman
Leaving Church: A Memoir on Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor

Christian Practice:

Prayer: Forty Days of Practice by Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson
The Rule of Benedict by Joan Chittister

Books About Christian “Re-Education” Camps/Schools:

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (YA)
Jesus Land by Julia Scheeres (Memoir)

Racism in the Church:

One: Unity in a Divided World by Deidra Riggs
Trouble I’ve Seen: Changing the Way the Church Views Racism by Drew G. I. Hart
Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces That Keep Us Apart by Christena Cleveland
Church Diversity: The Most Segregated Day of the Week by Scott Williams

Kevin D. Hendricks

Reading