I’ve wanted to write this post for about two months now, but I figured it’s better late than never! I like to do a little reading check in about halfway through the year (or a little bit more, in this case) and pick out my favorite books of the year so far. Out of all the books I read from January though August, these were the best to me. This is obviously super subjective, but these are the ones that meant the most to me, that stood out when I was reading them, and that have stuck with me long after reading. These aren’t in order of favorite, just in the order I read them, starting in January and ending in August.
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
I know I’m a bit late on reading this book, but wow – it not only lived up to the hype, but way exceeded it. I could not have loved this book more. It’s a modern(ish) day take on David Copperfield set in Appalachia. I’ve actually never read David Copperfield, but was still completely able to enjoy and appreciate the book – maybe there were references that I missed, but it can definitely be read on its own. Be warned going into this that it’s a heavy, incredibly sad story at many times – Demon, the narrator, basically has everything that could go wrong go wrong in his life at one point of another. But he has such a unique voice, and manages to keep a sense of humor, somehow… it’s all just such a powerful, moving story! There’s a little bit near the end about the power of books and reading, and I always love that. Everyone should read this.
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The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
I genuinely could not wait to read this one, because I love everything that Silvia Moreno-Garcia writes so much. Minerva is a graduate student focusing her thesis on a little-known horror author who attended the same school Minerva did. She learns that the author’s work is actually based on something that happened to a friend of hers… and Minerva thinks that history might be repeating itself again, as she starts to notice strange things happening around her. This is a multigenerational witchy horror story, but more of a dark, moody psychological vibe than scary horror. I loved how everything came together at the end – it was so satisfying!
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I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
I picked this book up after seeing so many people talking about it online, and wow, it did not disappoint. It’s under 200 pages, but left such an impact on me that I will be thinking about it for a long, long time. It’s dystopian, and set somewhere undetermined, where 39 women are living together underground in a cage. They’re watched constantly by guards, and none of them have any idea how they got there. The rest of the women remember life before the cage, but our narrator is the youngest of the group, and life in the cage is all she knows. I don’t want to share more, because it will be too spoil-y, but this book is a fascinating look at life and humanity. It can be extremely hard to read at times, though, so be warned – but it’s definitely worth it, if you think you’re up to it. It’s also a story that will leave you with more questions than answers!
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The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
This would not typically be the kind of book I’d go for – “hunting” in the title is not a huge seller for me – but I’m so glad I read it. This story is told through three different points-of-view – a graduate student reading a journal of a Lutheran pastor, and in those journal entries, the Luthern pastor relaying a story told to him by a Blackfeet named Good Stab. Good Stab visits the pastor weekly, and slowly but surely relays a story to the pastor of his life, and how he came to be what he is. It all comes together so well, and even though you know where things are headed, it’s so satisfying when it happens. The very end was a bit disappointing for me, but everything else was excellent.
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One Golden Summer by Carley Fortune
At this point, Carley Fortune is an auto-buy author for me – I love everything she writes. One Golden Summer is a companion to her first book, Every Summer After, but centered around the older brother Charlie. Alice is taking a summer off to spend the summer at the lake at Barry’s Bay, staying there with her grandmother and helping her recover. Alice, who was shy as a teen, decides she wants to spend the summer doing all the things that 17-year-old her was too reserved to do. And Charlie, her neighbor across the lake, agrees to help her check items off her bucket list. I love the way Carley writes both settings and characters – so descriptive; I just want to live in the pages of her books!
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It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Annabel Monaghan has become another auto-buy author for me. I especially love that her characters are usually in their later 20s/early 30s and have some life experience behind them. It’s a Love Story was such a fun read – a great summer romp. Jane was a pre-teen TV star, and now works on the other side of the screen as a studio executive. In pitching her latest project, she accidentally went a little too far – she promised a song from her old co-star turned famous signer. Except… she hasn’t spoken to him in years. To try to make this happen, she has to begrudgingly work with an adversary at work. I’m sure you can imagine where this is going, but the journey to get there is so fun! I love a good “adversaries to lovers” trope, and this one is executed so, so well.
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The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater
I loved The Listeners so much – it’s one of my favorites so far this year. Theoretically, it’s historical fiction about a luxurious hotel that’s co-opted by the US government to house Nazi diplomats while the government arranges for their repatriation… and the hotel is set on the site of a magic spring that can sense the emotions of the guests, and needs to be appeased. But really, it’s a story about people and humanity, and about how far we’re willing to go for the things and people we love. It’s a beautiful story with incredible writing, and I absolutely loved it. Even if you’re not a historical fiction fan, I think you’ll still like this one.
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Audition by Katie Kitamura
This book is incredibly confusing, but also fascinating – a great option for a book club, because it’s definitely something that you’ll want to discuss when you’re done with it. The story starts with a lunch, where a woman shares a meal with a man who believes he might be her son. He isn’t, but the two go on to work on the same play, where she’s the starring actress and he’s an assistant. But then you get to part two of the story, and everything is the same, and yet different. I don’t want to give away the conceit, but it had me so confused and yet wanting to read more and more and more.
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Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated by Polly Barton)
This is so short, but so powerful – and somewhat disturbing, too, but intentionally. It pushes every boundary and stigma around disabled people, and really forces you to re-examine the biases you might not realize you have. Shaka lives in a care home (owned by her family) in Tokyo, where she uses a power wheelchair to get around and a ventilator to breathe. She spends her time being a perpetual student, writing smut online, and trolling on social media. One day, a care worker at the home tells her that he’s seen one of her trolling posts… and wants to take her up on it. What follows is a story of flipped power dynamics, and a story where the disabled woman isn’t the token “good girl.” I love the boundary pushing in this, and how provocative it is! I can’t stop thinking about it.
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A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
I have been waiting for this to come out for over a year now, and it did not disappoint – I just love how she writes cozy fantasy. Sera was on track to be one of the most powerful witches in Britain, but made a choice to do a piece of magic that left her missing almost all of her powers and ostracized from her community. Now, she runs a magical inn with a ragtag group of found family, yearning for her missing magic… until she learns there might be a way to get it back. It’s such a beautiful story about identity and belonging, found family, and love, with really great Autistic representation. I just loved it.
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Isola by Allegra Goodman
This was so beautiful and moving, but also heavy and sad. It’s set in the 1500s and based on a real story. As a small child, Marguerite seems destined for a life of nobility, but when her parents die and she’s sent to live under the custody of her uncle, everything changes. When he forces her to accompany him to sail to New France, she does something to upset him while on the ship, and he punishes her by abandoning her on a deserted island. It’s a story of perseverance and survival, and of faith and love. It’s just a really incredible story, and I can’t get over the fact that it’s based on a real person.
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Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
I was so excited for Katabasis, and it totally lived up to the hype for me! It’s a dark academia fantasy book set in Cambridge in the 1980s, where two students – Alice and Peter, once friends but now graduate student rivals – decide they must journey to Hell to bring back their Professor (and dissertation advisor). As someone who worked in academia for years, the misogyny that’s so inherent in academia rang extremely true! This definitely isn’t a light read – there’s a lot of philosophy – but I think it’s up to you how deeply you want to think about each of the proofs and/or paradoxes. You can still easily follow the story without going down any Wikipedia rabbit holes! I really loved this.
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