The books that lit my spirit this year

In which our heroine builds a library

Hey there, my cozy friend!

As previously discussed, reading is the coziest hobby of all. It transports us to new worlds, makes us feel fathomless emotions, and can change the way we think. I don’t think there’s anything in this world more powerful. As the end of the year approaches, it’s time to look back on all the books we loved. Below, you’ll find my top ten books of the year, plus recommendations from some of my friends and family.

First, let’s take a look at my reading trends:

As I write to you, I’ve read 47 books toward my 52 book goal — please send me good vibes to make it over the finish line! Reviewing my Storygraph data, here’s what I noticed:

• I read mostly romance. Of the 47 books, 21(!) of them were romance! While this is a huge percentage, it doesn’t totally surprise me. This year was a very difficult one for me, so I think I was really looking for comfort in my books. While my own future felt really uncertain, it was healing to dive into stories that I knew would end with a happily ever after.

• I committed book adultery. I used to be so weird (and judgmental, hence this term I coined lol) about reading more than one book at a time. This year I dove into audiobooks more than I have before, listening to Lord of the Rings and a couple non-fiction books. I also read some home design books alongside my novels. And you know what? It was all okay.

• I read relatively few new releases. Only 10 of the books I read in 2024 were published this year. I’m not exactly sure how this stacks up to other years, but it’s a data point I’d like to pay more attention to. This year, I paid a bit less attention to what the “hot books of the year” were and instead just chose books I was excited to read. I read 13 books that were published last year. I tend to buy books right when they come out and then I feel bad waiting so long to read them. But there’s no “missing the boat” on a book. They are happy to wait on our shelves until the right moment.

• I abandoned my TBRs… but let them haunt me. I’ll be writing all about my reading goals for 2025 in January, but one that I feel strongly about is that I will no longer be making TBRs. Will I be able to stick to this? Who knows. But I am such a mood reader that it just doesn’t make sense for me to curate seasonal TBRs with 10+ books and then feel bad when I don’t read them all! Let’s let go of reader guilt in 2025, yes?

So here they are, my top ten books I read this year:

The first two are in order, the rest are in no particular order!

• Mornings with Rosemary by Libby Page - This book was so wholesome and heartwarming, but not saccharine at all. It honestly sort of hurt me how heartwarming it was and how invested I became in the characters. A gorgeous story of friendship, community, and finding oneself, centered around a campaign to save a community pool. (I got this for my mom for her birthday and it was also one of her favorites of the year!)

• The Rebel Blue Ranch Series by Lyla Sage - I have not shut up about this series all year. I picked it up after it was recommended on A Thing or Two, one of my favorite podcasts. I thought, “sure, a cowboy romance that sounds fun!” This series was so much more than I anticipated. It’s about family and friendship as well as romantic relationships and the Wyoming setting is truly breathtaking. I wrote a lot about this in this post if you want more details!

• The Bandit Queens by Parini Shroff - Lucas got this for me for Valentine’s Day, which is hilarious since it’s about wives working together to murder their husbands in a remote village in India. It’s obviously very dark, but also heartwarming and funny with an incredible cast of characters.

• Shark Heart by Emily Habeck - This book is unlike any I’ve ever read before. It’s beautiful and strange. On the surface, it’s about a woman whose husband begins to transform into a great white shark. I won’t say more than that, just read it, you will not be disappointed. (I read this as a buddy read with my friend Anne and it was one of her favorites of the year as well!)

• Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher - I love anything Arthurian and while this book is not a retelling, it has so many fun little easter eggs. Gwen and Art live in Camelot many years after King Arthur, and are betrothed. However, Gwen only has eyes for Bridget, the fetching knight who has come to compete in a tournament. Meanwhile, Art is catching feelings for Gwen’s brother. Chaos and teen drama ensues!

• The Witching Year by Diana Helmuth - One of my 2024 goals was to learn more about Paganism and modern witchcraft, but I was quite overwhelmed with where to start. This memoir, about the author’s dive into witchcraft for a year and a day, was absolutely perfect. I learned a lot, but also got to be alongside a real person on their own magical journey. It was incredibly thought provoking and I know I’ll keep thinking about it as I continue on this goal in 2025.

• This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune - Prince Edward Island is the number one destination on my travel bucket list right now. As someone whose ultimate soul character is Anne Shirley, I was thrilled to read this contemporary romance set on the island. I’ve never pre-ordered something so fast! The main character is a florist who dreams of starting her own flower farm and her love interest is a competitive oyster shucker. I mean… I don’t know what more you need to know.

• Half Sick of Shadows by Laura Sebastian - I love a feminist retelling of mythology and as mentioned above, I love anything Arthurian. I was so excited to read this one centering around the oracle Elaine, the Lady of Shallott, and her relationship to Arthur, Guinevere, Morgana, and Lancelot. I read this during our Scotland trip and it was the perfect medieval, fantasy vibe. I will say, it goes slightly off the rails in the middle, but really pulls it together in the end.

• Savor It by Tarah DeWitt - I picked this up because it was recommended by Lyla Sage, the author of the Rebel Blue Ranch series listed above. I was waiting for the third Rebel Blue book to come out and could not get enough of the small town romance. This one definitely scratched that itch, featuring a girl who lives on a hobby farm (including with a pet goose!) and a disgraced chef. It’s blurbed as Schitt’s Creek meets The Bear and I wholeheartedly agree.

• The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien - You’ve probably never heard of this book. I know, it’s very niche. Over the last couple years, I have entered my LOTR girlie era (it all started with the Shire - a cottagecore dream!). I was intimidated by the books, but really wanted to experience the source material, so I went the audio route. I loved this one so, so much. Even though I knew everything that would happen, it was so exciting and compelling, I often found myself gasping or commenting aloud while listening to it on my walks in the woods.

But don’t just take my word for it. Here are the best books my friends and family read this year:

I feel so lucky to be surrounded by a community of readers. It means I never have to look far for a truly excellent book recommendation and there’s always someone I can convince to read my favorite books so we can discuss them.

• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett - “I thought it was a beautiful and captivating story that made me think about the lives our parents lived before us we know nothing about. The book is a retelling of a mother’s history as told to her three daughters during cherry harvest in Michigan. It’s at once uplifting, devastatingly sad, and incredibly interesting. Bonus - the audiobook was read by Meryl Streep, so it was extra good.”
  — Allie
  *Anne wants you to know she also loved this book

• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - “‘The brain is locked in total darkness of course, children, says the voice. It floats in a clear liquid inside the skull, never in the light. And yet the world it constructs in the mind is full of light. It brims with color and movement. So how, children, does the brain, which lives without a spark of light, build for us a world full of light?’ This book, about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive World War II, is a beautiful story full of love, sadness, hope, and, of course, light.”
  — Kristen (my mom!)

• Las Madres by Esmeralda Santiago - “Esmeralda Santiago has been one of my favorite authors since I read her three memoirs 20 years ago. Reading Las Madres felt like I was in a fictitious extension of that trilogy. Santiago once said "I write for women. I don't care if men read my work; it doesn't matter to me...it's women's lives I'm interested in," and that intent is evident throughout this book. I highly recommend this (and all of her books!).”
  — Lindsay

• American Royals Series by Katherine McGee - If you’re a royal watcher like Kyli and me, you’ll love this YA series! It is an alternate take on the history of the United States where when George Washington was offered a crown, he took it. Two and a half centuries later the Washingtons are still ruling and America is about to have its first Queen Regnant. I love the political intrigue, the love triangles, the teenage drama(!), and just the fun take on what America might look like with a royal family.”
  — Kary (my sister!)

• Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir - While I enjoy more fantastical novels, science fiction is not a usual genre of mine. An acquaintance that I see once a year at a holiday party encouraged me to read it at a few parties and I took the plunge this year. I was entirely consumed by the plot, the relationship between the characters, and the world on the line. Consider listening to this as an audiobook, but others have enjoyed it just as much reading visually.

  — Anne

• Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir - “The first book in the Locked Tomb Series, my favorite for all seasons. It changed my life. It broke me. It REMADE me. It’s so good, I think about it at least twice a day. It’s about lesbian necromancers (the coolest) who are hanging out in a haunted mansion (spooky) in space (spookier) for unknown reasons (that eventually get revealed!). And a lot of random and funny and life-altering things happen. You’ll be confused AF throughout most of book 1, but TRUST ME - it’s all worth it!”
  — Kendra
  *I have it on good authority that Kendra has already reread this multiple times!)

• Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang - “This was my first read of 2024 and I’m still thinking about it. In a dystopian world where food has lost all of its flavor, the uber-wealthy are about to inject taste back into the world, but only for themselves (classic). The gorey details of the food that follows from the perspective of a burnt out chef are vivid and, as you can imagine, some might have strong feelings as to whether this treasure of flavor should remain only accessible to said uber-wealthy.”
  — Lucas (the husband)

• To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf - “Because of a quirk in my high school and college curricula, before this year I had never read a full novel by Virginia Woolf. Though not a long read, it took me a while because I just wanted to sit and absorb the prose. The simultaneous simplicity and complexity, the exploration of the interior lives of the characters, the shifting perspectives, the importance of place and historical context all fascinated me. Also, knowing that Woolf was a groundbreaking writer, a woman who was pushing the boundaries of prose literature in a time that glorified conventional femininity and was deeply unfriendly to female success, added an extra dimension to my experience of the book. After an election that showed, once again, the deep-rooted misogyny that pervades American culture, it was comforting to be reminded of the ways women have pushed back against the limits of a narrow-minded and often hostile society.”

  — Taylor

• The Wager by David Grann - “A true story of shipwreck, mutiny, murder, and the consequences in the Royal Navy before it became the vaunted force of the Napoleonic era. The story includes two different sets of survivors and how they used the media of the time the "tell" their stories. A compelling tale of leadership, loyalty, and the rules of the sea.”
  — Bob (my dad!)

Finally, your cozy inspiration for the week:

I’ve been loving the YouTube channel warm blanket. They have these sweet little winter animations with flickering candles, steaming mugs, and blustering snow accompanied by cozy jazz. The videos are about an hour long each, perfect for setting aside some dedicated time for reading.