My top four books are in bold. The winners are a memoir, an economics book, a book about depression and anxiety, and a book of essays. It seems I liked books that challenged my way of thinking this year.
- The Girl With Seven Names: Escape From North Korea by Hyeonseo Lee (This was good, and eye opening)
- Emma by Jane Austen (I read this every few years.)
- No Life for a Lady by Agnes Morley Cleaveland (Memoir of ranch life in New Mexico 1870s-1930s)(Engaging, interesting, and made me want to go to New Mexico again.)
- You are Boring, but You are Uniquely Boring: 25 Models for Writing Your Memoir by Louise Plummer and Ann Cannon (a good, easy guide)
- The Book of Mormon
- The Zookeeper’s Wife by Diane Ackerman (pretty good)
- Friends Divided: John Adams and Thomas Jefferson by Gordon S. Wood (I liked the beginning and ending but the middle had a little too much political theory for me.)
- The Book of Mormon (This was our family reading that took us about two years this time, maybe longer.)
- The Book of Mormon (I focused on pulling out concise doctrines and phrases for a new project.)
- The Girl Who Wrote in Silk (Not recommended.)
- Queen Victoria: From Her Birth to the Death of the Prince Consort by Cecil Woodham-Smith (Minus the chapters about the Crimea and India, I liked it.)
- Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Countryby Senator Tim Scott and Congressman Trey Gowdy (Not about politics, this book about friendship made me want to be a better neighbor.)
- Still Alice by Lisa Genova (I loved it.)
- Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (A lot of the content made me uncomfortable, but it is quite a story.)
- Encyclopedia of Trouble and Spaciousness by Rebecca Solnit (I loved the variety of essays in this book. The essay on Thoreau and his sisters was my favorite. I loved the concept that sister is a verb…)
- The Gospel Comes With a House Key by Rosaria Butterfield (This is about the power of Christian hospitality. Unfortunately, I did not feel hospitality in her choice of language. It felt like she was writing to an exclusive group, with its own vernacular, which was somewhat unclear to me. I still loved her and I still felt inspired to open my home and my life to others to help bring people to Christ.)
- Who Cooked Adam Smith’s Dinner? A Story of Women and Economics by Katherine Marcal (She introduced ideas that were completely new to me. I am still thinking about it. I didn’t agree with everything she said, but this is an important book.)
- The Book of Mormon (focus: ministering)
- My Life in Middlemarch by Rebecca Mead (The most comforting, familiar book I could think to read after Daniel left home.)
- America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie (I couldn’t put it down.)
- Lost Connections: Uncovering the Real Causes of Depression and Anxiety and the Unexpected Solutions by Johann Hari (This challenges everything I thought I understood about depression and anxiety. I didn’t agree with all of his proposed solutions, but so much of this made sense to me. Highly recommended.)
- Saints: The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days, Volume 1. The Standard of Truth, 1815-1846. (Really good.)
- Present Over Perfect by Shauna Niequist (Some good truths here.)
- The Book of Mormon (focus: references which include Christ)
- Mama’s Bank Account by Kathryn Forbes (I absolutely loved it.)
- The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas
- The Gift if the Magi by O Henry
- A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickins