As it is almost my 46th birthday in a few hours as I begin writing, I expect this will be my only other list of 46 this week – and, of course, it is my favorite. ❤

This year has been a wonderful one in books – and I have been blessed to share many of my finds and my reading projects here. 

(Some of my projects are still very much in the works though. ❤ )

I’ve worked my way through almost all of our banned books. I’ve read many books on the craft of writing researching a piece for our SCWC Substack. I’ve read several books written by holocaust survivors and their descendants as well as accounts from those who did not survive, both to learn more about these terrible terrible things and also to write about this soon. I’ve read many books related to end of life issues and facing illness and death as I write my book on the topic. I’ve read several fiction books I never would have in years past at the recommendation of book club friends – and loved them.

There have also been many books on an assortment of topics just because. ❤

Here, I thought I would share 46 books I’ve read in the past year or so that I would favorite for one reason or another.

It took quite awhile to pair this list down too – it’s been a great reading year ❤ – and it is in no particular order.

46 Books List

The Bright Hour – Nina Riggs

When Breath Becomes Air – Paul Kalanithi

 Crying in H Mart – Michelle Zauner

The Year of Magical Thinking – Joan Didion

Love Is a Mix Tape – Rob Sheffield

Bird By Bird – Anne Lamott

Talking As Fast as I Can: From Gilmore Girls to Gilmore Girls – Lauren Graham

Friends, Lovers, and The Big Terrible Thing – Matthew Perry

Everything Happens for A Reason: And Other Lies I’ve Loved – Kate Bowler

I’ll Be Gone in The Dark: One Woman’s Obsessive Search For The Golden State Killer – Michelle McNamara

The Dictionary of Lost Words – Pip Williams

Letter to My Daughter – Maya Angelou

I Feel Bad About My Neck, And Other Thoughts On Being A Woman – Nora Ephron

Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert

Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within – Natalie Goldberg

Atomic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones – James Clear

A Low Country Heart – Pat Conroy

Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI – David Grann

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil – John Berendt

Molly – Blake Butler

What We Wish Were True: Reflections on Nurturing Life and Facing Death – Tallu Schuyler Quinn

Demon Copperhead – Barbara Kingsolver

Everything Beautiful In Its Time: Seasons of Love and Loss – Jenna Bush Hager

I Want You to Know We’re Still Here: A Post Holocaust Memoir – Esther Safran Foer

Whiskey In a Teacup: What Growing Up in the South Taught Me About Life, Love, and Baking Biscuits – Reese Witherspoon

Dear Mr. You – Mary-Louise Parker

Bright Young Women – Jessica Knoll

The Daughter of Auschwitz: A Memoir – Tova Freidman

Circe – Madeline Miller

Between Two Kingdoms: A Memoir of a Life Interrupted – Suleika Jaouad

Greenlights – Matthew McConaughey

The Anthropocene Reviewed: Essays on a Human Centered Planet – John Green

Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church – Rachel Held Evans

A Hole in the World: Finding Hope in Rituals of Grief and Healing – Amanda Held Opelt

Devotions – Mary Oliver

Uptown Local: Joy, Death, and Joan Didion: A Memoir – Cory Leadbeater

Once Upon a Time: The Captivating Life of Carolyn Bessette-Kennedy – Elizabeth Beller

For The Love of Books: Stories of Literary Lives, Banned Books, Author Feuds, Extraordinary Characters, and More – Graham Tarrant

My Twenty-Five Years in Provence: Reflections on Then and Now – Peter Mayle

Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books – Kirsten Miller

Field Notes for the Wilderness: Practices for an Evolving Faith – Sarah Bessey

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie ten Boom – Corrie ten Boom

I Guess I Haven’t Learned That Yet: Discovering New Ways of Living When the Old Ways Stop Working – Shauna Niequist

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft – Stephen King

I’m so thankful for this year – and looking forward to sharing many more books and reading projects in the year to come. ❤

Be well, everybody. Take care of yourselves and each other.

Grace and Blessings.