One thing I can say for #stayinghome, it’s been good for reading. It’s the weekends, in particular, that have opened up with stretches of time not spent hanging out with friends or doing grocery shopping or going to the movies. I miss those activities. I long for a return to certain aspects of “normal” (while I also dread others). But I’ve also discovered during this time that I fear two kinds of scarcity: food and books. I have been fortunate to still be able to access an abundance of both and for that I am deeply grateful.

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I have read a lot of really great books this year so far, so many that it would be foolhardy to try to mention them all here and I can foresee a challenge in narrowing my end-of-year list to select my top picks. So for now I’ll simply call out some gut instinct favorites (in no particular order):

• While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in the Time of Climate Change by M. Jackson. In this memoir, Jackson wrestles with twinned griefs—the deaths of both her parents within a year of each other and the devastation already being wrought by the climate crisis. It’s a beautiful book.
• The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. The first young readers fairy tale I’ve read in a long time where I didn’t have a sense of exactly where it was going.
• Gideon the Ninth by Tasmyn Muir. I’ve recommended this to a few people who found it wasn’t their cup of tea. And that’s fine. But still. Lesbian. Necromancers. IN SPAAAACE!
• The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker. If you’re able to stomach a more literary pandemic, this book about a plague of sleep that envelops a college town is well worth your time.
• Here For It, or How to Save Your Soul in America by R. Eric Thompson. I laughed, I cried, I grew. A lovely memoir-in-essays.
• Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson. I’m still trying to figure out how Wilson managed to write something so funny and also so subtly profound. A magic trick of a book.
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell. This book messed me up—in a worthwhile way.
• In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado. The form and style of this memoir, Machado’s attempt to represent and understand her abusive lesbian relationship, results in the kind of book that makes me want to write. I can think of few higher compliments.
• The Blue Castle by L. M. Montgomery. I loved this stand-alone romance as a kid. I delighted in being back in this world as an adult.
• The City We Became by N. K. Jemisin. The best thing I can say about Jemisin is that she’s the pre-eminent fantasy writer of our present moment. The second best thing I can say about her is that she writes fast and thank the gods because I really want to get my hands on book two.

The list below includes title, author, page count, and if the book was re-read or not. A * indicates that I like and recommend the book. A ** star means I really, really liked it and think it’s truly great. Several of these books have longer posts on the site as well.

Title	Author	Page #s	Re-Read?
*1. The Ten Thousand Doors of January	Alix E. Harrow	371	No
*2. While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change	M. Jackson	218	uNo
*3. The Girl Who Drank the Moon	Kelly Barnhill	386	No
4. What We’re Fighting For Now is Each Other: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Climate Justice	Wen Stephenson	220	No
5. Magic for Liars	Sarah Gailey	333	No
*6. The Ocean at the End of the Lane	Neil Gaiman	178	Yes
*7. The Yellow House	Sarah Broom	376	No
8. The Deep	Rivers Solomon, with Daveed Diggs, William Hutson, Jonathan Snipes	166	No
9. The Witches are Coming	Lindy West	259	No
10. The Secret Lives of Glaciers	M. Jackson	236	No
*11. Gideon the Ninth	Tamsyn Muir	444	No
*12. Rebecca	Daphne de Maurier	403	No
13. Winnie-the-Pooh	A. A. Milne, w/ illustrations by Ernest H. Shepard	161	No
*14. The Dreamers	Karen Thompson Walker	299	No
*15. Till We Have Faces	C. S. Lewis	309	No
*16. Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead	Olga Karczuk, Trans. Antonia Lloyd-Jones	274	No
*17. The Return of the Soldier	Rebecca West	90	Yes
18. The Woman Destroyed	Simone de Beauvoir	254	No
*19. The Book of Delights	Ross Gay	271	No
*20. The Bear and the Nightingale	Katherine Arden	312	No
*21. The Mirror and the Light	Hilary Mantel	757	No
*22. Here For It, or How to Save Your Soul in America	R. Eric Thomas	257	No
*23. The City We Became	N.K. Jemisin	434	No
*24. Just Kids	Patti Smith	290	Yes
*25. The Passion	Jeanette Winterson	160	Yes
*26. Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in Without Going Crazy	Joanna Macy & Chris Johnstone	238	No
27. The Girl in the Tower	Katherine Arden	346	No
28. The Glass Hotel	Emily St. John Mandel	301	No
*29. The Winter of the Witch	Katherine Arden	358	No
30. Rose Madder	Stephen King	420	Yes
31. The Crying Book	Heather Christie	171	No
*32. The Blue Castle	L. M. Montgomery	218	Yes
*33. The Mermaid the Witch and the Sea	Maggie Tokuda-Hall	357	No
*34. In the Dream House	Carmen Maria Machado	242	No
**35. The Vanishing Half	Brit Bennett	343	No
**36. Circe	Madeline Miller	385	Yes
37. The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms	N.K. Jemisin	398	No
38. Devotion	Dani Shapiro	343	No
39. Clade	James Bradley	320	No
*40. Nothing to See Here	Kevin Wilson	354	No
*41. Orange World and Other Stories	Karen Russell	266	No
42. The Mothers	Brit Bennett	275	No
*43. The Bone Clocks	David Mitchell	624	No
*44. The Song of Achilles	Madeline Miller	369	No

Anything else on this list you’re interested in learning more about? Thoughts on any of these titles? What are you favorite books this year?