- Sociopath by Patric Gagne - It changed my perspective while keeping me entertained.
- The Triple Package: How Three Unlikely Traits Explain the Rise and Fall of Cultural Groups in America by Amy Chua and Jedd Rubenfeld - A gracious and well-reasoned look at a topic that most people won’t touch with a 10 ft. pole.
- The Moonlight School by Suzanne Woods Fisher - What could easily have devolved into a self-righteous, didactic story is instead laced through with kindness and compassion towards all the characters, even the “bad guys.”
- First Lie Wins by Ashley Elston - Grifters make the most fascinating and entertaining protagonists!
- The Masterpiece by Fiona Davis - I love the strong characters, deception, and drama in this book.
- None of This Is True by Lisa Jewell - The author’s strategic unveiling of information made me simultaneously revile and pity the different characters, which was a fascinating reader experience.
- We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson - I wasn’t expecting a horror story to be so intensely tragic and emotional.
- Our Last Night by Taylor Adams - This psychological horror novel was reminiscent of some of my all-time favorite books and movies - Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Dark Matter, and 1408.
- The Unmaking of June Farrow by Adrienne Young - This is a novel in the magical realism genre. I find a lot of authors way overdo it on the magic, or occasionally don’t add enough of it into the narrative, but the author achieved a great balance here.
- Stories from Suffragette City - This is a collection of short stories by a bunch of different authors that take place on the day of the Women’s March on October 23, 1915. I thought it was a really cool idea to look at the same event from a whole bunch of different perspectives, and very well-executed with the all-star team of writers that were recruiter for the effort!