When my friends Elsie and Emma were visiting early this month, Elsie asked me to do a “book hall of fame” newsletter. My first thought was “that’s impossible” but then I found myself unable to think of little else for the next 12 hours. This list came together remarkably quickly! I decided I couldn’t go back and look at my Goodreads or StoryGraph rankings. They had to be the books that just came into my brain when I thought about my favorites. I allowed myself to look at my book shelf (and that helped) but no digital research into my past reviews.

In preparing to write this post, I have been thinking a lot about my reading journey. For the past 19 years (I graduated college in 2007) I have read between 10-100 “for fun” books a year. My reading increased dramatically when I got my first adult library card (in 2013), then when I subscribed to Book of the Month (in 2016) and finally when I started listening to audiobooks, first through Everand (in 2019) and then through Libby (in 2022).

I read many genres. I can tolerate so-so writing if the story is excellent. I cannot tolerate a boring story, even if the writing is fantastic. I am generous with my ratings (almost every book gets a 3 or better). I am more forgiving of cliches and tropes and chaotic plots on audio than I am on paper. I prefer big stories to small stories. I prefer lots of characters to a few characters.

But mostly — I want my favorite books to take me somewhere. All of the books on this list are books that I read (usually in a fervor) and when I looked up from the page I was stunned to find I was still just living my normal life. I couldn’t believe there were people walking around who didn’t know this story. I wanted to think about the books. I wanted to talk about the books. I wanted to go back and re-read a scene or a bit of dialogue. I wanted to send the author a note to say thank you.

I have often said that I know a book is great when I find myself telling my husband about it. I have thought about this more and I realized it’s because the great books take me on a trip. I wouldn’t come home from a weekend away and not tell Paul how the trip went. It’s the same with the books. They are such a big deal to me that not talking about them almost feels like hiding something.

Okay — is that enough hype?! DID I OVERSELL THIS POST?! Probably! I’ll also note that if you have followed my online work since 2006, you’ve already heard me gush over every single one of these. I have been writing about reading for as long as I have been writing.