Forever and always books save me – they bring me refuge, they carry me away, they provide entertainment and escape. Books for me are the ultimate entertainment and because I don’t watch television, most nights you’ll find me curled up on the couch with my dogs and a book. In fact, Piper loves the smell/taste of books and will often lick the pages and try to nibble at them, and Cricket, in her obsessive, smothering love, will force me to maneuver around her to hold my book because her favorite spot to lay is on my chest.

Cricket and Piper, my forever reading companions!

This year I read 329 books, up from last year’s total of 319. Here were my favorites!

Poetry

~ Daughters by Brittney Corrigan: A collection of poems from the daughter’s perspective – daughters of mythology, folklore, fantasy, and pop culture.

~ I hope this finds you well by Kate Baer: A collection of erasure poems created from the online messages, comments, and news articles the poet receives, both good and bad.

~ Somewhere, a Woman Lowers the Hem of Her Skirt by Laurie Rachkus Uttich: A collection of poems about raising boys, trying to change the world for the better, fighting for equal rights, loss, and hope.

~ Broken On the Wheel by Barbara Costas-Biggs: A collection of poems about marriage, motherhood, heartbreak, the what-ifs, and resilience.

~ Empire of Surrender by Michael Schmeltzer: A collection of poems as brutal as they are beautiful. Tackling themes of war, loss, duty, and survival.

~ Dispatches from Frontier Schools by Sarah Beddow: A collection of prose poems about teaching and how much she gives to her students, often to the detriment of her own relationship, children, and well-being.

~ All Possible Histories by Sonia Greenfield: A collection of poems that explores the “what ifs” and takes readers on a journey of alternatives.

~ More Than Organs by Kay Ulanday Barrett: A collection of poems about identity, being Trans, immigration, survival, and hope.

~ Owed by Joshua Bennett: A collection of poems about identity, survival, being Black in America, what and who is owed.

~ Say It Hurts by Lisa Summe: A collection of poems about identity, being gay, loss, grief, family, and hope.

CNF

~ Both/And: A Life in Many Worlds by Huma Abedin: A memoir from Hillary Rodham Clinton’s most famous aide, it talks about Huma’s childhood, her relationship with HRC, and her marriage (and its ultimate destruction) to Anthony Weiner.

~ Ladyparts by Deborah Copaken: A darkly witty memoir about the brutalities women face in their jobs, in getting doctors to believe them when they talk about their bodies, in their lives.

~ Empty by Susan Burton: A memoir about disordered eating (anorexia and binge eating) and the struggle to survive, while never really escaping the illnesses’ hold.

Fiction

~ Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel: A story about time travel, overlapping timelines, and what it means to be human.

~ A Letter to Three Witches by Elizabeth Bass: A delightful, fun read about three inexperienced witches whose world turns upside down when a spell is accidentally cast.