Best Books 2023

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Well well well, if it isn’t the only thing I seemingly use my blog for these days (years?). I won’t bore you with 2024 resolutions about actually writing again, I’ll just get to the good stuff.

If the length of my book list doesn’t scream “hi I lived alone for the majority of the year in a city where I have 3 friends”, idk what does. 2023 was A LOT but you know what helped keep me sane? The library, my couch & cat (as a combo reading companion), and the book clubs I luckily discovered. Do you need to know how many book clubs I’m in? No. Was it 4? Mind your own business.

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Best Books of 2022

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Some people read less when they are stressed; some people stress read. I am most definitely the latter – the more stressed I am, the more I inhale books. Books or puzzles. I won’t go into why 2022 was a lot for me… I’ll let the length of my book list speak for itself.

I can’t talk books without talking about my love for Book of the Month – such a fun way to get new reads I would have never otherwise picked up, and fun to text about with your fellow BOTM-er friends to see their pick for the month. Some months it is the only reason I know the calendar month is ending – because it’s time to pick a new book. So it also helps you keep track of the date.krysti-wilkinson-best-books-2022

I read WAY more than I expected to this year (lil naïve 2021 Krysti didn’t know what was coming) – but also I read some GOOD books this year. So many that I had to break them out in various categories, because I just couldn’t leave any out…

As always: favorites at the top; full list at the bottom. Add me on GoodReads and/or tell me what I should read next!! Read More

Best Books of 2021

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Ohhh what a year. In what was otherwise a revolving door of crazy, books were a constant for me (along with puzzles and my cat).

This year I finally did what I thought I would never do: I joined Book of the Month. I discovered not only the joy of a new hardcover book arriving by mail each month (you get to pick from 5!), but also the added fun of getting to gift the book to friends after. It seriously upped my fiction game, and it’s only $15! If I sound like a salesperson, I am just sharing the good news I wish I discovered earlier.

I also started another new tradition this year: book swaps with friends. Less choices than BOTM and no app to download, but the price is amazing (FREE) and in this never-ending Covid world of ours, coming home to a gift from your friend on your doorstep is the best. Having a friend with good book taste is truly a treasure. Read More

Best Books (and podcasts!) of 2020

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In a year where we couldn’t count on anything, we still had books. (Although most people had way less brain space to actually read them. Myself included.) True to form – 2020 can’t ruin everything! – here’s my end of the year book list. Not as many as I hoped for, but this year I have learned to take what I can get.

As an extra bonus, I’m including both audio books and podcasts! Early this year I invested in an Audible account, since my new job came with a new (aka long) commute. Although they aren’t as great as actually reading actual books – I’ve learned my audio book niche: they have to be read by the author and said author has to be a comedian. That is my sweet spot and I’m not going anywhere. Everyone has a podcast these days, but I found the great ones helped me get through the year the same as a good book did. Some of the best writers have the best podcasts – so it kind of fits the theme? Whatever. Just go with it.

As always – let me know your favorite reads of the year!! Always, always looking for a good novel to add to my forever growing list. Read More

Black Books to Buy This Week

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There’s a #blackoutbestsellerlist challenge going around social media this week, encouraging people to purchase 2 books written by Black authors between 6/14 and 6/20 – in hopes of flooding next week’s best sellers list with Black names. An avid fan of anything book related + supporting underrepresented voices, I already placed my Bookshop order: Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett (#readwomen). In case you’re looking for a good buy, these are my favorites from the past few years! Read More

2019 Book List

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2019 may have been a hard year in life, but it was a gooooood year in books. I even *gasp* read more novels than anything. Drop out of multiple semesters of grad school, get a case of mono, and watch your need for a good novel sky rocket.

As always, here are my favorites & recommendations at the top, with a full list below. 2020 has already started with some great reads – but what else should I add to my list?? What was the best book you read last year?

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2018 Book List

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2019 is, like, actually here! Some days I really didn’t think we were going to survive 2018, and then all of a sudden we’re a week in to this new year and I’m still working on my December to-do list. Oops.

I always try to post my yearly book lists in December because, Christmas gifts. There is nothing I love more than giving (or getting!) for Christmas than books. So ignore the fact that it is currently January (double oops), and think of all the books you can *exchange your other gifts for*. You’re welcome!

In 2017, I tried to read 30 books in a year – and I accidentally read 51 (I blame both insomnia and the Harry Potter series). This year I, once again, tried to read 30 – and I read TWENTY NINE AND A HALF. Triple oops. Read More

Summer Reading List

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Labor Day has come and gone, which means it’s time for my round-up of what I read this summer. This year, in my life, it also means grad school is back in session (insert me crying). Instead of focussing on my insane to-do list or all the homework I’m currently avoiding – LET’S TALK BOOKS.

summer reading list

Any good ones you read this summer? Anything you’re currently eyeing? I’m always, always, always down for some good recommendations!  Read More

Best Books of 2017

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It’s officially the most wonderful time of the year: BOOK LIST SEASON. As always, here’s the best of what I read, a full list at the bottom, and *bonus* my favorite book lists currently floating around the internet!

Top 5 of 2017

  • Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi | If I talked to you about books at any point in 2017, I talked about Homegoing. I read it twice this year. I hosted a book club for it. I’ve told 97 people to go buy it. This is THE BEST novel. Tracing one family tree from early 1700s to present day, each chapter is a new person’s story. Not only is the concept of the novel so wonderfully novel, the writing is beautifully done, the characters are real and vibrant, and the story itself is top notch.
  • Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly | If you somehow missed this film earlier this year, FIX IT. But, like always, the book is so much better than the movie (which is saying something, because this movie is pretty near flawless). Hidden Figures is wonderfully researched and wonderfully written – it’s a historical page turner that brought me to tears a handful of times. The amount of women, especially women of color, who have been left out of history books is astounding – but Shetterly manages to write from an encouraging place of hope.
  • The Enneagram: A Christian Perspective, Richard Rohr and Andreas Ebert | I’ve fallen so far deep into the enneagram rabbit hole (because I’m a 5, obviously) – but even if I hadn’t, this book is wonderful. It is DENSE with a capital D and then four more capital letters; it took me quite a while to get through it, but was so worth it. The enneagram itself has taught me so much about myself and those around me – and this book offers so much valuable depth.
  • Spinster: Making a Life of One’s Own, Kate Bolick | This book blew me away. I’ve already said that I fully realize not everyone will love this read as much as I did, but I felt like a book was written for me for the first time in a long time. Mixing in history, mini biographies of females writers and poets, and musings on modern romantic relationships – it even breaks down the history of the word spinster, its legal ramifications, and questions its social consequences as well. What?! I couldn’t put it down.
  • What Happened, Hillary Rodham Clinton | This book was so much more fun to read than I ever expected. To be sure, it was sobering, infuriating, and brought me to tears – but it was also a highly enjoyable experience to get a glimpse behind the curtain into the mind of HRC. I audibly laughed when she talked about her preference of Goldfish crackers. The fact that this woman is not our president still grieves me to no end – but this book is a really honest look at 2016, and a very hopeful look to our future.

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