Brittany's Books 2018

Brittany's Top 5 Books of 2018


22. Akata Warrior by Nnedi Okorafor
21. The First Rule of Punk by Celia C. Pérez
20. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (audio)
19. Vincent and Theo by Deborah Heiligman (audio and print)
18. Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
17. Indian Voices: Listening to Native Americans by Alison Owings
16. Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake by Aimee Bender
15. Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl by Issa Rae (audio)
14. We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
13. Where Are All the Librarians of Color edited by Rebecca Hankins and Miguel Juárez
12. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
11. I'll Be Gone In the Dark by Michelle McNamara
10. Luchador by Erin Finnegan
9. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
8. Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson (audio)
7. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
6. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (audio)
5. The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz
4. I am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter by Erika L Sánchez (audio)
3. Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman (audio)
2. Scythe by Neal Shusterman (audio)
1. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime that Changed Their Lives by Dashka Slater (audio)

John's Books 2018

Jazz
by Toni Morrison

Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward

Human Acts
by Han Kang

Pale Fire
by Vladimir Nabokov

Cosmicomics
by Italo Calvino

The Boat Rocker
by Ha Jin

Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev

The Hours
by Michael Cunningham

Sanctuary
by William Faulkner

Golden Hill
by Francis Spufford

Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders

Dogeaters
by Jessica Hagedorn

Our Laundry, Our Town
by Alvin Eng

Hag Seed
by Margaret Atwood

Blood At the Root
by Patrick Phillips

...And the Earth Did Not Devour Him
by Tomás Rivera

Blues and Chaos
by Robert Palmer

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
by Arundhati Roy

A Walker in the City
by Alfred Karin

The Beautiful Struggle
by Ta-Nehisi Coates

William Cooper's Town
by Alan Taylor

Native Guard
by Natasha Trethewey

The Periodic Table
by Primo Levi

Wade in the Water
by Tracy K. Smith

M Street
by Patti Smith

The Leavers
by Lisa Ko

The Black Hand
by Stephan Talty

Speedboat
by Renata Adler

Revolutionary Song
by Russell Shorto

Tunneling to the Center of the Earth
by Kevin Wilson

Last Exit to Brooklyn
by Hubert Selby Jr.

The Right Way to Do Wrong
by Harry Houdini

The Vegetarian
by Han Kang

Lonely Avenue
by Alex Halberstadt

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
by Betty Smith

The Color of Law
by Richard Rothstein

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks
by Jeanne Theoharis

How Not to Get Shot
by D.L. Hugely

New York:  Songs of the City
by Nancy Groce

Brown
by Kevin Young

Persuasion Nation
by George Saunders

Gay New York
by George Chauncey

My Year of Rest and Relaxation
by Ottessa Moshfegh

Odd Girls and Twilight Lovers
A History of Lesbian Life in Twentieth-Century America
by Lillian Fadermann

Chloe's Books 2018

1. Operating Instructions by Anne Lamott
2. The Power by Naomi Alderman
3. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
4. The Headspace Guide to a Mindful Pregnancy by Andy Puddicombe
5. Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright
6. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
7. A Woman is a Woman Until She is a Mother by Anna Prushinskaya
8. Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
9. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
10. The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
11. The Sign of the Four by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
12. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
13. A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman
14. Turtles All the Way Down by John Greene
15. Mislaid by Nell Zink
16. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
17. Ella Minnow Pea by Mark Dunn
18. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
19. The Gardener and the Carpenter by Alison Gopnik
20. Angels in America by Tony Kushner
21. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
22. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
23. The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir
24. Goodbye Paris by Antsey Harris
25. The Witch Elm by Tana French
26. Rising Strong by Brene Brown
27. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
28. The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
29. Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
30. Becoming by Michelle Obama
31. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
32. Come with Me by Helen Schulman

Top 6.4!

Stacey's Books 2015

Randy's Books 2018

(1) The Death Penalty: An American History
by Stuart Banner

(2) Alexander Hamilton
by Ron Chernow

(3) True Hallucinations: Being an Account of the Author's Extraordinary Adventures in the Devil's Paradise
by Terence McKenna

(4) It's Not the How or the What but the Who: Succeed by Surrounding Yourself with the Best
by Claudio Fernandez-Araoz

(5) The Familiar, Volume 4: Hades
by Mark Z. Danielewski

(6) The Underground Railroad
by Colson Whitehead

(7) The Paris Review, No. 223, Winter 2017

(8) The Paris Review, No. 224, Spring 2018

(9) Thinking, Fast and Slow
by Daniel Kahneman

(10) The Familiar, Volume 5: Redwood
by Mark Z. Danielewski

(11) The Secret History
by Donna Tartt

(12) Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary
by Juan Williams

(13) The Autobiography of Malcolm X
as told to Alex Haley

(14) The Particular Sadness of Lemon Cake
by Aimee Bender

(15) The Misadventures of Awkward Black Girl
by Issa Rae

(16) Heating & Cooling
by Beth Ann Fennelly

(17) The Paris Review, No. 225, Summer 2018

(18) Americanah
by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

(19) The Paris Review, No. 226, Fall 2018

(20) Like Brothers
by Mark Duplass & Jay Duplass

(21) Yellow: Race in America Beyond Black and White
by Frank Wu

Brent's Books 2018

55. $2.00 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America
Kathryn J. Edin and Luke Shaefer

54. The Sin of Certainty
Pete Enns

53. Death Comes for the Archbishop
Willa Cather

52. The Man Whole loved Children
Christina Stead

51. Our Greatest Gift: A Meditation on Dying
Henri Nouwen

50. Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, The Damascus Incident, and the Illusion of Control
Eric Schlosser

48. The Death of Napoleon
Simon Leys

47. Church
Ephraim Radner

46. The Prophetic Imagination
Walter Breuggemann

45. Marcovaldo
Italo Calvino

44. Four View on Creation, Evolution, and Intelligent Design
Ken Hamm, Hugh Ross, Stephen C. Meyer, Deborah Haarsma, Stephen C. Meyer

43. Everything Happens for a Reason Kate Bowler

42. Barth for Armchair Theologians
John R. Franke

41. Ice
Anna Kavan

40. The Death of Ivan Illych and Other Stories
Leo Tolstoy, trans. Pevear/Volkhonsky

39. The Apostles Creed: A Guide to the Ancient Catechism
Ben Myers

38. Barracoon
Zora Neale Hurston

37. The Plains
Gerald Murnane

36. Middlemarch
George Eliot

35. The Odyssey
Homer, trans. Emily Wilson

34. There There
Tommy Orange

33. A Short History of Modern Philosophy
Roger Scruton

32. The Simple Faith of Mr. Rogers
Amy Hollingsworth

31. Existentialism is a Humanism
Sartre

29. Lincoln in the Bardo
George Saunders

28. The Cross and the Lynching Tree
James Cone

27. My Brilliant Friend
Elena Ferrante

26. On the Abolishment of All Political Parties
Simone Weil

25. God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships
Matthew Vines

24. The Autobiography of Malcolm X
Malcom X and Alex Haley

23. The Stepford Wives
Ira Levin

22. Our God Loves Justice: An Introduction to the Theology of Helmut Gollwitzer
W. Travis McMaken

21. Accidental Saints: Finding God in All the Wrong People
Nadia Bolz-Weber

20. Warlock
Oakley Hall

19. Lives of Girls and Women
Alice Munro

18. Chess Story
Stefan Zweig

17. The Driver's Seat
Muriel Spark

16. The Ten Thousand Things
Maria Dermout

15. Tempest-Tost
Robertson Davies

14. When the Emperor Was Divine
Julie Otsuka

13. (Personal)

12. Heartburn
Nora Ephron

11. Flying Home
Ralph Ellison

10. The Narrative Life of Fredrick Douglass
Fredrick Douglass

9. Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God
Kelly Douglas Brown

8. The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison

7. Wild Seed
Octavia Butler

6. The Peregrine
J. A. Baker

5. Malestrom: Manhood Swept into the Currents of a Changing World
Carolyn Custis-James

4. The Color Purple
Alice Walker

3. A Visit From the Goon Squad
Jennifer Egan

2. Symposium
Muriel Spark

1. Finding God in the Waves
Mike McHargue

Christopher's Books 2018

75. Ulysses
by James Joyce
74. Kristin Lavransdatter II: The Mistress of Husaby
by Sigrid Undset
73. Bury Me at Wounded Knee
by Dee Brown
72. Countrymen of Bones
by Robert Olen Butler
71. July's People
by Nadine Gordimer
70. My Education
by Susan Choi
69. The Haunted Dolls' House and Other Stories
by M. R. James
68. Geek Love
by Katherine Dunn
67. Jesus' Son
by Denis Johnson
66. Mr. Sammler's Planet
by Saul Bellow
65. The Odyssey
by Homer, trans. Emily Wilson
64. Cities of the Plain
by Cormac McCarthy
63. Agnes Grey
by Anne Bronte
62. Pnin
by Vladimir Nabokov
61. The Custom of the Country
by Edith Wharton
60. Coming into the Country
by John McPhee
59. Writing Alone and With Others
by Pat Schneider
58. Time Out of Joint
by Philip K. Dick
57. The Good Terrorist
by Doris Lessing
56. The Last Gentleman
by Walker Percy
55. The Volcano Lover
by Susan Sontag
54. Miguel Street
by V. S. Naipaul
53. Henry and Cato
by Iris Murdoch
52. An Artist of the Floating World
by Kazuo Ishiguro
51. The Comforters
by Muriel Spark
50. Warlock
by Oakley Hall
49. The Mars Room
by Rachel Kushner
48. Notes from Underground
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
47. The Sun King
by Nancy Mitford
46. On Writing
by Stephen King
45. The Beggar Maid
by Alice Munro
44. The End of the World
by Mavis Gallant
43. Barney's Version
by Mordecai Richler
42. The Manticore
by Robertson Davies
41. Obasan
by Joy Kogawa
40. My Brilliant Friend
by Elena Ferrante
39. Tlooth
by Harry Mathews
38. A Visit from the Goon Squad
by Jennifer Egan
37. Living
by Henry Green
36. How the Light Gets In
by Pat Schneider
35. Pet Sematary
by Stephen King
34. Barracoon
by Zora Neale Hurston
33. The Cross and the Lynching Tree
by James H. Cone
32. The Mortgaged Heart
by Carson McCullers
31. Lincoln in the Bardo
by George Saunders
30. Romola
by George Eliot
29. The Peregrine
by J. A. Baker
28. H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
27. We the Animals
by Justin Torres
26. Something I've Been Meaning to Tell You
by Alice Munro
25. The Aunt's Story
by Patrick White
24. Battleborn
by Claire Vaye Watkins
23. Leaven of Malice
by Robertson Davies
22. Death Comes for the Archbishop
by Willa Cather
21. Ceremony
by Leslie Marmon Silko
20. The Rifles
by William T. Vollmann
19. LaRose
by Louise Erdrich
18. The Beetle Leg
by John Hawkes
17. What Are We Doing Here?
by Marilynne Robinson
16. The Complete Cosmicomics
by Italo Calvino
15. Cassandra at the Wedding
by Dorothy Baker
14. A High Wind in Jamaica
by Richard Hughes
13. A Tidewater Morning
by William Styron
12. Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
11. Zen in the Art of Writing
by Ray Bradbury
10. Ninety-Nine Stories of God
by Joy Williams
9. Butcher's Crossing
by John Williams
8. The Left Hand of Darkness
by Ursula K. Le Guin
7. The Mountain Lion
by Jean Stafford
6. Henry IV, pt. 1
by William Shakespeare
5. Lolly Willowes
by Sylvia Townsend Warner
4. Under the Volcano
by Malcolm Lowry
3. In a Lonely Place
by Dorothy B. Hughes
2. Kiss of the Spider Woman
by Manuel Puig
1. Amatka
by Karen Tidbeck

Genie's Books 2015

1. The Lowland
By Jhumpa Lahiri

Dani's Books 2015

1. Yes Please by Amy Poehler
2. Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
3. The Magicians by Lev Grossman
4. Ion by Plato
5. Persuasion by Jane Austen 
6. Art by Yasmina Reza
7. The Magician's Nephew by C.S. Lewis
8. A Ring of Endless Light by Madeleine L'Engle
9. The Girlfriend's Guide to Pregnancy by Vicki Iovine
10. The Happiest Baby on the Block by Harvey Karp
11. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
12. The Baby Book: Everything You Need to Know About Your Baby from Birth to Age Two by William Sears
13. To Rise Again at a Decent Hour by Joshua Ferris
14. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
15. The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
16. The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
17. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis
18. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
19. The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor
20. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett
21. The Horse and His Boy by C.S. Lewis
22. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
23. Prince Caspian by C.S. Lewis
24. The Cider House Rules by John Irving
25. Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
26. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis
27. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
28. The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
29. The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
30. The Stranger by Albert Camus
31. The Meursault Investigation by Kamel Daoud
32. The Silver Chair by C.S. Lewis
33. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth by Reza Aslan
34. The Mermaid's Sister by Carrie Anne Noble
35. The Tempest by William Shakespeare
36. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell

Children's Books (unnumbered because counting them feels like cheating):

• Blue Hat, Green Hat by Sandra Boynton
• But Not the Hippopotamus by Sandra Boynton
• A to Z by Sandra Boynton
• Doggies by Sandra Boynton
• Dr. Seuss's ABC by Dr. Seuss
• Hands are Not for Hitting by Martine Agassi
• Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You? by Dr. Seuss
• Olivia by Ian Falconer
• Little Blue Truck by Alice Schertle
• Are You My Mother by P.D. Eastman
• The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
• Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.
• Your Baby's First Word Will be DADA by Jimmy Fallon
• Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
• Go, Dog. Go! by P.D. Eastman
• Moo, Baa, La La La! by Sandra Boynton
• God Gave Us You by Lisa Tawn Bergen
• Madeleine by Ludwig Bemelmans
• How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss
• Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss

Brent's Books 2025

Best of 2025 - Brent

64. Bone 

Jeff Smith

63. Garden by the Sea

Merce Rodoreda

62. The Last Brother

Nathacha Appanah

61. The Scapegoat

Daphne Du Maurier

60. Three Fires

Denise Mina 

59. Postman Always Rings Twice

James M. Cain

58. Resurrection of Ras Al Ghoul

Grant Morrison and Bruce Timm

57. Women of Sand and Myrrh

Hana al-Shakyh

56. The Death of Ahasureus

Par Lagerkvist

55. Mayumi and the Sea of Happiness

Jennifer Tseng

54. Flights

Olga Tokarczuk

53. The Shawl

Cynthia Ozick

52. Living Pictures

Polina Barakova

51. The Last Ronin

Kevin Eastman/Peter Laird

50. No Exit

Jean-Paul Sarte

49. Paradise Rot

Jenny Hval

48. The Savage Detectives

Roberto Bolaño

47. Bones

Chenjari Hove

46. Lila

Marilynne Robinson

45. Suite for Barbara Loden

Nathalie Leger

44. Innocence

Penelope Fitzgerald

43. Sun City

Tove Jansson

42. Right Ho, Jeeves

P. G. Wodehouse

41. Vicky Swanky Was a Beauty

Diane Williams

40. Binky Brown Meets the Holy Virgin Mary

Justin Green

39. Moshi Moshi

Banana Yoshimoto

38. Royal Assassin

Robin Hobb

37. Strange House

Utseku

36. Hinds Feet in High Places

Hannah Hurnard

35. The Blind Owl

Sadegeh Hadayat

34. Days of Abandonment

Elena Ferrante 

33. We the Survivors

Tash Aw

32. The Gunslinger

Edward Dorn

31. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The IDW Collection, vol. 1, 

Various

30. The Ice Shirt

William T Vollman

29. Vaim

Jon Fosse

28. The Man in High Castle

Philip K. Dick

27. Mrs Caliban

Rachel Ingalls

26. Chinatown

Charles Yu

25. Ten Stories

Yuri Herrera

24. Territory of Light

Yuko Tsushima

23. The Hearing Trumpet

Leonore Carrington

22. Friend of My Youth

Amit Chaudhuri

21. Canoes

Maylis de Kerangal

20. The Natural Way of Things

Charlotte Wood

19. All Lovers in the Night

Mieko Kawakami

18. Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus

Rick Perlstein

17. Billy Budd

Herman Melville

16. The World Jones Made

Philip K. Dick

15. End Zone

Don Delillo

14. The Provocative Colette

Annie Goetzinger

13. The Iliad

Emily Wilson

12. The Silentary

Antonio de Benedetto

11. The Robber Baron

Eudora Welty

10. Sula

Toni Morrison

9. My Work

Olga Raven

8. Leopard Skin Hat

Anne Serre

7. Picnic at Hanging Rock

Joan Lindsay

6. The Vision

Tom King 

5. Rowley Jefferson's Awesome Friendly Adventure

Jeff Kinney

4. Multiversity

Grant Morrison

3. Quiet Girl in a Noisy World

Debbie Tung

2. Nervous System

Lina Meruane

1. The Idiot

Fyodor Dostoevsky