The 5th Season (the Broken Earth trilogy) by N. K. Jemisin. N. K. Jemisin is my new author crush. I want to be her when I grow up. This is exactly the gritty, deep type of fantasy sci-fi I drool over. This trilogy (and I’m definitely cheating here because I’m counting all three books as a single story) swept me away into a world so different from ours, damaged in different ways but still fascinating. Even more than the world building, I adored the characters. This trilogy isn’t just a beautiful piece of fantasy and world building, but an examination of the effects of trauma on individuals and the people they love. This is one of my new favorites, and I can’t wait to read more from this author. 

Starling House by Alix E. Harrow. I have a thing for sentient structures, and the house in this book was creepy and delightful. I’m also a sucker for a good Southern gothic, and this came along with Harrow’s signature complex female protag and a social justice twist. I was lucky enough to meet the author at a book signing for the paperback release (and snagged a lovely signed copy with sprayed edges!) and her humor and intelligence blew me away. This one has a permanent place on my shelf.

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab. This is the first in a spinoff series based on Schwab’s Shades of Magic series. I love everything she writes (I’m STILL swooning over The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue) and I was so excited to revisit this world and these characters. The world building is superb, but what I really love about her writing is the complex characters that are a complicated mix of good and bad. You know, like real people. People who do awful things for the right reasons, or good things for the completely wrong reasons. Her characters own the moral gray area. I also love the casual diversity and queer representation. 

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus. This was a heavy fantasy and sci-fi year for me, but this historical fiction about a brilliant female chemist who refuses to be reduced to the gender expectations of the 1950s was a treat. This book was sharp, intelligent, hilarious, and heartwarming. The perfect combination of smart and entertaining. 

Hyperion by Dan Simmons. Aaaand back to the sci-fi/fantasy train. My boyfriend suggested this one, and I dove head first into this world. The first book in this series follows the structure of The Canterbury Tales, with a group travelling together and each character telling their story in turn, each one fascinating, harrowing, and so different from each other. I loved the second book in the series as well (but stopped there because the next two pick up years later and the story felt complete enough to me here). When I first laid eyes on the SuperTrees in Singapore this year, I immediately thought of the tesla trees on Hyperion. Art imitates life imitates art. 

Red Rising (The Red Rising Trilogy) by Pierce Brown. I’m cheating again here because I’m counting three books as one, but wow. Just wow. This was a blend of The Hunger Games, Game of Thrones, and a bit of Ender’s Game (lots of games), and I loved every second of it. A caste system based on colors of the rainbow, a futuristic high society based on ancient Rome (that apparently ignores what happened to Rome), it was so well done. In many ways, this trilogy shows the price and complexity of war. 

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune. I attended Klune’s book tour event in Salt Lake City and picked up a lovely signed hardcover (with sprayed edges! Eee!). I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea, and this follow-up was just as poignant and delightful. The characters, old and new, stole my heart all over again as the story portrayed the struggle for magical/LGBTQIA+ rights in a whimsical and heartwarming way. I can’t wait for the third and final installment!

A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. Switching gears to nonfiction here. I read this during my trip to Mexico last January, often with the sound of waves in my ears, and it opened my mind in ways I didn’t expect. I’m an anxious girlie, but an optimist and idealist at heart, and I found in these pages a vision of the peaceful world I hope I get to see someday.

Lost Connections by Johann Hari. My coworkers and I read this at work, and I loved it so much that I crunched the whole thing in two days and then read it again more slowly with the group. I’ve struggled with depression and anxiety to some degree since I was a teenager, and this book shed new light on the nature of these conditions, framing them not as a malfunction of the brain, but as a sign of unmet needs. While it doesn’t condemn the use of meds (I’m a big fan of meds, thank you), it emphasizes the need to address the causes of depression and anxiety and make those necessary changes as well. 

Building a Second Brain by Tiago Forte. I’m a lifelong note taker. The idea of commonplace books has fascinated me since college. As a child, I made lists, jotted down ideas, and took notes on things that fascinated me. I have a stack of journals and notebooks in my shed and an alarming number of phone notes and documents on my devices. I constantly struggle with information overload and figure out how to use the things I write down, and this book provided a useful system not only for taking notes, but in organizing them in a way that makes them actionable and able to support the creative process. It’s not just a book about productivity, but about creativity, and it showed up in my life not a moment too soon.