Looking back at my mid-year reading round-up, especially the picture book and middle grade categories, so many of these are still top of mind: books I recommend, put on displays, and use in storytimes. Looking back to last year’s wrap-up, the same holds true of most of the picture books as well, and plenty of middle grade (most especially Beth Lincoln’s The Swifts, Erin Bow’s Simon Sort of Says, and Sophie Escabasse’s Witches of Brooklyn series).

When I went to count up my total number of books read this year I did think at first I had made a math mistake, but no, the number is correct. And in fact, it doesn’t include all the re-reading (for example, the approximately 45 times I read Endlessly Ever After at Pajama Storytime, or vacation re-reading). Here is the usual breakdown and favorite titles in each category; again, these are books I read in 2024; some of them were published earlier. The titles I mention below are mostly those I read in the second half of the year, since others were already mentioned in the mid-year post. Anyway, on with the show! 

Total number of books read: 880. (Yeah, this is pretty unbelievable, and no, I’m not really sure how either.)

Reviewed for Kirkus: 23 (most of those not included in the total above)

Partially read/started-didn’t-finish: 20

Picture Books: 515

• How Little Lori Visited Times Square by Amos Vogel: you think you know all the books Maurice Sendak ever illustrated, and then you discover this hilarious gem in a bookstore in Brooklyn. What a trip.
• The Yellow Bus by Loren Long
• The Pass by Sara Laux Akin
• Sometimes We Fall by Randall de Seve
• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang
• Remembering Rosalind Franklin by Tanya Lee Stone (NF)
• All at Once Upon A Time by Mara Rockliff
• No More Senora Mimi by Meg Medina
• Noodles on a Bicycle by Kyo Maclear
• The Island Before No by Christina Uss
• I’m Sorry You Got Mad by Kyle Lukoff
• Just What to Say by Kyle Lukoff
• What Can A Mess Make? by Bee Johnson
• Is A Book A Box for Words? by Harriet Ziefert
• Hello, I’m A… (Meet the Wild Things) by John and Hayley Rocco
• Just Us by Molly Beth Griffin
• Small Things Mended by Casey W. Robinson

Early Readers and Chapter Books: 9

• The Story of Gumluck and the Dragon’s Eggs by Adam Rex
• Pizza for Pia by Betsy Groban and Allison Steinfeld

Middle Grade: 147

• The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty
• Medusa (The Myth of Monsters) by Katherine Marsh
• The Wild Robot by Peter Brown
• The Girls of Skylark Lane by Robin Benway
• AfterMath by Emily Barth Isler
• The Enigma Girls by Candace Fleming (NF)
• Not Nothing by Gayle Forman
• Magnolia Wu Unfolds It All by Chanel Miller
• Savvy by Ingrid Law
• The Tenth Mistake of Hank Hooperman by Gennifer Choldenko
• The Swifts: Gallery of Rogues by Beth Lincoln

Young Adult: 13

• Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James Loewen and Nate Powell (GN, NF)
• It’s Okay If You Don’t Love Me by Norma Klein
• When the World Tips Over by Jandy Nelson
• Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health by Cara Bean (GN, NF)

Graphic Novels (overlap with other categories): 62

• Hilda and Twig Hide from the Rain by Luke Pearson
• Batcat: Sink or Swim by Meggie Ramm
• Pets and Pests by Andy Warner (NF)
• Woe: A Housecat’s Story of Despair by Lucy Knisley
• Lies My Teacher Told Me: A Graphic Adaptation by James Loewen and Nate Powell (YA, NF)
• Here I Am, I Am Me: An Illustrated Guide to Mental Health by Cara Bean (YA, NF)

Adult Fiction: 58

• Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
• The Lost Boy of Santa Chionia by Juliet Grames
• The Bright Sword by Lev Grossman
• Sandwich by Catherine Newman
• Ready or Not by Cara Bastone

Adult Nonfiction: 31

• Sellout by Dan Ozzi
• Nice Try by Josh Gondelman (I’ve also enjoyed his wonderful weekly newsletter, That’s Marvelous)
• A Heart That Works by Rob Delaney
• The Genius of Judy by Rachelle Bergstein
• Rebel Girl by Kathleen Hanna
• Grief Is for People by Sloan Crosley
• What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson

Short stories/essays: 12

• What If We Get It Right? by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson
• H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert
• Table for Two: Fictions by Amor Towles

“People who believe in a brighter future are more likely to put in the effort required to achieve it.” -Elizabeth Kolbert, H Is for Hope

Audiobooks (overlap with other categories): 16

• Witchlings by Claribel Ortega
• Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins
• Rewind by Lisa Graff
• No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healey
• The Extremely Inconvenient Adventures of Bronte Mettlestone by Jaclyn Moriarty

Five-star ratings: 26

• Gather by Kenneth Cadow (YA – won a Printz Honor)
• We Are Definitely Human by X. Fang (made me laugh)
• Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee (made me cry)
• Buffalo Brenda by Jill Pinkwater (just as good as I remember)

Re-reads: I really don’t have a good way to keep track of these. I re-read The Night Circus and The Great Believers on vacation, and I know we listened to The Swifts (both books) many times over, as well as all three Bronte Mettlestone books. And, as previously mentioned, Endlessly Ever After and dozens of other books I read aloud at storytimes.

WeNeedDiverseBooks: 189. Less than last year both in terms of numbers and percentage of the total, though I do suspect myself of undercounting/tagging.

Now we’re already well into 2025, with the ALA Youth Media Awards on the horizon (Monday, January 27 at 10am Eastern – later than usual because it’s happening in Phoenix, which is on Mountain Time). I’m sure I’ll dig back into some 2024 books I missed after the awards, and we’ve already got plenty of 2025 books to look forward to – from Curtis Sittenfeld, Libba Bray, Emma Donoghue, Kevin Wilson, Adam Rex, Kate Messner, Kyle Lukoff, and more. Which books are you looking forward to this year?

It’s time for the mid-year reading round-up! (Here’s 2023’s mid-year reading round-up.) Looking back on the first half of 2024, what books stand out? To clarify, these are books that I’ve read in that time frame (January-June 2024); some of them were published earlier, while many are new this year. I’ve sorted by intended audience age; graphic novels are indicated with (GN) and nonfiction with (NF). I’ve chosen these not necessarily based on the ratings or reviews I gave just after finishing them; sometimes a book wows me but doesn’t linger in my mind, while others that seem merely very good when I finish them lodge firmly in my memory. So, with that scientific explanation out of the way, let’s go!

Picture Books

Tender and sweet, funny and silly, creative, informative, sobering, and perfect for storytimes: there’s a little bit of everything.

• Love Grows by Ruth Spiro, illus. Lucy Ruth Cummins
• Connor Kissed Me by Zehava, illus. Sarah K. Turner
• Stranded! A Mostly True Story from Iceland by Ævar Þór Benediktsson (NF)
• A House by Kevin Henkes
• At Home with the Prairie Dog: The Story of a Keystone Species by Dorothy Hinshaw Patent (NF)
• Wintergarden by Janet Fox, illus. Jasu Hu
• Ready, Set, Run! The Amazing New York City Marathon by Leslie Kimmelman (NF)
• Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage by Lisa Rogers (NF; see quote below)
• Dim Sum Palace by X. Fang (this has real echoes of The Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak, and is a brilliant read-aloud for storytimes)
• The Last Stand by Antwon Eady, illus. J&J Pumphrey
• Lucky Duck by Greg Pizzoli
• Invisible Things by Andy J. Pizza
• Rosie and the Pre-Loved Dress by Leanne Hatch
• One of These Is Not Like the Others by Barney Saltzberg
• Great Carrier Reef by Jessica Stremer (NF)
• The Rainbow Snail by Karin Åkesson
• Eclipse by Andy Rash
• Ahoy! by Sophie Blackall
• Nothing: John Cage and 4’33” by Nicholas Day (NF; see also Beautiful Noise)
• Mama in the Moon by Doreen Cronin
• Where Is My Nose? by Lucas Zanotto
• A Kite for Moon by Jane Yolen
• Exactly As Planned by Tao Nyeu*
• Gina Kaminski Saves the Wolf by Craig Barr-Green
• I Won’t Eat That by Christopher Silas Neal
• Just Like Millie by Lauren Castillo
• The Big Princess by Taro Miura
• The Spider in the Well by Jess Hannigan
• Finding Things by Kevin Henkes
• All From A Walnut by Ammi-Joan Paquette
• Touch the Sky by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic
• Joyful Song by Leslea Newman
• Home in a Lunchbox by Mo Cherry

Above: quote from Beautiful Noise: The Music of John Cage

Middle Grade

Novels in every genre, with different styles and tones. I’ve been reading 2024 releases with an eye toward what books might be Newbery contenders and getting suggestions from the Heavy Medal blog.

• Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat by Lynne Jonell (fantasy/animal fiction)
• Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell (novel in verse)
• Not Quite A Ghost by Anne Ursu (ghost story with a little horror)
• One Mixed-Up Night by Catherine Newman (I love how the kids in this book are inspired by From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankeweiler)
• Good Different by Meg Eden Kuyatt (novel in verse)
• The Guardian Test by Christina Soontornvat (fantasy)
• Make Way for Dyamonde Daniel by Nikki Grimes (realistic fiction)
• Watership Down by Richard Adams and James Sturm (GN)
• The Extincts by Scott Magoon (GN)
• All-of-a-Kind Family by Sydney Taylor (classic)
• No One Leaves the Castle by Christopher Healy (fantasy)
• Rewind by Lisa Graff (time travel!)
• Ferris by Kate DiCamillo (realistic, mostly; there’s a ghost)
• The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly (more time travel!)
• The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler (even more time travel! but mostly music and synesthesia and family relationships and history)
• Summer at Squee by Andrea Wang (summer camp!)
• Oddball Histories: Pests and Pets by Andy Warner (NF, GN)
• Dust & Grim by Chuck Wendig (fantasy)
• Nuts to You by Lynne Rae Perkins (animal fiction)
• The Night War by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley (historical/ghost fiction)
• Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (GN)
• Deep Water by Jamie Sumner (novel in verse)
• Sink or Swim! Batcat #2 by Meggie Ramm (GN)
• Another Kind by Trevor Bream and Cait May (GN, sci-fi)
• Tree. Table. Book by Lois Lowry (realistic)
• A Little Bit Super (various authors)
• Witchlings by Claribel Ortega (fantasy)
• And Then, Boom! by Lisa Fipps (novel in verse)
• Telephone of the Tree by Alison McGhee (realistic)
• Camp Sylvania by Julie Murphy (paranormal)
• Keep It Like A Secret by John David Anderson (realistic)
• Max in the House of Spies by Adam Gidwitz (historical)
• Thornwood by Leah Cypess (fantasy)
• The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy (realistic)

Young Adult

Unflinching, harrowing historical fiction; relationships and first loves; lion dancing and basketball; mental health; and two different forays into Shakespeare.

• Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and LeUyen Pham (GN)
• Gather by Kenneth Cadow
• Rez Ball by Byron Graves
• Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher
• As Long as the Lemon Trees Grow by Zoulfa Katouh
• The Blood Years by Elana K. Arnold
• Hamlet Is Not OK by R.A. Spratt
• America Redux by Ariel Aberg-Riger (NF)
• Here I Am, I Am Me by Cara Bean (NF, GN)
• Twelfth Knight by Alexene Farol Follmuth (romance)

Adult

Some surprisingly reassuring climate books, a fantastic cookbook by my college friend Sarah, and novels of all genres.

• Ultra-Processed People by Chris Van Tulleken (NF)
• We All Want Impossible Things by Catherine Newman (realistic)
• Mislaid in Parts Half-Known by Seanan McGuire (Wayward Children series)
• The Road from Belhaven by Margot Livesey
• You’ll Do: A History of Reasons for Marrying Other Than Love by Marcia Zug (NF)
• Airplane Mode: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib (NF)
• The Hunter by Tana French (mystery)
• Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet by Hannah Ritchie (NF)
• H Is for Hope: Climate Change from A to Z by Elizabeth Kolbert (NF)
• Good Food, Good Mood by Tamara Green and Sarah Grossman (NF, cookbook)
• Table for Two by Amor Towles (realistic/historical)
• The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman (mystery)
• Hotel of Secrets by Diana Biller (romance)
• To & Fro by Leah Hager Cohen*
• The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley (speculative)
• I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons by Peter S. Beagle (fantasy)
• Anything’s Pastable by Dan Pashman (NF, cookbook)
• The Hazelbourne Ladies Motorcycle and Flying Club by Helen Simonson (historical)
• The Grammarians by Cathleen Schine (realistic)
• Train Go Sorry: Inside a Deaf World by Leah Hager Cohen (NF)

*There are TWO books on this list that can be read starting from either cover: Exactly As Planned and To & Fro. It’s an unusual format that could be gimmicky but in both cases works perfectly.

Exactly As Planned

To & Fro

Every year I summarize a year’s worth of reading here, breaking it down by category and listing some of my favorite titles (not all necessarily published this year). (Also, maybe “summarize” is not the word, as it’s not particularly concise; not only do I not provide a Top Ten overall, I don’t even limit myself to ten per category.) Here’s my mid-year reading round-up from early July, and here’s my 2022 Reading Wrap-Up. Perhaps one of these years I’ll wise up and do it like Betsy Bird does with her #31Days31Lists, but for now, we have this. Without further ado…

Total number of books read: 693

Partially-read/started-didn’t-finish: 27. I browsed through several cookbooks, quilting books, various other how-to nonfiction, books at friends’ houses, poetry, essay collections and collective biographies, and some books I started with the kiddo but she either lost interest in or took off to read by herself. As I tell other readers, it’s okay to put down a book!

Picture Books: 274

• Telling Stories Wrong by Gianni Rodari
• Snow Horses by Patricia MacLachlan and Micha Archer
• Somewhere in the Bayou by Jarrett and Jerome Pumphrey
• Love, Violet by Charlotte Sullivan Wild
• Night in the City by Julie Downing
• The Tree and the River by Aaron Becker
• We Don’t Lose Our Class Goldfish by Ryan T. Higgins
• That Flag by Tameka Brown Fryer
• Evergreen by Matthew Cordell
• Dim Sum, Here We Come! by Maple Lam
• Spicy Spicy Hot! by Lenny Wen
• A Day with No Words by Tiffany Hammond
• Inside the Slidy Diner by Laurel Snyder
• Oh No, The Aunts Are Here by Adam Rex
• The World and Everything In It by Kevin Henkes
• Real to Me by Minh Lê
• Elisabeth by Claire A. Nivola
• How We Say I Love You by Nicole Chen
• A Bed of Stars by Jessica Love
• Big by Vashti Harrison
• Gotta Go! by Frank Viva
• Are You Awake? by Sophie Blackall
• How Does Santa Go Down the Chimney by Barnett/Klassen
• Molly’s Tuxedo by Vicki Johnson
• Snail Crossing by Corey Tabor
• With Lots of Love by Jenny Torres Sanchez
• The World’s Best Class Plant by Vernick/Scanlon
• King Sejong Invents an Alphabet by Carol Kim
• In the Night Garden by Carin Berger
• The Kitten Story by Emily Jenkins
• Stars of the Night by Caren Stelson
• I’m Going to Build A Snowman by Jashar Awan
• The Three Little Mittens by Linda Bailey
• Silver Linings by Fiona Woodcock
• Everything Naomi Loved by Katie Yamasaki
• Lila Greer, Teacher of the Year by Andrea Beaty
• How to Count to ONE by Caspar Salmon
• Good Books for Bad Children by Beth Kephart
• I Can Open It For You by Shinsuke Yoshitake
• Ogilvy by Deborah Underwood
• If I Was A Horse by Sophie Blackall
• How This Book Was Made by Barnett/Rex
• I Am Stuck by Julia Mills
• Nana in the City by Lauren Castillo
• Flower Girl by Amy Bloom
• Hanukkah Upside Down by Elissa Brent Weissman
• Facts vs. Opinions vs. Robots by Michael Rex
• An American Story by Kwame Alexander/Dare Coulter
• Just One Flake by Travis Jonker
• Mister Kitty is Lost by Greg Pizzoli

Early Readers: 19 (overlap with Chapter Books, Graphic Novels)

• Sir Ladybug by Corey Tabor (GN)
• Charlie and Mouse Are Magic (#6) by Laurel Snyder
• Arlo & Pips by Elise Gravel (GN)
• Henry, Like Always by Jenn Bailey, illus. Mika Song

Chapter Books: 16 (overlap with Early Readers, Graphic Novels)

• No More Ear Buns! by Agnes Mathieu-Daude
• The Apartment House on Poppy Hill by Nina LaCour
• The Story of Gumluck the Wizard by Adam Rex
• The Skull by Jon Klassen
• The Princess in Black and the Prince in Pink by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham
• Earwig and the Witch by Diana Wynne Jones

Middle Grade: 162 (overlap with GN, nonfiction)

• The Swifts by Beth Lincoln
• Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow
• The Door of No Return by Kwame Alexander
• The Wild Journey of Juniper Berry by Chad Morris
• Hazel Hill Is Gonna Win This One by Maggie Horne
• Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner’s Call to Science by Jeannine Atkins
• The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh
• Tuesdays at the Castle (series) by Jessica Day George
• Three Strike Summer by Skyler Schrempp
• Wildoak by C.C. Harrington
• Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone by Tae Keller
• World Made of Glass by Ami Polonsky
• Louisa June and the Nazis in the Waves by L.M. Elliott
• Bea and the New Deal Horse by L.M. Elliott
• Code Red by Joy McCullough
• Ana on the Edge by A.J. Sass
• The Blackbird Girls by Anne Blankman
• Stand on the Sky by Erin Bow
• Alone by Megan Freeman
• Leeva At Last by Sara Pennypacker
• Elf Dog and Owl Head by M.T. Anderson
• Mihi Ever After by Tae Keller
• Wishing Upon the Same Stars by Jacquetta Nammar Feldman
• Nothing Else But Miracles by Kate Albus
• The Jake Show by Joshua S. Levy
• Have Sword, Will Travel by Garth Nix
• The Witch of Woodland by Laurel Snyder
• The Lost Library by Stead/Mass
• You Are Here by Ellen Oh (editor)
• The Probability of Everything by Sarah Everett
• Witches of Brooklyn: Spell of a Time by Sophie Escabesse
• Greenwild by Pari Thompson

Young Adult (YA): 61 (overlap with GN)

• For Lamb by Lesa Cline-Ransome
• Enter the Body by Joy McCullough
• Your Plantation Prom Is Not Okay by Kelly McWilliams
• If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude
• Everyone Wants to Know by Kelly Loy Gilbert
• A Little Like Waking by Adam Rex
• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
• Chef’s Kiss by Jarrett Melendez
• Burn, Baby, Burn by Meg Medina
• Be That Way by Hope Larson

Graphic novels: 118 (overlap with most other categories)

• Killer Underwear Invasion! How to Spot Fake News… by Elise Gravel
• Heartstopper by Alice Oseman
• Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn
• Arlo & Pips by Elise Gravel
• Squire and Knight by Scott Chantler
• Team Trash by Kate Wheeler
• Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke
• Hoops by Matt Tavares
• School Trip by Jerry Craft
• A First Time for Everything by Dan Santat
• Sunshine by Jarrett J. Krosoczka
• The Secret Garden on 81st Street by Ivy Noelle Weir
• Three Thieves (series) by Scott Chantler
• Parachute Kids by Betty C. Tang
• Let’s Make Dumplings! by Hugh Amano and Sarah Becan
• Be That Way by Hope Larson
• NewsPrints by Xu Ru
• Maker Comics: Design A Game by Bree Wolf
• Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook
• Eerie Tales from the School of Screams by Graham Annable
• Batcat by Meggie Ramm
• Nell of Gumbling by Emma Steinkellner
• Mexikid by Pedro Martin
• Two Tribes by Emily Bowen Cohen
• Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale
• The Talk by Darrin Bell
• Squished by Megan Wagner Lloyd
• Pebble and Wren by Chris Hallbeck
• 83 Days in Mariupol by Don Brown

Adult fiction: 43

• The Future by Naomi Alderman
• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
• Starling House by Alix Harrow
• The Talk by Darrin Bell
• Tom Lake by Ann Patchett
• Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane
• Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver

Adult nonfiction: 25

• Freaks, Gleeks, and Dawson’s Creek by Thea Glassman
• A Living Remedy by Nicole Chung
• How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith
• Did Ye Hear Mammy Died? by Seamas O’Reilly
• Accountable by Dashka Slater
• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith
• Growing Up in Public by Devorah Heitner

Children’s nonfiction: 61

• A Seed Grows by Antoinette Portis
• The Tower of Life by Chana Stiefel
• Comics: Easy as ABC: The Essential Guide for Kids by Ivan Brunetti
• The Fire of Stars by Kirsten Larson
• Emma’s Poem by Linda Glaser
• the Whose is THAT? series by Darrin Lunde
• A Storm of Horses by Ruth Sanderson
• The 500 Million Dollar Heist (Unsolved Case Files) by Tom Sullivan
• The Hole Story of the Donut by Pat Miller
• Make Way for Animals! A World of Wildlife Crossings by Meeg Pincus
• The Mona Lisa Vanishes by Nicholas Day
• Sew Sister by Elise Matich
• Fungi Grow by Maria Gianferrari
• A Place Called America by Jennifer Thermes
• How the Cookie Crumbled by Gilbert Ford
• How to Eat in Space by Helen Taylor
• The True Story of Zippy Chippy by Artie Bennett

Short stories/essays: 13

• White Cat, Black Dog by Kelly Link
• Book of Enchantments by Patricia C. Wrede

Audiobooks: 11

Actual number includes re-reads and is higher, due to family car time and at-home audiobook time with the kiddo, as mentioned above. And sometimes I listen to Wait, Wait…Don’t Tell Me! The NPR News Quiz or – less fun – the actual news. Or music. (Especially The Pogues and Sinead O’Connor this fall/winter.) Standout audiobooks include:

• You Could Make This Place Beautiful by Maggie Smith (“not that Maggie Smith”)
• The Lost Library by Wendy Mass and Rebecca Stead
• Odder by Katherine Applegate
• Nothing Else But Miracles by Kate Albus
• Simon Sort of Says by Erin Bow (I did warn you I wasn’t going to stop talking about this one)

Five-star ratings: 33

Re-reads: Unknown; I don’t have a good way to keep track. The kiddo listened to all five Mysterious Benedict Society books for what felt like months, and we re-read all of the Dealing with Dragons books by Patricia C. Wrede. I re-read a chunk of Greenglass House by Kate Milford, as I always do toward the end of December, and I certainly revisited favorite picture books at home and at library storytimes. And, after reading Simon Sort of Says in March and refusing to shut up about it since, I re-read it as an audiobook this month and it’s still stunningly good.

WeNeedDiverseBooks: 203, or 33.2%, which is better than last year (again), but still shy of half.

Book reviews: 25+

In my free time (hahaha), I write book reviews for School Library Journal and Kirkus Reviews. I review picture books, graphic novels, middle grade, and occasionally YA. I enjoy reviewing because, of course, I get to read books before they’ve been published, and before I’ve heard anyone else’s opinions on them; and because writing reviews forces me to stick to a strict word count, and try to balance summary and evaluation. This year I also served on SLJ’s Best Graphic Novels committee, which is part of the reason I read more GN this year than last year.

So, that’s a wrap for 2023. Every year brings ups and downs, but we can always count on good books. Here’s to 2024! There are already several titles I’m excited about…. What were your favorite reads in 2023? What are you looking forward to? Does anything on this list pique your interest?

Toward the end of last year (November 17, 2017, to be exact), I posted my Top Ten list of books I had been looking forward to earlier in the year, and books I was looking forward to in 2018. Now we’re nearing the end of 2018, and it’s time to see how things went. Those who are familiar with Nick Hornby’s “Stuff I’ve Been Reading” column – or really anyone who always has a to-read list going – know that some books never quite rise to the top of the list, even if you really meant to read them, while others jump the queue. Here are the ones I was planning to read:

• I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman (YA/new adult)
• I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell (memoir)
• Starlings by Jo Walton (short fiction and poetry)
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (graphic novel/memoir)
• Far from the Tree by Robin Benway (YA)
• Mrs. Queen Takes the Train by William Kuhn (fiction)
• The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin (sci-fi/fantasy)
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (YA)
• Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier (gothic romance)
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (nonfiction)
• Hunger by Roxane Gay (memoir)
• The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (fantasy)
• Walking Home by Simon Armitage (nonfiction/memoir/poetry)
• Transcription by Kate Atkinson

I’ve done pretty well with this list, even with queue-jumpers; the only ones I haven’t read (yet!) are Mrs. Queen, Daniel Kahneman, Roxane Gay, and Walking Home. Of the rest, I really enjoyed them all, but Jemisin’s trilogy was particularly outstanding for its world-building, character development, and storytelling structure/perspective, and Transcription was incredible as well; when Kate Atkinson observes that “The mark of a good agent is when you have no idea which side they’re on,” file that away for later. And Maggie O’Farrell continues to amaze me; I’ll read anything she writes.

Re-reading: I used to love re-reading, but when I started working in publishing and then in libraries, there were always so many enticing new books I didn’t re-read the ones I liked nearly as often as I used to. This fall I’ve made more time for re-reading, including the Harry Potter series (I’ve re-read the first six since the end of August). I plan to re-read the seventh, and maybe The Cursed Child as well. I’m also planning to re-read The Princess Bride (that was on my mental list for November/December even before the sad news that Bill Goldman passed away). And December wouldn’t be quite complete without re-reading Greenglass House by Kate Milford, though maybe this year I’ll re-read Ghosts of Greenglass House or Bluecrowne by her instead.

Community Reads: In addition to continuing to serve on the Arlington Reads Together committee, I’ve been drafted to be on the Winchester Reads committee, which means I have a nice new stack of books to read before our next meeting in February; I’m not sure if our shortlist is public knowledge yet so I won’t say what those titles are, but there are some strong candidates and I’m looking forward to starting them…after I finish S. Morgenstern’s classic tale of true love and high adventure.

2019: It looks like Nick Laird’s new poetry collection will be out next summer. I’m also hoping for the next Book of Dust by Philip Pullman, and Audrey Niffenegger’s sequel to The Time Traveler’s Wife. I’m sure there are plenty of other books to look forward to – what’s on your radar for next year?

I’m planning to post the actual 2018 wrap-up in early January. Here’s the 2017 wrap-up, and here’s the 2018 mid-year reading wrap-up.