Name one awesome book you read this past 12 months and recommend it to others.

15 comments

1. Every single guy should read Nagoski’s “Come As You Are”. Every woman absolutely should also, but hugely important for guys to read.

2. The Monsters of Rookhaven by Padraig Kenny. Fair warning it’s a children’s chapter book (probably best for tweens/early teens). I’m a children’s librarian so it’s kind of my job to read them but this was one of my favorites. Strangely, it came out around the same time as Encanto and is also about a girl named Mirabel who lives in a magical house with her family and everyone has magical powers except her. Except they are carnivorous monsters who agreed to stop hunting humans if the local town gave them lots of cows to eat.

3. *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn*.

   I read a lot of good books this year but this one was the most surprising to me. It was written in 1943 about mostly fictional events that happened in the early 1900s. The book is pretty adult and candid, the subsequent movies have been helplessly neutered because if you wrote the movie the way the book was written it would be rated R, at least, and you would really need the unrated director’s cut.

4. An Elegant Puzzle. A required read for someone who wants to become an engineering manager.

5. “Project Hail Mary”

   It’s a science fiction book that is entertaining and fun and kinda heart warming. It’s by the same author as “The Martian”.

   The premise of the book is that the sun starts to lose it’s intensity and humanity goes looking for answers and solutions to try to prevent the world from dying.

6. John Green’s *The Anthropocene Reviewed*

   Best-selling author, vlogger, and philanthropist John Green writes long-winded Yelp reviews for the various aspects of humanity and existing as a human. Read this if you’re a fan of Kurt Vonnegut.

7. East of Eden. It’s pretty epic, but has more life lessons about human nature than any other piece of media I can recall. Absolutely amazing read.

8. The Issue At Hand – Gil Frondsal

   It is a very accessible book of essays focused on Buddhist mindfulness meditation

9. With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa: Sledge, E.B.

10. Ducks by Kate Beaton. It’s a graphic novel memoir of the time the author spent working and living in the Canadian oil field towns. A major focus of the book is on the way she was viewed and treated by her mostly older male coworkers. I think it’s important to read these perspectives as a man, because the book shows how even some of her well-meaning coworkers contributed to an environment where sexism and harassment were tolerated. But the book also balances those difficult moments with plenty of funny and humanizing ones too. It’s a great read.

11. *Radical Acceptance* by Tara Brach…literally changed my life. Don’t be put off by the mention of Buddha in the subtitle, this is a secular book for all practical purposes.

12. the adult children of alcoholics & dysfunctional families

    This book opened my eyes to so many of my behaviours and what my childhood was like and behaviours I adopted in adulthood that were making my life truly miserable.

    Anyone who grew up in a house with addict parents or emotionally unavailable parents, this book may change your life. At the very least, it will open your eyes. Ten pages in will likely tell you more about yourself than you’ve learned in your lifetime.

13. A whole set.
    Christopher paolin inheritance cycle (3 books)
    Terry pratchett (all of them) (over 25 books)
    Jean M Auel earth children. (7 books)

14. The warmth of other suns – Isabel Wilkerson. Chronicles the great migration of African Americans from the south parts of the USA to areas such as NYC, Chicago, Detroit, and California cities. She follows 3 separate people on their experiences in the south and getting out of the south spanning 1930s onward. Still reading through it but absolutely a unique book and great read.

15. Blindsight by Peter watts. Hard sci fi about a first encounter. Absolutely stunning novel.