Each year, I try my darndest to read 25 books. I don't partake in audio-book or ebook shenanigans (although no shame to those who do), so I commit myself to hunkering down with a paperback or hardcover whenever I can. Since 2017, I've tracked my reading - publishing lists to this blog detailing what I've read each year. I'm an English teacher, so I always drop a letter grade next to the entries of these lists to indicate my enjoyment of each one. I usually end up with a lot of books in the B range, which means most of the stuff I read is good but not great. Because of this, I wanted to dedicate a post to the very best titles I've read over the past few years.
Below you'll find all of the A-rated books I've read since 2017. These are the cream of the crop - the gold standards that every other book has to try and live up to. Some of these are old classics, some are new favorites, and plenty are random one-off oddballs. There's obviously fiction and nonfiction here, but also poetry, graphic novels, and even the occasional play. Regardless, as always, I strongly encourage you to check out any of these titles. Enjoy!
- The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
- All the Truth is Out by Matt Bai
- America, A Redemption Story by Sen. Tim Scott
- Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer
- Another Marvelous Thing by Laurie Colwin
- Batman: The Court of Owls Saga by Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo
- The Canceling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Rikki Schlott
- The Coddling of the American Mind by Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt
- The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: Book One by Bill Watterson
- The Complete Calvin and Hobbes: Book Two by Bill Watterson
- Coolidge by Amity Shlaes
- The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon and Simon Stephens
- Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
- Detroit: An American Autopsy by Charlie LeDuff
- Divided We Fall by David French
- Educated by Tara Westover
- The End of Race Politics by Coleman Hughes
- Everything's Eventual by Stephen King
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Five Ghosts: Volume 1 - The Haunting of Fabian Gray by Frank L. Barbiere and Chris Mooneyham
- Flight by Sherman Alexie
- From A Buick 8 by Stephen King
- Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King
- The Giver by Lois Lowry
- Gwendy's Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar
- The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
- Hole in My Life by Jack Gantos
- How to Fight Anti-Semitism by Bari Weiss
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
- I'll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
- In Order to Live by Yeonmi Park
- Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos
- Lord of the Flies by William Golding
- Maus I: My Father Bleeds History by Art Spiegelman
- Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began by Art Spiegelman
- Misery by Stephen King
- Mockingbird by Kathryn Erskine
- The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht
- The Moon is Down by John Steinbeck
- Morning After the Revolution by Nellie Bowles
- Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave by Frederick Douglass
- Night by Elie Wiesel
- NOS4A2 by Joe Hill
- The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
- Play It As It Lays by Joan Didion
- Political Tribes by Amy Chua
- The Problem with Everything by Meghan Daum
- A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
- The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt
- Run River by Joan Didion
- Selected Poems of Langston Hughes by Langston Hughes
- Sh*tshow! by Charlie LeDuff
- Slade House by David Mitchell
- Songs of Innocence and of Experience by William Blake
- South and West by Joan Didion
- Stone Mattress by Margaret Atwood
- Suicide of the West by Jonah Goldberg
- The Trial by Franz Kafka
- Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
- The Unspeakable by Meghan Daum
- While Time Remains by Yeonmi Park
- Winter in the Blood by James Welch
- The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn
