I love to read! Memoirs especially, as you’ll see. I’ve tracked my reading since I was a child—first in spiral notebooks, then excel documents (to include date started/finished, number of pages, etc.), and now on Goodreads.
Here are books that I’ve read and enjoyed, and would recommend:
Creativity
- “The Crossroads of Should and Must” by Elle Luna
- “How to Be an Explorer of the World” by Keri Smith
- “Ladies Drawing Night” by Julia Rothman, Rachael Cole, Leah Goren
- “Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered” by Austin Kleon
- “Steal Like an Artist” by Austin Kleon
- “Thinkertoys: A Handbook of Creative-Thinking Techniques” by Michael Michalko
Environmental
- “A Walk in the Woods” by Bill Bryson
- “The Curious Nature Guide” by Clare Walker Leslie
- “On Trails: An Exploration” by Robert Moor
- “The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America” by Timothy Egan
Food/Health
- “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell, Thomas M. Campbell II
- “In Defense of Food” by Michael Pollan
- “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan
- “Unprocessed: My City-Dwelling Year of Reclaiming Real Food” by Megan Kimble
Graphic Memoirs
- “Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant?” by Roz Chast
- “Hyperbole and a Half” by Allie Brosh
- “Little Fish” by Ramsey Beyer
Memoir
- “Becoming” by Michelle Obama
- “Bringing Up Bébé” by Pamela Druckerman
- “Carry On, Warrior” by Glennon Doyle Melton
- “Eat, Pray, Love” by Elizabeth Gilbert
- “Expecting Adam: A True Story of Birth, Rebirth, and Everyday Magic” by Martha Beck
- “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls
- “The Great Failure: A Bartender, A Monk, and My Unlikely Path to Truth” by Natalie Goldberg
- “Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter” by Nina MacLaughlin
- “Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis” by J.D. Vance
- “Just Kids” by Patti Smith
- “Leaving the Saints: How I Lost the Mormons and Found My Faith” by Martha Beck
- “Love Warrior” by Glennon Doyle Melton
- “My Life in France” by Julia Child
- “Paddle Your Own Canoe: One Man’s Fundamentals for Delicious Living” by Nick Offerman
- “Paris to the Moon” by Adam Gopnik
- “Priestdaddy” by Patricia Lockwood
- “Round Ireland with a Fridge” by Tony Hawks
- “Surely You Must Be Joking, Mr. Feynman!” by Richard Feynman
- “The Girl Who Smiled Beads” by Clemantine Wamariya
- “Walking to Listen: 4,000 Miles Across America, One Story at a Time” by Andrew Forsthoefel
- “What Do You Care What Other People Think?” by Richard Feynman
- “What Happened” by Hillary Rodham Clinton
- “Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail” by Cheryl Strayed
- “The Yellow Envelope: One Gift, Three Rules, and a Life-Changing Journey Around the World” by Kim Dinan
- “Year of Yes” by Shonda Rhimes
Personal Development/Mindfulness
- “Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging and the Courage to Stand Alone” by Brené Brown
- “Finding Your Way in a Wild New World: Reclaim Your True Nature and Create the Life You Want” by Martha Beck
- “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brené Brown
- “How to Stop Worrying and Start Living” by Dale Carnegie
- “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie
- “Mindset: The New Psychology of Success” by Dr. Carol S. Dweck
- “The Misfit Economy: Lessons in Creativity from Pirates, Hackers, Gangsters, and Other Informal Entrepreneurs” by Alexa Clay and Kyra Maya Phillips
- “Playing Big: Practical Wisdom for Women Who Want to Speak Up, Create, and Lead” by Tara Mohr
- “Rising Strong” by Brené Brown
- “The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business” by Charles Duhigg
- “Tiny Beautiful Things” by Cheryl Strayed
- “Wherever You Go There You Are” by Jon Kabat-Zinn
- “You’re Going to Survive” by Alexandra Franzen
Sustainability
- “Radical Homemakers: Reclaiming Domesticity from a Consumer Culture” by Shannon Hayes
- “Sustainability Made Simple: Small Changes for Big Impact” by Rosaly Byrd
Writing
- “Being True to Life: Poetic Paths to Personal Growth” by David Richo
- “Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear” by Elizabeth Gilbert
- “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” by Anne Lamott
- “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft” by Stephen King
- “Thunder and Lightning: Cracking Open the Writer’s Craft” by Natalie Goldberg
- “Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within” by Natalie Goldberg
- “Writing Wild: Forming a Creative Partnership with Nature” by Tina Welling
Other Non-Fiction
- “The Almost Nearly Perfect People: The Truth About the Nordic Miracle” by Michael Booth
- “Devil in the White City” by Erik Larson
- “Down Under” by Bill Bryson
- “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss
- “Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City” by Matthew Desmond
- “Janesville: An American Story” by Amy Goldstein
- “Monkey Girl: Evolution, Education, Religion, and the Battle for America’s Soul” by Edward Humes
- “Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything” by Joshua Foer
- “Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea” by Barbara Demick
- “One Summer” by Bill Bryson
- “A Short History of Nearly Everything” by Bill Bryson
- “Strength in What Remains” by Tracy Kidder
- “The Telling Room: A Tale of Love, Betrayal, Revenge, and the World’s Greatest Piece of Cheese” by Michael Paterniti
- “When You Are Engulfed in Flames” by David Sedaris
- “The World According to Mr. Rogers: Important Things to Remember” by Fred Rogers
Fiction
- “A Map of the World” by Jane Hamilton
- “All the Light We Cannot See” by Anthony Doerr
- “Banana Rose” by Natalie Goldberg
- “The Book of Ruth” by Jane Hamilton
- “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley
- Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
- “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas
- “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett
- “My Absolute Darling” by Gabriel Tallent
- “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith
- “The Postmistress” by Sarah Blake
- “Redwall” by Brian Jacques
- “The Shipping News” by Annie Proulx
- “The Signature of All Things” by Elizabeth Gilbert
- “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien
- “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen
Children’s/Young Adult
- “Chasing Redbird” by Sharon Creech
- Guardians of Time trilogy by Marianne Curley
- “Old Magic” by Marianne Curley
- “Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh” by Robert C. O’Brien
- “The Phantom Tollbooth” by Norton Juster
- “Walk Two Moons” by Sharon Creech
The Year in Books
At the end of each year I share my favorite 10 books or so, with a quick summary/review of each.
>> Past Years in Books: 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019
Have a book recommendation for me? I’d love to hear it!