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!