52 books in 8 months

52 books (or 1 book a week) was my lofty goal for 2018. I read constantly as a child, but with all the reading I do for class in college, I think I lost a lot of motivation to read in my spare time. So I was daunted by the idea of reading a book a week when I started, but turns out it’s much easier than I thought! Especially when you stop rewatching The Office in the evenings.

I hit 52 with 4 months left to go in 2018, so I’m excited to see how many I’ll actually finish in all 12 months! I’m already thinking that my goal for 2019 should be 100 books.

The 52 books I’ve read so far

1. The German Girl – Armando Lucas Correa
2. Lilac Girls – Martha Hall Kelly
3. Everyone Brave is Forgiven – Chris Cleave
4. The Cuckoo’s Calling – Robert Galbraith
5. Letters to a Birmingham Jail – Bryan Loritts
6. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas – John Boyne
7. Night – Elie Wiesel
8. The Storyteller – Jodi Picoult
9. Anne Frank – Melissa Muller 
10. A Wrinkle in Time – Madeleine L’Engle
11. The Silkworm – Robert Galbraith
12. Three Sisters, Three Queens – Philippa Gregory
13. The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
14. I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings – Maya Angelou
15. All the Pretty Things – Edie Wadsworth
16. Anthem – Ayn Rand
17. Dance, Stand, Run – Jess Connolly
18. Astonish Me – Maggie Shipstead
19. Still Me – Jojo Moyes
20. Career of Evil – Robert Galbraith
21. Sleeping Murder – Agatha Christie
22. Survival in Auschwitz – Primo Levi
23. The Distant Hours – Kate Morton
24. March – Geraldine Brooks
25. The Nest – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
26. The Coldest Winter – Paula Fox
27. Sarah’s Key – Tatiana de Rosnay
28. The Anchoress – Robyn Cadwallader
29. Small Great Things – Jodi Picoult
30. The Women in the Castle – Jessica Shattuck
31. Exit West – Mohsin Hamid
32. The Virgin Blue – Tracy Chevalier
33. Salt to the Sea – Ruta Sepetys
34. The Kommandant’s Girl – Pam Jenoff
35. Midnight Blue – Simone van der Vlugt
36. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
37. Year of Wonders – Geraldine Brooks
38. Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys
39. I Have Lived a Thousand Years – Livia Bitton-Jackson
40. At the Dark End of the Street – Danielle L. McGuire
41. Making All Things New – David Powlinson
42. I’m Still Here – Austin Channing Brown
43. Homegoing – Yaa Gyasi
44. After the Funeral – Agatha Christie
45. The House Girl – Tara Conklin
46. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass – Frederick Douglass
47. White Fragility – Robin DiAngelo
48. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
49. Half-Broke Horses – Jeannette Walls
50. The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead
51. Home – Julie Andrews
52. The Silver Star – Jeannette Walls

Top picks

If you only read one of the novels listed above – read Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult. It’s one of the most powerful and thought-provoking books I’ve ever read.

And if you can only pick one of the non-fiction books I read – make it At the Dark End of the Street by Danielle L. McGuire. It tells the story of the black women at the center of the civil rights movement, and it’s rage-inducing, powerful, radical, and so so important. I learned so much about civil rights and about the experiences of African-Americans in our country, and my perspective is forever changed.

What have you read this year?