WHAT I READ.

i read 76 books this year. these were the best:

best graphic novel and one of the most beautiful i have ever seen. the critics called it "nervy and elegant," "deceptively simple, and startlingly truthful."

best general fiction. so perfectly introspective and poignantly sad. it begins "despite what you think this is a story about hate. at least as much as it is a story about love."

others in my top 10/76:

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

On Writing by Stephen King

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross

The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta

Wake by Lisa McMann

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

honorable mentions Shirley Jackson (can't go wrong), Barry Lyga (one of the best YA voices writing), and Eva Ibbotson (predictable but charming)

For a full list, keep scrolling:

Full reviews, all starred and numbered, here.

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley
Paper Towns by John Greene
Morning Star by Hannah Graves-Kingman (unpublished)
Jinx by Meg Cabot
Austenland by Shannon Hale
The Poison Apples by Lily Archer
First Kiss (Then Tell) by Cylin Busby
Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach
Wake by Lisa McMann
Fade by Lisa McMann
Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Token by Alisa Kwitney
Garage Band by Gipi
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by Rachel Cohn & David Levithan
Graceling by Kristin Cashore
Chalice by Robin McKinley
Fruits Basket 22 by Natsuki Takaya
The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
Where Inspiration Lives: Writers, Artists, and Their Creative Places edited by John Miller and Aaron Kenedi
A Countess Below Stairs by Eva Ibbotson
Catch Me If You Can by Frank Abagnale, Jr.
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
The Reluctant Heiress by Eva Ibbotson
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga
Lowboy by John Wray
Starclimber by Kenneth Opel
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Extraordinary Adventures of Alfred Kropp by Rick Yancey
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Twisted by Laurie Halse Anderson
Rapunzel’s Revenge by Shannon Hale
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Evermore by Alyson Noel
How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
Sweethearts by Sara Zarr
The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson
The Actor and the Housewife by Shannon Hale
Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
Hero Type by Barry Lyga
Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
Savage by David Almond, illus. by Dave McKean
In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot by Graham Roumieu
Never Ending Summer by Allison Cole
Blue Moon by Alyson Noel
A Company of Swans by Eva Ibbotson
A Song for Summer by Eva Ibboston
On Writing by Stephen King
Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen
Swallow Me Whole by Nate Powell
Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Fire by Kristin Cashore
Ten Cents a Dance by Christine Fletcher
What I Was by Meg Rosoff
Leviathan by Scott Westerfield
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
Forest Born by Shannon Hale
Lunacy and the Arrangement of Books by Terry Belanger
Bertelsmann in the U.S.A.: How a German Media Mogul Became America’s Largest Book Publisher by Toni Heinzl and Robert L. Stevenson
Book Business: Publishing Past Present and Future by Jason Epstein.
The Willoughbys by Lois Lowry
Carrie by Stephen King
Goth Girl Rising by Barry Lyga
Girl in a Cage by Jane Yolen
Impossible by Nancy Werlin
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
Frozen Fire by Tim Bowler
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger