As we close out the year, I want to share my favorite reads and listens from the year, plus my favorite app. I hope you have a safe and restful holiday season – see you in 2021!
Favorite Fiction
I’ve really gotten back into fiction in the last two years after a decade-long lull. This year, I had months of not-reading (just wasn’t interested when the pandemic started), but I’m back at about the same number of books read as last year, thanks to lots of baby holding/feeding time. Here are my two favorites:
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
Mary Bennet tells her side of the story – and what a story it is! I thought this might be “Mary gets a make-over and gets a man, yay the end.” But while yes those elements are there, this story has so much more: it’s a story of Mary finding her self-worth despite an environment that says she is anything but worthy.
If you would have told me in January that one of my favorite books of the year would be about dark magic in secret Yale societies – yeah, wouldn’t have believed it. But what can I say? It’s a fantastic story and I can’t wait for the sequel to come out.
Favorite Long Nonfiction
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Basil Van Der Kolk
A combination of history, current medical understanding around trauma, and new paths for treatment and healing. An eye-opening book.
Favorite Short Nonfiction
“The Existence of Biological Sex Is No Constraint on Human Diversity” by Paul Griffiths
Of all the articles I read this year that are totally outside my wheelhouse, this is the one I keep thinking about.
Culture Study – a Newsletter by Anne Helen Peterson
This is my favorite newsletter, and I’m a happily paying subscriber.
Favorite Album
Justice Songs by The Porter’s Gate
Don’t let all the Winnie-the-Pooh and Zac Brown Band on my Spotify record fool you: those are my four-year-old’s top listens, and Justice Songs is mine.
Favorite App
This February I started tracking my daily servings of foods like veggies and whole grains. It’s amazing to me how this daily tracking habit has shifted my eating perspective from avoiding foods (sweets etc.) to embracing whole foods. As a result I’ve had many hundreds more servings of whole foods than I would have had otherwise.
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