I read a lot of books, people. A lot. And I can’t wait till the end of the year to share my favorites. So here are the highlights of my reading year so far. (Links are to the reading roundups in which I reviewed these titles more fully.)
- Best Geek Lit: Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan.
- Best Advice on All Aspects of Womanhood: Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake by Anna Quindlen.
- Best Downton Abbey-esque Series: The Passing Bells Trilogy by Phillip Rock.
- Most Beautiful Catnip for Bibliophiles: My Ideal Bookshelf, by Jane Mount and Thessaly La Force.
- Best Memoir of Food & Farming: The Dirty Life by Kristin Kimball.
- Best New-to-Me Mystery Series: The Charles Lenox mysteries.
- Best Reread: A tie between The Hobbit (it had been so long!) and The Weird Sisters.
- Best Middle-Grade Series: Al Capone Does My Shirts and its sequel, Al Capone Shines My Shoes, by Gennifer Choldenko.
- Funniest Memoir: Smile at Strangers by Susan Schorn.
- Most Fun Young Adult Novel: This is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith.
- Best Historical Nonfiction: A tie between Bunker Hill by Nathaniel Philbrick and Eighty Days by Matthew Goodman.
- Wittiest Essay Collection: One Man’s Meat by E.B. White.
- Best Exploration of a Creative Vocation: The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr.
- Yummiest Cookbook/Memoir: Dinner: A Love Story by Jenny Rosenstrach.
What are your favorite books of the year so far?
cakes, tea and dreams 
I love the categories you have!! Brilliant. I haven’t read Mr Penumbra yet. Part of me thinks it is just a gimmick to get book lovers to buy it. Is it really worth the hype?
Yay! I always look forward to a few of my favorite bookish blogs doing this at the end of the year. Hurrah that you’ve given us a bit of list fun this summer!
I’ve only read 2 on your list! But quite a few are on the To Read list so they’ll happen eventually.
Some of my favorites: Bread and Wine, Quiet, A Homemade Life, The Invisible Girls, The Weird Sisters.
I only wish I had the patience to categorize all the great books I have read this year like this. Good job and thank you for the suggestions. I’ll just mention one book that has really stuck with me over the last month. Casualties of War by Bennett R. Coles is a wonderfully written military science fiction novel which follows Virtues of War. If I read nothing else all year I would be content with reading Casualties of War. Superbly written, well developed characters and a story that drags you in with the kind of emotional involvement that all great books do. I’m so glad to have discovered the work of Bennett Coles.
http://www.bennettrcoles.com/works/casualties-of-war
You do read a lot of books. How do you have time for a happy marriage and the rest of life?