13 Books I've Recently Read and Loved

Including hype-worthy bestsellers, three loveable series, some short ones, some weird ones, and two memoirs

While gathering today’s list, I was thinking about books that are immersive enough to compete with hectic days cluttered with emails, chores, and deadlines and the fried-brain state I lived in during the past year of my master’s degree. Perhaps you, too, are looking for something draws you away from drudgery. If so, today’s picks are for you.

This is a eclectic bunch. The criteria I followed were:

1. Did I either love it while reading it or, if it was a challenge, did I think enough about it afterward to merit recommendation?

2. If it’s a bestseller, do I have something to add to the saturated conversation?

3. Did it hold my attention during a frantic time and help me escape?

I’ve written before about how book lists are overly skewed toward the recently published, often because that’s what benefits the publishing industry. While I am all for celebrating authors, it does not reflect how I read, and thus how I recommend. Instead, these are books to take you away from the quotidian to somewhere new.