“Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body” -Joseph Addison
As the year comes to a close, holiday season activity mixed with ever-waning sunlight can make each day feel impossibly busy. If you’re not much of a reader, adding a book you’re trying to finish on top of all the other things you have to do might not sound very appealing. But reading is one of the healthiest activities out there, and a lot of research points to its ability to decrease stress. You may just find that reaching for a book instead of the remote control at the end of the day actually makes your life less chaotic. Plus, there really is something for everyone. Books can guide you through exercises to help you improve your creativity, your ability to communicate with others, heal past trauma, and learn fascinating information about the world around you. Don’t let a boring Lit 101 class curriculum forever sully your reading experience. You get to choose them now!
Another reason to celebrate reading: it’s free. Sure, with a single click, you could buy any book on this list in hardcover, paperback, ebook, or audiobook form. But don’t forget about the magnificence of public libraries. If they don’t have the book, they can usually get it quickly if you ask. They also lend audiobooks and ebooks through a free app called Libby. All you need is a library card, and that’s free, too!
Finally, books make incredibly thoughtful gifts. They are so easy to personalize and if you aren’t shopping for a rare, centuries-old signed first edition, they’re unlikely to set you back more than $30, shipping and all.
These titles are making waves across their genres. Hopefully you will find something that appeals to you. Happy reading!
Self-Improvement
The Self-Improvement industry is worth billions – and with good reason. It seems that we humans need a lot of advice from each other, and that’s what makes the world turn. Whether it’s improving your sleep, your communication style, or healing something from your past, there is probably a book out there that will resonate with you. Here’s another list to browse if you want to take a closer look.
Atomic Habits: an Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones
By James Clear
“Atomic Habits will reshape the way you think about progress and success, and give you the tools and strategies you need to transform your habits–whether you are a team looking to win a championship, an organization hoping to redefine an industry, or simply an individual who wishes to quit smoking, lose weight, reduce stress, or achieve any other goal.”
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
By Elizabeth Gilbert
“With profound empathy and radiant generosity, [Gilbert] offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration… Whether we are looking to write a book, make art, find new ways to address challenges in our work, embark on a dream long deferred, or simply infuse our everyday lives with more mindfulness and passion, Big Magic cracks open a world of wonder and joy.”
Productivity and Management
Perhaps an offshoot of the Self-Improvement category, these books offer sage advice that centers around work and career. These can help you refine your management style or just find more peace in your workspace.
Joy at Work: Organizing Your Professional Life
By Marie Kondo and Scott Sonenshein
“Using the world-renowned KonMari Method and cutting-edge research, Joy at Work will help you overcome the challenges of workplace mess and enjoy the productivity, success, and happiness that come with a tidy desk and mind.”
22 Talk SHIFTs: Tools to Transform Leadership in Business, in Partnership, and in Life
#1 WSJ Bestseller
By Krister Ungerböck
“Strained and estranged relationships are everywhere in business. Salespeople are frustrated by the finance people, customer service and operations people are frustrated by salespeople, and everyone is frustrated by the IT people… In 22 Talk SHIFTs, you’ll discover unconventional, sometimes counter-intuitive communication techniques that can make your year, or your career.”
Children’s Books
Here are a few titles selected by Parents.com as the best children’s books of the year. If you want to browse more titles, here’s the whole list.
Washer and Dryer’s Big Job (The Big Jobs Books)
By Steven Weinberg
Board book, ages baby-3 years
“Filled with fun facts, giggles galore, and googly eyes, the Big Jobs board books are the perfect introduction for babies and toddlers to the big world around them, starting at home!
From sudsing up your smelly socks, stained sweater, and pancake-covered pjs, to getting them cozy and dry, Washer and Dryer have a big job to do―but so do you! Learn how it’s all done in this rollicking read-aloud that will delight parents and kids alike.”
Uma Wimple Charts Her House
By Reif Larsen
Picture book, ages 4-8
“Hip, funny, unique–and a perfect curriculum tie-in–here’s a picture book with mega kid-appeal about the challenges a student faces when she is given an assignment to make a chart of her own home! Told in first-person and featuring engaging graphic artwork, this fun and lively picture book–perfect for classroom use–is a reminder that someone’s true home is not a place, but rather the people with whom you surround yourself.”
By Remy Lai
Chapter book, ages 8-12
“The award-winning creator of Pie in the Sky makes her middle-grade graphic novel debut, Pawcasso, about the unexpected friendship between the loneliest girl in class and the coolest canine in town.”
General Nonfiction
If you’re a fan of memoirs, history, personal essays, and books that make dense research fascinating, take a look at BookRiot’s list of the fifteen best nonfiction releases from 2021. Here are a couple that are repeatedly topping Best Nonfiction charts.
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism
By Amanda Montell
“Through juicy storytelling and cutting original research, Montell exposes the verbal elements that make a wide spectrum of communities “cultish,” revealing how they affect followers of groups as notorious as Heaven’s Gate, but also how they pervade our modern start-ups, Peloton leaderboards, and Instagram feeds. Incisive and darkly funny, this enrapturing take on the curious social science of power and belief will make you hear the fanatical language of “cultish” everywhere.”
Somebody’s Daughter: A Memoir
By Ashley C. Ford
“Somebody’s Daughter steps into the world of growing up a poor Black girl in Indiana with a family fragmented by incarceration, exploring how isolating and complex such a childhood can be. As Ashley battles her body and her environment, she embarks on a powerful journey to find the threads between who she is and what she was born into, and the complicated familial love that often binds them.”
Fiction
Fiction is a broad category spanning from adult literary fiction to sci-fi to thrillers and everywhere in-between. Luckily, Five Books keeps a reliably great and short (five books, get it?) list of new fiction of all different genres. So if the National Book Award winners linked below isn’t your preferred genre, click around Five Books to get recommendations for anything you like to read.
As far as adult literary fiction goes, check out the winners and finalists for the National Book Award for a list of very current and critically-acclaimed fiction.