10 Favorites for 10 Years - Top Ten Tuesday

It wasn't until I was creating the graphic for this blog post that I realized just how drunk with power this Top Ten Tuesday prompt should have made me feel! - Favorite Books Released In the Last Ten Years. It was easy putting this list together, only because if I really had to think about it, it would be impossible! The bulk of my reading has been books from the last decade - how could I !? How !? So keep reading, check out the shamble of a list I pasted together and let me know - what do you think the best books have been in the last decade!?

The Best 10 Books of the Last Decade

2009

Y'all we are starting off with a * super * eventful year! Random pop culture fact, in 2009 Somalian pirates kidnapped Captain Phillips and his crew, their story would go on to become a movie starring Tom Hanks, and coincidentally, an event that would *also* become a movie starring Tom Hanks, Captain Sully had his emergency landing on the Hudson River that same year! In my reading life, 2010 is actually a pretty big year. At that point, I was just far out enough from college to start enjoying reading again! y a y! Not only did I rediscover my love of reading, but I was able to do it in a work environment that was super supportive of reading. I worked on a college campus and it seemed like everyone had a book they were working through, the office I worked in had a lending library, and my reader's heart was super content. My favorite book this year was "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I read it during breaks at work, and it felt like everyone was reading also! When the movie came out in 2011, my coworkers and I went to see the movie and it was just one of those super fun reading moments we get, you know? Enjoying a wonderful story with friends and also getting to see it adapted perfectly to film!

2010

Random pop culture fact, the first ever version of the iPad was released in 2010!   Favorite book published in 2010, that I didn't actually read until 2016, but who is counting - - is "Room" by Emma Donaghue. As much as I love to be on top of reading amazing books as soon as they hit the shelves, I'm just not sure that this one would have meant as much to me if I had read it in 2010 and do really feel like it was good that I - unintentionally - saved it. When the book was published, I was enjoying my early 20s and didn't have the life experiences needed for "Room" to truly resonate with me, when I read it in 2016 I was a new mother who was absolutely floored by the plot and themes of this heartbreakingly beautiful story of a mother and son. One of my earliest ever #60secondbookreviews was actually for this book!

2011

Royal wedding number one, Will and Kate were married in 2011. Also, really!? Because it feels like longer ago!  "Bossypants" by Tina Fey absolutely wins this year. Because 2011 was * the year * of audiobooks for me, I had a really sedentary job where I answered the phone and didn't really have a reason to get up from my desk but a few times during the day. After work, I wanted to get exercise and started to notice how much better I felt getting exercise while also knocking out reading goals. I definitely recommend listening to this one, Tina's timing is amazing and it just brings the hilarious and heartwarming stories to life!

2012

Fun and timely pop culture fact in what was otherwise a pretty bleak year in the news, 2012 was the release year of the first Avengers movie, unpopular opinion from me - not a fan.  H o w e v e r, I am a fan of SO MANY BOOKS that came out this year! Where to even begin, I mean really! "The Light Between Oceans" by M.L. Steinman, "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, "Gone Girl" by Gillian Flynn, "Me Before You" by Jojo Moyes, "Eleanor and Park" by Rainbow Rowell, "The Martian" by Martin Weir, "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed - I think I read that one twice that year - and last but not least, "A Man Called Ove" by Fredrik Backman. I can not pick just one, don't make me. They are all unique and amazing and I only chose TFIOS as the cover because it is the book that I enjoyed but also really enjoyed the film adaptation of as well, which is truly my reading favorite - solid film adaptations are bae. But then SO MANY of the books this year were turned into films, too. So I don't know - what a year, though, right!?

2013

This was another devastating year in the news ( Boston Marathon bombings, Bangladesh garment factory collapse, Moore, Oklahoma tornado, to name just a few) but this year also brought us Vine, which was probably more of a double-edged sword for internet culture - but, still pretty entertaining! I actually don't have a favorite book published this year! But! Taking a peek at Goodreads ( side note, thank you Goodreads for making this Top Ten Tuesday post possible, finding the publishing dates for groups of books was super easy there!) I absolutely have quite a few books that I would like to read from 2013 - and would likely become favorites, too - such as "The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt!

2014

The was the year Shia LaBeouf graced us with his "performance art", 2014 what a time to be alive. My favorite book published in 2014 is hands down "All The Light We Cannot See" by Anthoney Doerr. I read this book in 2016, and posted a picture of it on my personal Instagram - which was a gateway drug to #bookstagram and ultimately the blog you are currently reading! I can't imagine how different the last three years would have been without the creative and intellectual and just plain fun outlet of online book blogging, reviewing, photographing and more. Seriously, such a blessing!

2015

Time for some good news headlines, 2015 marked the year that global poverty fell to its lowest point. That year, the percentage dropped below 10%, and while there is still much progress to be made, considering that 50 years prior it was at 60%, it feels like an accomplishment worth noting! My favorite book published in 2015 is "A Darker Shade of Magic" by V.E. Schwab. I didn't actually read this book, though, until 2018 after watching and reading countless glowing reviews for the series. I also had the opportunity to see Victoria speak at Texas Book Festival - seeing authors speak about their work always gets me jazzed to start it! Fantasy is totally out of my usual reading comfort zone, but I am glad I took a chance on this one!

2016 While I live in Texas now, as a former Chicago suburbian, I'm contractually obligated to mention that in 2016 the Cubs broke their 108 year World Series curse!  My favorite book published in 2016 is a tough one, but I am going to pick "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch. I *still* think about and recommend this book to others after three years. It is a psychological science fiction thriller - yeah, it's a lot but it does it so well and it does it with H E A R T! It's a such a rare kind of novel and definitely one I would like to reread! But there are so many other books I love that were 2016 books also, "Behind Closed Doors", "When Breath Becomes Air", "Talking as Fast as I Can", and "Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren. Check out a video review that I created for this book below!

2017

This year will stand out in my mind for a while because of Hurricane Harvey. My husband and I lived in Corpus Christi, Texas and the night that the storm hit, I was sitting in my parents-in-laws home in Austin, Texas, watching a giant blob move towards our home. Thankfully it stayed safe, but the loss of others and the emotions of the time will definitely stick with me. My favorite book published in 2017 is "Eleanor Oliphant is Completly Fine" by Gail Honeyman. Not only was this a favorite the year it was published, but it is also still one of my favorite books. There is so much to get out of reading "Eleanor Oliphant", and I would recommend it to most other readers. If you haven't read it yet, definitely give it a chance!

2018

This was a dumpster fire of a year according to most of the internet, but also, you know what - some good things happened - particularly in medicine - fun fact, in 2018, researchers discovered that dogs can help detect malaria! Neat! My favorite book published in 2018 is "I'll Be Gone in the Dark" by Michelle McNamara. This book is terrifying, haunting, amazing, all of the words you might expect about a nonfiction serial killer book - but it's also hopeful! In part, because the killer was captured shortly after the book was published, but also because of the community of people who came together to make that arrest possible. Check out the #60secondbookreview below I created for the book!

Which brings us to 2019 - the end ta-da!! I don't have a favorite published for the year yet, and I'm excited, but also a little overwhelmed, by the number of amazing books published this year that I still want to read. I'm sure you can relate, reader friends. Comment down below! Let's chat about your favorites from the last decade!