This book has been everywhere and will continue to be. Jen Hatmaker solidifies herself as a superb storyteller as she tells the most heartbreaking story of all. If you read Beth Moore's memoir and were struck by the power of her storytelling and prose, you'll experience the same with Awake. I simply couldn't put it down... which is weird considering it's about her life and she's a real person who I've talked to before, but her ability to invite you into the hardest, darkest parts of her life and watch the light break through was really something. 

This is "weird little book" adjacent, and I loved it so much.

A woman burns out after an adult life of hustling after the next thing, and she goes into the woods to try and get herself back. But the story isn't really about her.

Sparse, a little dark, mysterious, deeply human, and oh so good.

This is a story about a family going through the aftermath of an unexpected abuse of power and sexual advance on Hazel, the teenage daughter, and my whole chest fills up with warmth thinking about how beautiful and surprising this book was. 

It's way funnier than you'd think, and walking with this family through something impossible (with an ending that absolutely stuck the landing) was a reading experience I'll remember for a long time. It's worth checking out. 

This is a memoir that had me laughing, crying, and gasping, all out loud. I made so much noise reading this book.

The Ugly Cry is masterful storytelling. In a time when stories sometimes feel like our only anchor, this one just got me. The writing is exceptional, just one banger after another, and you immediately love Danielle and her foul-mouthed, unaffectionate, but tender as a baby bunny grandmother.

This book took me completely by surprise. 

Bud Stanley is an obituary writer who, during a late-night drunken cry fest, accidentally publishes his own obituary, making himself dead.

I want this book to become a movie so badly. The characters are precious and layered, and the premise of death leading to life is something more of us need to value.

A top notch thriller about a female con artist whose motives might not be what you think. 

Julie Clark wrote The Ghostwriter, and I think she's a top pick for me in the genre. You just fly through her pages, and the stories are compulsive but not simplified. Great character work, great twists, and satisfying endings. I really enjoyed this.