2010
The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
Alright, we all saw this coming. Who wasn’t obsessed with the Hunger Games trilogy at the start of the decade? I have so many memories associated with how much I loved these books. I had just gotten my driver’s license when they got big, and I remember being ecstatic to drive to the library to pick them up. Then I got yelled at by a teacher because I was reading them while taking the PSAT tests, because apparently you’re not supposed to read in between sections?? And when the movies came out, my friends and I waited SEVEN HOURS in line to get good seats at the midnight premiere. So, yeah. I loved these books.
2011
Divergent by Veronica Roth
I read the first book of this series while on a college visit with my parents. My mom kept asking if I was alright, and I’m sure she thought I hated the college, but I just didn’t know how to tell her I was being so quiet because I couldn’t stop thinking about Tris and Four and wondering which faction I would be in. When the movie came out, my friend won tickets to an early premiere and we drove two hours to get to the theater where the premiere was.
2012
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Ah, finally, a book you probably haven’t heard of! I really don’t know how I found this one–probably browsing my library. It’s about a high school senior who learns he has cancer and only has a year left to live. He decides to hide his diagnosis and live like he’s dying–which, of course, he is. I was also a senior in high school and considering how I wanted to leave my mark on the world and what I wanted to do with my life. It’s stuck with me even all these years later.
2013
The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
This one had been on my TBR for a while (some things never change, right?) but I finally got around to reading it just before the movie came out. I absolutely adored the writing style and voice, as well as all the characters. I loved how Charlie connects to the other character and how this book explores friendships and sibling relationships.
2014
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
In the fall of 2014 I studied abroad for a semester in London, and got a lot of reading done. I grabbed Time Traveler’s Wife off the shelves of books left by previous students, probably because I remembered the movie had come out a while back and figured it was worth a shot. It quickly turned into one of my favorite books of all time. I loved how it had this wild-sounding premise of time travel, but really explored love and family and growing up and all these big, grounded topics. It’s one of those books that has stuck in my head, and every time I read it, I fall in love with it again.
2015
The Martian by Andy Weir
This book spread like wildfire among my friends. I’m not usually into sci-fi, but I read The Martian in every spare moment I could find. It was so cool to read about an exciting adventure on another planet that was also so well-researched. Mark Watney’s character was so vivid and sarcastic and you couldn’t help but root for him. I also didn’t mind the movie adaptation either, which was a win.
2016
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
I read this during my first semester of grad school after I picked it up for a dollar at the library’s book sale. I didn’t have a lot of spare time in grad school, but I still managed to devour this book. I love how it spans decades and we get to learn about so many different characters, and how the main character shifts throughout the novel as time passes. I thought the premise was so creative, and the history was woven in beautifully.
2017
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton
This is another one that had been on my TBR for a while, and in Christmas of 2016 my sister got it for me. I read it the following spring and fell head-over-heels in love with it. It’s one of those stories that you think you know where it’s going, and then it kept changing. I couldn’t pin it down. I loved the entire cast of characters, but especially the narrator Ponyboy as he tells his story with such honesty and raw feeling. My car is gold-colored and named Ponyboy in honor of this book.
2018
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
I kept hearing about this series, but for some reason was convinced I wouldn’t like it and never bothered to pick it up. The only reason I ended up reading it was because a booktuber had it on their spooky book recommendation for October so I gave in. While I wouldn’t really call it a spooky book, I am forever thankful that they convinced me to try this series, because it has become one of my top five series of all time! I’m also one of the (apparently rare) readers who prefers Six of Crows to Crooked Kingdom, but really they’re both just perfection. The characters, the moral grey areas, the ingenious plotting…it’s all just *chef’s kiss* and I will never stop talking about them.
2019
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
And that brings us to this year! At first I wrestled with being able to choose just one from this year…and then I remembered I’d read Never Let Me Go in the summer. I read The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro last year, and I’ll be honest: I didn’t totally understand the hype. I mean, yes, I could see that it was a well-written book, but I didn’t fall in love with it. So I was hesitant to try another one by him–maybe he just wasn’t my style!–but my friend recommended this one and THANK GOODNESS. It’s in my top five favorite books ever. The way he captures childhood and all the things about it that are weird but feel so important at the time and how he explores what it means to be human and the deftness with which he handles the big reveal…it left me in awe. It’s not the right book for everyone, but I could read it again and again.
Honorable Mentions
Paper Towns by John Green (read in 2013)
I feel like my sophomore year of college was defined by John Green books. While everyone was freaking out over The Fault In Our Stars, though, my friends and I were ~cool~ and preferred Paper Towns to the rest of his titles.
Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (read in 2014)
This was another book I read while studying abroad. I ended up devouring it in one day while I was traveling, and it’s been a favorite ever since.
Emergency Contact and Permanent Record by Mary H.K. Choi (read in 2019)
Emergency Contact came out in 2018, but I read both books this year, and I adore both of them. Choi has become one of my favorite authors. Her characters feel so real, even as they’re put in crazy situations. I love how she combines cute swoony romances with serious and hard topics.
What have been your favorite books of the decade? Of the year? Let me know in the comments!
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