The results are in! Lots of great reading recommendations from readers of my newsletter and various Facebook groups I'm in...
Thank you to the 65 people who participated in my survey, listing nearly 320 books! We had a clear winner, followed by ties for second, third, fourth and fifth place and 21 runners-up. Interesting to note that several of these books were published in previous years -- books have a long shelf life, as my publisher likes to say. Some of these books have made the list two years in a row, and Amor Towles has the distinction of having three different books among the favorites and runners-up.
I'm also thrilled to see books by authors who have appeared at Literary Modiin (One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank, The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen and How to Find Your Way in the Dark by Derek B. Miller) as well as others I've recommended in my newsletters on the list of readers' favorites. I'll put links to Bookshop.org for the books I've recommended in past newsletters.
1st place:
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
2nd place:
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Hamnet by Maggie O'Farrell (second year on the list)
The Lincoln Highway by Amor Towles (second year on the list)
3rd place:
One Hundred Saturdays by Michael Frank (watch a recording of Michael at Literary Modiin)
Honor by Thrity Umrigar
Cloud Cuckoo Land by Anthony Doerr (second year on the list)
4th place:
Women on Fire by Lisa Barr
Horse by Geraldine Brooks
5th place:
The Netanyahus by Joshua Cohen (watch a recording of Josh at Literary Modiin)
The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Matrix by Lauren Groff (second year on the list)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Runners up:
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver
Fresh Water for Flowers by Valerie Perrin
House on Endless Waters by Emunah Elon
How to Find Your Way in the Dark by Derek B. Miller (watch a recording of Derek at Literary Modiin)
Left on Tenth by Delia Ephron
Lessons by Ian McEwan
Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra
Once There Were Wolves by Charlotte McConaghy
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro
Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan
The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
The Matchmaker's Gift by Lynda Cohen Loigman
The Overstory by Richard Powers
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce
The Violin Conspiracy by Brendan Slocumb
West With Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
More recommendations from your fellow readers:
11/22/63 by King Steven
12 Rules for Life by Jordan Peterson
A Beautiful Mind by Sylvia Nasar
A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara
A River of Stars by Vanessa Hua
A Woman of Endurance by Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa
Addie LaRue
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich 1945-1955 by Harald Jähner
All the Lonely People by Mike Gayle
All Who Go Do Not Return by Shulem Deen
Am I Normal? The 200-Year Search for Normal People (and Why They Don’t Exist) by Sarah Chaney
American Dirt by Jeannine Cummins
American Seoul by Helena Rho
American Woman by Susan Choi
Anathem by Neil Stephenson
Apeirogon by Colum McCalum
Atomic Anna by Rachel Barenbaum (watch a recording of Rachel at Literary Modiin)
Atoms and Ashes by Plokhy
Auschwitz #34207 by Nancy Sprowell Geise
Bad Jews: A History of American Jewish Politics and Identities by Emily Tamkin
Bad Mothers Bad Daughters by Maya Sonenberg
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Beautiful Country by Qian Julie Wang
Beneath a Scarlet Sky
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner
Billy Summers by Stephen King
Blind Man's Bluff by James Tate Hill
Book Lovers by Emily Harris
Busman's Honeymoon by Dorothy Sayers
Carrie Soto is Back by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Chasing History: A Kid in the Newsroom by Carl Bernstein
Chorus by Rachel Kauffman
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Cold Enough for Snow by Jessica Au
Confidence Man by Maggie Haberman
Crazy to Leave You by Marilyn Rothstein
Cyclorama by Adam Langer
Death and the penguin by Kurkov
Diary of a Void by Emi Yagi
Dictionary of Lost Words by Pip Williams
Dirt Creek by Hayley Scrivenor
Empire of Pain by Keefe
Enola Holmes Series by Nancy Springer
Every Good Boy Does Fine by Jeremy Denk
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard
Force Of Nature by Jane Harper
Foster by Claire Keegan
Frederick Douglass by David W. Blight
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Yipi
Gilead by Marilynn Robinson
Harlem Shuffle by Colson Whitehead
Have You Seen Luis Velez by Catherine Ryan Hyde
Having and Being Had by Eula Biss
Heart's Invisible Furies by John Boyne
HEARTBROKE by Chelsea Bieker
Homeland Elegies by Ayad Akhtar
Honeymoon for One by Chris Keniston
Honeymoon for Three by Chris Keniston
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson
How German Is It? by Walter Abish
In Love by Amy Bloom
Jerks by Sara Lippmann (watch a recording of Sara at Literary Modiin)
Joy Comes in the Morning by Jonathan Rosen
Just Kids by Patti Smith
Just Revenge by Alan Dershowitz
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
Leaving Eastern Parkway by Matthew Daub
Lech by Sara Lippmann (watch a recording of Sara at Literary Modiin)
Life and Fate by Vasily Grossman
Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz
Lucky Turtle by Bill Roorbach
Lucy by the Sea by Elizabeth Strout
Mad Honey by Jodi Picoult
Mary Coin by Marisa Silver
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
Mercy Street by Jennifer Haigh
Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy
Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin
Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris by Paul Gallico
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Natural History by Andrea Barrett
Never Meant to Meet You by Ally Frank and Asha Youmans
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss
Next Year Havana by Chanel Cleeton
Nobody Will Tell You This But Me by Bess Kalb
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
Nothing by Henry Green
Oh William by Elizabeth Strout
Olympus Texas by Stacey Swann
On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbold
On Repentance and Repair by Danya Ruttenberg
Once We Were Home by Jennifer Rosner
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Particularly Cats by Doris Lessing
People Love Dead Jews by Dara Horn
People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks
Perla by Carolina De Robertis
Plunder by Menachem Kaiser (watch a recording of Menachem at Literary Modiin)
Portrait of a Marriage
Recessional by James Mitchner
Relocation by Ayelet Gunder Goshen
Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt
Reptile House by Robin McLean
Safekeeping by Abigail Thomas
Secrets of Happiness by Joan Silber
Sold on a Monday
Solito by Javier Zamos
Soolie
Speak Silence by Kim Eichlin
Speciman Days by Michael Cunningham
Still Life by Sarah Winman
Tepper Isn't Going Out by Calvin Trillin
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner
The Beauty of Humanity Movement by camilla gibb
The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li
The Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk
The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
The Candy House by Jennifer Egan
The Cellist by Daniel Silva
The Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson
The Color of Ice by Barbara Linn Probst
The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber David Wengrow
The Fault In Our Stars by John Green
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Girl With the Louding Voice by Abi Daré
The Good Women of Safe Harbour by Bobbi French
The Gown by Jennifer Robson
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makai
The Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
The Guest Book by Sarah Blake (watch a recording of Sarah at Literary Modiin)
The Gulag Archipelago by Solgenitzen
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab
The It Girl by Ruth Ware
The Last Karankawas by Kimberly Garza
The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt
The Last Thing He Told Me by Laura Dave
The Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
The Life and Crimes of Hoodie Rosen by Isaac Blum
The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell
The Lost Apothecary by Sarah Penner
The Magnificent Lives of Marjorie Post by Allison Pataki
The Marriage Portrait by Maggie O'Farrell
The Measure by Nikki Erlick
The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan
The Midnight Library by Matt Haig
The Midwife's in Town by Kate Jessica Raphael
The Mighty Franks Michael Frank (watch a recording of Michael at Literary Modiin)
The Motion of the Body Through Space by Lionel Shriver
The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri
The Night Watchman by Louise Edrich
The Passenger by Boschwitz
The Passion by Jeanette Winterson
The Pavilion in the Clouds by Alexander McCall Smith
The Philosopher's Pupil by Iris Murdoch
The Postmistress by Sarah Blake (watch a recording of Sarah at Literary Modiin)
The Postmistress of Paris by Meg Waite Clayton
The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene
The Real Mrs. Tobias by Sally Koslow (watch a recording of Sally at Literary Modiin)
The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright
The Scent Keeper by Erica Bauermeister
The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St John Mandel
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
The Secrets Between Us
The Sentence by Louise Erdrich
The Skin by Curzio Malaparte
The Splendid and The Vile by Erik Larsen
The Sunrise by Victoria Hislop
The Sweet Remnants of Summer by Alexander McCall Smith
The Sweetness of Water
The Swimmers by Julie Osuka
The Tears of Monterini by Amanda Weinberg
The Tender Bar by JR Moehringer
The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
The Trees by Percival Everett
The Unfinished Corner by Dani Colman
The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
The Whalebone Theatre by Joanna Quinn
The Widh by Nicholas Sparks
The Wife Between Ys by Greer Hendricks
The Winners by Fredrik Backman
The Woman They Could Not Silence: One Woman Her Incredible Fight for Freedom and the Men Who Tried to Make Her Disappear by Kate Moore
The Yellow Wife
The Yid by Paul Goldberg
These Precious Days by Ann Patchett
They Came Like Swallows by William Maxwell
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Three Floors Up by Nevo Eshkol
Transit of Venus by Shirley Hazzard
Twits in Love A Steampunk Romance by Tom Alan Robbins
Verity by Coleen Hoover
Washington Black by Eso Edugyan
What's Left of Me is Yours by Stephanie Scott
Who They Was by Gabriel Krauze
Winter in Sochko by Elisa Dushapin
Wolf Road
What is Missing by Michael Frank (watch a recording of Michael at Literary Modiin)
You Have a Friend in 10A by Maggie Shipstead
You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi
Zarot (Strangers) by Lihi Lapid
Zuleikha by Guzel Yakhina