This year — the year of a global pandemic — I read 57 books. This happened thanks to having more time at home, and also thanks to audiobooks.

I’m going to split the books by category, and tell you which ones are my favorite in each category.

This post has affiliate links, which means if you buy a book I get a small commission to no additional cost to you. This helps me buy groceries, for real.

First things first. My number one recommendation is:

We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez.

This book made me ugly cry several times. It broke me open and I don’t ever want to go back to before I read this book. Most impactful book I’ve ever read. Not to mention the author uses magical realism with one of her characters, which was beautiful. I fell in love with her three main characters, I traveled with them, they became my family.

Middle Grade

1. They Call Me Güero by David Bowles. Book of poems that tell the story of Güero.
2. The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix.
3. The Deceivers by Margaret Peterson Haddix
4. Roll With It by Jamie Sumner. Disability representation.
5. Tune It Out by Jamie Sumner. Disability representation.
6. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling
7. Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt. Disability representation.
8. Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. This was a great book that deals with deportation and what it does to families.
9. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate. This is one of my all time favorite books. This was maybe my fourth read.
10. The One and Only Bob by Katherine Applegate. Sequel to the Ivan book. Just okay.
11. The Line Tender by Kate Allen
12. Nightbird by Alice Hoffman
13. Matilda by Roald Dahl
14. The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balcárcel. I saw my family in this book so much. I am the dad, Quijana is my child. There is disability representation. As a side note, the author is perhaps one of the nicest, kindest writers I’ve ever met.
15. Lety Out Loud by Angela Cervantes. Super cute book for animal lovers. This is borderline chapter book and middle grade.
16. Blended by Sharon M. Draper. Deals with divorce and being biracial.
17. A Night Divided by Jennifer A. Nielsen
18. Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar. Goodness, this book is so important. Children and families do not belong in cages. Told from the perspective of a child. Told in verse. Betita will make her way into your heart.
19. What If a Fish by Anika Fajardo. This beautiful author is my Las Musas mentor. I feel incredibly privilege that she is workin with me to make my manuscript be the best it can be.
20. Into the Tall, Tall Grass by Loriel Ryon
21. The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. I had this book in my “to read” list for a while. I am so glad I finally got to it. This book has so much heart. Deals with grief and loss.

My top three: The Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar, The Strangers and The Deceivers by Margaret Peterson Haddix (anxiously waiting for the third and final book, these were awesome audiobooks), and The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart

Young Adult

1. The Conference of the Birds by Ransom Riggs
2. A Heart so Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer. This is the second in a series. First is a retelling of Beauty and the Beast with disability representation (Belle has cerebral palsy). This author is so, so good.
3. Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina
4. We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez. READ THIS BOOK! It follows three teens who have to flee Guatemala.
5. The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. Prequel to the Hunger Games series. This one is told from Snow’s point of view when he was a teen. Before he was the evil president that Katniss tries to take down.
6. Throw by Rubén Degollado. This is storytelling by our people. As a side note, Rubén is one of the most generous writers and he is so good at lifting our Latinx writing community.
7. Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon. Powerful story about what it is like to belong to a marginalized community in white spaces.
8. The Selection by Kiera Cass. Read this series because my teen loved it. I do not share her enthusiasm for these books. Parents, read the books your kids are reading, makes for really great conversations, and for that, I really appreciated the series.
9. The Elite by Kiera Cass
10. The One by Kiera Cass

My top three: We Are Not From Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez (you already knew I would say that), A Heart so Fierce and Broken by Brigid Kemmerer (third and final book comes out in January and we cannot wait), and Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer De Leon.

Fiction

1. The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
2. Diablo Guardian by Xavier Velasco. This one is in Spanish.
3. House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea. A one day window into the life of a Latinx family.
4. A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum. Own voices. Powerful.
5. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. Follows A Handmaid’s tale events. I listed to it and the audiobook was absolutely outstanding. The performances were top notch and would listen to this again just because of the performances.
6. The Book of Longings by Sue Monk Kidd. I feel quite conflicted by this book. Is it plausible? Maybe? My conflicting feelings are based on my beliefs of who Jesus is. I am a Christ follower and this book is out of my comfort zone. Did I enjoy the narrative? Yes, I love Sue Monk Kidd as a writer. This book is told from the perspective of Jesus’ wife, if he had ever had a wife.
7. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I didn’t love it as much as others did, but it is possible it was because of the narrator (I listed to this one on audiobook) and I did not like how they interpreted the main character.
8. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. This one was good, I understand why a series based on the book happened.
9. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
10. The Murmur of Bees by Sofia Segovia
11. The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty. Love her as an author, but this book had references to disability that were ableist and gross. Extremely problematic.
12. Dark Places by Gillian Flynn
13. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
14. Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. This one deserves all the hype it’s getting. I don’t usually read horror/suspense but this was so good. Not to mention it is refreshing to see my culture reflected in a book.
15. The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman. This was so fun! Just enjoyable and cute and funny and whitty.
16. The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion. Disability representation. This was my second time reading but this time it was an audiobook. It’s a fun book.

My top three: Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman, and A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum. These were all audiobooks.

Memoirs

1. Look Me In the Eyes by John Elder Robison. Author writes about having autism.
2. Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth. The show is based on this memoir, and it is just as beautiful as the show.
3. Becoming by Michelle Obama. I liked her before, knowing her story made me like her infinitely more. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by her. she basically told me her story, right into my ears. We are best friends now.
4. I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown. This was also an audiobook narrated by the author. I will listen to this one again and again. Being a woman of color in white evangelical spaces, I related to what she has gone through, while at the same time her experiences showed me a world I was not aware of. Our world so desperately needs the Black Jesus she talks about.
5. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. Another audiobook read by the author. I cried in what I consider it to be holy indignation of an incarceration system that oppresses Black and Brown bodies. I knew there were biases, but after this book I was able to see more clearly exactly how the systemic racism works in these spaces. We need more stone catchers, like Bryan Stevenson. I hope to be one.
6. Yes Please by Amy Poheler. Listened to the audiobook read by her and with guest appearances. It was really fun.

My top three: I’m Still Here by Austin Channing Brown, Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson, and Becoming by Michelle Obama.

Non-Fiction

1. Unexpected Blessings by Sandra Peoples. For parents of disabled kids.
2. Unbroken Faith by Diane Dokko Kim. For parents of disabled kids.
3. Eat, Sleep, Save the World by Jamie Sumner. For parents of disabled kids.
4. Save the Cat Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody. For fiction writers.

My pick: Eat, Sleep, Save the World is the best book I’ve read on parenting kids with disabilities. I “met” Jamie Sumner when I was the Parenting Editor at The Mighty. Her writing was so superb, I actually sent her an email to express how enjoyable her submissions were and told her, “if you ever write a book, I want to read it.” Well, I read three of her books this year.

Let’s talk: Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

You can find me on Goodreads if you are interested in my individual book reviews.