Happy 6th Birthday, SPR!

As of my "maternity leave," here are the stats of the past year:

• 74 books reviewed
• 9 guest posts
• 4 independent bookstores
• 3 days of Book Expo America
• 1 baby

That's right -- 1 baby. He's a doll, you guys. This is the craziest, off-the-wall, most insane thing I have ever done, having a baby. It's incredibly emotional.

Looking over the past year, I read a ton of amazing books. This may be my best compilation yet. Here we are, in no particular order except by genre, the best books I read this year. As usual, not all were published in the past year; these are just what I read this year.

Non-Fiction

The Prize: Who's in Charge of America's Schools by Dale Russakoff

Why We Can't Wait by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opioid Epidemic by Sam Quinones

Not My Mother's Kitchen: Rediscovering Italian-American Cooking Through Stories and Recipes by Rob Chirico

Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli

Savage Inequalities: Children in America's Schools by Jonathan Kozol

Obedience to Authority: The Experiment that Challenged Human Nature by Dr. Stanley Milgram

Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America by Patrick Phillips

Memoir

The Fortress by Danielle Trussoni

Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer

Fiction

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Today Will Be Different by Maria Semple

The Mothers by Brit Bennett

The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware

Children's

Max at Night by Ed Vere

Ada Twist, Scientist and the series, links found in post by Andrea Beaty