33 Books That Live Rent-Free in My Heart

In celebration of my 33rd birthday. 🥳

Hi, friends.

Today is my birthday, and I’m turning 33. I’m not one to get existential about aging — you couldn’t pay me to go back to my early 20s, and I happen to love going to bed at 9 PM on a Friday, thank you very much — but 33 feels like a fun number. So I thought it might also be fun to pull 33 books I love off my shelf and round them all up.

Think of this as a glimpse into my bookish heart. A summary of my reading taste. Some are the first books in a series, in which case I’m really talking about the whole series, which may be cheating but it’s my birthday so I get to make the rules. Some of these books were released last year, and some go all the way back to my childhood. Either way, they are the ones that stayed with me — the recommendations I reach for again and again.

In order of author’s last name, these 33 books are:

1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

2. Naamah by Sarah Blake

3. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannan

4. Four Thousand Weeks by Oliver Burkeman

5. Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

6. The Actual Star by Monica Byrne

7. The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

8. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers

9. Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

10. Into the Land of the Unicorns by Bruce Coville

11. Cantoras by Caro de Robertis

12. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann

13. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

14. The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

15. The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

16. The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

17. Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram X. Kendi

18. Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

19. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis

20. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo

21. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli

22. In The Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado

23. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

24. Because, Internet by Gretchen McCulloch

25. Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor

26. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett

27. Lanny by Max Porter

28. The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

29. A Taste of Gold and Iron by Alexandra Rowland

30. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders

31. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab

32. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

33. Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson

I decided to make this list on a whim yesterday morning. I chose quickly, based entirely on gut. But it was a fun and illuminating exercise that confirmed I’m on the right track with my reading intentions this year. Look how many of those books are fantasy! Look how many of the literary fiction books have speculative elements! This is where my heart lies. This is where I should be spending most of my time. So I will.

And if you want to know more about any of these books, ask me about them in the comments — I could go on and on about each.

Until next time,

— Deedi