Marjorie Allison The book I have discussed the most with fellow readers this year is The Correspondent by Virginia Evans. It is highly readable and has a decent plotline, but what we keep talking about is how correspondence works. How writing letters or, yes, emails, can break us out of our own worlds and connect us to others.

David Banash Edwin Frank’s Stranger than Fiction: Lives of the Twentieth-Century Novel is a deeply personal record of reading the novels of a century of transformation, destruction, and possibility. Frank’s writing is astonishing, moving, and wonderfully light.

Kishi Blue My book of the year has to be Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston. It’s beautifully written and gives a swooning LGBTQ+ love story with peak representation and both hilarious and romantic storytelling!

Rebekah Buchanan My Friends by Fredrik Backman. Backman knows how to weave together a narrative that makes you laugh and cry (and sometimes scream) and always want more. His latest book about an artist and a girl on a journey to solve the mystery of a painting was the one book I just couldn’t put down.

Karissa Geisinger The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë. I read this in my British literature class during the fall semester, and I just really enjoyed it, especially since I was reading it and discussing it with a class, particularly in a feminist light. This novel is very different from the other Brontës, feeling more grounded in realism, and I think Helen Graham is truly one of my favorite characters.

Guysha Guy Reading this book, I couldn’t help but think about the concept of “protection” and “fabrication.” Are we really protecting our families if we constantly lie or do we lie to make ourselves feel better? And when we die, do we care about the people who we hurt with this fabrication? This book is the greatest to me solely because I lived through it, growing up in a Caribbean household.

Bill Knox Scottish writer Alexander Starritt’s We Germans is a novel chronicling the experiences of a young conscript during World War II . Although there is war action, there is much more reflection on the meaning of his experience and serendipity.

Katya Kozhukhova The Golden Thread: How Fabric Changed History by Kassia St. Clair starts with the earliest fibers ever twisted by Neanderthals and ends with spacesuits. You’ll never look at your wardrobe the same way again.

Dan Malachuk Greg Grandin’s America, América: A New History of the New World. This history of North and South America hopes the South’s social democratic and multilateral traditions—rather than US imperialism—will be the world’s future.

Mark Mossman Karl Ove Knausgaard’s My Struggle, Vols. 1-6. The Proust of our time.

Shaylie Muehl Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir. This book handles serious topics with humor, and contains an amazing story of survival and heartfelt friendship that had me on the edge of my seat.

Carter Myers Psst . . . this is not a typical book. AURORA’s What Happened to the Heart? is a clothbound companion to her fifth studio album, What Happened to the Heart? I am using this book of poetry and music as a representation of my scholarly study of AURORA, which was one of my best literary experiences this year.

Lisa Parzefall Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. This one I enjoyed particularly, for Ng does a wonderful job juxtaposing the life stories of two very different families, creating tension among the characters. As a reader, I liked how her characters reflect on their thoughts, values, and choices in life. I love books that make you think about that for yourself, too!

A.J. Rocca The Left-Handed Marriage: Stories by Leigh Buchanan Bienen. This hidden gem was a chance find I made on a visit to Prairie Lights in Iowa City a few years ago. The last story in the collection, “Technician,” is a novella about a young man named Tommy who gets a job as an “Execution Technician” at a prison. Because of this story, I now oppose the death penalty.

Anthony Vaughn Kevin Sack’s Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charleston Church. I connected with this book because it reflects two core parts of my life: faith and race. It helped me see the DNA of traditions I’ve inherited.

Taylor Whitmore Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway unfolds over a single day in London, but it holds the reader’s hand as it leads us through portals in time. We feel the loss, the love, the loneliness, the plight. I wish I could read this book for the first time again.

Jacque Wilson Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl, shows how her experience of childhood sexual abuse leads to her entrapment in the world of Ghislane Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. The book lays out how family and institutional systems, including academia, industry, and government, all conspired to silence her. It’s a gut-punch, but anyone who is passionate about advocating for women and girls should read it

Charla Wrenn I thoroughly enjoyed The Widow by John Grisham. I’m a fan of Agatha Christie and this book did not disappoint. There were quite a few twists and turns, foreshadowing, and a slightly unexpected ending. Definitely recommend!