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My Very Faves

Visit Goodreads to see more of Cathy’s all time favorite books. >

Cathy's all-time-favorite-books book montage

James
I Cheerfully Refuse
The Covenant of Water
North Woods
The Vaster Wilds
Tom Lake
The Marriage Portrait
Demon Copperhead
The Trackers
Lucy by the Sea
Signal Fires
Miss Benson's Beetle
The Stars Are Not Yet Bells
These Precious Days: Essays
A Town Called Solace
Hamnet
Whiskey When We're Dry
Gap Creek
Cannery Row
Evening


Cathy's favorite books »

Audio Hits

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James, Percival Everett

Lucy by the Sea, Elizabeth Strout

The Thursday Murder Club Series, Richard Osman

A Town Called Solace, Mary Lawson

These Precious Days, Ann Patchett

Project Hail Mary, Andy Weir

Where I Come From: Stories from the American South, Rick Bragg

Daisy Jones and the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid

Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar, Cheryl Strayed

Call Your Daughter Home, Deb Spera

Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, Jeffery McGuire

Varina, Charles Frazier

The Invention of Wings, Sue Monk Kidd

The Starless Sea, Erin Morganstern

This is How It Always Is, Laurie Frankel

On Agate Hill, Lee Smith

Becoming, Michelle Obama

Educated, Tara Westover

City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her therapist, and our Lives Revealed*, Lori Gottlieb

Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You, Jen Hatmaker

On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King

The Help, Kathryn Stockett

The Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin

 Of Mess and Moxie: Wrangling Delight Out of This Wild and Glorious Life, Jen Hatmaker

Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott 

2025 Reads

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FICTION

* denotes I read it on audio

Just for the Summer*, Abby Jimenez

Whale Fall, Elizabeth O’Conner

How to Read a Book*, Monica Wood

The Heart of Winter,* Jonathan Evison

The Wedding People*, Alison Espach

The Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker

 

NONFICTION & MEMOIR

The Third Gilmore Girl*, Kelly Bishop

I Could Name God in Twelve Ways, Karen Salyer McElmurray

 

POETRY

A Place So Deep Inside America it Can’t Be Seen, Kari Gunter-Seymour

 

2024 Reads

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FICTION

* denotes I read it on audio

The God of the Woods, Liz Moore

The Last Devil to Die*, Richard Osman

Enlightenment, Sarah Perry

The Cliffs*, J. Courtney Sullivan

To The Bright Edge of the World, Eowyn Ivey

The Husbands, Holly Gramazio

Bear, Julia Phillips

Funny Story*, Emily Henry

Bel Canto*, Ann Patchett (reread)

Sandwich, Catherine Newman

North Woods, Daniel Mason

Good Material*, Dolly Alderton

Night Watch, Jayne Anne Phillips

Mercury*, Amy Jo Burns

James*, Percival Everett

I Cheerfully Refuse, Leif Enger

Two Women Walk into a Bar, Cheryl Strayed

The Covenant of Water, Abraham Verghese

The Thursday Murder Club* (reread), Richard Osman

One Good Mama Bone* (actually read both audio and hardback), Bren McClain

The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro

The Frozen River, Ariel Lawhon

One Woman Show, Christine Coulson

POETRY

Poems: New and Selected, Ron Rash

Gay Poems for Red States, Willie Edward Taylor Carver Jr.

The Safety of Small Things, Jane Hicks

NONFICTION & MEMOIR

What I Ate in One Year (And Related Thoughts)*, Stanley Tucci

Be Ready When the Luck Happens: a Memoir*, Ina Garten

The PLAN: Manage Your Time Like a Lazy Genius*, Kendra Adachi

Nanaville, Anna Quindlen

The Comfort of Crows, Margaret Renkl

Life Worth Living: A Guide for What Matters Most*,  Miroslav Volf 

Always A Guest*; Barbara Brown Taylor

2023 Reads

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FICTION

* denotes I read it on audio

Foster, Claire Keagan

Dracula, Bram Stoker

Nora Goes Off Script*, Annabel Monaghan

Sea of Tranquility*, Emily St. John Mandel

The Caretaker, Ron Rash

Bloodroot, Amy Greene

The Vaster Wilds, Lauren Groff

Miracle Creek*, Angie Kim

Shark Heart: A Love Story, Emily Habeck

Tom Lake, Ann Patchett

Blueberries for Sal, Robert McCloskey

Those We Thought We Knew, David Joy

The Bear*, Andrew Krivak

I Have Some Questions For You*, Rebecca Makkai

The Guest*, Emma Cline

We are the Brennans*, Tracey Lange

The Trackers, Charles Frazier

Maureen, Rachel Joyce

Silver Alert, Lee Smith

Signal Fires*, Dani Shapiro

Killers of a Certain Age*, Deanna Raybourn

The Man in the Window, Jon Cohen

The Marriage Portrait, Maggie O’Farrell

The Secret Lives of Church Ladies*, Deesha Philyaw

Demon Copperhead, Barbara Kingsolver

Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt

Ms. Demeanor, Eleanor Lipman

I am the Light of this World, Michael Parker

The Bullet That Missed*, Richard Osman

I Capture the Castle*, Dodie Smith

POETRY

Hewn, Melissa Helton

Dark Energy, Robert Morgan

NONFICTION & MEMOIR

The Creative Act: A Way of Being*, Rick Rubin

Hallelujah Anyway*, Anne Lamott (reread)

The Hero of this Book, Elizabeth McCracken

The Speckled Beauty*, Rick Bragg

The Perfectionist’s Guide to Losing Control: A Path to Peace and Power*, Katherine Morgan Schafler

Share Your Stuff; I’ll Go First*, Laura Tremaine

Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Uncertain Age*, Katherine May

The Anthropocene Reviewed*, John Green

Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing*, Matthew Perry

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