This year, I managed to successfully cross off some of the books on my TBR list, but in all fairness, it grows exponentially & I doubt I’ll ever truly complete it!

1. Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers, Mary Roach
2. Mortal Fear, Greg Iles
3. The Midnight Library, Matt Haig
4. The Turner House, Angela Flournoy
5. In Five Years: A Novel, Rebecca Serle
6. Wellness: A Novel Nathan Hill
7. Remarkably Bright Creatures, Shelby Van Pelt
8. The Guest List, Lucy Foley
9. ADHD Explained, Edward Hallowel
10. As Long As The Lemon Trees Grow, Zoulfa Katouh
11. Denali: A Man, A Dog, And Theresa Friendship Of A Lifetime, Ben Moon
12. Tom Lake, Ann Patchett
13. Tangled Beginning, Sophie Andre
14. How Beautiful We Were, Imbolo Mbue
15. The Firekeeper’s Daughter, Angeline Boulley
16. The Vibrant Years, Sonali Dev
17. Leaving Time, Jodi Picoult 
18. Atomic Habits, James Clear
19. Attached. The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find – And Keep – Love, Amir Levine, M.D., & Rachel S. F. Heller, M.A.
20. Do Hard Things, Steve Magness
21. Never Lie, Freida McFadden
22. A Fever In The Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan’s Plot To Take Over America, And The Woman Who Stopped Them, Timothy Egan
23. The Body Keeps The Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk, M. D.
24. Here One Moment, Liane Moriarty
25. All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy
26. Remember Me Tomorrow, Farah Heron
27. One True Loves, Taylor Jenkins Reid
28. When We Were Widows, Annette Chavez Macias
29. Slow Dance, Rainbow Rowell
30. The Answer Is No: A Short Story, Fredrik Backman 
31. Some Everyday Thoughts, C. S. Lewis
32. The Most, Jessica Anthony
33. And How Does That Make You Feel: Everything You Never Wanted To Know About Therapy, Joshua Fletcher
34. The Perfect Wife, Blake Pierce
35. Intermezzo, Sally Rooney

My Favorite 5 (in order I read them)

* One of the aspects I appreciated about this book, in addition to the impeccable way the author weaves together this couple, their thoughts, ideas, & intricacies, is how he highlights various studies conducted proving a point to the not later be debunked. I recall some off these studies while pursuing my Bachelor’s degree in psychology years ago.

“If you cling too hard to what you want to see, you miss what’s really there.”

*If you’re considering this book, I highly recommend listening to the audio version. The voice, tone, & personality off the octopus is portrayed perfectly. IYKYK!

“It seems to be a hallmark of the human species: abysmal communication skills. Not that any other species are much better, mind you, but even a herring can tell which way the school it belongs to is turning and follow accordingly. Why can humans not use their millions of words to simply tell one another what they desire?” 

* Such a feel good book about making peace with the past. I smiled & laughed many times while reading.

“Life. You blink & it’s gone. The passion. The boredom. The moment lived. The moment lost. In the end, they’re just crumbs stuck in the creases of memory. Remnants of tastes left on your tongue.”

* The quintessential book on trauma.

“Sophisticated imaging techniques have identified the origins of PTSD in the brain so that we now understand why traumatized people become disengaged, why they are bothered by sounds & lights, & why they may blow up or withdraw in response to the slightest provocation. We have learned how, throughout life, experiences change the structure & function of the brain, & even affect the genes we pass onto our children. Understanding many of the fundamental processes that underlie traumatic stress opens the door to an array of interventions that can bring the brain areas related to self regulation, self-perception, & attention back on line. We know not only how to treat trauma, but also increasingly, how to prevent it. And yet, after attending another wake for a teenager who was killed in a drive by shooting in the blue hill avenue section of Boston, or after reading about the latest school budget cuts in impoverished cities & towns, I find myself close to despair. In many ways we seem to be regressing with measures like the callous congressional elimination of food stamps for kids whose parents are unemployed or in jail, with the stubborn opposition to universal healthcare in some quarters. With psychiatry’s obtuse refusal to make connection between psychic suffering & social conditions. With the refusal to prohibit the sale or possession of weapons, whose only purpose is to kill large numbers of human beings. And with our tolerance for incarcerating a huge segment of our population, wasting their lives as well as our resources.

Discussions of PTSD still tend to focus on recently returned soldiers, victims of terrorist bombings, or survivors of terrible accidents, but trauma remains a much larger public health issue; arguably, the greatest threat to our national well-being. Since 2001 far more Americans have died at the hands of their partners, or other family members, than in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. American women are twice as likely to suffer domestic violence as breast cancer. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that firearms kill twice as many children as cancer does. All around Boston, I see signs advertising the Jimmy fund, which fights children’s cancer and for marches to fund research on breast cancer & leukemia. But we seem too embarrassed, or discouraged, to mount a massive effort to help children & adults learn to deal with the fear, rage, & collapse the predictable consequences of having been traumatized.”

• I’ve never read a Liane Moriarty book I didn’t like. Several years ago, I had the pleasure of attending a book reading of hers. Many smiles spread across my face while reading this one. A unique storyline!

 “And then I thought, alright let’s get this grief thing done. You’ve done it before, do it again. But experience makes no difference. You cannot project manage grief.”

Happy reading!