Welcome to a new blog series called My Favorite.

In the spirit of what triggered this idea, I’m starting with books. I am admittedly a book nerd. Like HUGE – hard cover buying – book smelling – Book of the Month – Goodreads Challenge – pre-order books on the regular – kind of book nerd. Put it this way, a good friend and I have discussed a Book Podcast more than once.

So, what’s my reading style?

I love thrillers. Crime thrillers, psychological thrillers, thrilling true stories. If it doesn’t give my anxiety on some basic level, you better be a damn good writer. When I find an author that can do both, that’s when the stars really come out.

I can be gripped in other ways however. Real stories of courage, adversity, trauma, and resilience are also right up my alley. The greatest way to have empathy for others is by actually taking a dedicated interest in their stories. It’s why I love documenting families through photography.

One day a few months back I decided to pull my 10 favorite books. To see if I could even do it. I knew it would be tough. What I didn’t know is that I would have to create an entirely separate stack of honorable mentions. So here ya go… my favorite books (in no particular order because I absolutely cannot compare a fictional crime book to something like Into the Wild).

Favorites

1. The Good Daughter by Karin Slaughter
2. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer
3. Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn
4. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
5. Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
6. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
7. The Shack by William P. Young
8. Night by Eli  Wiesel
9. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
10. Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls (fun fact, the edition I have is almost 40 years old!)

Honorable Mentions

1. Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
2. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
3. Shoot the Moon by Billie Letts
4. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
5. The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn
6. The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks & Sarah Pekkanen
7. The Killing Lessons by Saul Black
8. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
9. A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

What are your favorites? And what do I NEED to read (even though my To Be Read pile is a little obnoxious)?