I’m totally stealing this idea from Liberty Hardy, who did a cool Instagram post with her top ten books from each year of the past decade! I wanted to scale it down a bit, so I’ve chosen my five favorite books from each year, 2010 – 2019. Since I’ve only been keeping track of my favorite books since my blog started in 2011, I had to stretch my memory muscles for those first couple of years. But wow, this was a blast! I’m linking up my reviews where I can, and offering up a little commentary on each year. You can also see my Top Five Books of 2019 at the end of this post! Here we go:
2010 was pre-blog and I had to Google “Books released in 2010” in order to remember what I read, lol. Even though I was still reading lots of literary fiction at that point, my favorites are still mostly SFF books. Looking at this list, I’m not sure 2010 was as good a year for books as say, this past year. I remember enjoying Room but not loving it.
In 2011 I had just started this blog mid-year, so most of what I read was still for pleasure (i.e. not for review!) All five of these books stand out as being favorites, so 2011 was definitely a win! As for reviews, you can check out Ready Player One, The Night Circus, and The Last Werewolf. I’m cringing reading these old reviews, lol.
By my second year of blogging, I was finally getting review books, but I was still reading a lot of my own purchases as well, which included 11/22/63, The Rook and Cinder. This was also the last time I read a new Stephen King book, which makes me very sad! But it was a good one:-D Also memorable that year were Three Parts Dead and my first Jay Krisoff book, Stormdancer.
FIVE STARS*****
2013 was all review books, all the time. What a fantastic year! I got to read the ARC of Vicious as part of an “ARC tour” (which means the author chose ten readers around the country and it made its way from reader to reader until it was finally mailed back to Victoria.) I wish more authors would do that! I also discovered Chuck Wendig and fell in love with The Blue Blazes, even though I bet most of you have never even heard of it. Other highlights were my first R.S. Belcher with The Six-Gun Tarot, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and The Mad Scientist’s Daughter.
2014 was a fantastic year! We got The Girl With All the Gifts, Station Eleven, Red Rising, The Martian and City of Stairs! All excellent books that I was fortunate enough to read before some of them turned into runaway best sellers:-D
2015 was the year I discovered the amazing Daryl Gregory (and boy, am I pining for a new book from him right now!!) Afterparty was probably my very favorite book of the year, although followed close behind it were Nightwise, Illuminae, The Girl with Ghost Eyes and The Fifth House of the Heart. (And yes, Rod Belcher shows up on this list FIVE TIMES, as you’ll see!)
2016 was also a fantastic year! I mean, look at these books! The Suicide Motor Club blew me away, as did Dark Matter and The Last Days of Jack Sparks. And there’s Rod again, ha ha, with The Brotherhood of the Wheel, and Jay Kristoff begins his Nevernight trilogy.
2017 was full of five star reviews, including Borne, The Queen of Swords, and Six Wakes. M.R. Carey proved he wasn’t a one hit wonder with The Boy on the Bridge, and Alice Hoffman charmed me once again (like she always does) with The Rules of Magic.
2018 gave us another stellar Grady Hendrix novel, We Sold Our Souls, which ended up being my favorite book of the year. But last year was a tough competition because I absolutely adored Bloody Rose, Foundryside, King of the Road and debut author K.D. Edwards’ The Last Sun.
Great list, Tammy! Happy to find a lot of my favourites here 🙂 Happy 2020!
Steph Bianchini recently posted…2019: One Year in Review
Thanks Steph, Happy New Year!
This is such a good list! I adored 11/22/63 when I read it recently and Mockingjay has always been on my favourites. Happy New Year!
Happy New Year, Lucy!
My husband AND the neighbor both thought The Martian was the awesomest book ever. I liked . . . oh, so hard to pick just one! Maybe In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson. It was poetic and scary and good.
I still have In the Valley of the Sun on my TBR, maybe I can get to it next year:-)
I see a lot of my favorites too! I’m so happy to see both of Boroson’s books made the cut. One I definitely wamt to read is The Passage. It’s been on my shelf forever and I loved the tv show… If only it were coming back for another season.
Both of Boroson’s HAD to be on here. They are literally perfect books:-)
Oh man! I really want to do a similar post too. I wonder if I will be able to. It looks fun but might be a little difficult maybe.
Love your list! There’s so much on here that I want to read. I love the Horns movie and really want to try the book too. But I saw the Passage TV show and didn’t like it much and didn’t like the book at all — I DNF’d it. Would love to try some Chuck Wendig stuff too. I love his book covers.
It wasn’t as hard as I thought! The hardest part was trying to remember what I read ten years ago, lol.
I like this post. It is a really thorough and interesting way to look back at the decade. Here’s to another awesome decade! Cheers!
I agree, I love the idea of starting fresh with a new decade full of amazing books:-)
Oh, I love this SO MUCH! I may go back and look at all of my favorites. 🙂 Happy New Year!
Happy New Year!
Awesome list! We have a ton of books in common — I wouldn’t even know where to start. 🙂 And it’s really nice to see some callbacks to books from earlier in the decade, like Cinder, A Discovery of Witches, and The Last Werewolf. Happy New Year!
There really have been some fantastic books, even in the early years of the decade. I love remembering them:-)
What an awesome retrospective – I’m totally jumping on this bandwagon at some point in the next week or so 🙂 (and you’ve reminded me that I’m still not over the books of 2014. Just amazing – although the last few years have definitely held their own!)
It’s a delight as always to read your posts – here’s wishing you a brilliant 2020, and I look forward to regularly swinging by to see what you’ve been up to 🙂
Thanks Imyril! I’d love to see your decade’s worth of favorites:-)
Love the list. I’ve not read most of these, but I did love The Martian and Ready Player One, and though I haven’t read City of Stairs yet I did love City of Blades. For myself I’d also have to add The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and The Slow Regard of Silent Things by Patrick Rothfuss, ones I’d count as all-time favorites. It’s been a great decade for reading. Happy New Year, Tammy!
todd recently posted…My Favorite Books and Films from 2019
I fully respect your opinions and differences, not to mention your love of R.S. Belcher. But it’s really difficult to take any Sandersonless list seriously lol. That said, you totally nailed Six Wakes and Red Rising.
Lol! I’m so embarrassed to tell you I have never read Sanderson, which is why he isn’t on here I know, I know…
I honestly don’t know what to say to this
Ooh, after seeing this list and some of your books, I think I remember doing something similar earlier this year for a top ten tuesday, I think it was choosing the top book of each year for the last ten years? I have a lot of the same titles on here, which is why it’s coming back to me now! 😀
I do remember that TTT prompt. I’m not sure why I didn’t do it, but I’m glad I didn’t or I might not have put this list together.
Wow, we really do have similar tastes in books. I think if I were to compile a list of favorites from the decade, at least half of these would be on it. Happy New Year, Tammy!
Suzanne @ The Bookish Libra recently posted…Goodreads: My Year in Books for 2019
That’s so cool! Hope you had a wonderful New Year’s Day:-)
Several that you’ve shared here would be on my list too! And you’ve reminded me to go check on a couple of series to see if I’ve missed any. Happy New Year and here’s to many more great reads, Tammy!
Laura Thomas recently posted…Happy New Year!
Thanks Laura, Happy New Year:-)
It’s pretty amazing to see that it’s really been that long since some books have been released. I mean, The Passage?! Wow. That was also before my blogging days but I remember reading that one almost as soon as it came out. I’m hoping Cronin writes something new soon.
Bonnie @ For the Love of Words recently posted…Top Ten Tuesday | Best of 2019
I’d love to read something else by Cronin too! It’s been way too long:-)
Wow. I was doing good just listing the best for a year! Great list Tammy!
Thanks, it was pretty tough narrowing it down!
Fantastic list! I’m happy to see Foundryside! 🙂
I plan on picking up Do You Dream of Terra-Two? soon. I’m picking it up from the library this weekend!
Oooh, I hope you love Do You Dream!
What a neat list! I think I might borrow your idea to do the decade in review. Technically still need to do a 2019 wrap-up as well. And post my first 2020 review 🙂 Looks like I’m going to be busy, but I loved your list and all the wonderful books on it!
Thanks Liz, it’s a lot of fun to look back that far. I hope you do a post like this!
Oh wow, what a trip down memory lane. I wasn’t blogging for most of this but I do remember when a lot of these books came out. I can’t believe some of them came out so long ago. Time flies! Hope the next decade in books is great too!
I know, it’s weird to think ten years have gone by since I read The Passage, for example. Crazy!
Even five favorite books from each year is impressive to me to scale down to, haha. I’m so impressed by people doing these best books of the decade posts!
I love looking through all of these books, though, because it really showcases all the different incredible books that have come out over the past ten years. I’ve enjoyed a lot of these, and others I need to jot down to check out! Also happy to see quite a few on here that I’ve also loved. What a really fun list, I’m glad you decided to make one!
Room, Cinder, Red Rising and Illuminae are all books I really enjoyed too! Happy to see them on your favourites list. I am also definitely going to be reading The Martian this year, so I am looking forward to seeing what I am going to make of that one myself. I see a lot more of my science fiction tbr such as Ready Player One and more. I have to admit I was a bit disappointed in Mockingjay though ;.;
Olivia Roach recently posted…2020 Resolutions!
What a great look back! “Horns” and “The Girl With All The Gifts” were great reads for me too, and kind of forgotten in the years since…
So many good books! I read The Rook a few years ago and bought the sequel…I really should read that. Stormdancer has been on my kindle since before I knew Kristoff was a “thing.” City of Miracles (and that whole series) is soooo good! So is Foundryside, they’re both so different and yet amazing.
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I love this list, Tammy. Would you mind if I post my own best books of the decade? It was great to look through this list and see ones I’ve read some of which I still love, too! I was trying to think of some way to talk about the last decade and this is a great way to do that.
Hi Jan, of course not! It’s not my idea anyway, I got it from someone else I’ll be looking forward to your list!
I love this list! I see a lot of my own favorites here too, even if I only got around to reading them this year. lol
This is a kickass list! So many of these books are still on my TBR (*sigh*), but there’s a good amount of my favourites here too.
And I’m so happy to see some love for Mr Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore – I loved that book so much! 🙂
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Wow. This is a great post. I don’t know if I could tackle this but I might give it a go.
Lynn. ❤️
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Ooh, in the wake of seeing this rundown and a portion of your books, I think I accomplished something comparable not long ago for a best ten tuesday, I think it was picking the top book of every year throughout the previous ten years? I have a great deal of similar titles on here, which is the reason it’s returning to me now!
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A few that you’ve shared here would be on my rundown as well! Also, you’ve reminded me to go keep an eye on a few arrangement to check whether I’ve missed any. Cheerful New Year and here’s to a lot increasingly extraordinary peruses, Tammy!
Awesome list! I am yet to read Passage and Foundryside, both are on my shelf. Ready Player One was one of my favorites too in 2011. Same for Martian, Six Wakes and Dark Matter. I read these books the year they came out, which hardly happens in my case.