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2018 was an incredibly busy and challenging year. As I do every year, I choose to share the books that I read throughout the past year to promote literacy and the importance of lifelong reading habits. Whether you are a school-aged child, a new parent reading to your kids, a young working adult, a high school or college student, or a retired senior, reading is an incredibly fulfilling activity that you can access with a local library card.

I try to read at least 30 minutes each night before bed and my reading list is a mix of eclectic genres and various topics. Every year, one of my resolutions is to continue this lifelong commitment to reading that my mother instilled in me as a child.

I hope you will share some of your best reads this past year in the comments below.

Best of luck with your new and exciting reading lists for 2019!

Top Five Reads:

- Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience, by Allison Pataki

- The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Women Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

- The Nightingale: A Novel, by Kristin Hannah

- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou

- Mr. Rochester, by Sarah Shoemaker

Full List Below:

- Moonglow: A Novel, by Michael Chabon

- Sisi: Empress On Her Own: A Novel, by Allison Pataki

- Three Daughters of Eve, by Elif Shafak

- News of the World, by Paulette Jiles

- Villette, by Charlotte Bronte

- Treating People Well: The Extraordinary Power of Civility at Work and in Life, by Lea Berman and Jeremy Bernard

- Text Me When You Get Home: The Evolution and Triumph of Modern Female Friendship, by Kayleen Schaefer

- Anna and the King, by Margaret Landon
Campaign for President: The Managers Look at 2016, by Harvard's Institute of Politics

- The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying, by Nina Riggs

- The Dressmaker of Khair Khana: Five Sisters, One Remarkable Family, and the Women Who Risked Everything to Keep Them Safe, by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

- Manderley Forever: A Biography of Daphne du Maurier, by Tatiana de Rosnay

- Beauty in the Broken Places: A Memoir of Love, Faith, and Resilience, by Allison Pataki

- Loner: A Novel, by Teddy Wayne

- Barbara Bush: A Memoir, by Barbara Bush

- The Shroud Conspiracy: A Thriller, by John Heubusch

- History of Lake Champlain from Its First Exploration by the French in 1609 to the Close of the Year 1814, by Peter Palmer

- The Luckiest Girl Alive: A Novel, by Jessica Knoll

- The People's House, by David Pepper

- Unified: How Our Unlikely Friendship Gives Us Hope for a Divided Country, by Tim Scott and Trey Gowdy

- I've Been Thinking...: Reflections, Prayers, and Meditations for a Meaningful Life, by Maria Shriver

- Lilac Girls: A Novel, by Martha Hall Kelly

- The Nightingale: A Novel, by Kristin Hannah

- Make Your Bed: Little Things That Can Change Your Life...And Maybe the World, by Admiral William McRaven

- Sisters First: Stories from Our Wild and Wonderful Life, by Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Pierce Bush

- Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know, by Alexandra Horowitz

- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup, by John Carreyrou

- Leaving Cloud 9: The True Story of a Life Resurrected from the Ashes of Poverty, Trauma, and Mental Illness, by Ericka Andersen

- The Wife Between Us: A Novel, by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

- Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams, by Matthew Walker

- Anything is Possible: A Novel, by Elizabeth Strout
Global Adventures in Extreme Cuisines: A Cook's Tour, by Anthony Bourdain

- The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power, and Intrigue in an English Stately Home, by Natalie Livingstone

- The Briefing: Politics, the Press, and the President, by Sean Spicer

- Barkskins: A Novel, by Annie Proulx

- Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, by Caroline Fraser

- Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush, by Jon Meacham

- Norwich: One Tiny Vermont Town's Secret to Happiness and Excellence, by Karen Crouse

- Trajectory, by Richard Russo

- Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice, by Curtis Sittenfeld

- The Animated Feather Duster: Slow News Day Tales of the Legendary Facial Hair of Charles Evans Hughes, by Maury Thompson

- Death in St. Petersburg: A Lady Emily Mystery, by Tasha Alexander

- Mr. Rochester, by Sarah Shoemaker

- Auntie Mame: An Irreverent Escapade, by Patrick Dennis

- Crazy Rich Asians, by Kevin Kwan

- The Immortalists, by Chloe Benjamin

- The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower, by Michael Pillsbury