Well, I thought about not recapping the year's reading. After all, I've been thinking about almost nothing but my own novel for the last several months, and I can barely type other sentences. All of the synapses are clogged with novel parts. 

Nevertheless and regardless of compromised brain function, I did read 54 books this year. And by my official count, 28 of those books were works of adult fiction, many in my own genre of contemporary women's fiction. So I figured, let's just go for it. Here are my favorite five works of adult fiction in alphabetical order by author:

A Window Opens by Elisabeth Egan

Alice Pearse, a 38-year-old part-time books editor and mother of three, finds herself in need of a higher paying job. Enter Scroll, a company with a vision of chic reading lounges stocked with e-book downloads and "carbon-based" first editions and "originals." Alice is recruited to curate the book selection - a dream job! - and promptly loses her hold on life, falling into swirling pit of corporate expectations mixed with family expectations, marital expectations, flagging friendships, and children morphing into their next stages without her noticing. 

I mean, this is my life, and it's nice to laugh at it a little bit. Well-done and emotionally en pointe.

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

The story of two refugees, Nadia and Saeed, who escape their embattled homeland through magical doors. The portals deliver them to new dangers and obstacles, even as they escape the shellings and gunfire. Hamid intersperses vignettes of other displaced people, illustrating that "[w]e are all migrants through time." This is both ultimately of-the-moment and timeless. It's really something.

Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong

30-year-old Ruth gets dumped in the worst way - her fiancé says they're packing to move to a new apartment, and then it turns out only Ruth is moving while he shacks up with someone else. At the same time, Ruth's mother summons her home to help care for her father whose Alzheimer's is progressing. Goodbye, Vitamin is told in the diary entries she writes during the year she's there, working with one of her dad's grad students to sweetly simulate his teaching career (it's been terminated) and reconnecting with her mom and brother. Everyone's memories of each other are faded and unreliable. But everyone cares about each other so much. This is quirky, fresh, and lovely.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

I read Ng's sophomore effort in a single day. I love her. This novel chronicles the life of Mia Warren, an unconventional mother and brilliant artist who promises her daughter stability in Shaker Heights, OH, after a childhood on the road. Pearl, the daughter, settles into their new community, becoming enmeshed in the Richardson family, a seemingly perfect household helmed by Elena, a reporter for the local paper. When another Shaker Heights family engages in a court battle to adopt a Chinese-American baby, Mia and Elena come down on opposing sides, and Elena becomes determined to unearth the mysteries of Mia's past. This is a fabulous family drama.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

A fascinating, unconventional family portrait written in verse and starring a crow as a physical stand-in for grief. This belongs with Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation in the "like nothing I've ever read" category. The mother has died, and the boys and the father - they have to carry on, crow or no crow.

And here are the rest of this year's titles:

Okay, I'm glad I did that. Past book lists are HERE. I'm going to list my favorites in other genres in the coming days!