top of page
A running ranking of the year's best books


Age of Vice
★★★★☆ Thinking this is going to be the "Indian Godfather" is setting your expectations way too high, but it's an intriguing character study.

Greg Barlin
Jan 27, 20232 min read


A Tale for the Time Being
★★☆☆☆ Welcome to A Tale for the Time Being, or as it may alternatively be known, “the most depressing book I've read in years".

Greg Barlin
Jan 22, 20233 min read


The Best Book of 2022: Thistlefoot
★★★★★ The reunion of 2 siblings around a mysterious house is the backdrop for this lyrical beauty of a novel, my favorite of 2022.

Greg Barlin
Jan 11, 20233 min read


The #2 Best Book of 2022: Demon Copperhead
★★★★★ An ode to Charles Dickens in the form of a modern retelling of David Copperfield, set in Appalachian Virginia over the last 30+ years.

Greg Barlin
Jan 10, 20233 min read


The Best Books of 2022 (#20-#11), plus the "Naughty List" of books to avoid
Happy New Year! It’s time once again for what has become an annual tradition, my Books of the Year list. 2022 was a busy year of reading,...

Greg Barlin
Jan 1, 20234 min read


The Best Book of 2021: We Begin at the End
★★★★★ A thought-provoking and heartbreaking coming of age story, mixed with a small town mystery. My clear favorite of 2021 by a wide margin

Greg Barlin
Jan 13, 20222 min read


The #2 Best Book of 2021: Cloud Cuckoo Land
★★★★★ An ambitious, sprawling novel that intertwines 3 storylines across different places and times, but magically comes together in the end

Greg Barlin
Jan 12, 20222 min read


The #6 Best Book of 2021: Great Circle
★★★★★ Meet protagonist Marian Graves, a woman in determined to fly planes in the early 1900s at a time when women, quite simply, didn't.

Greg Barlin
Jan 8, 20222 min read


The #4 Best Book of 2020: Nothing To See Here
★★★★★ An old friend desperatly needs Lillian's help caring for her kids. There's one catch, though: when the kids get upset, they catch fire

Greg Barlin
Jan 12, 20211 min read


The #7 Best Book of 2020: The House in the Cerulean Sea
★★★★★ A lovely and cheeky queer story, this traces the evolution of a man as he comes to grips with his professional and sexual identity.

Greg Barlin
Jan 9, 20211 min read


The #9 Best Book of 2020: American Dirt
★★★★★ The journey of a mother and her son as they flee Acapulco for the United States after becoming targets of the local cartel.

Greg Barlin
Jan 7, 20212 min read


The #11 Best Book of 2020: Dear Edward
★★★★☆ When a 12-year-old boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed 183, including his parents and brother, what happens next?

Greg Barlin
Jan 5, 20211 min read


The #12 Best Book of 2020: The Once and Future Witches
★★★★☆ Three sisters join forces to influence the suffragist movement, but they must tap into old magic to level the playing field.

Greg Barlin
Jan 4, 20211 min read


The #15 Best Book of 2020: When We Were Vikings
★★★★☆ Zelda, a 20-year-old with mild developmental disabilities, channels her love of vikings and embarks on a “quest to become legendary".

Greg Barlin
Jan 1, 20211 min read


The Best Books of 2019 (plus the "Naughty List" of books to avoid)
2019 was a solid year of reading with some true standouts that created some amazing literary experiences.

Greg Barlin
Jan 1, 20208 min read
Subscribe
bottom of page