Welcome back to another Ask Me Anything, a weekly series where we talk to our friends, our viewers, and our community about all of their pressing needs, questions, wants, and desires.

Let’s take a look at the mailbag to see which questions are burning this week.

I always like hearing what’s on your fiction reading list even if it isn’t directly “professionally” relevant.

Best Fiction of the Year (So Far)

Well, I don’t know if this is the best fiction of the year because some of the books are older, but these are my favorites that I’ve read this year:

• Category Creation. This isn’t fiction, but it is really good. I recently re-read it for some work we’re doing with a client and it stands the test of time. Very good.
• The Light Through the Leaves. I loved this one! It’s so good that, when I finished it, I immediately texted my friend Paula and said, “READ THIS!”
• The Forgotten Garden. I have a garden theme going on this year (see below).
• Ordinary Grace. This is a great coming-of-age combined with having to deal with too many adult things as a kid story. It was a little slow to start and then it got going and I couldn’t put it down.
• Local Woman Missing. This was a crime thriller my sister-in-law recommended. It was good … so I moved on to her next recommendation.
• False Witness. After reading Local Woman Missing, I read this. And then I told Mattie that I needed to read Cinderella next, just to be reminded there are good people in the world.
• Winter Garden. This is my favorite book of the year (so far). I love Kristin Hannah. She does no wrong in my book. It’s also a decade old so you may have already read it.

The pandemic has been really hard on me. I have had to force myself to read many days for the past 19 months—even if it was just one page.

So I set a goal to read 30 books this year (low for me) and I’m at 22 so far. I’ll have to let you know what are some of the other good ones for the rest of the year.

Have a Question For Us?

What about you? What’s your favorite fiction of the year?

Let us know in the comments below.

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