I’m sharing my best books of the decade for learning in today’s post and joining in with some special book bloggers to do so. I got the idea from Allison at Mind Joggle who partnered with her book blogging buddy, Rachel at Never Enough Novels, to link together a bunch of great book lists for the 2010s.

You’ll find some fabulous books on both of their lists. They present all fiction options; my list has some nonfiction as well. Rachel shares her favorites by genre. Allison went by year, and I adopted her approach, choosing three books from each year. Before I describe my process for choosing, here are the links to their lists, so be sure to check them out!

Mind Joggle: 30 of the Best Books of the Decade

Never Enough Novels: Fiction of the Decade: The 2010s

My Process for Choosing

I took Allison’s approach and found—like she did—that it wasn’t always easy to find three per year. Some years, it was hard to find three that stood out. Others, I had a difficult time keeping it to only three. What I discovered along the way was how the books I’ve read over the past decade have influenced me as a writer and driven my publication choices. You will quickly see that my Best Books of the Decade were not necessarily written in this decade.

I chose my top books of each year based on the ones that either became favorites or continue to linger in my mind or changed me in some way—personally, professionally or with my family. You’ll find a couple books on here that have influenced the way I homeschool my children. You’ll also find a few that pushed my own writing career forward.

My Decade of Growth and Learning … through books

It was in this past decade that I fell back into reading. Actually, according to my lovely Goodreads records, I began dipping my toes into the literary pool again in 2008, but 2010 was when I finally submerged myself. College’s extensive required reading rolled into beginning a consuming career, which twirled into marriage and led not long after to motherhood and the daze newborns bring. Once I finally rediscovered sleep after my second child, I found myself longing … for something.

For something I used to love. Someone I used to be.

That someone reemerged with that something, which was the written word.

I started a book club in my home with some other ladies, also young moms. I found Goodreads and glimpsed the enormity of the international book community. In 2010, I started my pursuit of publication. Those first steps were shaky and found no confident footing to continue, but those steps were not in vain. They led me down some rows where I planted a few seeds that needed time to mature.

During this decade I began homeschooling my children, learned more about who I am and what’s most important and discovered I didn’t have to fit everyone else’s expectations of me. I picked up some more tools—confidence, faith and trust—and revisited the seeds that were ready to sprout. Those grew into my first three published works.

Through this progression of books, you will see each of these experiences. 

2010

Gramlich provides writers and “seeking” writers with inspiration, information and illustrations for many genres and styles of writing. He shows that every writer, regardless of his or her chosen genre, can learn from every writer, regardless of his or her chosen genre.

2011

Blue presents not only survival during the atrocities of WWII and the devastating toll of a polio epidemic in the United States, but also a blossoming of imagination, dreams and courage in the midst of it all.

2012

(I had to break my three book limit here, but I think you’ll find it worth it. These are four fantastic books!)

This was one of my favorite books as a child. It played a huge role in my life since it was the book I was reading when I realized I wanted to ask Jesus into my heart.

2013

This book changed my outlook on how I homeschool.

2014

Charlotte Bronte weaves together the tale of a young woman cast early into a hopeless life, who refused to allow others’ predictions of her future to dictate what it actually became.

2015

Clancy has such a gift for taking multiple seemingly-unrelated storylines and piecing them all together seamlessly in the end.

2016

From the first page, I fell in love—with the characters, with the setting, with the story and with the author. Susanna Kearsley is my new inspiration! She writes historical fiction like I’ve never read before.

2017

Maggie Stiefvater created two beautifully engaging characters with Puck Connolly and Sean Kendrick in The Scorpio Races. Sean’s wisdom-well-beyond-his -years and Puck’s simple snarky-ness made me fall in love with them both from the beginning.

2018

Quo Vadis? by Henryk Sienkiewicz has taken a permanent position in my Top 3 favorite books of all time. The writing is perfect; the story is captivating in its horror, sadness and hope; and the history of Nero’s depraved and terrifying reign comes alive in this novel.

2019

Grab your tissues and ready your heart. Light on Glass paints the most accurate picture of an author mom, her emotional creative journey and the tale she nurtures.

What are your Best Books of the Decade?

Can you look back at your reading over the past decade and see some lessons those books have taught you? Do you see your personal growth through your reading choices?

What books do you look forward to reading in the coming decade? Do you like to read new books, classics or a combination of both? Do you try to mix up fiction and nonfiction or do you prefer one over the other?