I love reading. I’ve always loved reading.
My favorites have evolved from the American Girl books as a kid to Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley as a teenager (and if I’m being honest for a few years that wouldn’t TECHNICALLY be ‘teenage’ and MIGHT be considered ‘full-blown adult’) to contemporary fiction, rom coms and women’s fiction (although I take issue with that term — it’s just fiction — but it’s the best phrasing I can think of to describe my preferred genre. Think Elin Hilderbrand, Kristin Hannah, Jennifer Weiner).
When I was pregnant with Miles, I felt nervous that my reading time would suffer after his arrival. After all, how would I find time to read when I had important baby-raising to do? But actually? Baby-raising and reading go remarkably well together. As it turns out, babies sleep. A lot. I spent a good portion of my first maternity leave (and the second one, happening right now) reading on the couch with a sleeping baby next to me or on my chest. And those middle-of-the-night baby wakeups are tailor made for sitting in a rocking chair with a backlit Kindle, reading something that doesn’t require too much concentration.
With that in mind, here are some of my favorite books of my pregnancy & baby years, 2019, 2020 and 2021:
- The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer
- The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
- Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win by Jo Piazza
- The Ex Talk by Rachel Lynn Solomon
- Golden Girl by Elin Hilderbrand
- The Four Winds by Kristin Hannah
- A Cuban Girls Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey
- Friends and Strangers by J. Courtney Sullivan
- Girls With Bright Futures by Tracy Dobmeier and Wendy Katzman
- The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett
- Rodham by Curtis Sittenfeld
- Perfect Tunes by Emily Gould
- If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane
- Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
- The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
- One Night at the Lake by Bethany Chase
- Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Apples Never Fall by Liane Moriarty
I just realized all these books are written by women. Powerhouses, all of them!