It’s that time again, the sixth anniversary of this blog and time to post my top ten picks of the previous year. As always, this is a difficult task. Although I try to evaluate books by their genre—that is, I’m not expecting the same things from mysteries or historical fiction as I am from literary fiction—what my judgment really boils down to is which books I found most affecting or impressed me the most.

This year’s list includes two nonfiction books, three classics, one speculative fiction, and two historical fiction books. I would also count at least six of the novels as literary fiction, including Kent Haruf’s last novel. So, here are my top 10 books from the ones I reviewed this year, in the order that I reviewed them:

• The Lark by E. Nesbit
• Benediction by Kent Haruf
• Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
• Middlemarch by George Eliot
• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
• His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet
• On Canaan’s Side by Sebastian Barry
• Merry Hall by Beverley Nichols
• Bleak House by Charles Dickens
• A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara