Once again, it was hard to choose only 25 of all the
wonderful books I read last year. I made a short runners up list. Not all of these
were published in 2019 but all were read during the year.
Starred titles indicate books reviewed on the blog.
*Bowlaway, Elizabeth McCracken
*Chimes of a Lost Cathedral, Janet Fitch
*Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid
*Disoriental, Negar Djavadi
*The Immortalists, Chloe Benjamin
*Juliet the Maniac, Juliet Escoria
*Little Big Man, Thomas Berger
*The Lonely Hearts Hotel, Heather O’Neill
*Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls, T Kira
Madden
*The Loved Ones, Sonya Chung
*Lost Children Archive, Valeria Luiselli
*Motherless Brooklyn, Jonathan Lethem
*The Neverending Story, Michael Ende
*The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
*Once Upon A River, Diane Setterfeld
Palm Latitudes, Kate Braverman
*Sometimes a Great Notion, Ken Kesey
*Stone Upon Stone, Wieslaw Mysliwski
*Sula, Toni Morrison
*The Ten Thousand Doors of January, Alix E Harrow
*The Testaments, Margaret Atwood
*The Time of Our Singing, Richard Powers
*Trust Exercise, Susan Choi
The Vexations, Caitlin Horrocks
*Washinton Black, Esi Edugyan
Runners Up
*The Blue, Nancy Bilyeau
*A Kind of Freedom, Margaret Wilkerson Sexton
No Walls and the Recurring Dream, Ani di Franco
*The Prisoner of Heaven, Carlos Ruiz Zafon
*Sisters In Law, Linda R Hirshman
*Where the Crawdads Sing, Delia Owens
*Wintering, A Novel of Sylvia Plath, Kate Moses
Happy Reading in 2020!
An impressive list of books. Hopefully you will read as many good ones in 2020.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was amazed by how many great ones I read. 2020 is going well so far.
DeleteNice list! Washinton Black, Esi Edugyan and Daisy Jones & the Six, Taylor Jenkins Reid are both in my ever growing 'tbr' pile. I think I have something close to 300 unread book.... and that doesn't include ebooks or Audible books.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lisa. I do not dare count my unread books!!!
DeleteI enjoyed Daisy Jones & the Six and Once Upon a River in 2019 too, even though they didn't make it onto my own books of the year list. I'm pleased to see The Blue in your runners up list!
ReplyDeleteWe did overlap a bit last year.
DeleteThere are some great books on that list, several of which I have already read and others that are still on my TBR list. One of your runners-up, A Kind of Freedom I just recently finished and it was a five-star read for me. I've fallen behind on getting my reviews done, but I hope to do this one in the next few days.
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you loved A Kind of Freedom! She had a new one published this past November: The Revisioners. I am eager to read it.
DeleteYou reviewed all but three! That's freaking amazing!
ReplyDeleteI did! Before my blogger slackerhood took over-:)
DeleteI've also now requested a few of these from my library!
ReplyDeleteYay!!
DeleteI enjoyed 4 from your top 25 list but, there are several more I'd like to try as well. So happy you shared - love these lists.
ReplyDeleteGreat! I am happy to hear back on what you and others have read.
Deletea fine selection... i read the KK when it first came out; later i was surprised about how well it was received; at the time i didn't think it was all that great: sort of silly, really...
ReplyDeleteThanks. Yes, Once a Great Notion grew on me as I read it.
DeleteThank you, Judy and happy 2020 reading to you, too! :-D
ReplyDeleteYes!
DeleteGreat list. I also had The Testaments and The Nickel Boys on my 2019 favorites list post. & I had Washington Black on my 2018 list .... and I had Daisy Jones & the Six on my audio 2019 favorites list, though that probably should have made my general 2019 favorites list too. It's neat to think back on the books we liked best each year. You had a lot of good ones I still need to get to.
ReplyDeleteIt is so gratifying to look back at a year's reading. Makes me feel rich!
DeleteNice! Really looking forward to The Vexations, probably after The Japanese Li Challenge
ReplyDeleteI wish you great joy in reading The Vexations!
DeleteAh, Daisy Jones!! Such a good one!
ReplyDeleteIt really is!
DeleteThat's a great list of books. The one that stands out for me the most is Daisy Jones and the Six. I can't wait to read that book!
ReplyDeleteI hope you'll be able to post another great list a year from now!
Thanks, Esther. Oh yes, Daisy Jones was so good.
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