My Top Ten Books of 2019

Happy New Year, friends!

I’ve been reflecting over the past year, as we all tend to do at the time of year, and realizing it was a really good year for my reading life. And because so many of you who follow me on Instagram requested my Top Ten list, I thought I should oblige.

For those of you who’ve followed me for a while, you know I’ve been writing a Top Ten books post for a while. Here’s my list from 2016. In 2017 I broke my list down to my top five favorite fiction books and my top five favorite non-fiction books. Last year I went back to my Top Ten favorites.

For a couple of years now I’ve been setting goals and tracking my reading on Goodreads. I find this a helpful way to simply keep track, but I’ve heard from others that it causes too much stress in their lives. Do what you want with keeping track—I find it helpful, but if it stresses you out, don’t bother. Who needs that in their life? This year I set a reading goal of 50 books, which I’ve managed to meet for the past couple of years. This year I blew past my goal of 50 books and ended up reading 63. I couldn’t believe it! I feel like I’ve hit my stride though, and I’m not sure I could increase my pace much more than that.

I set a couple of new reading goals for myself this year, of which one I finished and the other I’m in the middle of. I wanted to read all of the Harry Potter books this year, since I had only read the first two in the past. Done. Check. Finito. I listened to them all on audio, which was really fun because the narrator, Jim Dale, is AMAZING! If you’ve never listened to all seven of the Harry Potter books, DO IT! This year I’d like to watch all of the movies—we’ll see.

The other goal I set was to read all of the Louise Penny books in order. I had started reading her Inspector Armand Gamache books in 2018, but I realized that I read the first two out of order, so my task in 2019 was to go back and read them all from the beginning. You really do have to do that because the characters develop as the series goes on. I just finished number 10 and am loving each and every one. (See below.)

This year I also read more books on audio. For a while there I had three books going at one time—one on paper, one on audio, and one on my tablet. It worked for me until it didn’t. For some reason, halfway through the year, I couldn’t get into the audio thing at all. I had several starts and then quit them because I either didn’t like the book or I didn’t like the narrator. So I haven’t listened to anything in a while. Maybe I’ll pick that up again this winter. (Or maybe not because I am loving listening to podcasts. :) )

OK, so to the books. I don’t know why, but for some reason this year I didn’t feel blown away by too many books. Don’t get me wrong—I loved all ten of the books listed here. But I’ve also read some real duds this year (which I’ll mention at the end of this post). I guess I just love when I read amazing book after amazing book. Just like with the audio books, I had a period this fall when every book I started just wasn’t for me, so I’d quit reading. There’s nothing more frustrating for me than to have to quit a book, but I’ll do it if it feels like a waste of my time to plod through something I’m not enjoying.

As I said, though, I loved these ten, which I’m listing in no particular order.

1. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye by Rachel Joyce. This was one of the first books I read (well, listened to) in 2019, and I absolutely LOVED it. In fact, after I listened to it, I bought a hard copy to have on my shelf—that’s how much I loved it. Later in the year, I convinced my husband to read it too, and I got such joy listening to him laugh his way through the book. (He probably didn’t love it as much as I did, but he definitely liked it.) What did I love? The story. The characters. The setting. All of it. I think it impacted me most because of the depth of insight into people—their motivations, how they reconciled with their past, even the insights into marriage. Please read this and let me know what you think!

2. Once Upon a River by Diane Setterfield. I really liked this story and the mystical quality within it. There’s a bit of mystery that leaves you wondering, even at the end, what really happened. I chose this for our book club to read and I’ll admit that the others in the book club probably didn’t like it as much as I did, but they still enjoyed the story.

3. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens. I know, I know. Everyone is listing this one as one of their favorites this year. But there’s a reason for it. What a masterpiece this one is.

4. The River by Peter Heller. I could NOT stop talking about this book this year! Oh my! What a ride! If you like adventure, mystery, and a captivating setting, this one’s for you.

5. Little Bee by Chris Cleave. This was a re-read for me because I needed to see if this book was really still one of my all-time favorite books. It is. This story of a refugee who lands in England from Africa is so well done. It’s funny at times, but it will also break your heart.

6. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter. This is probably the book that stayed with me the longest this year. It’s the mostly true story of her grandfather’s journey to escape WWII Poland and how he and his four siblings all found each other again, years after the war had ended. Such a beautiful story of human resilience and hope.

7. Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Wow. What a great book about a ‘70s rock band—how they got together and how they broke up. It’s such a wonderful story that you have to wonder if it’s based on a real-life rock band. The little bit of Googling I did seemed to imply that it was based on Fleetwood Mac, and that would make sense. But what was really fascinating was how it was written as an oral history. Each character speaks, and you really feel like you get to know them through their perception of what happened. So good!

8. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza. I read this one out of curiosity because I kept seeing it pop up in different places, and everyone kept saying how good it was. It’s the story of an Indian Muslim family, and boy was it fascinating. It really helped me to see that no matter our cultural differences, families all have their stuff and parents are just people who try to love their kids the best they can. Sometimes that works out. Sometimes it doesn’t. This one made me cry in public, so of course it was a favorite.

9. Love Thy Body by Nancy Pearcey. This is the only non-fiction book on my list this year. I picked it up because it was on my shelf and my daughter needed it for a paper she was writing. I ended up reading (and marking up!) the whole thing in a day or two. SUCH a good and important book on the theology of the human body. Highly recommend this one.

10. Anything by Lousie Penny. As I said earlier, I decided to read all of the Lousie Penny books in order this year. I just finished How the Light Gets In (#10) and I think it was my favorite. If you haven’t read her cozy mystery series yet, take my advice—start with Still Life and get going. You won’t regret the hours you spend in Three Pines, Ontario.

Books that missed the mark for me this year

I’ve never done this before, but I thought I’d mention a few books that really didn’t cut it for me this year. As I said, I had a stretch of time when I quit books right and left. Maybe it was me (this fall was particularly difficult), but I think it was the books. So here are three that really didn’t appeal to me, even though I finished them all.

Idaho by Emily Ruskovich. There was not a single character that I liked in this book. This is the book that made me realize that life is too short to read about bad things happening to children. Not for me.

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin. Again, the characters were not appealing at all. Plus, some sexual content that was completely unnecessary to the story. I ended up skimming to the end, just to see what happens and to see if the book could redeem itself, but it didn’t.

Meet Me in Monaco by Hazel Gaynor. This book had all the makings of a perfect read for me—set in the South of France, royalty, Grace Kelly. It was all there! I wanted to like this book so much, especially since I liked Last Christmas in Paris, but I just couldn’t. It felt like she wrote this book in a week—too many missed or contradicting details. And the writing just wasn’t good. Grrrr.

*****

So there you have it—my reading life for 2019. Check out my Goodreads page for more suggestions. And be sure to follow me on Instagram because I often post about what I’m reading there. (As an aside, are you following my uber-talented daughter, Kate, on her new IG account, katesbookparade? You definitely need to!)

Finally, one of my goals for 2020 is to go back to old-school blogging once a week, so hopefully you’ll see me here more in the coming weeks. I’ve missed writing, and I think this is probably the best way for me to get back into the habit. I hope you’ll follow along by subscribing to my newsletter, which I send monthly.

And please leave a comment! I love connecting with readers in the comments. You can start by telling me what YOUR favorite book (or books) was for 2019. Do you have a reading goal for 2020?

I know I use the word “friends” often, but I really do think of you all as my friends. I so appreciate you reading here and all the support you’ve given me over the years. Let’s make 2020 a great year!

Shelly