Best of 2019 | My Top 10 Reads

Happy last day of 2019! Man, this year went by so fast. I can’t believe we’re ringing in a new year at midnight! I’ll be celebrating at a low-key house party with some friends and I’m very much looking forward to it. It’ll be a good way to say goodbye to this year and welcome in 2020.

For today’s “Best of 2019” post, I’m revealing my favorite books of the year! It actually wasn’t as hard as I imagined to whittle the 130 books I read this year to a top 10. I simply pulled out all of my five-star reads and then went to work taking out any books that didn’t have a lasting impact on me. And I was left with these 10! Let’s discuss.

10. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery

I’m so glad I reread this book (and the next few books in the series) this year. It was a complete delight! Anne is precocious and melodramatic and hopeful and sweet. She loves fiercely and isn’t afraid to live her truth. When she’s adopted by the Cuthberts at age 11, she’s the opposite of what they were expecting (they wanted a boy who could help out with the farm) but she stays on and charms both Matthew and Marilla in due time. It’s a feel-good story that I imagine will become a comfort read for me as the years go on.

9. Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid

An oral history of a fictional 70s rock band that’s written so realistically, you’d swear they were a real band, Daisy Jones & the Six is a masterpiece. I went to Reid’s author signing when she was in Tampa and loved hearing about her writing process, which made reading the book feel extra special. Even if you don’t think you’d be interested in reading an oral history or a book about a rock band, I wholly recommend this book because it is so well-written and fun and compelling. I loved it so much!

8. The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

This book will break your heart, but it’s one that depicts the struggle of being a gay man in the mid-20th century so well. It’s a story about family and identity and friendship and love. Cyril is born in Ireland in the 1940s and adopted by a well-to-do family that never lets him forget that he’s not their real son. The book chronicles his life as he comes to terms with his sexuality, falls in love, and finds his own sort of family. It’s a beautifully written story, if a bit long, and I loved it so much.

7. We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

It’s hard to believe that this is the true story of Georgia Hunter’s family but it is. WWII novels about Jewish families typically don’t have the happy endings this one has (and I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that). The novel is about Hunter’s family as they are torn apart and spread across the globe due to the war. All of them take different tactics to get through the war, and it’s a story about resilience, hope, and the will to survive. In my opinion, this one stands out as one of the best in the WWII subgenre.

6. Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston

Oh, I was so happy that this book won a handful of Goodreads Choice awards! It was one of the most fun reading experiences for me this year and I want to press the book into everyone’s hands. It’s the story of the First Son of the United States and the Prince of Wales falling in love, and ugh, it’s so damn cute and sweet and fun. I loved the characters of Alex and Henry – they had such a great rapport and watching them fall in love was everything. Just typing up this little review has me wanting to reread the novel! So much fun, a must-read for romance lovers!

5. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

This book got so much buzz this year, but for good reason. It’s a beautifully written story that’s part survival story, part murder mystery, and part courtroom drama. The story travels back and forth between the past, as Kya is abandoned by her family and has to learn how to survive in the marsh, and present day, when the town’s golden boy is found murdered in the marsh and all signs point to Kya as the murderer. This book was so damn compelling and I had a hard time putting it down. I found myself missing Kya when it was over.

4. A Man Called Ove by Fredrick Backman

When I finished this book, I clutched it to my chest and just had to sit in my feelings for a while. It was just so good. I loved grumpy, curmudgeonly Ove so much. He might be one of the best characters I’ve ever read. His quiet, orderly world gets upended when a family next door moves in and just won’t stop interrupting his plans. It starts when the husband backs their moving truck into his mailbox and continues on from there. It’s a story that gave me so many FEELINGS. It’s also a story about the power of community and chosen family, and that theme was woven throughout the story in such a great way that it made me stop and think about the ways I am and am not showing up in my own life.

3. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou

John Carreyrou is the reporter who broke the story of Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos, and he (and the incredibly brave whistleblowers) stood up to major pressure to bring this story to life. The book recounts the story of Theranos from the very beginning, starting with the founder’s early beginnings and continuing through the demise of the company. It’s filled with detailed descriptions of the science behind Theranos’s claim of being able to conduct lab testing from a single drop of blood, as well as all the secrets and lies that the company was built on. It’s a compelling story that reads more like fiction (honestly, it reads like the plot of a Shonda Rhimes show that might have jumped the shark, not a real-life company) and it was truly hard to believe that this company got away with so many lies for such a long time.

2. White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk about Racism by Robin DiAngelo

If there’s one book you choose to read from this list, make it this one. This book is phenomenal in every way, and I found myself highlighting and sticky-noting and writing down quotes. White Fragility is not for the faint of heart, it’s not for the white people who want to sit in their comfortable bubble of ingrained racism and pretend people of color have found equality. It’s a book that will make you uncomfortable and furious and sad. It’s a book that will show you your own racism. And it’s a book that every white person needs to read. We can’t be fragile about our whiteness anymore.

1. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

This book has made its way onto my all-time favorite books list, so it has rightfully earned its place as my favorite book of 2019. Gyasi is a master storyteller, as she tells us about the lineage of two sisters whose paths diverged quickly as young women. One marries an Englishman, the other is sold into slavery. From there, we jump back and forth between the two lineages as time passes and the family line grows. I found myself enthralled by each and every storyline, desperately wanting to know if these lineages would ever intersect. It’s a story that deftly shows the impact of slavery, and it’s one that needs to be told.

What was the best book you read this year?