Monday, December 30, 2019

My 2019 Reading List

With just over a day left in the year, I decided to go ahead and post my reading list from this year. I'll post some more detailed commentary later, but I am already looking forward to comparing my list to others'.  

I always enjoy being reminded of a year of reading. Two Louise Penny books made the list because she published two close enough for me to read both. I hope she is busy writing the next one. I do see several poetry books included on this year's list, especially Nye and Kooser because of last year's and next year's Christian Scholars Conference. 

I also re-read some books that I already loved. My book club chose Daphne DuMaurier's classic Rebecca, which got me started reading all of her books back in junior high. It held up over time. I also read Varina by Charles Frazier again, the book club selection for the month I hosted. I also had a couple of books with Little Women connections, The Spring Girls, a modern retelling, and Ann Boyd Rioux deep dive into the book, the author, and all the spinoffs. Because I'd loved A Gentleman in Moscow, I selected the audiobook for a long road trip with my husband, now also hooked on audiobooks. I listened to a significant percentage of several others with him, but didn't add them to this list.

I also read Margaret Renkl's Late Migrations twice, in part because I'm reviewing it for L. A. Review, but also because I simply loved it. In fact, I gave more than one copy as a Christmas gift this year, and I recommended it to so many others. 

Already I have a long list of books I hope to read next, knowing that other books will muscle their way into the queue. 

Reading List 2019

Stuart Turton, The 7 ½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle
Louise Penny, The Kingdom of the Blind
Kate Atkinson, Transcriptions
Heather Morris, The Tattooist of Auschwitz
Richard Grant, Dispatches from Pluto
Fannie Flagg, I Still Dream about  You
Tommy Orange, There, There
Delia Owens, Where the Crawdad Sings
Ann Boyd Rioux, Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Matters
Sonia Nazario, Enrique’s Journey
Emily Griffith, All We Ever Wanted
B. A. Paris, Bring Me Back
Susan Orlean, The Library Book
Patti Callahan, Becoming Mrs. Lewis
Lisa Genova, Every Note Played
Naomi Shihab Nye, Voices in the Air
---. You and Yours
---. Red Suitcase
---. Fuel
---. The Tiny Journalist
Tayari Jones, An American Marriage
Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones and the Six
Amor Towles, A Gentleman In Moscow
Robert Dugoni, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell
Louise Erdrich, Future Home of the Living God
Clyde Edgerton, Night Train
John Shors, Beneath a Marble Sky
Sandy Coomer, Available Light
Diane Setterfeld, Once upon a River
Marie Kondo, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying up
Anne Todd, The Spring Girls
Alan Bradley, The Golden Treasures of the Dead
Ron Seybold, Stealing Home
Andrew Sean Greer, The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells
Helen Ellis, Southern Lady Code
Katie Quinn, The Alice Network
Casey Cepp, Furious Hours
Melinda Gates, The Moment of Lift
Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Results
Fiona Davis, The Masterpiece
Tom Hanks, Uncommon Types
Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations
Ocean Vuong, On Earth We Are Briefly Gorgeous
David Brooks, The Second Mountain
Anne Youngson, Meet Me at the Museum
Allen Eskens, The Life We Bury
Daphne DuMaurier, Rebecca
Cathleen Schine, The Grammarians
Ann Patchett, The Dutch House
Colton Whitehead, The Nickel Boys
Adrian McKinty, The Chain
Louise Penny, A Better Man
Charles Frazier, Varina
Mary Laura Philpott, I Miss You When I Blink
Elizabeth Strout, Olive, Again
Tana French, In the Woods
Naomi Shihab Nye, The Tiny Journalist (re-read)
Margaret Renkl, Late Migrations (another re-read)
Ted Kooser, Flying at Night
Kevin Wilson, Nothing to See Here
Colm Tolbin, The Testament of Mary
Angie Thomas, The Hate U Give
Zadie Smith, Grand Union: Stories
Ted Kooser, Delights and Shadows
Patricia Harmon, The Reluctant Midwife
Matthew Dicks, Twenty-one Truths about Love
The Bible (McArthur’s read in a year)



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