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)

My 2019 Reading List