What I personally love about my list is how much information I garnered about my own reading while putting it together. Here are some patterns I need to note for my future reading:

• Only 25% of my 2019 reads were by authors of color. In 2020, I’m going to improve that.
• I don’t think of myself as a nonfiction reader, but I know what I like in my nonfiction books. When I choose a good piece of investigative journalism or memoir for myself, it’s likely to be an overall favorite.
• Thrillers just aren’t working for me, but I do like literary mysteries.
• Even when I love a young adult novel for what it is, it’s unlikely to stick with me enough to be a true favorite.
• I’m pretty sure to roll my eyes at books that are about very privileged young people.
• I’m pretty sure to love family sagas, magical realism, and books that play with structure.
• I always want to read a great story, but exceptional prose is what gives a book staying power.

But my true hope is that you’ll find something to add to your own 2020 reading list. Feel free to shop these titles through the Amazon affiliate links included, or scroll to the bottom of this post to search for books via Libro.fm’s Booklink and ensure that 100% of your purchase goes to independent bookstores. 

 

Everything I Read in 2019 - Ranked

 

1. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
2. In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
3. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss
4. Disappearing Earth by Julia Philips
5. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
6. A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza
7. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
8. She Said by Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey
9. Know My Name by Chanel Miller
10. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
11. Fleishman is in Trouble by Taffy Brodesser-Akner
12. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
13. Naamah by Sarah Blake
14. Good and Mad: The Revolutionary Power of Women’s Anger by Rebecca Traister
15. There, There by Tommy Orange
16. The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman
17. The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates
18. Washington Black by Esi Edugyan
19. The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo
20. Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
21. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
22. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
23. How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
24. The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
25. Silver Sparrow by Tayari Jones
26. Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
27. The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley
28. The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson
29. Miracle Creek by Angie Kim
30. Columbine by Dave Cullen
31. The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro
32. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
33. Good Talk by Mira Jacob
34. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
35. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong 
36. Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
37. Sabrina and Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
38. Nevermoor: The Trials of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
39. Black is the Body by Emily Bernard
40. Bunny by Mona Awad
41. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
42. Furious Hours: The Last Trial of Harper Lee by Casey Cep
43. Stay With Me by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ 
44. Normal People by Sally Rooney
45. Women Talking by Miriam Toews
46. The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
47. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
48. The River by Peter Heller
49. Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane
50. The Water Cure by Sophie Mackintosh
51. My Sister the Serial Killer by Oyinkan Braithwaite
52. Bull by David Elliott
53. 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
54. The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
55. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
56. Under Pressure: Confronting the Epidemic of Stress and Anxiety in Girls by Lisa Damour
57. The Other’s Gold by Elizabeth Ames
58. Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson
59. The Guest Book by Sarah Blake
60. The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
61. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
62. The Likeness by Tana French
63. The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield
64. The Virgins by Pamela Erens
65. The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall
66. Transcription by Kate Atkinson
67. I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes With Death by Maggie O’Farrell
68. The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
69. Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey
70. The Familiars by Stacy Halls
71. The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger
72. Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum
73. The All of It by Jeannette Haien
74. Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
75. Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend
76. A Secret Sisterhood: The Hidden Friendships of Austen, Bronte, Eliot, and Woolf by Emily Midorikawa and Emma Claire Sweeney
77. A Quiet Life in the Country by T.E. Kinsey
78. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman
79. Pure: Inside the Evangelical Movement That Shamed a Generation by Linda Kay Klein
80. Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
81. The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
82. The Witches are Coming by Lindy West
83. The Current by Tim Johnston
84. Look How Happy I’m Making You by Polly Rosenwaike
85. Out East by John Glynn
86. American Royals by Katharine McGee
87. Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
88. The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth
89. The Governess Affair by Courtney Milan
90. I Miss You When I Blink by Mary Laura Philpott
91. A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
92. The Grace Year by Kim Liggett
93. The Maze at Windermere by Gregory Blake Smith
94. The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert
95. The New Me by Halle Butler
96. Talent by Juliet Lapidos
97. Dare Me by Megan Abbott
98. Verity by Colleen Hoover
99. Victoria by Daisy Goodwin
100. From the Corner of the Oval by Beck Dorey-Stein
101. The Winters by Lisa Gabriele
102. The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware
103. Watching You by Lisa Jewell
104. The Power of Moments by Chip Heath and Dave Heath

 

*I didn’t include rereads in my list. The books I reread are either because I love them and they’re impossibly dear to me, or because I’m reading them for work. Both of those contexts colors the reading experience in some way. But I will say that every year I read Beloved, Beloved will be the best book of that year.

 

2019 Rereads

• • Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by JK Rowling
  • Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
  • The Giver by Lois Lowry
  • Beloved by Toni Morrison
  • Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
  • Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince by JK Rowling
  • I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
  • The Other Wes Moore by Wes Moore
  • Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by JK Rowling

 

Search for and purchase books through Bookstore Link to support your favorite independent bookstores!