Best Books of 2019 by Genre

December has arrived, and with it comes the desire for reflection. I begin looking back on the current year and revisiting everything that occurred during that time period. One of my favorite things to contemplate is my year in books; I enjoy thinking about what I read in those 12 months including the books that I loved, the books that I liked, and those that didn’t appeal to me or that I could not even finish. 

It varies a fair amount year to year, but I generally read between 75-100 books annually. Some books appeal to me from the very beginning – the subject matter, the writing style, or the characters grab me from the start and do not let go. Others are a slow build for me; as the book progresses, I become more and more invested in the story. And rarely, a book will not really resonate with me as I read it, but after I am finished, it stays with me for a long while. My best books lists usually consist of a combination of the first two types of books and occasionally the third type appears too.

In a couple of weeks, I will share my top 10 list for 2019 (which, in previous years, has frequently been my top 11 or 12 list - it is very hard to narrow down to 10!). This week, I decided to focus on the best books of 2019 in the each of the four genres in which I commonly read. 

Within each genre, I listed the books alphabetically. This year was a banner year for books; I struggled to get each of these lists down to a reasonable number of titles and ended up listing eight titles in every genre but historical fiction where I just could not eliminate any more of them so I went with nine titles. Here we go:

In the mystery/thriller genre:

• A Beautiful Corpse by Christi Daugherty
• City of Windows by Robert Pobi
• A House of Ghosts by W.C. Ryan
• Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
• The Lost Man by Jane Harper
• The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott
• The Scholar by Dervla McTiernan
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides

In the historical fiction genre:

• The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson
• The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis
• City of Flickering Light by Juliette Fay
• Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
• The Dragon Lady by Louisa Treger
• Dragonfly by Leila Meacham
• Learning to See by Elise Hooper
• The Only Woman in the Room by Marie Benedict
• Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali

In the fiction genre:

• Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin
• Drawing Home by Jamie Brenner
• The Editor by Steven Rowley
• Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes
• The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin
• This Is Home by Lisa Duffy
• The Weight of a Piano by Chris Cander
• When You Read This by Mary Adkins

In the nonfiction genre:

• 99 Bottles: A Black Sheep’s Guide to Life-Changing Wines by Andre Hueston Mack
• The Castle on Sunset: Life, Death, Love, Art and Scandal at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont by Shawn Levy
• Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years by Julie Andrews and Emma Walton Hamilton
• I Miss You When I Blink: Essays by Mary Laura Philpott
• Finding My Voice: My Journey to the West Wing and the Path Forward by Valerie Jarrett
• The Plaza: The Secret Life of America’s Most Famous Hotel by Julie Satow
• Things My Son Needs to Know about the World by Fredrik Backman
• Yale Needs Women: How the First Group of Girls Rewrote the Rules of an Ivy League Giant by Anne Gardiner Perkins

I hope you enjoy perusing these lists and finding some books that you have not yet read but now want to. December is a fun month for me because it brings a plethora of best book lists put out by magazines, newspapers, TV stations, and more – I love comparing my lists with others and discovering some new titles along the way. Comment below to share your favorites!

For more book recommendations and bookish thoughts, see @ThoughtsFromaPage on Instagram or Cindy’s Reading Recs.