Best Books of 2019 by Genre
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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.
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