Category: monthly wrap-up

Best Books of 2019

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Here they are! My favorite books of 2019. In 2018, there was one piece of nonfiction on my list. In 2017, there were none. This year, there are six. My reading tastes have changed as the world around me has changed. I’m grateful for the books that have helped me continue to figure out my voice. Here’s to celebrating even more of those in 2020.

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January 2019

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My January 2019 in books! Recommendations by mood & a bit about how I felt about each read (& why).

  • For those of us who have always dreamt of being Eloise: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
  • For the one to fill your heart: Becoming by Michelle Obama
  • For the short stories that blend the supernatural with the smashing of the patriarchy: You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian
  • For the essays and stories that come back to mind over and over: The Opposite of Loneliness by Marina Keegan
  • For the one to give you the heebie jeebies: The Dreamers by Karen Thompson Walker
  • For the one where you’re going to need to talk about the ending with someone else: Adèle by Leila Slimani
  • For the protagonists you’ll love and hate all at once: Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
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December 2018

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The books I read this December; recommendations organized by mood!

  • For the one to devour in one sitting: Normal People by Sally Rooney
  • For when you’ve watched The Holiday too many times: One Day in December by Josie Silver
  • For when you crave a new experience: Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson
  • For the one that’s maybe too cute: What If It’s Us by Adam Silvera and Becky Albertalli
  • For when you want to do drugs but actually you’d rather just read about them: My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
  • For the frustrating but oh, so romantic love story: One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid
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November 2018

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All of the books I read in November, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in depth reviews wherever possible.

  • For the short but sweet story that will hit you in the heart: Fox 8 by George Saunders
  • For when you feel like falling in love (and out of love, and maybe back in): Places I Stopped on the Way Home by Meg Fee
  • For when you want to decide for yourself whether the movie lives up to the book: Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote
  • For a beautiful novel that reads like a collection of short stories, sweeping across centuries and continents: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
  • For a rom-com, plain and simple: Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
  • For the memoir that will make you cry, both of laughter and of pain: This Will Only Hurt a Little by Busy Philipps
  • For when you’d like to take a ten day health retreat but can’t get out of the office, escape through: Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
  • For those days you wished you lived in NYC, surrounded by your imperfect childhood friends: The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer

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October 2018

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All of the books I read in October, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in depth reviews wherever possible.

  • For the super-duper fun adventure: An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
  • For when you need to fill the void in your heart that A Star is Born left behind: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid (out March 2019)
  • For a gothic, spooky, literary adventure down the streets of Barcelona: The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón (reread)
  • For when you need a reminder that humanity can actually be beautiful sometimes (and so awful at others): Bel Canto by Ann Patchett (audio & reread)
  • For when you just want to smile: Slothilda by Dante Fabiero
  • For to make the flu season heebie jeebies even worse: Severance by Ling Ma
  • For a reminder that being a teenage girl is being a teenage girl, no matter what country: My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante

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September 2018

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All of the books I read in September, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in depth reviews wherever possible.

  • For when you’re craving a story of politely estranged families: Strike Your Heart by Amélie Nothomb
  • For when you’d rather be creeped out than sleep at night: You by Caroline Kepnes
  • For a novel that reads like short stories: There There by Tommy Orange
  • For the rom-com with the right combo of romance and realism: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory
  • For a graphic memoir that will make you chuckle and cry: Passing For Human by Liana Finck
  • For that story of female friendship across years and continents: The Air You Breathe by Frances de Pontes Peebles
  • For when you just want to escape on that good old childhood adventure: Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret by Trudi Trueit
  • For that reminder that girls have been doing badass things for a really long time: The Radical Element by Jessica Spotswood
  • For the chance to compete in a magical but dangerous game: Legendary by Stephanie Garber
  • For the one that will make you cry: The Caregiver by Samuel Park
  • For a swashbuckling & diverse teenage adventure tale: A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
  • For a melancholy afternoon submerged in words and water: The Seas by Samantha Hunt

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July & August 2018

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My favorite reads from July and August, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in-depth reviews wherever possible!

  • For that author who just gets life as a 20-something: The Bucket List by Georgia Clark
  • For the reader who just can’t get enough of cults: The Incendiaries by R.O. Kwon
  • For the spooky short stories that will keep you up at night: Things We Lost in the Fire by Mariana Enríquez
  • For the historical fiction lover who wants to learn about an event they’ve maybe never heard of: Visible Empire by Hannah Pittard
  • For the high school love stories that will tug at your heart again and again: To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before (1, 2, & 3) by Jenny Han
  • For the story you’ll remember forever: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai
  • For when you need a reminder that females are strong as hell: Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras
  • For a beautiful intertwinement of friendship and music: The Ensemble by Aja Gabel
  • For the letter writer: Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
  • For the new love gone so, so wrong: Ghosted by Rosie Walsh

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TBR: Fourth of July Edition

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Four days of vacation, five books… Seems about right?  I know it’s far more than I’ll get through during this vacation, but each is a different genre and I just couldn’t cut it down any further.

Click on a title to read its synopsis:

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June 2018

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Each of the books I read in June, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in-depth reviews wherever possible!

  • For the memoir that will make you cry: I Am, I Am, I Am by Maggie O’Farrell
  • For the one to keep you up at night: I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
  • For the whirlwind summer romance: When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri
  • For the hauntingly beautiful short stories: Florida by Lauren Groff
  • For the worldwide adventure: Less by Andrew Sean Greer
  • For the chance to snoop through someone else’s inbox: Hey Ladies! by Caroline Moss & Michelle Markowitz
  • For when you want to indulge your inner romantic: The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
  • For the rollercoaster read: The Book of Essie by Meghan MacLean Weir
  • For a reminder of what it was like to fall in love for the first time: Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren
  • For the frustration of “why can’t they just work it out:” This Love Story Will Self-Destruct by Leslie Cohen

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May 2018

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Each of the books I read in May, organized by mood.  I’ve linked my more in-depth reviews wherever possible!

  • For when you’re craving a dark, modern fairy tale: What Should Be Wild by Julia Fine
  • For historical fiction that will immerse you in a lesser known era: America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
  • For a dark novel that reads like a collection of short stories: Sorority by Genevieve Sly Crane
  • For a collection of short stories that will sweep you away for an afternoon: Awayland by Ramona Ausbel
  • For a techy adventure with a fascinating female lead: The Glitch by Elisabeth Cohen
  • For when you’re ready for a multi generational memoir of addiction, parenthood, institutional racism, & more: Air Traffic by Gregory Pardlo
  • For when you just want to laugh out loud: Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley
  • For a novel that so expertly describes the experience of a doctor’s office waiting room: Disoriental by Négar Djavadi
  • For a chance to live as that rule-breaking teenager you never truly were: Marlena by Julie Buntin
  • For a steamy (& well-written) love triangle in the foreign world of New Guinea in the 1930s: Euphoria by Lily King
  • For a magical world so beautiful it will make your heart hurt when the book is over: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern

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