Favorite Books of 2019

Another year, more books to review! As we get settled in Boston, it's been so fun to look back at the books I read this year, and recall the favorites. Posts like these on blogs, social media, and book sites often help me think about what I plan to read in the coming year and I hope some of these titles excite you! As in past years, the books below are a mixture of fiction and non-fiction.

Where The Crawdads Sing: This book was quite popular this last year, and I'd say it lives up to the hype. I love a great setting and this book really made me feel as if I was in the North Carolina marsh it's set in. With a murder trial and a fair amount of biology and nature too, it was a compelling read!

Playful Mindfulness: It's always fun to read a book by someone you know! This book with its cute cover was written by the instructor of a mindfulness course by the same name I took in 2018. The book offers helpful strategies for achieving calm and avoiding mind frenzy with funny stories and anecdotes thrown in. 

Atonement: I'd been meaning to read Atonement for far too long, and had even started in 2013, but hadn't finished it. It's a powerful British novel on family and choices set before, during, and after World War II. It's full of depth and sadness and stuck with me after reading. 

When They Call You a Terrorist: A powerful memoir by one of the Founders of the Black Lives Matter movement. Compelling, tragic, and so enlightening. Highly recommended. 

The Lighthouse Keeper's Daughter: I love a great historical fiction novel with a female lead. This one didn't disappoint. I had never heard of Grace Darling before, but the novel set in England and Rhode Island 100 years apart in the Nineteenth and Twentieth centuries is a fast-moving, detailed, and highly enjoyable read.

Bibliophile: This book is a fun illustrated anthology in celebration of books and reading. Great illustrations demonstrate famous bookstores, libraries, and books around the world, and books of every genre are recommended. It felt a bit like being in a book museum. 

Girl Rising: This was a really inspirational and informative coffee table-like book about girls education around the world. It inspired the documentary by the same name and goes into the stories of several girls around the world and the barriers in the way for them to receive an education. Often I donate books after reading them, but I couldn't part with this one. 

Homegoing: This novel weaved from Eighteenth century west Africa to modern day America, stopping at every generation along the way. It was a powerful and moving novel about race, class, the slave trade, and family and human relations. 

Waking Up White: If you're new to thinking about white privilege and present-day racial injustice in the United States, this book is a great place to start and can jumpstart a conversation with yourself and those around you on how we can all fight racism.

They Called Us Enemy: George Takei's graphic novel on his experience in the Japanese-American prison camps as a child during World War II was so sad, yet beautifully presented. This book is particularly timely today as we see the same internment camps used during World War II being used again. The more we can all educate ourselves about injustices of the past, the more we can avoid history repeating itself. 

The Collected Schizophrenias: I came to this book with a basic understanding of mental illness, but the personal essays by the author contained within were so detailed and revealing into how society, one's peers and family, and the medical community view mental illnesses. It was both sad and hopeful.

Sing, Unburied, Sing: Jesmyn Ward is an incredible writer and I always look forward to her books. Sing, Unburied, Sing explores family dynamics, drug abuse, race relations, and memory in rural Mississippi. Ward's detailed writing style brings the reader into every setting. The novel is intense and raw and deserves the immense praise it has received.

The Birth of Venus: Ahead of visiting Italy this summer, I was seeking a novel about the Italian Renaissance. The Birth of Venus was perfect! I loved the art history, character dynamics, setting, and mystery.

Nasty Women: This book of essays was an encouragement in these upsetting times. If you need a boost in knowing you're not alone or imagining the latest injustices and discrimination, read this book, and stay hopeful. Oh, and vote. 

My Lovely Wife in the Psych Ward: Another book that dived deeper into mental illness and powerfully portrayed its affects in one relationship and family, along with how to work through it.

Drowning Ruth: I loved the setting of this book in Wisconsin around the time of the first World War. The story jumps between characters and memories and is mysterious, fascinating, and a little bit dark.

The Invention of Wings: One of my favorite books I read in 2019. Based on a true story and set in the decades before the American Civil War in the Antebellum South, the novel is well written, moving, and filled with strong female characters. It's a deep exploration of female friendship, slavery, and early nineteenth century America.

Reading Lolita in Tehran: I had hoped to read this memoir for the last several years and was happy to finally read it. It was moving, sad, and fascinating to learn of the lives of young women in Iran gathering together for a book club. The memoir traces the author's many years in Iran and the United States and while the book club gathered 25 year ago in Tehran, it seems as if it could be present-day.

Murder in the Rue Dumas: Set at a University in France, this murder mystery is told by two Detectives and was a fun read full of memorable characters. The genre was new for me and I enjoyed the setting.

City of Girls: A page turner for most of the book, though a little bit fluffy and sensational. Its setting in New York City in the 1930s and 1940s was fun and visual, a nice summer or beach read.