By the time the clock strikes midnight and a new decade begins, I should have finished reading my 55th book of the year. 55! That's more than I expected, but a healthy pace for the third straight year.
As some of you know, this blog started with a New Year's resolution for 2017 to read a book every week. In 2017, I finished 56. Last year, I wasn't planning on keeping up that pace, but finished with 44 total. I fully plan to keep up the one book per week pace next year, but I also have a lot of TV shows I want to finish and a lot of podcasts to try, so I'm not going to make myself crazy. Still, I have absolutely loved getting back in the habit of reading more and there are a million on my list still to read.
So, breaking down 2019...
55 books is a lot of books. Looking back, though, that number is not entirely accurate. I started and didn't finish a book this year, but it keeps showing up on my total. It was truly awful, you guys. And, I don't feel bad about not finishing it. But, maybe 54 1/2 is a more accurate description for how many books I actually FINISHED this year. There's your factcheck.
I LIKED a lot of what I read this year. I didn't love quite as many as I have in the past few years. I read a good mix of new and older, fiction and non-fiction. I read a lot of books that dealt with poverty and a lot of books that examined the ways society puts women in boxes and expects them to stay there. That wasn't intentional, I really do try to mix it up. That's just the way the bibliography shook out.
This year, I became even more intimately familiar with my public library. Wait, intimately may not be the right word there... It was a strictly platonic relationship. But, I did check out quite a few more books this year, which means I bought fewer titles. I miss owning books. I'll be moving into a new house in a couple of months and have space set aside for bookshelves, so I look forward to transfering some of the shoe budget to the book budget (just kidding... books AND shoes are what make the world go 'round.)
So, sorry for the preamble there. I just like to look back on the year in books as whole. For those of you who have read this far, THANK YOU. Thanks for reading this, thanks for reading my reviews, thanks for suggesting new books to add to my list. I already have about 20 in the queue for 2020...
Without further adieu, my top 5 books of 2019... (out of 54 1/2). Links go back to my full reviews.
1. Daisy Jones & the Six.
I couldn't possibly love this book more. One of my top five favorite books of all time. Daisy Jones & the Six are a band in the 70s who hit it big, then break up with no public explanation. This book is told as if in a series of interviews in a music magazine. It's about love, family, music, badass women, heartbreak. It's just perfect. It took my breath away at times, broke my heart in others. And, I read it on the beach in Costa Rica, so it will always feel like coconuts and sunshine to me. I rarely read a book more than once; I will absolutely read this one again.
Another one of my favorite books of the year (and of... ever) is about a strong, badass woman who lives her life in a way you don't expect. Our protagonist here lives unapologetically, but only after she's shamed and forced to rethink everything. City of Girls is pure magic. It's about a woman named Vivian who loves sex, loves men and lives out loud in a period of time where that wasn't exactly accepted. This book shows you the consequences of her actions and also how she defined herself beyond her youth. It's written as a letter to a woman whose identity we don't learn until nearly the end. It completely swept me away. Like Daisy Jones, I also read this book on vacation. A long weekend at the lake and this book was exactly what I needed.
3. Homegoing
Okay, I didn't read this book on vacation. And, it's not about misguided women living life on their own terms. Lest you think that's all I read this year. What Homegoing has in common with the first two books on this list is the unique narrative structure. With as many characters as this book laid out, the author had to be incredibly skilled to pull it off without confusing the reader. Yaa Gyasi did it magnifenctly. Homegoing tells the story of a two family bloodlines from a village in Africa, through slavery into the United States and into present day. Each chapter switches between families; each chapter advances the family another generation. It's incredibly written, remarkable in its structure. This book was published in 2016; my only regret is not reading it sooner.
I feel like I cheated a little bit on this one. I hadn't read Atwood's famous book The Handmaid's Tale until this year. To be honest, I didn't realize it was as famous a novel as it was. All I knew was that the world was obsessed with the Hulu series. I was fascinated by the subject matter, but didn't feel like I had the time to invest in the series. But, as soon as I saw all the hype about its sequel finally being released, I had to see what it was all about. I read Handmaid's Tale, then immediately jumped into The Testaments. I felt like I cheated because I didn't have to wait the 34 years like the readers of the original book had to do. Jumping into both back-to-back was a revelation. Handmaid's Tale is about the dystopian society where women lose all of their power and are relegated into categories designed only to perpetuate the species. So much mystery is left at the end. The Testaments answers all of it in a completely satisfying way. Again, badass women living outside of their boxes. I loved them both. You absolutely can't read one without the other.
5. Three Women
Okay, now that I've reached the final book of this list, I realize 2019 absolutely did have a feminist vibe. And, a tilt towards books not written in the most conventional way. Three Women is a strange book to describe and my feelings about it have changed a lot since I finished reading it three months ago. A work of non-fiction, the book is a profile of (you guessed it) three women with very different and complicated stories to tell. One is a young woman who had an affair with her high school teacher in a story that became national news. One is a woman trapped in a sexless marriage who reached out to her high school boyfriend and tries to recapture the sexual ache of her youth. The last is a powerful business woman whose husband likes to watch her have sex with other men. It's unflinching, intimate and, more often than not, extremely uncomfortable. It's the most in-depth, honest look at female desire that I've ever read. I've thought about it so much in the months since I read it. It makes you think about how women's sexuality is portrayed and how we all fit into advancing that complex narrative. And, it explores how men and women share that same desire, but it's the women most often punished for it.
So, that's my Top 5. Strong women, powerful narrative structure, covering centuries with diverse and unforgettable characters.
There were others that I liked quite a bit that sit just outside this top 5. Here are some quick links, so you don't have to sift through all 55!
-Nickel Boys One of my favorites, it's about a school for "broken boys" in Florida and the racism that was finally exposed, decades later.
-Becoming Michelle Obama's memoir was my first of 2019. A dense and powerful look at a woman who will stand in history in her own right.
-There's No Crying in Newsrooms - My most-read review on the blog this year, it's pretty specific to women in my industry. A powerful, important read for women in news.
-Immortalists Unique and powerful book about a group of siblings who are told by a fortune teller the day they will die. It follows them all through their lives as you wonder if the fortunes will come true. Such a great book!
Hope you can find something here you like. As always, I'm happy to recommend books! Here's to a great year of reading in 2020.
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