2019 was a solid year of reading with some true standouts, and a slew of debut authors (and old favorites) that created some amazing literary experiences. It wasn't all good, though. Before we get to those that succeeded, I’ll first caution you against the following popular books that are better left on the shelf…
The Naughty List: Books to Avoid
Before we get to the top books, let’s start with the “Naughty List” list. I read them so you don’t have to!
Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive
by Stephanie Land (Amazon's #52 Best Book of 2019) ★★☆☆☆
It’s an interesting behind the scenes look at the struggles of a single mother and how quickly a few bad choices can derail one’s life. You want to cheer for an author in this scenario, and I did want to, except Stephanie Land is kind of repulsive. She shits on everyone she talks about in the book, whether it’s her customers (who she universally mocks), her boyfriend who takes her and her child in, her parents, her employer... In a culminating moment, she wins a scholarship, at which point she says, “I could pay down my debt with the money...or I could take a vacation.” You can guess what she chooses. There are several insightful and uplifting memoirs about people struggling to make it when life deals them a particularly difficult hand -- Educated and Hillbilly Elegy both come to mind. Skip this one and read one of those instead.
The Silent Patient
by Alex Micheledes (Amazon's #9 Best Book of 2019) ★★★☆☆
Everyone loves this book, except me! It’s not the worst thriller I’ve ever read, but it felt contrived and I just never connected with it. It seems like there’s one of these each year (The Girl on the Train, The Woman in the Window) that generate a bunch of buzz, but that I finish going, “Really? That’s what everyone is talking about?”. I just think you can do better (see below!).
Once More We Saw Stars
by Jayson Greene (Amazon's #23 Best Book of 2019) ★★☆☆☆
After my failure to sympathize with Stephanie Land above, I figured I may as well shit on this one too in a bid to be the worst human on the planet. This is a memoir of a couple whose two-year-old daughter is tragically and randomly killed by a falling piece of masonry on the streets of New York. It sounds terrible, and it is. It’s an interesting glimpse into how one could even start to cope with that type of tragedy, but, bizarrely, it felt kind of...cold to me. Maybe detachment is the only way to survive something like that, but that detachment seemed to bleed through the pages of the book. This is the last book I would have expected I’d say lacks heart, but for me it did.
The Secrets We Kept
by Lara Prescott (Amazon #53 of 2019) ★☆☆☆☆
Ugh. I hated it. The book description says, “At the height of the Cold War, two secretaries are pulled out of the typing pool at the CIA and given the assignment of a lifetime. Their mission: to smuggle Doctor Zhivago out of the USSR, where no one dare publish it, and help Pasternak's magnum opus make its way into print around the world.” Sounds interesting, right? Well, what spycraft there was was limited and completely devoid of tension, and I would say the “mission” described is a minor subplot. Maybe had I gone in with different expectations I’d be less annoyed by this one, but it’s definitely one to avoid.
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The Best Books of 2019
On to the good stuff! In the past I’ve done a Top 5, but there’s too much good to narrow it down. So, without further ado, here are my Top *11* Books of the year.
The #11 Best Book of 2019: Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
by John Carreyrou ★★★★☆
This is more well-known now after the HBO Series (which I still have yet to watch), but it recounts the birth and eventual implosion of the Silicon Valley startup Theranos, which promised the ability to run dozens of tests from only a single drop of a patient’s blood. It’s a fascinating (and infuriating) account of a startup and the way that insecurity and immaturity can still trump genius and destroy a company.
The #10 Best Book of 2019: Magic For Liars
by Sarah Gailey ★★★★☆
The simplest description of Magic For Liars is that it’s a detective novel set in a secret school for magic (hidden away in the hills south of San Jose). Throw in that the detective hired by the school to investigate the grisly death (and perhaps murder) is the estranged sister of one of the teachers at the school, and that the detective is “non-magical” while her sister can do magic, and suddenly you have something with a few additional layers of intrigue. This is a debut novel, and it certainly has some flaws. But I found it to be an enjoyable and satisfying yarn with a little heart thrown in.
The #9 Best Book of 2019: A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World
by C.A. Fletcher ★★★★☆
In a post-apocalyptic world, a young boy’s dog is stolen from him, and he embarks on a quest to retrieve his pup. It took me a bit to get into this book -- the writing style is a little different and very direct. But as I grew more accustomed to that, I started to appreciate and enjoy it more and more. If you liked The Road by Cormac MacCarthy, I think you’d see some similarities here. Plus, it has a pretty great twist at the end!
The #8 Best Book of 2019: Daisy Jones & The Six
by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Amazon's #26 Best Book of 2019) ★★★★★
Written as an oral history, this tracks the lives of the fictitious Daisy Jones and the band The Six, and their eventual union to form the title band. The different band members and people connected to the band have unique voices, and the author uses the unique oral history format expertly to convey everything from tragedy to humor. It’s well done.
The #7 Best Book of 2019: The Nickel Boys
by Colson Whitehead (Amazon's #2 Best Book of 2019) ★★★★☆
I haven’t read Whitehead’s well regarded debut The Underground Railroad yet, but I will likely tackle that in 2020. The Nickel Boys is based on the true story of a Florida reform school that perpetuated atrocities against its students for decades. It’s a quick read -- under 300 pages -- and it will stick with you.
The #6 Best Book of 2019: Ninth House
by Leigh Bardugo (Amazon's #18 Best Book of 2019) ★★★★☆
I stumbled upon Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows a few years ago, and it was (to my surprise) my favorite book of 2015. She’s made a name for herself writing YA fantasy novels, and this is her first foray into something intended for older kids like me. The plot is centered around nine “secret societies” of Yale -- groups that (in some cases) exist in real life, but that Bardugo imagines each practice different types of magic in this novel -- and their potential involvement in a murder on campus. The protagonist, Alex Stern, tries to balance her responsibilities as a student, as a member of the “Ninth House” (Lethe) that is tasked with keeping the other houses in line, and her need to move on from a difficult past and start over in New Haven.
The #5 Best Book of 2019: The Labyrinth of the Spirits
by Carlos Ruiz Zafon ★★★★★
Technically this came out in 2018, but I didn’t read it until this year so it goes on this year’s list. The “Cemetery of Forgotten Books” series that Zafon started in 2005 with The Shadow of the Wind concludes with what, dare I say, is the finest of them all. While all four books (The Shadow of the Wind, The Angel’s Game, The Prisoner of Heaven, and The Labyrinth of Spirits) can be read as stand-alone novels, I think they’re best experienced as a set and read in order. I’d say more about the book, but those who have read Zafon’s novels have probably already picked this one up. And if this is the first you’re hearing of these...well, go get Shadow of the Wind today! You can thank me later.
The #4 Best Book of 2019: Middlegame
by Seanan McGuire ★★★★★
This is perhaps the book I’m most wary to recommend this year; where I think anyone would enjoy most of the books on this list, Middlegame is a tougher putt. To borrow from the School Library Journal entry in the Amazon listing, it includes “genetic engineering, psychic links, alternate dimensions, and time loops.” If all of that sounds like something you'd never enjoy, skip it...but if that doesn't sound repulsive, this is a really well-crafted story that I enjoyed a lot. It's a little tough to get into...STICK WITH IT.
The #3 Best Book of 2019: The Lost Man
by Jane Harper ★★★★★
In the remote outback of Australia, a man is found dead on the family homestead, and his two brothers return home to try to determine what led to him being stranded under the hot Australian sun. Harper crafts a world in which every character you meet could have had a hand in the man’s death, and she keeps you constantly guessing and second guessing whodunit as more is gradually revealed. Harper’s debut novel The Dry was my favorite book of the year in 2017, and I think that The Lost Man may be even better than that.
The #2 Best Book of 2019: Miracle Creek
by Angie Kim (Amazon's #31 Best Book of 2019) ★★★★★
An immigrant family starts offering cutting-edge treatments in a hyperbaric chamber in the woods of Virginia. When a terrible accident leaves one patient dead and others badly injured, the reader is left guessing whether this was truly an accident or something more malicious. In this courtroom drama that will keep you guessing throughout, motives and possibilities abound, and Angie Kim is an expert puppeteer as she deftly makes you change your mind several times throughout the book on who may or may not have been at fault. This was my favorite book for a good chunk of the year until...
The Best Book of 2019: The Ten Thousand Doors of January
by Alix E. Harrow (Amazon's #67 Best Book of 2019) ★★★★★
Set at the turn of the 20th Century, this novel focuses on a young girl, January Scaller, and her coming of age story. In her teens she happens upon a book that describes doors between worlds, and she knows that it’s based in truth because she’s discovered such a door earlier in her life. A quick excerpt to give you a sense of the writing:
“When I was seven, I found a door. I suspect I should capitalize that word, so you understand I’m not talking about your garden- or common-variety door that leads reliably to a white-tiled kitchen or bedroom closet. When I was seven, I found a Door. There -- look how tall and proud the word stands on the page now, the belly of that D like a black archway leading into white nothing.”
As all the things she thinks she knows about her life start to come into question, she embarks upon a quest to save herself when her world suddenly becomes unsafe, and to discover the truth of her identity. It's beautifully written, with characters you'll remember forever (how can't you love someone who names her dog "Sindbad" but just calls him "Bad" for short?) and a story that checked all the boxes for me. I loved every minute of it.