I set out to read 100 books in 2019. I read 109. And the time has come once again for me to tell you about my absolute favorite books of this year.
I feel like my favorites list is shorter than usual. This is partly because I did a lot of rereading this year, over the summer in particular because of the bar exam. This is also because I read a few books that were just absolute standouts of amazingness this year, and everything else was compared to them. Though I don’t usually single out my top favorites from the books I’ve read each year, for 2019 I actually have clear favorites: Beartown by Fredrik Backman, which I actually read twice in 2019; the five Brandon Sanderson books I read this year; and the Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend. This isn’t to say that I didn’t really like the other books on this list. They wouldn’t be on this list if I didn’t. But this year I discovered Fredrik Backman and Brandon Sanderson and Nevermoor and they are just amazing! I’ll stop now or I’ll be raving all night.
The other interesting thing to me is the diversity of genre on this list. There are three nonfiction books on this list, quite a few series but also a bunch of standalones, some fantasy and contemporary, even a horror book, and the books cover all age categories, from Charlotte’s Web up through middle grade, young adult, and adult. I’m kind of proud of myself for reading so many different books in 2019.
I’m not including books that I reread and still loved in 2019 on this list, because they’re already on my book recs page. I’m also not including series that I’m in the middle of and still kind of ambivalent on, which is to say I’m still not including the Expanse on this list. The Expanse is actually leaning toward book recs page material, but of the five books I’ve read I really liked three, was sort of meh about one, and really disliked one, so I’m having a hard time recommending the whole series at this moment. But that might change next year. Finally, since I’ve talked about most of these books in detail in other places, I’m just going to list them here, occasionally with some explanatory notes. If you’re curious for more details, you can check out all my posts in my book recommendations and reviews category.
Speaking of my book recs page, it’s now all up-to-date with my 2019 favorites included. Go check it out.
Now that I’ve explained everything, let’s get down to it.
Jameyanne’s Favorite books of 2019, in no particular order
- Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
- The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton
- The Ocean At the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
- Wren’s War and Wren Journeymage by Sherwood Smith (I read the first two books in the series in 2018)
- Beartown by Fredrik Backman (the sequel is also good, but not as good as Beartown, and I recommend you just read the first book at this point)
- The Magic Thief series by Sarah Prineas (I read the first two books in 2018 but wanted to finish the series before deciding if it would be a favorite or not)
- The Street by Ann Petry
- The Grown-up by Gillian Flynn
- Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race by Margot Lee Shetterley
- Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
- James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl
- Code Girls: The Untold Story of the American Women Code Breakers Who Helped Win World War II by Liza Mundy
- A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell
- Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian (I’ve only read the first one so far but it was great, and I’m looking forward to diving into the second book, which I own, and the third, which comes out in February)
- The English Patient by Michael Ondaatje
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
- The Stormlight Archives series by Brandon Sanderson (the series is not complete yet, but I’ve read everything that’s been published so far: the first three books and the novella Edgedancer)
- The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson (this is the first in the Mistborn books and I loved it so much I was afraid to pick up the second book so I can’t speak to the rest of the series yet; I’ll let you know at the end of January how that turns out.)
- The Winner’s Trilogy by Marie Rutkoski
- Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
- Night by Elie Wiesel (not a pleasant book to read, but very powerful, should be required reading)
- The Remnant Chronicles by Mary E. Pearson
- Cassidy Blake series by Victoria Schwab
- Willow Run by Patricia Reilly Giff
- The Furthermore duology by Taherea Mafi
- Nevermoor series by Jessica Townsend (the third book comes out in August and I’m just dying to get my hands on it because I just love these books so much!)
- A Path Begins by J. A. White (I only read the first book in this series by the end of 2019, but really enjoyed it and I’m working on the rest of the series now)
- Greetings from Witness Protection by Jake Burt
- Baker’s Magic by Diane Zahler
And that’s it for 2019. Have you read any of these books? What did you think of them? And what are your favorite reads of 2019?