I truly enjoyed not being student in 2019, perhaps more than I can put into words. I read a ton of Sci-Fi and Fantasy. Also literary nonfiction. And, uh, literary nonfiction. I love everything and I love being done with school!
This year I delved back into the Classics–some rereads and some for the first time. My secret is: I can easily get the audiobooks from the public library, to listen to in the car.
Best 16?!
I am honestly so sick of end-of-year and end-of-decade round ups that it’s giving me a headache to even do this. My PSA is: Read books by women, queer folk, people of color; buy books from indie book stores, the writers themselves, and small presses, or rent from public libraries. Here are things that impacted me in 2019:
Milk Man – Anna Burns
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman
Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls – T Kira Madden
Small Fry: A Memoir – Lisa Brennan-Jobs
All You Can Ever Know – Nicole Chung
The Carrying: Poems – Ada Limón
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Wisdom of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer
Mr. Splitfoot – Samantha Hunt
The Four Ugliest Children in Christendom – Camille-Yvette Welsch
Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative – Jane Allison
Mostly Dead Things – Kristen Arnet
Maid – Stephanie Land
Home Field – Hannah Gersen
Trick Mirror: Reflections of self delusion – Jia Tolentino
1. The Wicked Boy – Kate Summerscale (Nonfiction)
2. Wrestling with Moses: How Jane Jacobs took on New York’s Master Builder and Transformed the American City – Anthony Flint (Nonfiction)
3. The Hour of the Star – Clarice Lispector (Fiction)
4. Milkman – Anna Burns (Fiction)
5. There There – Tommy Orange (Fiction)
6. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman (Fiction)
7. An American Childhood – Annie Dillard (Nonfiction/Memoir)
8. The Song of the Lark – Willa Cather (Fiction)
9. Krik? Krak! – Edwidge Danticat (Short Story Collection)
10. Little Beauties – Kim Addonizio (Fiction)
11. Your Heart is Muscle the Size of a Fist – Sunil Yapa (Fiction)
12. Who is Very Kelly? – Rosalie Knecht (Fiction/Mystery)
13. Poison Kiss – Ana Mardoll (Fiction/Fantasy)
14. Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls – T Kira Madden (Nonfiction)
15. Don’t Call Us Dead – Danez Smith (Poetry)
16. Eat Only When You’re Hungry – Lindsay Hunter (Fiction)
17. Idaho – Emily Ruskovich
18. Girls Burn Brighter – Shoba Rao
19. Survival Rout – Ana Mardoll (Fiction/Fantasy)
20. Alexander’s Bridge – Willa Cather (Fiction)
21. Throne of Glass – Sara J. Maas (Fantasy)
22. A Collection of Letters: A Very Early Work of Jane Austen (short fiction collection)
23. Carol – Patricia Highsmith
24. How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems by Joy Harjo
25. Small Fry: A Memoir – Lisa Brennan-Jobs
26. All You Can Ever Know – Nicole Chung (Nonfiction-Memoir)
27. The Last Wish – Andrzej Sapkowski (Fantasy)
28. The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss (Fantasy)
29. How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy – Jenny Odell (Nonfiction)
30. Happiness – Aminatta Forna (Fiction)
31. The Carrying: Poems – Ada Limón
32. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Wisdom of Plants – Robin Wall Kimmerer (Nonfiction)
33. Kava: Medicine-Hunting in Paradise – Chris Kilham (Travelogue)
34. gods in Alabama – Joshilyn Jackson (Fiction)
35. The Passport -Herta Müller (Fiction)
36. Summer – Edith Wharton (Fiction)
37. Mr. Splitfoot – Samantha Hunt (Fiction)
38. The Perfect Child – Lucinda Berry (Mystery)
39. God Land: A story of faith, loss and renewal in Middle America – Lyz Lenz (Nonfiction)
40. Tiamat’s Wrath – James S.A. Correy (Sci-Fi)
41. The Professor – Charlotte Brontë (Fiction)
42. Bartleby the Scrivener – Herman Melville (Fiction)
43. The Four Ugliest Children in Christendom – Camille-Yvette Welsch (Poetry)
44. Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens (Fiction)
45. Crome Yellow – Aldous Huxley (boring! I mean, novel)
46. The Partricide of George Benjamin Hill – James Charlesworth (fiction)
47. The Good Neighbor – Maxwell King (Biography)
48. Pastwatch – Orson Scott Card (Sci-Fi/Alternative History)
49. The Way of Kings – Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
50. Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative – Jane Allison (Nonfiction/Writing Craft)
51. When My Brother Was an Aztec – Natalie Diaz (Poetry)
52. The Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards – Michael Dummett (History/Art)
53. Wild Life – Kathy Fish (Flash Fiction Collection)
54. Unsheltered – Barbara Kingsolver
55. Mostly Dead Things – Kristen Arnet
56. Maid: Hard work, low pay, and a mother’s will to survive – Stephanie Land
57. Why Not Me – Mindy Kaling
58. Modern Artists on Art: Ten Unabridged Essays – Robert L. Herbert, ed.
59. Art Matters – Neil Gaiman, illustrated by Chris Riddell
60. Home Field – Hannah Gersen (fiction)
61. Trick Mirror: Reflections of self delusion – Jia Tolentino (nonfiction/essay)
Laura Eppinger 