Top 10 Books I Read in 2019
Happy Friday!
This is one of my favourite book posts to do every year, although I really enjoyed answering the end of year book survey a few weeks ago.
Click to see my favourite books from 2017 and 2018.
Last year I read 88 books. I almost matched that in 2019 and read 87 books… so close!
You can see a full list of what I read each month here:
These are the books I read in December 2019:
The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes
A Kin by Emma Donaghue
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My Favourite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer
In no particular order, here are some of my favourites from 2018:
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - Based on the description I really didn’t think I was going to like this one but I enjoyed it a lot.
Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid - I love this author and I was very excited for this book to come out. I loved the oral history and documentary style of the book.
Run Away by Harlan Coben - HC is one of my favourite authors and I always look forward to his new books. I love all the twists!
The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choi - A historical novel full of superstition. This is another one I was reluctant to read and then I couldn’t put it down.
I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes - When I first picked this up I found it intimidatingly long but I got into it very quickly. It’s the story of an intelligence agent on the hunt for a biological terrorist and it was really exciting.
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert - I heard an interview with the author on a podcast and was very intrigued by her description of the book, otherwise I wouldn’t have read it.
Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren - I don’t know what it was about this book… I didn’t love the story when I finished it, but I couldn’t put it down when I was reading it.
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See - I don’t know how I came across this one but I am so glad I did. It was a beautiful story and I can’t wait to read more by this author.
The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair by Joel Dicker - My colleague recommended this one and it was really good. I loved some of the surprises. Apparently it’s a TV show too so I will need to check that out.
The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton - This one made me think. If I didn’t pay attention while I was reading I would get very confused. But it was sooo good and I had so many interesting discussions after trying to process it.
It was interesting that as I was writing this post, I looked up reviews of some of these books (ok, I couldn’t remember the ending and wanted to make sure they really deserved to be in my top 10 haha) and for some books, and I loved reading reviews where people had completely opposite reactions to me! I guess it goes to my ultimate belief that reading is so personal. Often what you connect with may depend on your mood when you read it. Things I love about a book are the characters, the writing style, the story, and sometimes it’s just the feeling of I can’t put this book down I need to see what happens next.
These were my top 10 from 2019, but overall I’d say this year I read more books that I loved (rated 4 or 5) than any other year. The worst I rate a book is 2 and I only had 3 of those this year.
Let’s go 2020… I can’t wait to find new favourites!
