I read 118 books this year, mostly thanks to an aggressive ARC schedule and audiobooks. The list here are 19 books which I read this year that I loved, but weren’t necessarily published in 2019.
Top 2019 Favorite Reads
The books are in alphabetical order. Any book marked with an * means that it was featured in the 2019 Bookish Hype Train Post.
- Blood, Water, Paint by Joy McCullough (2018)
- First novel in verse I have read and this imagining of the life of Artemisia Gentileschi took my breath away.
- Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller (2019)*
- Another fantastic exploration of mental illness through science fiction, this time with more dinosaurs.
- Docile by K.M. Szpara (2020)
- This sexy and disturbing examination of consent and power opened my eyes to how interiority is supposed to work.
- The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis (2016)
- Hell hath no fury like a woman on a revenge streak and my God, was this book unflinching in its take down of rape culture.
- Grave Mercy and Dark Triumph by Robin LaFevers
- Murder nuns in an alternate version of medieval France. Exciting and I love ever single protagonist.
- Heroine by Mindy McGinnis (2019)
- The most compassionate and empathetic book with a character suffering from opioid addiction I have read in a while.
- In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (2019)
- Horror and literature serve as the vehicle for this heart-breaking memoir about domestic abuse.
- The Lesson by Cadwell Turnbull (2019)
- First contact and an examination of colonialism through the eyes of lads who wanted to meet aliens.
- The Luminous Dead by Caitlin Starling (2019)
- Claustrophobic and absolutely terrifying, especially in audiobook. Congratulations to messy lesbians.
- Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey (2019)*
- A murder mystery taking place in a magical school that’s more like everyone’s mediocre high school. Sisterhood and feels abound.
- Moby Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
- Transcendent and a classic. It goes to show how inaccurate you can be while still telling a compelling story.
- The Raven Tower by Ann Leckie (2019)
- This book blew my mind both as a Hamlet retelling and an expert use of second person narration.
- Sadie by Courtney Summers (2018)
- A must-read for fans of true crime, podcasts, and young adult thrillers.
- Sawkill Girls by Claire Legrand (2018)
- The mean girl trope turned on its head as something sinister takes down random girls on the island.
- The Shadow Glass (Bone Witch #3) by Rin Chupeco (2019)
- A perfect ending to a trilogy in which a young woman raised her brother from the dead and wants to stop the terror coming in the her future.
- This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone (2019)
- Epistolary and clever, enemies to lovers in such a classy package.
- Timekeeper Trilogy by Tara Sim (2016-2018)
- Whimsical, tugs at the heart strings, and everything I could have wanted in a steampunk adventure.
- Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia (2019)
- Enthralling and full of magic, folklore, and heart.
- Voices of Chernobyl by Svetlana Alexievich (1996)
- An oral history of the nuclear disaster full of heart-wrenching recollections and harsh truths.
Some Numbers (Base = 118)
I didn’t meticulously keep up a spreadsheet just to NOT break down my reading habits.
| Age Group | Percent of Total |
|---|---|
| Adult | 49% |
| Young Adult | 36% |
| Middle Grade | 3% |
| Non-Fiction | 6% |
| Manga | 7% |
| Format | Percent ARCs | Percent Total |
|---|---|---|
| Audiobook | 0% | 50% |
| Kindle | 65% | 36% |
| Physical Copy | 63% | 14% |
What are some of your favorite reads? Tell me about your year in reading.
Happy reading,
Jo
Jo Writes Fantasy 