I read 315 books in 2019, so I’m going to just do one wrap up post instead of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly of previous years. Here’s the genre breakdown:
Best Fiction: The Dead Queen’s Club by Hannah Capin
This is a modern day YA retelling of Henry VIII set in a high school and it goes so much harder than you would ever expect. PEOPLE DIE, okay. A lot more historical references than I expected; I loved it. I wasn’t the only one either: it made NPR’s Best of 2019 list!
Best Nonfiction: Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez
I read this book back in June, but I still think about it all the time. The medical chapters, especially, are infuriating, but I can see the evidence all around me.
Best Fantasy: The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien
Hard call between this and Return of the King, but I think I enjoyed this more because it was stories I didn’t already know. I read a lot of good fantasy this year, but it’s pretty hard to compete with the defining work of the genre. Plus, The Silmarillion has a surprising amount of badass lady stories.
Best Historical: The entire Clash of Eagles trilogy by Alan Smale
Is it cheating picking an alt history series for “best historical fiction”? I don’t even care; this was way more interesting and well-researched than any other historical novel I read this year. It takes place in the 1200s, when the Roman Empire, which never fell, tries to invade North America, and gets its ass handed to it by the Native Americans, specifically the Mississippian mound builders of Cahokia.
Best Cover: The Tea Dragon Society by Kate O’Neill
This book (and its sequel) are so adorable and imaginative! I love the art and, of course, all the tea.
Worst Cover: A Mermaid’s Kiss by Joey W. Hill
I read this for a book club whose theme was “terrible cover” and I found it by googling “romance novels with bad covers”. It was also a fairly ridiculous book, about an angel and a mermaid finding love despite what should be insurmountable physical and environmental problems. Luckily she can shape change. As you do. Steven refers to this as “the mermangel book” and it prompted me to go to book club in costume:
Worst Book: Dying to Decorate by Cyndy Salzmann
This book definitely suffered from the expectations it built based on the cover and title. DYING to Decorate?? Clearly this is some kind of interior decorator-themed murder mystery, right? NO! NO ONE DIES! There isn’t even a mystery! A group of moms renovate an old house, remind each other about Civil War history facts, and debate whether the Underground Railroad was a good thing because “slavery was wrong, but so is disobeying the law”. BIG YIKES, Cyndy.
Anyway, it was a good year in books, overall. Here are some more charts because I keep a book spreadsheet that just spits them out for me anyway:
All the half-star spots are blank because I DON’T DO THINGS BY HALF MEASURES, okay
To the surprise of literally no one, the majority of my books come from the library. The “Free” category is mostly Project Gutenberg, and “Owned before 2019” is so popular because I specifically had to read at least one of those a month as part of my goals. Most of them were Steven’s about Ancient Rome.
I read a total of 4 books over 700 pages: a guidebook to Japan I got at the library book sale (904), The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon (827), The Histories by Herodotus (716), and A Suitable Boy by Vikram Seth (1474).
The percent of digital books seems high to me, but I suppose I usually have at least one checked out on Libby from the library for reading when I’m waiting somewhere.
I don’t know what happened in March, but the August-September lull is definitely when I was trying to finish A Suitable Boy, the nearly 1500-page monster.
I wasn’t especially trying to read mostly female authors, but I’m pleased with this result.
Excited for another year in books! If you too would like a bunch of ridic charts about your reading, check out Book Riot’s Reading spreadsheet. I’m never looking back.
Previously: 2018 in books