A Year of Reading: 2019

2019 was a weird year in many ways, but it was a great personal year for reading. Looking back at the year, I’m proud of myself for sticking to my resolution to make more time for reading for fun, and to read a wider range of writing. This list is more for my own reference than anything else, but in case you’re interested, I’ve included the books in the order that I read them, as well as the kind of book and year of publication. If I wrote a review somewhere else on this blog I’ve linked it. The absence of a review for any particular book is a reflection of my own laziness rather than a commentary on that book.

1. Becoming by Michelle Obama (memoir, 2018)

2. Like a Mother: A Feminist Journey through the Science and Culture of Pregnancy by Angela Garbes (narrative nonfiction, 2018)

3. And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready by Meghan O’Connell (memoir, 2018)

4. Avalanche: A Love Story by Julia Leigh (memoir, 2016)

5. We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (memoir/humor essays, 2017)

6. Notes to Self by Emilie Pine (memoir, 2018)

7. A Different Drummer by William Melvin Kelley (fiction, 1962)

8. Alternate Side by Anna Quindlan (fiction, 2018)

9. Heavy by Kiese Laymon (memoir, 2018)

10. An Abbreviated Life by Ariel Leve (memoir, 2016)

11. Promising Young Women by Caroline O’Donoghue (fiction, 2018)

12. Meaty by Samantha Irby (memoir/humor essays, 2013)

13. American Overdose: The Opioid Tragedy in Three Acts by Chris McGreal (nonfiction/true crime, 2018)

14. Constellations: Reflections from Life by Sinéad Gleeson (memoir, 2019)

15. The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa (fiction in translation, 2012)

16. Womanish by Kim McLarin (nonfiction essays, 2019)

17. A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf (lecture-based essay, 1929)

18. Devotion by Patti Smith (essay, 2017)

19. Lion Cross Point by Masatsugo Ono (fiction in translation, 2018)

20. South and West by Joan Didion (travel writing, 2017)

21. The Open Space of Democracy by Terry Tempest Williams (creative nonfiction, 2004)

22. Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez (nonfiction, 2019)

23. Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor (fiction, 2019)

24. Happening by Annie Ernaux (memoir/extended essay in translation, 2001)

25. Mothers: An Unconventional History by Sarah Knott (narrative nonfiction, 2019)

26. The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada (fiction in translation, 2014)

27. Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami (fiction in translation, 2001)

28. Child of Fortune by Yūko Tsushima (fiction in translation, 1978)

29. We Can’t Breathe by Jabari Asim (nonfiction essays, 2018)

30. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson (narrative nonfiction, 2014)

31. Slow Days, Fast Company by Eve Babitz (genre-bending biographical fiction, 1977)

32. Snap by Belinda Bauer (fiction, 2018)

33. At the Pond: Swimming at the Hampstead Ladies’ Pond (essay collection, 2019)

34. Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou (true crime, 2018)

35. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (fiction, 1992)

36. Wedding Toasts I’ll Never Give by Ada Calhoun (humorous essays, 2017)

37. On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (fiction, 2019)

38. My Private Property by Mary Ruefle (prose poetry, 2016)

39. Little Labors by Rivka Galchen (prose poetry, 2016)

40. Look How Happy I’m Making You by Polly Rosenwaike (short story fiction, 2019)

41. Three Women by Lisa Taddeo (narrative nonfiction, 2019)

42. What You Are Getting Wrong About Appalachia by Elizabeth Catte (nonfiction essays, 2018)

43. The Gate of Angels by Penelope Fitzgerald (fiction, 1990)

44. Devotion by Madeline Stevens (fiction, 2019)

45. Sula by Toni Morrison (fiction, 1973)

46. Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino (nonfiction essays, 2019)

47. Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams (fiction, 2019)

48. Expectation by Anna Hope (fiction, 2019)

49. The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead (fiction, 2019)

50. No One is Too Small to Make a Difference by Greta Thunberg (essays, 2019)

51. Coventry by Rachel Cusk (nonfiction essays, 2019)

52. Love by Toni Morrison (fiction, 2003)

53. Turning: Lessons from Swimming Berlin’s Lakes by Jessica J. Lee (nature writing / memoir, 2017)

54. The Outrun by Amy Liptrot (nature writing / memoir, 2015)

55. Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett (fiction, 2015)

56. The Home Place by J. Drew Lanham (nature writing / memoir, 2016)

57. I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron (essays, 2006)

58. I Remain in Darkness by Annie Ernaux (memoir / extended essay in translation, 1997)

59. On Fire: The Burning Case for a Green New Deal by Naomi Klein (nonfiction essays, 2019)

60. The Diary of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (memoir, 2017)

61. Find Me by André Aciman (fiction, 2019)

62. Confessions of a Bookseller by Shaun Bythell (memoir, 2019)

63. The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman (fiction, 1995)

64. Ask Me About My Uterus by Abby Norman (narrative nonfiction, 2018)

65. The Worst Kind of Want by Liska Jacobs (fiction, 2019)

66. The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman (fiction, 1997)

67. Thick by Tressie McMillan Cottom (nonfiction essays, 2019)

68. Whose Story is This? by Rebecca Solnit (nonfiction essays, 2019)

69. Sweet Days of Discipline by Fleur Jaeggy (fiction in translation, 1989)