Jenny's Best of 2019 - The Full List

I ultimately chose a cream of the crop list for the Best of 2019 podcast episode (coming 12/31) but all of these books received five stars from me. Those with an asterisk may have been four star reads for one reason or another (probably more like four and a half) but had sticking power for other reasons, and deserved a mention.

These are in order by when I read them and not prioritized in any other way. This list spans from December 1, 2018 to November 30, 2019. These are not necessarily books published in 2019 but just books I read during that span of time. The quickest way to go back to my review of each title is to find me in Goodreads, or follow the link to the book in the month I read it (in the blog I do a round up episode at the end of each month.)

Does this look like a lot? I read over 300 books in 2019 so this is a good number. I'm happy when so many end up highly rated and enjoyable. It means I'm doing better at picking out my own books.

Poetry

Magical Negro by Morgan Parker (January 2019)
The Library of Small Catastrophes by Alison C. Rollins (March 2019)
Halal if You Hear Me edited by Safia Elhillo and Fatimah Asghar (March 2019)
Our Men do not Belong to Us by Warsan Shire (April 2019)
Brute: Poems by Emily Skaja (April 2019)
The Tradition by Jericho Brown (July 2019)
Eyes Bottle Dark with a Mouthful of Flowers by Jake Skeets (September 2019)

Literary fiction

The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose (December 2018)
The Word for Woman is Wilderness by Abi Andrews (December 2018)
Eliza Waite by Ashley Sweeney (December 2018)
Sula by Toni Morrison (December 2018)
Severance by Ling Ma (January 2019)*
Outline by Rachel Cusk (February 2019)
America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo (February 2019)*
Fruit of the Drunken Tree by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (February 2019)*
The Deeper the Water, the Uglier the Fish by Katya Apekina (March 2019)
Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet (April 2019)
A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza (April 2019)
Bright by Duanwad Pimwana, translated by Mui Poopoksakul (April 2019)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (May 2019)
The Pisces by Melissa Broder (May 2019)
Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli (June 2019)
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (June 2019)
Orange World and Other Stories by Karen Russell (June 2019)
Bangkok Wakes to Rain by Punchaya Sudbanthad (July 2019)
The Blind Earthworm in the Labyrinth by Veeraporn Nitiprapha (July 2019)
The Man Who Saw Everything by Deborah Levy (July 2019)
The Book of X by Sarah Rose Etter (July 2019)*
Space Invaders by Nona Fernandez (August 2019)
Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson (August 2019)
Cantoras by Caroline de Robertis (September 2019)
Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor (September 2019)
Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo (October 2019)
The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery (October 2019)*
Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward (November 2019)
Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg (November 2019)*

Romance

The Flatshare by Beth O'Leary (June 2019)
The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai (June 2019)
Red, White, & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (July 2019)

Science fiction/fantasy

Aurora by Kim Stanley Robinson (January 2019)*
The Vela by Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, S.L. Huang, Rivers Solomon (March 2019)
If, Then by Kate Hope Day (July 2019)
The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang (August 2019)*
The Deep by Rivers Solomon et al (October 2019)
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis (November 2019)

Graphic novel/manga

My Brother’s Husband vol. 1 by Gengoroh Tagame (February 2019)
Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe (November 2019)

Non-fiction

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer (December 2018)
The Best American Food Writing 2018 edited by Ruth Reichl (December 2018)*
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff (January 2019)
Heavy by Kiese Laymon (January 2019)*
Fired Up by Andrew Johnston (February 2019)
Double Awesome Chinese Food by Margaret, Irene, and Andrew Li (February 2019)
Save Me the Plums: My Gourmet Memoir by Ruth Reichl (March 2019)
The Food Explorer by Daniel Stone (March 2019)*
The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman (April 2019)
White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (May 2019)
When Wanderers Cease to Roam by Vivian Swift (May 2019)
Permission to Feel by Mark Brackett (September 2019)
The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls by Mona Eltahawy (September 2019)
Erosion by Terry Tempest Williams (September 2019)
A Year Without a Name by Cyrus Grace Dunham (November 2019)
Unfollow by Megan Phelps-Roper (November 2019)
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward (November 2019)
This Tilting World by Collette Bellous (November 2019)