So many books, but not nearly enough time! Every year I set big goals for reading, and every year I fall short of said goal. In 2019, I read 38 books, and it’s very tempting to fudge here and say I read 40. There are two nearly finished books in my queue (City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert and Silent Spring by Rachel Carson). There’s also a collection of poetry I’ve been savoring one poem at a time (A Memory of the Future by Elizabeth Spires). Over the summer I read a large stack of books on frogs, but I’m too lazy to find that list.

I’m not ranking or rating or ranting about any of these works. I’m simply listing them. Some I liked. A few I didn’t. At least two books on this list changed me in significant and hopefully lasting ways. One book made me laugh out loud. A lot. That same book also made me cry. It was the best work of fiction I’ve read in a very long time, in fact. There are weird books on this list and smart books and sweet books, too.

Books keep me afloat when I’m sinking. They make me feel less strange or maybe more so for liking them. Books nearly always help me feel less alone on this life path. So, instead of ranking or rating or ranting, I’ll just say thank you to all the writers for showing up and getting the words on the page and to all the unsung heroes in publishing who helped these books find the light.
Here’s to another year of reading, folks. My 2019 list is in the order read.
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- Greener Pastures by Charlotte Locklear
- What I Know for Sure by Oprah Winfrey
- In Pieces by Sally Field
- Calypso by David Sedaris
- Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
- This Boy’s Life by Tobias Wolff
- Because of Winn Dixie (again) by Kate DiCamillo
- Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
- Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
- The World’s Largest Man by Harrison Scott Key
- Maid by Stephanie Land
- Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
- Louisiana’s Way Home by Kate DiCamillo
- South and West by Joan Didion
- Congratulations, Who Are You Again? by Harrison Scott Key
- Blubber (again) by Judy Blume
- Eleanor Oliphant Gail Honeyman
- Theft by Finding by David Sedaris
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
- Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
- Merci Suárez Changes Gears by Meg Medina
- Woodlanders by Thomas Hardy
- Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
- Art and Fear by David Bayles and Ted Orland
- Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot
- Symphony for the City of the Dead by M.T. Anderson
- The Snail Darter and the Dam by Zygmunt Plater
- Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
- Beverly, Right Here by Kate DiCamillo
- The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
- Everything Is Figureoutable by Marie Forleo
- Enough About You, Let’s Talk About Me by Les Carter
- Don’t You Know Who I Am? by Ramani Durvasula
- The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
- Boots on the Ground by Elizabeth Partridge
- Olive, Again by Elizabeth Strout