explore

It’s that time of year when folks are trotting out their favorites of 2019 lists. I’ve made a few of my own, and next week I plan on featuring the favorite books of the NCPL staff, but today I thought I’d poke around the internet and see what other folks are saying. I was inspired by the Goodreads Choice Awards being announced today, where Goodreads members vote for their favorite books in various genres. It’s a great list for figuring out what’s popular, if those are the books that tend to be up your alley. (Confession—the only Goodreads winner I read, I really disliked, so go figure.)

But if that sort of populist approach isn’t for you, there are some excellent bookish publications with Best Of lists as well. I’m devoted to Publishers Weekly, so their list is always interesting to me, and I also like Book Page and Book Riot, as well. The library has most of the books mentioned on these lists, and here are links (and occasional commentary) to some of the consensus choices that popped up on multiple lists.

Fantasy/Science Fiction


Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo (Bardugo’s first novel for adults)
Recursion by Blake Crouch
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (How great is that cover?)
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
Wanderers by Chuck Wendig

Fiction


Trust Exercise by Susan Choi (also won the National Book Award)
Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmann (1,000 pages, fewer than 10 sentences!)
The Dutch House by Ann Patchett
Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Normal People by Sally Rooney
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead by Olga Tokarczuk (The author also picked up a Nobel Prize this year.)
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong (my favorite title of the year)

Mystery/Thrillers


Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
The Bone Fire by S.D. Sykes (This cover is so striking!)

Nonfiction


The British Are Coming by Rick Atkinson (One of my personal favorites this year.)
Furious Hours by Casey Cep
Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? by Caitlin Doughty
Once More We Saw Stars by Jayson Greene
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado (Showed up on more lists than anything else, I think)
The Collected Schizophrenias by Esme Weijun Wang

Romance


Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston (I feel like I’m the only person alive who didn’t like this book. If you love it, stop by and explain what I’m missing.)

Shelia

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