Best Books of 2019
2019 was a really spectacular reading year.
I was looking for some hope and humanity in the hellscape of this year’s politics, so most of the books I read were stories that immersed me in perspectives unlike my own. A lot of them were new books (I developed an expensive affinity for hardcover books this year), and many of them were so good that they’re still on my mind months later.
Of everything I read this year, these were my absolute favorites. All of them are page-turning, eye-opening, beautifully written stories that you can get lost in.
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This book will break your heart. It’s fiction, but it’s based on a real reform school in Florida that tortured and killed the boys who were sent there. The story is haunting, and the writing is so beautiful that I read it aloud just to hear the cadence.
How We Fight for Our Lives by Saeed Jones
I was already a big fan of Saeed Jones, and this memoir exceeded my very high expectations. It’s raw, honest, insightful, and urgent. He writes with a poetry and clarity that is an absolute pleasure to read.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
This book is tragic and hopeful all at once. It’s the story of a young Dominican girl sent to America as a teenage bride (based on the author’s mother), and it’s a beautiful look at the tension between our duty to ourselves and our families. The writing has a wonderful flow and energy to it that I loved.
Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine
I don’t typically like short stories, but I loved this collection. It’s about indigenous Latina women in the Southwest, and each story captures their strength, sadness, beauty, and fierce resilience.
Lot by Bryan Washington
This is another short story collection that I absolutely loved. It’s about growing up gay, black, Hispanic, and poor in Houston, and it creates an incredibly vivid picture of the neighborhood and the people who live there. Of all the books I read this year, this one had the strongest, clearest voice that just grabbed me from the start.
In the Dream House by Carmen Maria Machado
This book wrecked me. It’s a memoir of emotional abuse in Machado’s first relationship with a woman, and it is gut-wrenching. The format is experimental but easy to read, and the style keeps it from ever feeling overdone. May many, many people read this.
Three Women by Lisa Taddeo
This was one of the more controversial books of the year, but I personally loved it. It’s an intimate look at women’s desire, and if you accept that it’s a snapshot of three particular straight, white women and not a treatise on women’s desire as a whole, then it’s a fascinating look at what those three women feel and experience that’s more personal than anything we normally get the chance to see.
Good Talk by Mira Jacob
This is a funny, poignant graphic memoir about a mother talking to her mixed-race son about being brown in America. It opens with an exchange about Michael Jackson that is hilariously perfect, and it ends on hopes for her son that had me crying.
The Incendiaries by R. O. Kwon
If you’ve ever wondered what it feels like to try to save someone you love from a cult, this book captures exactly what I imagine that must be like. It’s strange and fascinating, and you’re just along for the ride.
The Need by Helen Phillips
This book is extremely weird. I don’t want to give anything about it away before you read it, but it’s a strange, haunting portrayal of the anxieties and sacrifices of motherhood.
Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
A poetic, beautiful story of teen motherhood, told from the perspective of everyone in the family - the teen mother and father, the grandparents, and the daughter. I’m a huge fan of Woodson’s writing; it’s fluid, succinct, and profound.
Bad Blood by John Carreyrou
This is one of the wildest true stories I’ve ever read. The fact that Elizabeth Holmes was able to get away with as much as she did for as long as she did totally blows my mind. Other podcasts and documentaries have been made about this story, but the book is the best, most complete explanation of what really happened at Theranos.