My favorite novels of 2019 took me to the White House,nudes-a-popping sex porn videos behind enemy lines in the USSR, and even back to high school.
But for me, even more so than TV and movies, picking what to read next can feel overwhelming — there is just so much out there. Bestseller lists are a good start, but my hope is that this list, highlighting some of my personal favorites from the past year, both hidden gems as well as a few instant classics, will be a good guide for everyone looking to kick off their 2020 with a great novel.
These stories are the ones I spent days or weeks afterwards thinking about, arguing with friends and recommending to everyone in my life. In no particular order, 10 faves that were published in the U.S. in 2019 are below.
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Happy reading.
1. Evvie Drake Starts Over, Linda Holmes
Sports. Grief. Romance. Evvie Drakehas got it all.
Pop culture fans will be familiar with Linda Holmes, host of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, and her fiction debut was worth the wait. Evvie Drake’s husband has died, and the widow is staring down a new chapter, as well complicated feelings of grief over his secret abuse. Enter friend-of-a-friend Dean, a professional baseball player who is dealing with the yips and needs a hideout and a break from constant scrutiny. Can these two help each other out over their respective emotional hurdles?
This book was so empathetic! It blended darkness and joy so well, and the romance felt well-earned and appropriately paced. Plus, Holmes made even me care a little bit about sports and the magic of the game. It's an ode to community that we can all get swept up in.
2. Normal People, Sally Rooney
Personally, I loved her debut, Conversations with Friends, a little better, but this is still well worth reading, and another stunning installment in what will surely be quite a long career. We’ve got two young people, outsiders in their own ways, who hook up in high school and then spend their college years circling each other. Because it’s Rooney, be prepared for her to hit on your most painful deep emotional thoughts without any warning. You’ll cry about things you didn’t even fully know you felt!
The story will also be a Hulu series this spring, so start steeling yourself for that now — and consider this a reminder to move this one to the top of your list if reading things before watching them (hi!) is important to you.
3. Red, White and Royal Blue, Casey McQuiston
I mentioned this one in my roundup of royals fiction earlier this year, but as one of the most charming books I read this year, it deserves a place on this list, too. Taking place in a beautiful modern alternative universe where we have a female president, this flirty and romantic tale focuses on the burgeoning relationship between enemies-turned-lovers Alex, who is the son of America’s president, and Henry, who is a roguish English prince. Prepare to scream “KISS!”
4. The Secrets We Kept, Lara Prescott
A Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick, this novel seems destined to be a movie. Full of intrigue and expertly paced, it tells the based-on-true-events tale of CIA agents in the U.S. trying to get Doctor Zhivagointo civilian hands in the USSR.
Meanwhile, readers are also taken behind the Iron Curtain for more info on Olga, author Boris Pasternak’s mistress, and the horrors she went through during that time. Dark secrets, mystery, and forbidden love...you won’t be able to put it down.
5. Frankly in Love, David Yoon
This YA love bomb centers on Frank Li, a high school overachiever who wants to hide his relationship with his new white girlfriend, so he makes up a fake relationship with a family friend to appease his parents. Naturally, things get way more complicated fast.
I really appreciated the compassion this book extended to so many different characters. It's a story about coming into your identity, making peace with your parents, growing up, andthe universal teenage fears about life never improving. It's funny, and sweet, and I never wanted it to end.
6. The Water Dancer, Ta-Nehisi Coates
OK, so first of all this is the book Oprah brought her book club back for. So there’s that.
But don’t just take Oprah’s word for it. The brilliant Ta-Nehisi Coates’ fiction debut is stunning. It's a stirring and powerful story about a boy, Hiram, born into slavery with a magical gift he doesn't quite understand.
The story then expands, as he falls in with a mysterious Underground that takes him all over as he works to free the Tasked, all while chasing memories of his mother and his past. Gorgeous prose, obviously, and sharp and memorable insight into an awful chapter in American history imbued with magical realism that makes this book particularly unforgettable.
7. Women Talking, Miriam Toews
What do we do when men do something unforgivable? As we wrestle with this question in 2019 in many different ways, Toews’ novel provocatively explores this very idea when a remote Mennonite village discovers that the “demons” that have been regularly attacking women at night were actually male members of their community (unfortunately, based on real events).
What does forgiveness look like? Is it even possible? Can you leave your entire way of life behind with only the hope of something better? The whole book is framed as an outside observer of sorts taking minutes at the meeting where the women gather to discuss next steps. Very moving, and certainly one that will leave you with more questions than answers.
8. The New Me, Halle Butler
Millennial dread and depression can be a real bitch. Butler's sharp, funny, and, honestly, slightly painful novel explores office life drudgery, and how soul-crushing it can be to continue to try. Overachievers in the office get their skewering, too, and the result is a pitch-black comedy about workplace norms, general existential angst, and the all-consuming loneliness one can feel when things don't work out the way you thought they would. But, you know, with humor!!
9. Trust Exercise, Susan Choi
I'll be purposely vague here, as there is more to spoil with this one than some others on this list, but we begin the tale with two high school classmates, David and Sarah, in the 1980s in an intense theater class.
But what really happened between these two and their classmates? Memory can be a tricky thing, and sometimes we aren't sure how much to trust ourselves until we start talking to others. Broken into three different sections, this novel in part explores trauma and how we process it. You'll be questioning yourself — and the plot — until the end. Also: It just made President Obama's list of hisfavorite books of the year, so you'll be in excellent company if you pick up a copy.
10. Red at the Bone, Jacqueline Woodson
This novel focuses on an unplanned teenage pregnancy and how the effects of that ripple over three generations of one family. The prose in this book is like poetry. Going through chapters exploring different characters in various points in time felt like peeling back an onion as the full context of plot points crashes over you like a wave.
Woodson does a beautiful job showing how the small moments in life add up to big ones, how one decision changes the course of your life, and it manages to be heartbreaking and heart-affirming all at the same time.
Topics Books