I have organized my 2019 top 10 reads in 4 categories: literary fiction, nonfiction, mystery, and classics I have should have read long ago!
A. Literary fiction
1. The Overstory, Richard Powers
2. Behind the Scenes at the Museum, Kate Atkinson
3. There, There, Tommy Orange
4. Eleanor Oliphant is Fine
5. An American Marriage
6. Sacre Blue, Christopher Moore
7. In Sunlight and in Shadow, M. Halprin (post WW2 love story set in NYC).
8. The Song of Achilles
9. Washington Black
10. Before We Were Yours
11. Daughter of a Daughter of a Queen, Bird
12. The All-Girl Filling Station's Last Reunion, Fannie Flagg
B. Nonfiction
1. Becoming, Michelle Obama (her childhood memories and her legal career balancing with a marriage and children coincided with the time periods of my childhood and legal practice, so I found it fascinating over and above the Presidential history aspects)
2. An Odyssey: A Father, a Son and an Empire
3. On Power, Robert Caro (an audible original interview with Mr. Caro; highlights from his research on Robert Moses and LBJ)
4. At Home, Bill Bryson (Bryson is always fascinating; here he explores each aspect of his 19th century English home and uses each room as a hook to explore the history of the home "technology"). . History of the toilet, for example
5. I'll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara (Golden State serial killer)
6. Shortest Way Home, Pete Buttegieg (interesting memoir regardless of politics)
7. When Breath Becomes Air
8. The Boy Who was Raised as a Dog (interesting case histories of childhood trauma and effective therapies)
9. the Rise and Fall of British Empire, part 1 (Great Courses audiobook)
10. The British are Coming, R. Atkinson (only partly way through)
C. Mysteries
1. Big Sky, Kate Atkinson (a new Jackson Brodie adventure)
2. the Silent Patient
3. McBeth, Jo Nesbo
4. the Sentry, Robert Crais
5. Where the Crawdads Sing
6. The Girl in the Spider's Web
7. Neon prey, J. Sandford
8. The Dispatcher, J. Salzi (Audible Original)
9. Dead Low Tide, John MacDonald
10. In the Woods, Tana French
11. Bloody Genius, Sandford
D. Classics I Should Have Read before now, or that I re-read this year, no particular order
1. Neil Gaiman young adult fiction: The Sleeper and the Spindle, Odd and the Frost Giants, Hearts, Keys and Puppetry, The Graveyard Book
2. Pudd'nhead Wilson, Mark Twain
3. The Canterbury Tales
4. Foundation, I. Asimov
5. Mythology, bullfinch
6. Antony & Cleopatra
7. Around the World in 80 Days
8. All My Sons, Arthur Miller
9. The Human Comedy, Saroyan
10. Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut
11. Treasure Island, Stevenson
12. Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald
13. True West, Sam Shepherd (Audible original)
Disappointing, not worth the hype:
In a Dark Wood;
Lethal White (Galbreath) - way overwritten
Beggars in Spain, Kress (too many dystopian concepts together)
Past Tense, Lee Child (revisiting Reacher's home town was interesting but the "danger" premise was unbelievable and ugly)
39 Years of Short-Term Memory Loss, Tom Davis (writer for early SNL; his drug use and screw ups were interesting but very sad)
The Silk Roads - it was more about European history and not enough about the stuff I didn't know -- middle eastern history and Asian history
The Art of Deception, Ridley Pearson (early work, predictable)
The Mystery of Alice (audible original - YA fiction - awful)
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