Best Books I Read in 2019
Dec. 30th, 2019 11:23 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bookishwenchI very, very rarely read recently published books, so this includes some books that are decades old along with some re-reads.
10. Circe - Madeline Miller - One of the minor characters Odysseus meets on his homeward journey is given her own voice here, and I was very impressed by it.
9. Summerlong - Peter S. Beagle - Beagle has wonderful, beautiful sentences, and he creates a strange, almost eerie patchwork of reality and mythology here. Honestly, I wasn't taken with the plot so much, but he held my interest well.
8. Holes - Louis Sachar - I had heard of this book for years, but I completely misunderstood what it was. Somehow, I had the idea it was a comedy, and while there are some absurd elements in this, it's definitely not. It was a very good story, though.
7. Gmorning! Gnight! Little Pep Talks for Me & You - Lin-Manuel Miranda - Pairs of morning and evening greeting from the writer, these usually put a smile on my face each day. I'm re-reading it now.
6. A River in Darkness - Masaji Ishikawa - Non-fiction, autobiography of a boy who was moved to North Korea by his father, eventually growing to adulthood, marrying, having children, and fleeing back to Japan via crossing the river into South Korea. The situation in North Korea is devastating, far worse than I could have ever imagined.
5. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick - Chris Van Allsburg - Probably the strangest format this year, this is a series of prints, not necessarily related, that have a few explanatory sentences, and that's it. Stephen King got the idea for one of his stories from this.
4. The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers - Maxwell King - Biography of Fred Rogers, who apparently really was as wonderful as he appeared to be. Nice to deal with a decent person.
3. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor - Cassie Logan and her family's troubles pretty much terrified me in this. Very intensely written drama about racial tensions in the South.
2. Fish Girl - Donna Jo Napoli and David Wiesner - If you squint hard, you can see "The Little Mermaid" here, but only barely. Mira has been raised to all but worship "Poseidon," but the lies around her start to unravel, and she realizes she needs to become herself. A really good graphic novel that I can't see unfolding equally well in any other genre.
1. The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank - This is the third time I have read this in total, with bits of it at other times. I re-read for a discussion at my college, and I was struck anew with how brilliant she was, how courageously honest. Absolutely stunning and heart-breaking.
10. Circe - Madeline Miller - One of the minor characters Odysseus meets on his homeward journey is given her own voice here, and I was very impressed by it.
9. Summerlong - Peter S. Beagle - Beagle has wonderful, beautiful sentences, and he creates a strange, almost eerie patchwork of reality and mythology here. Honestly, I wasn't taken with the plot so much, but he held my interest well.
8. Holes - Louis Sachar - I had heard of this book for years, but I completely misunderstood what it was. Somehow, I had the idea it was a comedy, and while there are some absurd elements in this, it's definitely not. It was a very good story, though.
7. Gmorning! Gnight! Little Pep Talks for Me & You - Lin-Manuel Miranda - Pairs of morning and evening greeting from the writer, these usually put a smile on my face each day. I'm re-reading it now.
6. A River in Darkness - Masaji Ishikawa - Non-fiction, autobiography of a boy who was moved to North Korea by his father, eventually growing to adulthood, marrying, having children, and fleeing back to Japan via crossing the river into South Korea. The situation in North Korea is devastating, far worse than I could have ever imagined.
5. The Mysteries of Harris Burdick - Chris Van Allsburg - Probably the strangest format this year, this is a series of prints, not necessarily related, that have a few explanatory sentences, and that's it. Stephen King got the idea for one of his stories from this.
4. The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers - Maxwell King - Biography of Fred Rogers, who apparently really was as wonderful as he appeared to be. Nice to deal with a decent person.
3. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry - Mildred D. Taylor - Cassie Logan and her family's troubles pretty much terrified me in this. Very intensely written drama about racial tensions in the South.
2. Fish Girl - Donna Jo Napoli and David Wiesner - If you squint hard, you can see "The Little Mermaid" here, but only barely. Mira has been raised to all but worship "Poseidon," but the lies around her start to unravel, and she realizes she needs to become herself. A really good graphic novel that I can't see unfolding equally well in any other genre.
1. The Diary of a Young Girl - Anne Frank - This is the third time I have read this in total, with bits of it at other times. I re-read for a discussion at my college, and I was struck anew with how brilliant she was, how courageously honest. Absolutely stunning and heart-breaking.
