I made my choices by going back over the books I read in 2019, some of which I didn’t review here but wish I had time to do so. Maybe sometime in the future I will address those I missed— but I can’t kid myself. There are always new and amazing books to read, so it is hard to reach back and pluck a golden book of years past. That said, I identified my favorites as the books I keep coming back to, the ones that have stayed with me, and made more of a significant impact on how or what I think about; the books I consider exemplars of their type, the ones to which I automatically compare newer books. These have not all been published in 2019; that is the year I read them.

And so, without further ado, my favorite reads of 2019, in no particular order:

Daisy Jones & The Six, by Taylor Jenkins Reid

I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, by Michelle McNamara

Educated: A Memoir, by Tara Westover

The Wife, by Meg Wolitzer

Olive Kitteridge, by Elizabeth Strout

The Jane Hawk series, by Dean Koontz

The Inspector Gamache series, by Louise Penny

My Name Is Lucy Barton, by Elizabeth Strout

And, here are three honorable mentions:

Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng

Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine, by Gail Honeyman

Recursion, by Blake Crouch

I should add one more, although since I just finished it last night, it hasn’t sat on my mind long enough for consideration. Midnight in Chernobyl, by Adam Higginbotham documented the Chernobyl nuclear disaster so well, an event I remember well. He does an exceptional job of fairly representing all sides of the controversy, and it deserves highlighting.

So many 2019 books I wish I had time to read! Time marches on, and it”s time to start perusing 2020 reads.

Happy New Year, fellow readers!