I completed and even surpassed my 2019 reading goal by reading 70 books. My goal was 50 books. It was a great reading year for me!
You can follow my reading updates on Goodreads, but I’ll also be posting them here. Each month, I’ll post a wrap-up of my reading for that month. I’m also looking forward to reviewing some of the books I read as well.
Today, I am going to share with you a list of the 70 books I read in 2019 along with the star rating I gave that book. I’ll be back soon to share my top ten books from this list.
- Dinner with the Smileys: One Military Family, One Year of Heroes, and Lessons for a Lifetime by Sarah Smiley 3/5 stars
- The American Heiress by Daisy Goodwin 3/5 stars
- Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother’s Will to Survive by Stephanie Land 4/5 stars
- Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo 4/5 stars
- My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie 4/5 stars
- Golden Child by Claire Adam 3/5 stars
- The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle by Stuart Turton 4/5 stars
- A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum 5/5 stars
- Circe by Madeline Miller 3/5 stars
- Before She Knew Him by Peter Swanson 4/5 stars
- Becoming by Michelle Obama 4/5 stars
- The Last Romantics by Tara Conklin 5/5 stars
- Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid 5/5 stars
- The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason 4/5 stars
- Shanghai Girls by Lisa See 5/5 stars
- Goodbye, Paris by Anstey Harris 2/5 stars
- The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See 5/5 stars
- Beyond the Point by Claire Gibson 4/5 stars
- Normal People by Sally Rooney 3/5 stars
- Miracle Creek by Angie Kim 3/5 stars
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 4/5 stars
- The Unwinding of the Miracle: A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything that Comes After by Julie Yip-Williams 4/5 stars
- The River by Peter Heller 4/5 stars
- The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth 5/5 stars
- Dreams of Joy by Lisa See 4/5 stars
- The Gown: A Novel of the Royal Wedding by Jennifer Robson 4/5 stars
- Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane 5/5 stars
- Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand 4/5 stars
- The Golden Hour by Beatriz Williams 4/5 stars
- The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray 4/5 stars
- Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin 4/5 stars
- Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center 5/5 stars
- Recursion by Blake Crouch 4/5 stars
- The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger 4/5 stars
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead 5/5 stars
- Where’d You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple 4/5 stars
- How Not to Die Alone by Richard Roper 4/5 stars
- The Reckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood 2/5 stars
- The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and My Fight Against the Islamic State by Nadia Murad 5/5 stars
- The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware 3/5 stars
- The Identicals by Elin Hilderbrand 4/5 stars
- The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal 4/5 stars
- Celine by Peter Heller 4/5 stars
- Lost Roses (Lilac Girls #2) by Martha Hall Kelly 4/5 stars
- Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly 4/5 stars
- This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 4/5 stars
- If Only I Could Tell You by Hannah Beckerman 4/5 stars
- American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan 4/5 stars
- The Bride Test by Helen Hoang 3/5 stars
- A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles 5/5 stars
- The Bookman Tale by Charlie Lovett 3/5 stars
- The Water Dancer by To-Nehisi Coates 4/5 stars
- Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson 4/5 stars
- The Dutch House by Ann Patchett 5/5 stars
- The Fountains of Silence by Ruta Sepetys 3/5 stars
- Les Miserables by Victor Hugo 4/5 stars
- The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of September 11, 2001 by Garrett M. Graff 5/5 stars
- The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes 4/5 stars
- The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell 4/5 stars
- The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver 5/5 stars
- The Topeka School by Ben Lerner 3/5 stars
- No One Ever Asked by Katie Gansert 5/5 stars
- Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano 5/5 stars
- Long Bright River by Liz Moore 4/5 stars
- The Glittering Hour by Iona Grey 4/5 stars
- Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity and Love by Dani Shapiro 3/5 stars
- Mr. Dickens and His Carol by Samantha Silva 5/5 stars
- Cilka’s Journey by Heather Morris 4/5 stars
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates 4/5 stars
- Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes 4/5 stars
A few words about my star ratings…I rate based on my initial feelings after reading the book.
My ratings basically follow this pattern: 1=hated it..most likely didn’t finish it (I don’t have very many of these), 2=disliked it, 3=liked it…it was just okay, 4=I really liked it and 5=I loved it and am naming it among my favorites!
I try not to have my ratings influenced by other reviews, so I steer clear of reading a lot of other reviews before I have read a book for myself and rated it.
I noticed this year that most of my books are rated at 4/5 stars. I think that’s because I am at a point where I know what I like and can easily pick out a book that I will really like. I also don’t mind reading books that are “just okay”. I love the process and activity of reading, so I book doesn’t have to the-best-ever for me to really enjoy reading it.
I hope you can use this list to help find a book that you may enjoy reading!
I have a goal of reading 60 books this year, which is an average of about 5 books a month. That seems to be my reading sweet-spot. I plan to post my wrap-up of books I’ve read each month here, probably posting at the beginning of each new month.
Happy reading!