memoir

Friends, I read a lot of books in 2019. Most of them were pretty good, some of them had me ranting on Goodreads, and a few were absolutely amazing. If you got an Amazon gift card and are itching to buy a few new books or are simply wondering if this year’s new releases were worth the hype, I’m here to help. Here are my top 10 favorite books published in 2019.

All the Impossible Things by Lindsay Lackey. This book blew me away (a pun you will get once you read it). But really. I was not expecting a middle-grade novel to be so powerful and have such deep themes. It’s about a girl who goes by Red who’s been jumping from foster family to foster family while her mom is in prison. The twist is that Red also has a hard time controlling her emotions, and when she’s angry, she can literally stir up a storm outside. I’m not into fantasy at all, but this has enough magical realism to keep things interesting.

Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know About the People We Don’t Know by Malcolm Gladwell. This book has been getting a lot of mixed reviews, but I found it absolutely fascinating. It’s different from Gladwell’s other books, but it still has his signature voice and is crammed full of studies and statistics that prove his points. Essentially, Gladwell uses a bunch of historical examples to prove his point that we can’t make judgments about people we don’t know — and this includes judges, police officers, and even teens on college campuses. If you’ve read this, I’d love to hear what you thought!

The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. I absolutely loved this young adult historical fiction about a 17-year-old Chinese girl in the late 1800s who begins writing a column under a pseudonym for the local newspaper and hitting on hard topics like racism, women’s rights, and Southern culture. Jo also works as a lady’s maid for a wealthy family in Atlanta and ends up solving mysteries about her own family, who abandoned her as a baby. This was really hard to put down and taught me a lot about Chinese immigrants in the South.

The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes. I had long been anticipating this book, since I’ve loved everything Jojo Moyes has written, and it was not disappointing. It’s set in 1930s Kentucky and follows an Englishwoman named Alice who marries an American to escape her rigid life in England and ends up helping other women deliver library books to poor people living in the Appalachians (based on a real-life traveling library run by women). It’s no Me Before You, and I wish the ending hadn’t tied things up so quickly, but it’s an enjoyable read (and I want to talk about it with someone, so please read it and tell me your thoughts).

The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart. This is one of those books I will touch lovingly when I see it in the bookstore because I had so many emotions while reading/listening to it. Coyote and her dad, Rodeo, have been traveling across the country in a yellow school bus for five years to escape the grief of losing her mom and two sisters in an accident. Along the way, they end up meeting and helping lots of different people as Coyote realizes she has to make it back to her hometown in a matter of days. I laughed and cried and felt all the feelings with this one.

Finding Chika: A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family by Mitch Albom. Yes, I am not ashamed to admit that I love Mitch Albom and have ever since I read Tuesdays with Morrie for the first time. There’s something so earnest about the way he writes, and his books always remind me that each person matters. This latest memoir that came out in November is about a little girl named Chika whom Albom and his wife cared for until she died at age 7 of a rare brain tumor. Albom met Chika through the orphanage he manages in Haiti, and it was fascinating to learn more about this impoverished country and how he and his colleagues are trying to help the children there. It also made me so glad my own children are healthy, as I can’t imagine watching my child battle such a crippling disease.

Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes. I read several really corny and unrealistic romantic comedies this year, and to finally find a book with a flawed hero and heroine was a breath of fresh air. Evvie is in her early 30s and freshly widowed and has become a recluse, so her friend suggests she rent out the rooms at the back of her home to earn a little money and maybe meet someone new. She ends up renting to an MLB player who’s suddenly lost his touch and needs to escape the criticism and frustration of life as an athlete. The dialogue and the characters are SO great in this book, and my description is not doing it justice. I promise it was wonderful.

The Rest of the Story by Sarah Dessen. When Emma Saylor’s dad is getting remarried several years after her mom’s death, he decides to leave Emma with her mom’s family for a few weeks while he and his new wife go on their honeymoon. Since Emma doesn’t know her mom’s family very well, she’s suddenly meeting cousins, aunts, and uncles she never had and learning a lot more about why her mom acted the way she did. This book tackled some hard topics like addiction and alcoholism and family secrets and just felt so real. Just writing about it made me want to reread it.

The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates. I wish every leader could have a copy of this and read it. Melinda Gates has met thousands of women through her foundation with her husband, Bill Gates, and this book is full of reasons why lifting women only lifts everyone. She shares experiences of women she’s met and ways we can all help the women around us to rise up. It’s such an inspiring book, and it’s number two on my list for a reason.

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb. I finished this book and felt this sense of loss like you do when a friend you haven’t seen in years has to go back home again. Lori Gottlieb works as a therapist and shares experiences from her own clients (names have been changed, of course), but then she also shares how her sessions with her own therapist went as she battled a depressing time in her own life. I immediately bought a copy of this book after I got it from the library, and I NEVER do that. Add this to your list (but have some tissues, because you will laugh AND cry).

I’m dying to hear what your favorite releases of 2019 were — or just your favorite books from the year. What should I read next?