2019 Favorites

There were so many great books published in 2019 that it was very hard to choose between them. Here are some of the books that topped our lists. However, any book we gave glowing reviews and five stars to this year is definitely recommended for your TBR!

*Links are to reviews, unless indicated otherwise.

Melissa A:
1. Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center
2. City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
3. The Bride Test by Helen Hoang
4. Waiting for Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey (review coming soon)
5. The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis-Graves

Amy: 
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle
Dear Wife by Kimberly Belle
Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
(All links are for Amazon.)

Jami:
I sweated over this list… it’s not easy picking five favorites for the year when you read two or three books a week! Nevertheless, here’s my best shot:
My favorite overall book of 2019: Candace Bushnell’s Is There Still Sex in The City? The writer whose book launched my favorite TV series released this follow-up, which was enormously comforting in the wake of my divorce and showed me that it was possible to find new love after 50. And I did.
Favorite Mystery/Thriller: Lady in the Lake, Laura Lippman. Since the debut of her Baltimore-based female PI Tess Monaghan series in the 1990s, Lippman has gotten better with every book. It’ll be hard to top this one, though, which wraps an intriguing mystery around racism, sexism, and other isms in 1960s Baltimore. (Runner up: The Turn of the Key, Ruth Ware)

Favorite Historical Fiction: The Things We Cannot Say, Kelly Rimmer. A triumph for an author who excels in different genres. (runner up: Lost Roses, Martha Hall Kelly’s Lilac Girls prequel)
Favorite Sci-Fi: Recursion, Blake Crouch. (Link is to Amazon.) If all you know about this author is that he wrote the Wayward Pines trilogy on which the 2015 series was based, you don’t know the full story. Read this amazing look at parallel universes… then go back and read everything else on his back list.
Favorite Non-Fiction: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, Lori Gottlieb. (Link is to Amazon.) This memoir from The Atlantic’s resident therapist is almost as good as going to therapy yourself. (Runner up: Once More We Saw Stars, Jayson Greene.)

Sara:
1. The Year Marjorie Moore Learned to Live by Christie Grotheim
2. Have You Seen Luis Velez? by Catherine Ryan Hyde
3. Emily, Gone by Bette Lee Crosby
4. Starfish: A Rockstar Romance by Lisa Becker
5. Twine by Monica Duncan

Becky:
The Lives We Touch by Eva Woods - moving, thought-provoking and memorable, Eva makes my annual favourites list for the second year running. (US title: The Inbetween Days.)

The Day We Met by Roxie Cooper - reflecting back on the novels I’ve read this year this was one that remains memorable. Frustrating, moving, the story and characters have stayed with me and I’d read this one all over again.

The Girl at the Window by Rowan Coleman - just an exquisite novel that ticks all the boxes.