The Best Books We've Read This Year

Just like last year, we asked our contributors, book clubbers, and readers to share the best books they read this year. We have 11 lists for you, consisting of 50 separate books and a whole bunch that we all loved. These are our favorite novels we read this year, but we’d love to hear about yours in the comments! And if you’re looking for more best of lists, you can find our list of 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 right here.

Esmée de Heer

Co-host of Bored to Death book club & YA book club + owner of this blog

• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
  It has been 8 years since the publication of The Night Circus and that book is still one of my favorites. When news of The Starless Sea started popping up, I was excited, but also a little worried about it not living up to my massive expectations. I don't know why I worried though because it was my favorite book of the year. Whatever Morgenstern does is just 100% me. I love everything about this book, from the fairy tales about books to the decor, to the outfits and the bespoke cocktails. This book is a little extra sometimes, but if I could live in it, I would.

• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
  This was a great year for women in fantasy. My second favorite book is a very large tome about dragons. The Priory has a large cast of characters, among which are a bunch of very interesting women. It has great worldbuilding, a lot of cool historical details and a slow-burning romance between two very strong characters that is to die for. The Priory of the Orange Tree shows what epic fantasy can be, not what it has been so far.

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo
  This is another author that I love and a book I'd been looking forward to. I was a big fan of the Grisha trilogy, but found the Six of Crows series less interesting. Ninth House was Bardugo's first foray into adult literature and I'm really on board with this one. It's a very dark novel about a girl who can see ghosts and gets roped into working for a secret society that monitors other secret societies at Yale. It's a paranormal college novel and I need it to be a new genre.

• The Overstory by Richard Powers
  The only non-magical book on my list this year. 2019 was the year I got very serious about the environment and The Overstory gave me that extra push. It's a story about trees and how they are inextricably linked to our own lives. Parts of this book were perfect, while others dragged a little, but the love that Powers has for nature shone through all of it.

• Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin
  She truly is the master of tension. Fever Dream is a book that haunted me for quite a while. The writing was so eerie and uncomfortable that I couldn't stop reading it. I remember finishing this book, skipping the last hour of work to go to a coffee shop and read the second half in one large breath. The novella is about a woman in a coma and a young boy talking with her while she's unconscious. It never really becomes clear what happens, so this book still eats away at me sometimes...

Charlotte de Heer

Co-host of Bored to Death book club

• Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney

• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez

• Little Labors by Rivka Galchen

• Educated by Tara Westover

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Francisca Priem

Organizer of YA book club & contributor to our blog

• Tell the Wolves I'm Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
  This book really shook me - it was so extremely sad. I really felt for all of the characters and I think Brunt did an amazing job of portraying the collateral damage of AIDS in the 80s. 

• We Are Okay by Nina LaCour
  This was also a very sad book, but also very hopeful. I liked to read about the friendship between Marin and Mabel. 

• Transcription by Kate Atkinson
  I really liked the atmosphere and the humor. I want to read more of her books! 

• A Good Girls Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson
  This was such a fun book! The mystery was great and I flew through it. 

• Frankly in Love by David Yoon
  This was a very fun read with a good story. It really made me think about the challenges of mixed-race relationships.  

Jochem F. Melis

Book clubber & writer

• Being and Time by Martin Heidegger

• Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievich

• The Largess of the Sea Maiden by Denis Johnson

• Women by Charles Bukowski

• The People in the Trees by Hanya Yanagihara

Suzanne Peet

Organizer of Undercover Book Club & Suusreadsbooks on Instagram

• We Crossed a Bridge and It Trembled: Voices from Syria by Wendy Pearlman
  Pearlman spent years interviewing refugees from Syria in different countries and refugee camps. This book compiles all their stories to tell, in a somewhat chronological order, the 'before' 'during' and 'after' of the Syrian revolution. It was eye-opening and gives a human perspective to all the stories you read in the newspaper. 

• Moeder Af by Fen Verstappen
  A tiny book with a big impact on me. The story about the mom of Verstappen who is suddenly struck by a stroke and so it flashes back between the past and present version of her mom and how to deal with that.

• Milkman by Anna Burns
  I loved this. Hard to pinpoint why, but it was written amazingly, I loved the use of vague terms like 'boyfriend' 'sisters husband' 'people across the water' etc. I've also heard from people they didn't like it at all. So give it a shot, but don't feel bad if it isn't for you I guess :P

• Lampje by Annet Schaap
  The second Dutch book on my list, how the times have changed! This is actually a children's book, but it works wonderfully for adults too. If you've been on bookstagram, you've seen it come by and all the love is well deserved. Can't wait for the theater show!

• Grief Is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter (made possible by 'Olijven moet je leren lezen' by Ellen Deckwitz)
  This is actually a reread. But the first time I read it, I didn't 'get' the poetry. However, after reading 'Olijven moet je leren lezen' a sort of 'how to read poetry' guide by Ellen Deckwitz, I decided to give it another shot. And BOY did it pay off! I cried so hard, I had snot dribbling everywhere. It hit me like a ton of bricks and it will definitely get multiple rereads after this.

Elizabeth Zagroba

Book clubber and @ezagroba on Twitter

• Counting Descent by Clint Smith

• Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion

• When in French: Love in a Second Language by Lauren Collins

• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

• The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Eileen Ramos

Contributor, runs abandonedB2DBC project & eintervital on Instagram

• Crushed: A Graphic Memoir Book One By Trinidad Escobar
  The sole graphic novel on my list, Escobar’s masterful work is pungent with trauma, heartache, and regret. I teared up just flipping through the pages only a few moments ago. To read Nicole’s journey as a Filipina adoptee is at once poetic, emotional, and robust with upheaval. I can’t wait to see how other Filipino mythical creatures factor even further in this well-wrought series.

• You Can’t Kill Me Twice (So Please Treat Me Right) by Charlyne Yi
  At one juncture you’re laughing with glee, but at the next turn, you’re gut-punched with the morose truth. Within Yi’s poetry collection, you never know what to expect from her lines and drawings, but ALL of it is exacting and striking. There’s a strong and wide gamut to these works and such gems imbued by love and optimism. It honestly feels like I’m beholding Yi’s soul.

• The Infinite Library and Other Stories by Victor Fernando R. Ocampo
  I never truly delved into Filipino speculative fiction, and oh dear god I truly regret wasting so many years not reading this ambitious, electrifying collection. All loosely connected, it was such a remarkable ride to go from academic journal to l33tspeak, just one strange style to the next. Absorbing this made me want to escalate and elevate my own writing as a Filipina American woman. I was thrilled to see so many Filipino references embedded in this sci-fi trip: historic figures, locales, cuisine, and even cuss words; it made me feel seen. Even some of the characters are Filipino! Overall, I was impressed with its scope, depth, and sheer reach. What an incredible universe.

• Guestbook: Ghost Stories by Leanne Shapton
  This has got to be the strangest book I held in 2019, maybe even in a few years. Shapton’s minimal works are not conventional ghost stories, but there is an eerie and haunting quality to them. Flush with vintage portraits, floor plans, watercolors, iceberg photographs, and more, Shapton interlaces her vignettes with some that seem to be told to her secondhand. There are pairings of graphics and words that don’t quite make obvious sense but it’s fun to determine them yourself. Without exhausting the narratives, she trusts the reader to fill in these exquisite blanks, therefore making wondrous creations.

• The Desire for Elsewhere by Agnes Chew
  In this succinct debut collection, Chew traces her beloved artifacts to her travels abroad, each one imbued with a precious memory and longing. I loved the simple illustrations of these objects, and especially her philosophical, introspective tales. Her deep abiding wish to explore foreign countries and to connect with both travelers and natives made me want to follow my own wanderlust. Through her adventures and contemplations, she urges the reader to write the world down through their own unique perspective, to paint your singular canvas that is your one life. What do you want to remember?

Veerle Bisschop

Organizer of YA book club

• Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

• Binti by Nnedi Orokafor

• The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton

• Aurora Rising by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman

• A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson

Anne Ahlmann Kristensen

book clubber

• Women without Men by Shahrnush Parsipur
  I really loved this book about five women in 1950’s Teheran who decide to leave their lives that are dominated by men and traditions. They all meet in a cherry garden outside of Teheran and together they start a new life so they can live out their dreams. The book felt very realistic yet it had many magical elements, for example when one of the women becomes a tree, and I often even had the feeling I was reading an old myth. 

• Wild Grass at the Riverbank by Hiromi Itō
  An amazing book of poetry by Japanese Hiromi Itō. A story told from a child’s perspective about the life in everything, in human beings, plants and even in the dead. By comparing human beings to plants she shows the absurdity of trying to prevent human movement across borders.  

• The First Bad Man by Miranda July
  I enjoyed this weird, funny and heartbreaking novel a lot! It felt so bizarre and so relatable at the same time. 

• Sommerfugledalen - et Requiem (English title: Butterfly Valley) by Inger Christensen 
  I got this book of 15 little sonnets last Christmas and I have kept it on my night desk most of the year. Reading it feels like lying down in the grass on a hot summer day but with a feeling that everything is only temporary.

• Gift (English title: Dependency) by Tove Ditlevsen
  I’m only halfway through this book right now but I can already say that is one of the best books I have ever read. This is the third book of Ditlevsen’s memoirs about her four marriages and a life with drug abuse published just a few years before her suicide in 1976. In fact, the danish title Gift both means ‘marriage’ and ‘poison’. I love her writing style and honesty.

Sarah Adriaanse

Sarah.adriaanse on Instagram

• Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

• The Smell of Other People's Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

• A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

Carina Pereira

When I began rounding up my 5 favorite reads of 2019, I soon realized what a tough job it would be. I had to make several lists and keep removing favorites until I reached a final decision. This proves how lucky I am to have found such good books to read this year, either on Instagram, at the local library, or recommended by friends. 

I must leave a note that, while most of the books I chose for my final five are in its majority written by white women, the complete list of my most favorites is a lot more varied. While I’ll certainly continue to actively choose more diverse voices, these were indeed the books that I enjoyed the most this year, fiction and nonfiction, on print, ebook, and audiobook. 

• Educated by Tara Westover 
  This is the true story of a girl who grew up in a Mormon family waiting (and preparing) for the end of the world. The family did not trust in medicine and science; they did believe that God had a plan and they had to trust his choices, and their own faith. Many of the events depicted in the book are hard to conceive. Tara Westover, the author, takes us on a journey which is an ode to the power of education. It was definitely my favorite read of the year: a memoir, (becoming free from) religion, and a satisfying ending. 

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt 
  This book gave me great The Dead Poets Society vibes and the premise is very well delivered. Some people argue that the narrative is longer than necessary, with irrelevant descriptions and scenes but, while I do dislike unnecessarily long books, I quite enjoyed this one. 

• Know My Name by Chanel Miller
  This was as good as it was difficult to read, not due to the narrative (Miller is a wonderful writer) but due to the subject. If you paid attention, even only in passing, to the Brock Turner case, you know about the unfairness of this trial. For a very long time, Chanel Miller was known as Emily Doe, but in this book, she comes forward to tell her side of the story, and the ways of the American justice system. A must-read. 

• We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
  What impressed me more about this book, is that it doesn’t try to settle for the least gruesome ending. It remains on the side of its main characters to the end, giving them the best ending I could think of. The two main characters aren’t exactly likable, or even right in their actions, but they can be relatable in the rawest sense of being human. The way Jackson presents them to us, two sisters fighting against the world, it’s almost impossible not to support them. You know they’re wrong, but you ant them to win nevertheless. The plot twist is easy to guess - probably on purpose - but it’s a nice build-up to get there. Shirley Jackson is a great storyteller and this book was as satisfying as they get. 

• Deesje by Joke van Leeuwen
  I could have chosen a lot of books in place of this one, but the truth is that I wanted to feature a book directed towards a younger audience and something with illustrations. In the last few months, Dutch children’s books have been a great help in improving my vocabulary, so Deesje deserves this honor for various reasons. This is such a wonderfully told story. It’s adventurous, fun, frustrating at times. I usually dislike plots that rely on things going wrong because characters aren’t communicating with each other properly, but this one makes it work despite this.