Books I read in 2019

I read about 65 books last year- the number could have been higher. I'm not sure how many books I read besides what I read on my Kindle. It's possible to know the exact number that I read on my Kindle but not physical books because I forget too easily:).

I read some great books in 2019 and so far in 2020, I've read four books, all of which I've LOVED. So, 2020 is off to a wonderful reading start. I don't have any goals about how many books I read in a year. While I love to read and think I always will as long as possessed of a sound mind, there are simply some seasons when reading prolifically is not something I'm going to do. So, no pressure just pure enjoyment when time allows. I'm amazed at the writing talent that God has given to so many authors.

Here is a list of the books that I read in 2019 on my Kindle:

The Golden House by Salmon Rushdie
The Chilbury Women's Choir by Jennifer Ryan
Nearing Home: Life, Faith and Finishing Well by Billy Graham
Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner
A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
The Most Dangerous Animal of All by Gary Stewart
Walking the Bones by Randall Silvas
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
The Perfect Mother by Aimee Molloy
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
The Breakdown by BA Paris
Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah
House Broken by Sonja Yoerg
A Shower of Summer Days by May Sarton
Shutter Island by Dennis Lehanae
Since We Fell by Dennis Lehanae
The Grownup by Giilan Flynn
Alternative Side by Anna Quindlen
The Idiot by Elif Batuman
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Cold Waters by Debbie Herbert
The Banker's Wife by Cristina Alger
The Radium Girls by Kate Moore
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover
The Tiger in the House by Jacqueline Sheehan
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
Before We Were Strangers by Jane Smiley
Less by Andrew Sean Green
Swear on This Life by Renee Carlino
The Round House by Louise Erdich
A Separation by Katie Kitamura
All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffen
The Elephant in the Room by Tommy Tomlinson
The Hiding Place by Corrie ten Boom
Golden Age by Jane Smiley
One Day in December by Josie Silver
Early Warning by Jane Smiley
The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque by Jeffrey Ford
Beautiful Boy by David Sheff
Not Our Kind by Kitty Zeldis
Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo
Empire Falls by Richard Russo
The Girlfriend by Michelle Francis
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline
The Fallen by David Baldacci
The Invention of Fire by Bruce Holsinger
The Wife Between Us by Greer Hendricks
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Here to Stay by Mark Edwards
As Bright as Heaven by Susan Meissner
Chances Are by Richard Russo
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
Last Day by Luanne Rice
In a Field of Blue by Gemma Liviero
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
One L by Scott Turrow

My favorite book was probably The Scapegoat by Daphne Du Maurier. The book's premise is one of impossibility- two men who look identical switch lives with each other- and I generally don't care for books with impossible premises. However, Du Maurier's writing is so good and her characters so richly drawn that I was able to overlook the teensy detail of the impossibility of the events ever occurring.

I also enjoyed In a Field of Blue, The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque, and Transcription quite a bit.

I was most disappointed in Little Fires Everywhere and Where the Crawdads Sing. I'd heard such good things about them and to me, they didn't live up to the hype.

I was most disappointed in myself for not finishing reading the Bible in a year. I was on track through most of the year and then at some point fell behind and never finished. One impediment was my reading format of choice- a website on my Chromebook. I thought the electronic format was a good one- you could check off days as your read them. However, sometimes the website crashed and my checks were not saved the next time I opened the website. I didn't start the reading on January 1st so I relied on the checks to let me know my progress.

Hope, like Leviticus, springs eternal and I have a goal to the read the Bible in a year in 2020. I started the reading on January 1st. In addition, I'm using a physical book for this endeavor. I already like it better than reading the Bible electronically.

Leviticus et al. here I come!!



I bought this book and read it in 2019. It has Bible verses for various topics such as contentment, forgiveness, kindness, peace and many others.

The book has been timely for me. Here is a section entitled Eternal Life. My bookmark is a Wheel of Fortune $100 bill 😃

My Kindle is about ten years old. I won't replace it until I have to. Same with the cover ;).

The Kindle, cover and sticky note are all oldies but goodies. Well, I guess besides the sticky note. I could get rid of that as the soap, tea, pretzels and bread have long since been purchased or forgotten about. I'm so used to seeing it, though, that I haven't got rid of it...