Okay, ready for my year-end reading recap?

For 2019, my goals were to read 100 books (hot damn, I read 104!), to build an appreciation for poetry (yes!), read more from the authors I enjoyed in 2018, and read more from women writers (it was 80%) as well as Authors of Color (about 40% — could do better) who’s lives and experiences are different than mine.

In 2020, I’m still going to set a reading goal but ease it back to 52 and I want to read more off my shelves at home as there is 100+ promising books stacked besides me.

Top books read in 2019:

• An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine
• State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
• The Road by Cormac McCarthy
• My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durell
• Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
• Patsy (and her earlier book Here Comes The Sun) by Nicole Dennis-Benn
• The Library Book by Susan Orlean
• Educated by Tara Westover
• The Blue Salt Road by Joanne M. Harris
• The Handmaid’s Tale and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
• The Dutch House by Ann Patchett

With regards to teaching a.k.a. relating better with other humans:

• Animals In Translation by Temple Grandin
• The Courage to Teach by Parker J. Palmer
• How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie

Favorite books of poetry:

• Don’t Call Us Dead by Danez Smith
• Fierce Fairytales by Nikita Gill
• American Primitive by Mary Oliver
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo (YA novel in poetry form)

Best Graphic Novels/Art Books:

• Passing For Human by Liana Finck
• Good Talk by Mira Jacob
• Around the World In 80 Trees by Johnathan Drori, beautifully illustrated by Lucille Clerc
• The Diary of Frida Kahlo

Best on Audio:

• The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz (narrated by Broadway’s Lin Manual-Miranda and Karen Olivio)
• Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer (narrated by the author)

What were your favorite reads of the year?