Denise’s 10 11 Favorite Books in 2019
[With the agreement that a series counts as
one]
I can’t list them in true order, books just
make it either in my Top Ten or they don’t.
1. I’ll
Be Your Blue Sky, by Marisa de
los Santos. Her first two books, Love
Walked In and Belong to Me, are perennial favorites, so when she
checked in on her characters a decade later, I swooned. Blue Sky made me love the first two
books even more. She digs into complicated
yet familiar situations and tells a compelling story that feels more like you
are living it than reading it. I try not
to have favorites on my favorites list, but this may be it.
2. Legends of
the First Empire hexology, by
Michael J. Sullivan
Age of Legend (Book 4)
Age of Death
(Book 5, pentultimate)—to be published Feb, 2020, but I got it early through
Kickstarter.
I have brought up Michael once or thrice. Amazing stories, strong female characters, dragons,
magic, humor…legendary!
3. A Dangerous Collaboration (A Veronica Speedwell Mystery Book 4), by
Deanna Raybourn. Oh my, I love Veronica.
Raybourn made a name for herself with the Lady Jane Grey series
(Denise’s expert opinion—meh), but that was really just training ground for
writing a truly excellent frolic. Read
these in order.
4. Once Upon
a River, by Diane Setterfield. I just gobbled this one up, once I recognized
the author from her debut novel, The Thirteenth Tale, which thrilled and
intoxicated me. (Editorial: her second
novel was underwhelming, after setting the bar very high with her first.) This, her third novel, clears the bar with
room to spare. When a story teller
writes about story tellers and story telling, she has to do it well, and this
author used the river to weave it together beautifully and movingly.
[I discovered Sherry Thomas this
year, and it’s worth reading her older novels to see how she goes from
better-than-average regency romance author to author extraordinaire, as she
tackles a new take on Sherlock Holmes and a Young Adult SciFi/Fantasy frolic.]
5. The Lady
Sherlock Series, by Sherry
Thomas
A Study in Scarlet Women, Book 1
A Conspiracy in Belgravia, Book 2
The Hollow of Fear, Book 3
The Art of Theft, Book 4 (Barely About the Book Review: Sadly,
Ash keeps his clothes on in this installment, but Charlotte never disappoints.
Worse than a new complex evil scheme to unravel, she is in France with Maximum
Tolerable Chins. Oh, dear!)
Oh, wow, I can’t tell you how much I like Lady
Charlotte. Besides excellent plot and
characters, there are so many highlight-worthy lines sprinkled in the prose. One should gobble this series up.
6. The
Elemental Trilogy, by Sherry
Thomas
The Burning Sky, Book 1
The Perilous Sea, Book 2
The Immortal Heights, Book 3
This trilogy has me hooked in the first 100
words. Check out the prologue to this trilogy—might
be my favorite start to a book ever.
7. Eleanor
Oliphant Is Completely Fine,
by Gail Honeyman. This and the next one
made lots of booklists this year. The story is a bit odd, because Eleanor is,
but if we read fiction not only for enjoyment but also to experience the depths
of the human experience, this one is a must read. And an ENORMOUS one sentence twist at the end
that made my heart stop. 
8. Where
the Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens.
A debut novel that made the fiction world stand up and take notice (and gave me
hope that I have a few more decades before I have to write a best selling
novel). This one I finished and immediately wanted to talk to someone about
it. Really excellent.
[Brandon Sanderson is, fortunately, a prolific and masterful
storyteller. He brilliantly creates entire
universes and original characters. I resisted reading him for so long, but his
name showed up on every list that includes the best of the best: Patrick
Rothfuss, Michael J. Sullivan, Jim Butcher.
I made up for lost time in 2019.]
9. Starsight series, by Brandon Sanderson
Skyward,
Book 1
Starsight,
Book 2
10. The
Reckoners trilogy, by Brandon Sanderson
Steelheart,
Book 1
Firefight,
Book 2
Calamity,
Book 3
11. Stormlight series, will supposedly be 10 books long,
and at 1200 pages per book…gulp, by Brandon Sanderson
The
Way of Kings - Kaladin's flashbacks.
Words
of Radiance - Shallan's flashbacks.
Oathbringer -
Dalinar's flashbacks.
Best in Nonfiction (I didn’t read that much
nonfiction this year, but I went for important, if not pleasant).
Equipped for Reading Success, by David A. Kilpatrick. Kilpatrick is a god
in the dyslexia world and science of reading.
I was able to immediately put into practice excellent phonological practices
with Wesley. All K-2 teachers should
access this text and all excellent 3-12th graders should understand
his work. I finally *got* orthographic
mapping.
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story
That Helped Ignite a Movement, by
Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey. A super
important read but not a fun one. I
couldn’t quite make it through the last section on Dr. Blasey Ford’s
testimony—too soon and ulcer inducing. (I absolutely believe Dr. BF, hence the
ulcers.)
Unbelievable: The Story of Two Detectives'
Relentless Search for the Truth, by
T. Christian Miller and Ken Armstrong.
Ugh, also too horrible in concept, but the writing was straight forward
and clear, telling the true tale of a too-clever serial rapist. The lasting damage done to an already damaged
young women just aged out of the foster system was make even more painful for
being a local case. My ulcer is acting
up just remembering it. But again, too
important to let the discomfort of reading to
The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s
Broken Education System--and How to Fix It, by Wexler, Natalie. When I started
homeschooling Wes, I adopted the Core Knowledge curriculum. It’s free online (though I pay to have the
workbooks and readers printed for me, but save money by accessing the online
teacher’s text). I love CKLA because it
uses explicit instruction to teacher Language Arts and focuses on knowledge—history,
science, geography, in addition to a wide variety of genres withing decodable
readers. I’m a HUGE fan of teaching knowledge, so I was the choir that smugly
picked up hymnal. She argues for a
knowledge-based curriculum over skills-based, and that sounds counter intuitive
at first, but I could bore you to death about it in person. First of all, think of it as a
chicken-and-egg problem. Which comes
first: background knowledge so you understand what you are reading, or reading
to build your background knowledge? The
answer: yes.
Educated: A
memoir, by Tara Westover. Possibly the most poignant
and painful book I read this year. Kyla
listened to it on Audible first, and had I read it first, I wouldn’t have
forbidden her to read it, but probably would have cautioned her to wait years
and years. Bill Gates had it on his 2018
recommended reads.
Honorable Mentions:
The
Nickel Boys, by Colson
Whitehead
The
Night Tiger, by Yangsze Choo
Before
Green Gables, by Budge Wilson
The
Rosie Result (Don Tillman
Book 3), by Graeme Simsion
When
the Men Were Gone, by Marjorie
Herrera Lewis
The
Ocean at the End of the Lane,
by Neil Gaiman
The
Good Luck Girls of Shipwreck Lane: A Novel and The Overdue Life of Amy Byler
by Kelly Harms
*You
Can Thank Me Later (novella)
by Kelly Harms, but I think only available in Audible. I think she finally wrote an excellent story,
and not just cotton candy that faded on the last page.
Tween
and Teen, Worth a Read:
*Counting
by 7s, by Holly Goldberg Sloan
*Forever,
or a Long, Long Time, by Caela Carter
The
Many Reflections of Miss Jane Deming,
by Coats, J. Anderson
Far
from the Tree, by Robin Benway
A
Boy Called Bat, by Elana K.
Arnold
**The
Pumpkin War, by Cathleen
Young
The
Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things, by Carolyn Mackler
Eight
Keys, by LaFleur, Suzanne M.
Meh Books:
I did the reading so you don’t have to
The
Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue
(Montague Siblings Book 1), by Mackenzie Lee
The
Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy
(Montague Siblings #2), by Mackenzi Lee
Tomboy:
A Graphic Memoir, by Liz Prince
All
Summer Long, by Hope Larson
**How
I Became A Ghost, A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story, by Tingle, Tim
**When
A Ghost Talks, Listen, A Choctaw Trail of Tears Story, by Tingle, Tim
_____________________________
* Extra recommended
** Wes loved me reading these aloud to him
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