Best Reads of 2019

One of my goals last year was to read a book each month.  I ended up surpassing this in a big way and am so excited to read even more in 2020.  I really missed the adventures that can be found within the pages of a book and am excited to share my official list of books read in 2019 with y'all today.  I hope this gives you some inspiration to add to your TBR (to be read) pile! 

I enjoy both fiction and nonfiction and try to read a mix of both to keep things interesting.  As you'll see from my list from 2019, I read a lot of historical fiction and "heavy" topics.  For particularly deep or emotional reads, I break it up between books with a little "book break" or something lighter for my next choice.

• How to Walk Away by Katherine Center - 4 stars
• Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center - 5 stars (reads like chick lit but has a beautiful deeper story!)
• All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood - 3.5 stars (very emotional)
• A Spark of Light by Jodi Picoult - 5 stars (very deep subject matter, thought provoking and beautifully written)
• The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena - 4 stars
• The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - 5 stars (historical fiction that will leave you needing Kleenex!)
• This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel - 4.5 stars (very timely discussion of a hot button issue)
• Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman - 3.5 stars
• Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah - 5 stars (sobbed my eyeballs out on an airplane with this one)
• The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah - 5 stars (extremely emotional read and dark subject)
• The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell by Robert Dugoni - 5 stars (beautifully written, recommended to so many friends!)
• Verity by Colleen Hoover - 5 stars (super dark and twisty, but well written)
• Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens - 4.5 stars
• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris - 5 stars (based on a true story, with obvious heavy subject)
• All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr - 4.5 stars (historical fiction)
• What Alice Forgot by Liane Mortiary - 3.5 stars
• Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult - 3.5 stars
• Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult - 5 stars (powerful story about a heavy topic)
• The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides - 3.5 stars
• The Valedictorian of Being Dead by Heather Armstrong - 4.5 stars (memoir about depression)
• Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman - 3 stars
• The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn - 4.5 stars

And... my favorite book of 2019, which was one of the first ones I picked up during the year, Educated by Tara Westover.  This stunning memoir stuck with me in serious ways.  I still talk about it and think about it months later and hope if there's one item on this list that you choose to pick up, that it's this one! 

Happy reading!