As y’all know, I created an online book club over on Facebook called the Hello Gorgeous Book Club. I read the monthly picks along with the group most months, but the months that we choose a book that is not available on audio, I don’t get to participate. At this point in my life, I rarely find the time to sit down with enough quiet in my house to actually read a book. I have to listen to my books either on speaker while cooking or driving, or with headphones while working or cleaning the house.
In 2019, I set a personal goal of 50 books. Sadly, I didn’t hit my goal. In fact, I didn’t get anywhere near my goal. I completed 34 of my 50 book goal, which is decent considering the year we had.
I keep track of the books I read on Goodreads, which is also where I find the books I want to add to my “To Read” list. Goodreads is awesome because I can see what other readers thought about books, rated them and what else they recommend.
what I read in 2019
my favorites
If you want to see what I rated each book, you can check out my Goodreads account. I’ll round up my top five favorite books I read from 2019 instead of reviewing all 34.
- The Things We Cannot Say. It’s no secret that my favorite books are WWII novels. This is probably the best one I’ve read. I find myself guessing (correctly) the ending of books early on, so nothing makes me happier than a curve ball I didn’t see coming.
- Where the Crawdads Sing. We read this one in the book club and I totally devoured it. Talk about a twist at the end! Incredible writing and storytelling in one book. You won’t be able to put this one down.
- To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before Collection. Okay, I’m cheating here. This is actually a three book set, but I can’t pick just one, they’re all three so good! They’re technically YA books, but I think any woman could enjoy these easy reads. Jenny Han has become one of my favorite authors. I also read, “The Summer I Turned Pretty” series and really enjoyed them too. Book one was difficult for me to get through, but books two and three were really good.
- A Wedding in December. I love reading Christmas novels near the holidays, but I never have high expectations since they don’t tend to be well written. This book was the exception. It was well written and a fun story I hadn’t heard before in every Hallmark Christmas movie. It felt like it was written by Emily Giffin.
- Before We Were Yours. I didn’t expect to like this book as much as I did. It was another page turner for me. I feel like I had a bit of a hard time getting into it at first, but then couldn’t stop reading. *Warning: there are some terrible child related scenarios in this book so if you are sensitive (who isn’t?) to this topic, you may not be able to handle this book.
what about you?
What was the best book that you read in 2019? Any genre, any topic, any book is welcomed! I love hearing your suggestions!
The Hush Hush book series I completely devoured, twice. Lol. I even purchased it as I HAD to have it on my bookcase. Also, The Kiss Quotient was an amazing read, too!