My Favorite Books of 2019

This list is made up of my favorite books I read in 2019, regardless of publication year.

Nonfiction

Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs: I’ve read bits of this before, but not altogether. Extraordinary book, extraordinary woman.
The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom: Another book by an extraordinary woman, and disturbingly relevant to the 21st century.
American Nightingale: The Story of Frances Slanger, Forgotten Heroine of Normandy by Bob Welch: I’m sensing a theme of extraordinary women here…
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose by Flannery O’Connor: A really great collection of published/unpublished talks and essays about writing, religion, life, and literature.
Dragon Lords: The History and Legends of Vikings in England by Eleanor Parker: What it says on the tin.
Tolkien and the Great War: The Threshold of Middle-Earth by John Garth: Possibly my favorite Tolkien biography ever? Although Humphrey Carpenter’s is hard to beat.
Homeric Moments: Clues to Delight in Reading the Odyssey and the Iliad by Eva Brann: Very nerdy and fun, but I only recommend it if you, you know, enjoy Homer at least a little already.

Adult Novels

Within the Sanctuary of Wings by Marie Brennan: The last book in the Lady Trent series, about a Victorian-analogue lady who just wants to study dragons in their natural habitat.
The Chanur Saga 1-3 by CJ Cherryh: I finally read Cherryh this year! She’s incredible! I love these dumb space-lions with all of my cold shriveled heart!
Ancestral Night by Elizabeth Bear: It took me a bit to get into this one, but I adore Bear space opera SO SO SO MUCH.
The Kindly Ones by Melissa Scott: I read a lot of Melissa Scott’s older stuff this year and this is a work of art. No questions at this time.
Welcome to Night Vale by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor:
Cyteen by CJ Cherryh: This genius book is really dark and really happy and I don’t know how to move on from it.
Regenesis by CJ Cherryh: A sequel to Cyteen and very different in some ways, but such a soft story about found family and about picking up the pieces after the big status-quo shift.
A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers: I adore every chapter, page, sentence, and word of this.
The Hanged Man by KD Edwards: The only urban fantasy I’ve found so far to fill the Ilona-Andrews-shaped home in my reading life.
Strong Poison by Dorothy Sayers: The only non-SFF on this list. I’ve been loving all of the Peter Wimsy novels but so far this is my favorite.
Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn: Thrawn was my least favorite part of this book and I like Thrawn quite a bit. I really want more space opera Star Wars like this.
X-Wing: Mercy Kill by Aaron Allston: Somehow this book packed in everything I love about the X-Wing series and non-Jedi Star Wars in general. Fantastic cast of characters, suspenseful story, aLL THE FEELS.

Young Adult Fiction

Slayer by Kiersten White: Set in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer universe, hilarious, scary, and cozy, and by one of my favorite living authors.
Death Prefers Blondes by Caleb Roehrig: Heists! Drag queens! Revenge!
Exit, Pursued by a Bear by EK Johnston: One of my favorite books of the decade, truly perfect, give respect, etc.
The Story of Owen by EK Johnston: Dragons! Family! Found family! Canada! Jokes!
The Afterward by EK Johnston: The aftermath of the epic quest, and the softest story ever.
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson: SDH’s books get better and better and better and, respectfully, it’s alarming.
Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon: Sometimes I get frustrated with YA, and then I come across an amazing piece of writing like this one.
Radio Silence by Alice Oseman: Friendship and podcasts! Podcasts and friendship!
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black: A perfect vampire book, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Call Down the Hawk by Maggie Stiefvater: A lot of nightmares packed into one book, but I loved it anyway.
Black Enough: Stories About Being Young and Black in America edited by Ibi Zoboi: One of the best short-story anthologies I’ve read. There are many gems in here.

Children’s Novels

Year of the Griffin by Diana Wynne Jones: Diana Wynne Jones is a genius.
Deep Secret by Diana Wynne Jones: Diana Wynne Jones is a gEniUs.
Nate Expectations by Tim Federle: The third in Tim Federle’s hilarious theater kid trilogy and an absolute gem.
Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez: VERY FUNNY AND WHIMSICAL.
Aru Shah and the Song of Death by Roshani Chokshi: Part of an epic ongoing series based on Hindu mythology.
Time of the Ghost by Diana Wynne Jones: [diana wynne jones is a genius]

Comics/Graphic Novels

The Royal Tutor 1-10 by Higasa Akai: One of the funniest things I read this year, a delight.
Runaways 1-3 by Rainbow Rowell: All-around incredible art, story, and characters.
Silver Spoon 1-10 by Hiromu Arakawa: This rich kid decides to quit fancy prep school and go to ag school instead and I never thought I would care so much about making food.
The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl 9-11 by Ryan North: This series, as the kids say, slaps. I wish more superhero comics were like this one.
Captain America 1 by Ta-Nehisi Coates: COATES DOES NOT HOLD BACK, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
Pumpkinheads by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks: Very cozy love story set at a fall festival. So much autumn joy packed into one book!
Strange Planet by Nathan W. Pyle: If you haven’t read the webcomic, go ahead and do that now.

Poetry

A Spring Harvest by Geoffrey Bache Smith
An American Sunrise by Joy Harjo

A Book for the Book Nerds

I recently read a fantastic book detailing the technology of books and bookshelves in the western world called The Book on the Bookshelf by Henry Petroski. I recommend reading it if you’re a bookworm or interested in learning about basic things that we take for granted.

The main questions this book answers are: “How and why did we get books in the form they are today? How and why did we get bookshelves in the form they are today?

The Book on the Bookshelf goes through the history of books in the western world, starting with scrolls, tablets, etc and going all the way through 1999 (when it was published), when e-readers were in development. This book is worth it if only for the (sometimes hilarious) speculation and analysis the potential effects of e-readers and e-books. It also goes into how we came to organize the books the way we do, and goes over the different ways of arranging books, which I found fascinating because I am constantly reorganizing my personal library.

However, whether or not you end up reading it, I’m going to share some (BUT NOT ALL) of my favorite facts that I learned from this book:

• capsae are adorable-looking hat-boxes that one could use to carry one’s scrolls about with them. I want to get some scrolls and then I want to get a capsae and I want to frolic around and whip out my scrolls whenever I need to look up fun facts.

  

  Online Source (this image of a capsae is also shown in The Book on the Bookshelf)

•  Apparently in the 11th century, English Benedictines had really strict rules on using the limited-and-precious books they had. In some monasteries, the librarian would assign ONE book per brother per year to read. At the end of the year, the librarian would gather all the brothers and read off their names and the book they had been assigned. If the brother had NOT read their assigned book, they had to confess their terrible literary sin on their knees to the librarian. I’m not saying we should bring this one back, but….
• Books were stored in locked chests, but eventually the chests were turned on one end and left open and shelves put in, leading to the first armarium which turned into bookshelves!
• Monasteries had the biggest collections of books until the Reformation, when they DESTROYED ALL THE MONASTERIES AND BURNED ALL THE BOOKS because no one has any religious chill. The printing press took a while to replace all of those big collections. Boo!
• Spines were considered ugly for a VERY LONG TIME, like until the 17th/18th centuries. Books were shelved with their spines facing the back, because no one wants to look at that ugly thing. Sometimes librarians used slips of paper sticking out of the pages to mark what book it was, since titles weren’t on the spines and the spines were facing the back.

 

There’s lots more where those came from! I really enjoyed this book, although I’d love to read something similar that looks at book technology around the world. This one didn’t often specify if/what technology we received from or gave to the middle-east, east, etc.

 

Hamilton Book Tag

I finally got around to doing the Hamilton book tag! You can watch the video below, or just read my answers to the prompts even further below.

Let me know if you end up doing this, too, because I want to read your answers!

THE QUESTIONS:

The Room Where It Happens (book world you would put yourself in): I would definitely choose Middle-Earth! I’ve spent years thinking about, reading about, and writing about that stupid place. I know all the best places to live, stop for coffee, or buy a horse.
The Schuyler Sisters (Underrated Female Character): Anne Elliott from Persuasion. She’s amazing and deserves so much more love than she gets. She’s sensible, not a show-off, kind, compassionate, observant, and loyal.
My Shot (A character that goes after what they want and doesn’t let anything stop them): I mean, I’m not sure if I should apply this in a good way or a bad way, but the first character that sprang to mind was Nathaniel from The Amulet of Samarkand. He is terrifyingly ambitious but also I love him.
Stay Alive (A character you wish was still alive): WOW UM SPOILERS for “The Tale of Beren and Luthien” (from The Silmarillion) but I’m still really upset about Finrod Felagund. I will probably always be really upset about Finrod Felagund.
Burn (The most heartbreaking end to a relationship you’ve ever read): SPOILERS for Doctrine of the Labyrinths series by Sarah Monette – um Felix and Gideon from The Mirador messed me up real bad.

You’ll Be Back (Sassiest villain): Piper Greenmantle from The Raven Cycle. I mean, she’s also terrifying and ice-cold, but she can be pretty hilarious. I almost picked her husband Colin but I think she’s better.
The Reynolds Pamphlet (A book with a twist that you didn’t see coming): Any book by Megan Whalen Turner, several books by Timothy Zahn
Non-stop (A series you marathoned): SO MANY but I’ll mention The Lord of The Rings because it involved stealing from my brother, and honorary mention goes to The Mortal Instruments trilogy because I could barely put those books down even though it was the middle of a college term and it was INCREDIBLY STRESSFUL.
Satisfied (Favorite book with multiple POVs): The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan, or any book in that series (The Heroes of Olympus).
Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Tells Your Story (A book/series you feel like will be remembered throughout history): The Lord of The Rings – I know I keep giving Tolkien answers but I can’t help how I feel! It’s already a classic, obviously, and so many of the themes and characters are universal, that even with its problematic elements I think it’s going to last a good long while!

BONUS QUESTIONS:

Helpless (A relationship you were pulling for from the very start): I can’t think of any that I didn’t think were going to eventually get together. But I really liked Kate and Curran from the Kate Daniels series immediately, and shipped them, even though they are both kinda jerks at first.
Ten Duel Commandments (Favorite fight scene): Any of the duels in Swordspoint by Ellen Kushner, but especially the opening chapter.
Say No To This (Guilty pleasure read): I don’t believe in guilty pleasure reads. I read them and love them or I don’t. But I think manga is the thing I get the most side-eyes for reading, and I know I’ve had to justify Fruits Basket more than once (even though it’s one of the best comic series, period, ever written).
What Comes Next (a series you wish had more books): The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, or Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones (there are 2 sequels but I want more, obviously).

Right Hand Man (Favorite BROTP): Sherlock Holmes and John Watson from Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories.
What’d I Miss (a book or series you were late to reading): I’m late to EVERYbook, let’s be real. I just recently read The Oresteian Trilogy by Aeschylus and that party has been around for over 2000 years…