I love year-end lists. I read them even if I’m not interested in the subject, just for the wonder of it, like The Year in Potatoes, or Messiest Celebrity Break-Ups of 2019. So I look forward to my annual list of what I read each year. I hope you’ll find it interesting, too. As always, there is no annotation (although I do keep notes for myself after each book I read). They are listed according to when I read them, early in the year to the one just finished. There is no mention of what I liked best or what I didn’t like at all (alas, there were a couple of those this year). And also, again, poetry is not included. I suppose I just read poetry so differently that I don’t keep track of it in the same way. But there were so many wonderful collections out this year, I would like to at least give a nod to these fine poets: Colin Bell, Noel Duffy, Pascale Petit, Justin Ahren, Danez Smith, Lucia Orellana-Damacela, Myra Schneider (all of whom can be googled). And now for the list:
- Joyce Carol Oates, Hazards of Time Travel
- Colin Bell, Blue Notes Still Frames
- VG Lee, Mr. Oliver’s Object of Desire
- Andrew Sean Greer, Less
- Andrew Sean Greer, The Impossible Lives of Greta Welt
- Paul Theroux, The Great Railway Bazaar
- Alex Kotlowitz, An American Summer
- Sigrid Nunez, The Friend
- Leigh Forbes, Conversations with My Children
- Elizabeth Becker, When the War Was Over
- J.D.Vance, Hillbilly Elegy
- Mark Kurlansky, Ready for a Brand New Beat: How ‘Dancing in the Street’ Became the Anthem for a Changing America
- John McPhee, Draft #4
- Madeline Miller, Circe
- Richard Russo, Chances Are…
- Carson McCullers, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
- Terry Hayes, I Am Pilgrim
- Mary Norris, Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen
- James Ryan, Wait. What?
- Barbara Kingsolver, Unsheltered
- Holden Thorp/Buck Goldstein, Our Higher Calling: Rebuilding the Partnership Between America and Its Colleges and Universities
Happy reading, everyone. Happy holidays, too. See you next year!!
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