Season 2, Episode 23: Our Best Books of 2019

Meredith and Kaytee are back with the episode you’ve been waiting for. Our favorite books of 2019!

Rather than spending time on all our regular segments, we are diving right into the good stuff. No Bookish Moments, no Current Reads, no Deep Dive, no Pressed books, just a reflection on our 2019 reading year and then the top 10 lists you’ve been waiting for!

We are each sharing 10 books we LOVED this year (plus a couple bonus picks that we slide in under the radar). We do a lot of gushing, we have a lot of words, and we think this episode contains the real gems for us and readers like us.

If you have books you think we’ll love based on these lists, put them in the comments! If you agree or disagree with a pick, put that in the comments as well! We love hearing from you!

As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down! 

*Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*  

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Let’s Talk About Stats, Baby:

3:22 - Kaytee on Goodreads

3:23 - Kaytee’s spreadsheet (with excessive stats) comes from the BookRiot spreadsheet with some special modifications. You can grab a copy directly from BookRiot though! Patrons get my copy with all the bonus challenges and stats already included.

3:26 - 2020 Reading Journal

Top 10 Lists:

(Titles in Italics and parentheses are books we mentioned that are not part of the official top 10 list)

13:40 - Sweep by Jonathan Auxier

14:11 - (Peter Nimble and His Fantastic Eyes by Jonathan Auxier)

15:02 - Winterhouse by Ben Guterson

15:41 - (Secrets of Winterhouse by Ben Guterson - book 2)

15:46 - (The Winterhouse Mysteries by Ben Guterson - book 3)

16:14 - Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski

16:28 - (Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski)

17:08 - A Better Man by Louise Penny

18:50 - The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix Harrow

19:56 - The Whisper Man by Alex North

20:00 - (Book of the Month subscription)

20:59 - The Passengers by John Marrs

21:11 - (The One by John Marrs)

22:02 - The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye

22:11 - Episode when listeners press books into OUR hands

23:23 - Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts

25:08 - The Current by Tim Johnston

25:15 - (Shelf Subscription from Bookshelf Thomasville)

27:31 - White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo

29:28 - The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff

31:28 - (Sarah’s Bookshelves Life interview with Garrett)

32:00 - We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter

33:20 - American Royals by Katherine McGee

35:13 - The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal

37:06 - (Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry)

37:40 - (The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides)

37:44 - The Mother-In-Law by Sally Hepworth

39:41 - The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

39:57 - (Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead)

40:54 - The Fact of a Body by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich

42:39 - The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall

44:47 - A Curse So Dark and Lonely by Brigid Kemmerer