Books I Read in 2019

Here's my annual "Books I Read" post, the most recent book read being the one at the top of the list.

I started keeping a list of books I've read a long time ago, but seemed to lose interest (or lose the list) before the year ended.  It became easier to do once I started keeping the list on my laptop.  I have linked the past several years in the sidebar of my blog, and it's surprising how often I will go back to a past year to see what I read.  

And, it's fun to mix the list with another favorite thing - art.

Enjoy!

This year I read a lot of books about Paris, particularly books about women working within The Resistance in Paris.  There were many, and those that I read were interesting, well researched and I learned a great many things.

Those books have also been included in my Paris Reading List here -  http://www.meanderingsandmuses.com/2018/01/my-paris-reading-list.html

This is the time of year when we see a lot of "Best of" lists.  

Or "My Favortes" lists.

And often they're limited to "Top Ten."

Being a lover of lists of all kinds, these book lists are fun for me.

I've tried to do the Top Ten thing, but it sometimes grows to twenty, so instead I just do this "What I Read" list.  If it's on this list, I liked it.  If I start reading a book and it doesn't speak to me fairly quickly, I put it down.  I'm not one to finish a book simply because I started it. 

If, over the years, you've discovered that we have similar taste in books, then you may find some here that you'll enjoy.  If you look for a book you see on this list and find it hasn't been published yet that means I was lucky enough to have received an Advance Reading Copy through NetGalley.com or from the publisher, the author, or a reviewer.  Be patient - it's probably worth the wait!

My favorite book of 2019?

A Gentleman in Moscow 

by Amor Towles

Sycamore Row by John Grisham

The Ringmaster's Wife by Kristy Cambron

Park Avenue Summer by Renée Rosen 

Cilka's Journey by Heather Morris  

One Night Gone by Tara Laskowski 

Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey

Everything We Give by Kerry Lonsdale

Everything We Left Behind by Kerry Lonsdale

The Book of Candlelight by Ellery Adams 

Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale

A Hall of Keys and No Doors by Emmie Mears


Whispers of War by Julia Kelly 

The Queen of Paris A Novel of Coco Chanel by Pamela Binnings Ewen 

The Place we Call Home by Faith Hogan

Christmas in Paris by Anita Hughes

The Girls Weekend by Jody Gehrman 

Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine 

House on Fire by Joseph Finder

From Sea to Stormy Sea edited by Lawrence Block

• A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky
• Nothing More Dangerous by Allen Eskens
• The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern

• Revolver Road by Christi Daugherty
• Hid From Our Eyes by Julia Spencer-Fleming
• Tell Me a Story by Cassandra King Conroy

• The Paris Girl by Natalie Meg Evans 
• The Secret Vow by Natalie Meg Evans
• Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia

• Pretty Things by Janelle Brown 
• A Murderous Tangle by Sally Goldenbaum 
• The Majolica Murders by Deborah Morgan

• Four on the Floor by Deborah Morgan
• The Wedding Casket by Deborah Morgan
• The Seedless Widow by Deborah Morgan
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• Death is a Cabaret by Deborah Morgan
• The Dressmaker's Gift by Fiona Valpy
• The Paris Orphan by Natasha Lester

• The Islanders by Meg Mitchell Moore
• All About Evie by Cathy Lamb 
• Chances Are . . . by Richard Russo 

• The Lost Vintage by Ann Mah
• Vendetta in Death by J. D. Robb
• Thin Ice by Paige Shelton 

• The World Came to Us by Molly D. Campbell 
• Moonlight Over Paris by Jennifer Robson
• Rules of Civility by Armor Towles

 

• Pretty Little Things by Lori Rader-Day
• Lady Clementine by Marie Benedict 
• A Bitter Feast by Deborah Crombie 

• Paper Son by S. J. Rozan
• The Stranger Inside by Lisa Unger 
• Murder in Rat Alley by Mark de Castrique 

• We Are All Good People Here by Susan Rebecca White 
• Let it Snow by Nancy Thayer 
• The Golden Oldies Guesthouse by Dee MacDonald 

• How the Dead Speak by Val McDermid 
• The Old Success by Martha Grimes 
• Once and Always Murder by Orania Papazooglou

• The Art of Regret by Mary Fleming 
• The Confession Club by Elizabeth Berg 
• Reputation by Sara Shepard 

• The Travelers by Regina Porter 
• We Went to the Woods by Caite Dolan-Leach 
• Travel as a Political Act by Rick Steves

• The Room on Rue Amelie by Kristin Harmel
• Murder Off the Page by Con Lehane 
• The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell 

• Almost Paradise by Susan Isaacs
• The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott
• Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay

• Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner
• My Ex-Best Friend's Wedding by Wendy Wax
• Be Careful What You Wish For by Hallie Ephron 

• City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
• A Bias for Murder by Sally Goldenbaum 
• A Wedding in the Beach by Holly Chamberlin 

• When We Believed In Mermaids by Barbara O'Neal 
• Lacewood by Jessica James 
• A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler 

• Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
• All the Flowers in Paris by Sarah Jio 
• The Paris Winter by Imogen Robertson

• The Favorite Daughter by Patti Callahan Henry
• The Book Supremacy by Kate Carlisle 
• Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank
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• Whispering in French by Sophia Nash
• A Better Man by Louise Penny 
• A Thread of Darkness by Sally Goldenbaum 

• Dragonfly by Leila Meacham 
• Beyond the Horizon by Ella Carey 
• Borrowed Time by Tracy Clark 

• Broken Places by Tracy Clark
• Summer of '69 by Elin Hilderbrand 
• The Murder List by Hank Phillippi Ryan 

• A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
• The Swallows by Lisa Lutz 
• Surfside Sisters by Nancy Thayer 

• The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow 
• Resistance Women by Jennifer Chiaverini 
• Cape May by Chip Cheek 

• A Bouquet of Rue by Wendy Hornsby
• The Loveliest Chocolate Shop in Paris by Jenny Colgan 
• The Book Charmer by Karen Hopkins 

• The Better Sister by Alafair Burke 
• The World That We Knew by Alice Hoffman 
• This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger 

• Haunting Paris by Mamta Chaudhry 
• A Patchwork of Clues by Sally Goldenbaum 
• Whisper Network by Chandler Baker 

• I Know You by Erik Therme 
• The Summer Guests by Mary Alice Monroe 
• If She Wakes by Michael Koryta 

• Careless Love by Peter Robinson
• The Mykonos Mob by Jeffrey Siger 
• The Paris Writers Circle by Norma Hopcraft

• Until the Day I Die by Emily Carpenter 
• Run Away by Harlan Cohen 
• Under Currents by Nora Roberts 

• The Night Visitors by Carol Goodman 
• The Last Collection by Jeanne Mackin 
• A Late Hard Frost by Stephanie Joyce Cole
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• Compass North by Stephanie Joyce Cole
• The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis 
• City of Windows by Robert Pobi 

• Bruno, Chief of Police by Martin Walker
• Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald 
• See You in the Piazza by Frances Mayes 

• The Girl Across the Street by Vikki Patis 
• Man of the Year by Caroline Louise Walker 
• Mine by Courtney Cole 

• The Third Mrs. Durst by Ann Aguirre 
• Judgment by Joseph Finder 
• Blood Oath by Linda Fairstein 

• The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths 
• The Royal Secret by Lucinda Riley 
• Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews 

• Good Riddance by Elinor Lipman
• Secrets of Willow House by Susanne O'Leary 
• Wolfhunter River by Rachel Caine 

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• Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah
• The Beantown Girls by Jane Healey 
• The Peacock Emporium by JoJo Moyes 

• The Paris Seamstress by Natasha Lester
• Connections in Death by J. D. Robb
• I'll Never Tell by Catherine McKenzie 

• The Last Book Party by Karen Dukess 
• Peachtree Road by Anne Rivers Siddons
• Women Rowing North by Mary Pipher

• The Parisians by Marius Gabriel
• Paris, 7 a.m. by Lisa Wieland 
• Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin 

• The Probable Future by Alice Hoffman
• More than Words by Jill Santopolo
• Verses for the Dead by Lincoln & Child

• Without Reservations by Alice Steinbach
• Rosewood's Ashes by Aileen Schumacher
• Travels with Epicurus by Daniel Klein

• Tiger Lily by Jodi Lynn Anderson
• What the Dead Want by Norah Olson
• Our Prince of Scribes; Writers Remember Pat Conroy edited by Nicole Seitz and Jonathan Haupt
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Happy Reading, Everyone!