You guys! What a year of reading it has been! You can see all the books I've read in the archives here, but spoiler alert... according to Good Reads I read 60 books this year! Whoa! That is 5 more than my 55 book goal that I set for myself. And while that is A LOT of books, I always feel a little guilty this time of year thinking of all the scrolling on social media I did when I could've been reading. I still feel like I could've done more. I need to set a new goal for 2020. Maybe 65? 70? I'll have to think on that a bit.
In honor of 2019 reading wrapping up... here were some of my FAVORITES from 2019:
- The Great Alone (a story I still think about all the time)
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (if you've ever gone to therapy or thought about going)
- American Royals (fun and lighthearted Royal rom-com)
- The Dutch House (a moving and sad and happy family drama)
- This Tender Land (a sweeping saga that will make you laugh and cry)
- America's First Daughter (solid historical fiction)
- The Royals (a primer for all things Royal from insider sources)
- The Family Upstairs (creepy family drama that I couldn't put down)
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Now let's get to what I read for the past few months... there were some really great titles here and I have to say some of these were some of the best I read all year!
The Conscious Closet: The Revolutionary Guide to Looking Good While Doing Good by Elizabeth L. Cline
Book Blurb: Whether your goal is to build an effortless capsule wardrobe, keep up with trends without harming the environment, buy better quality, seek out ethical brands, or all of the above, The Conscious Closet is packed with the vital tools you need. Elizabeth delves into fresh research on fashion’s impacts and shows how we can leverage our everyday fashion choices to change the world through style. Inspired by her own revelatory journey getting off the fast-fashion treadmill, Elizabeth shares exactly how to build a more ethical wardrobe, starting with a mindful closet clean-out and donating, swapping, or selling the clothes you don't love to make way for the closet of your dreams.
The Conscious Closet is not just a style guide. It is a call to action to transform one of the most polluting industries on earth—fashion—into a force for good. Readers will learn where our clothes are made and how they’re made, before connecting to a global and impassioned community of stylish fashion revolutionaries. In The Conscious Closet, Elizabeth shows us how we can start to truly love and understand our clothes again—without sacrificing the environment, our morals, or our style in the process.
My Review: This is a SOLID book for getting your closet under control and for beginning to think about making more sustainable choices with clothing. I loved that this book didn't preach at the reader about how terrible the fashion industry is (it actually kind of is - yikes!) but instead gave really practical advice on how to make better fashion choices. This book also contains a lot of tips on organizing your closet, purging your closet and making better long term clothing choices in general. I'm not perfect when it comes to making clothing decisions, but I'm constantly working on it. I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it. I got this one from the library but I could see the value of purchasing it to review and refer back to from time to time. I rate this book an 8/10.
The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley
Book Blurb: After the death of her sister, Eva Ward leaves Hollywood behind to return to the only place she feels she truly belongs, the old house on the coast of Cornwall, England. She's seeking comfort in memories of childhood summers, but what she finds is mysterious voices and hidden pathways that sweep her not only into the past, but also into the arms of a man who is not of her time. But Eva soon discovers that the man, Daniel Butler, is very, very real and is thrown into a world of intrigue, treason, and love.
Inside the old house, Eva must confront her own ghosts, as well as those of long ago. And as she begins to question her place in the present, she realizes she must decide where she really belongs: in the life she knows or the past she feels so drawn towards.
My review: This is a classic Susanna Kearsley novel. It's a great love story, a lot of history and a little bit fantastical. This time traveling historical fiction was just what you would expect from this author. I have read lots of her books and have enjoyed each one. I think they make for the best winter reading because they are quite cozy and atmospheric. I rate this book an 8/10. My favorites by this author are: The Winter Sea and Mariana. But they are all so good!
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett
Book Blurb: When her corgis stray into a mobile library parked near Buckingham Palace, the Queen feels duty-bound to borrow a book. Discovering the joy of reading widely (from J. R. Ackerley, Jean Genet, and Ivy Compton-Burnett to the classics) and intelligently, she finds that her view of the world changes dramatically. Abetted in her newfound obsession by Norman, a young man from the royal kitchens, the Queen comes to question the prescribed order of the world and loses patience with the routines of her role as monarch. Her new passion for reading initially alarms the palace staff and soon leads to surprising and very funny consequences for the country at large.
My review: The perfect short read (it's only about 100 pages!) for a book lover and royal watcher alike! This was a darling little story and had a very fun and unexpected twist at the end. If you are a fan of the Royals you will no doubt get a kick out of this adorable novella. I rate this book an 8/10.
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
Book Blurb: On a hot July night on Cape Cod when Adrienne was fourteen, her mother, Malabar, woke her at midnight with five simple words that would set the course of both of their lives for years to come: Ben Souther just kissed me.
Adrienne instantly became her mother’s confidante and helpmate, blossoming in the sudden light of her attention, and from then on, Malabar came to rely on her daughter to help orchestrate what would become an epic affair with her husband’s closest friend. The affair would have calamitous consequences for everyone involved, impacting Adrienne’s life in profound ways, driving her into a precarious marriage of her own, and then into a deep depression. Only years later will she find the strength to embrace her life—and her mother—on her own terms.
My review: This book was heartbreaking and beautiful while I read it - but with some more distance from it I also find it a little disturbing too. Mother and daughter relationships are so tricky and this one was really out there. I felt so much for each of the characters but was also frustrated at the situations they found themselves in, by their own decisions. I couldn't put this book down though. It's a memoir that reads like fiction. I rate this book a 7/10. For more memoirs about family that are so good you can't put them down I suggest: Inheritance, Educated, The Sound of Gravel and The Glass Castle.
My Friend Anna by Rachel DeLoache Williams
Book Blurb: Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel DeLoache Williams’s new friend Anna Delvey, a self-proclaimed German heiress, was worldly and ambitious. She was also generous—picking up the tab for lavish dinners at Le Coucou, infrared sauna sessions at HigherDOSE, drinks at the 11 Howard Library bar, and regular workout sessions with a celebrity personal trainer.
When Anna proposed an all-expenses-paid trip to Marrakech at the five-star La Mamounia hotel, Rachel jumped at the chance. But when Anna’s credit cards mysteriously stopped working, the dream vacation quickly took a dark turn. Anna asked Rachel to begin fronting costs—first for flights, then meals and shopping, and, finally, for their $7,500-per-night private villa. Before Rachel knew it, more than $62,000 had been charged to her credit cards. Anna swore she would reimburse Rachel the moment they returned to New York.
Back in Manhattan, the repayment never materialized, and a shocking pattern of deception emerged. Rachel learned that Anna had left a trail of deceit—and unpaid bills—wherever she’d been. Mortified, Rachel contacted the district attorney, and in a stunning turn of events, found herself helping to bring down one of the city’s most notorious con artists.
My review: This was stressful to read it was such a rollercoaster! Even afterwards I felt almost leftover anxiety from the entire debacle. What a story! I vaguely remember reading an article about this whole thing somewhere online and when I saw it was a whole book I couldn't wait to read it. I couldn't put it down and was really impressed by the authors ability to piece together her time spent with this con woman. This is a great juicy read! I rate this book 7/10.
The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Book Blurb: Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am.
She soon learns not only the identity of her birth parents, but also that she is the sole inheritor of their abandoned mansion on the banks of the Thames in London’s fashionable Chelsea neighborhood, worth millions. Everything in Libby’s life is about to change. But what she can’t possibly know is that others have been waiting for this day as well—and she is on a collision course to meet them.
Twenty-five years ago, police were called to 16 Cheyne Walk with reports of a baby crying. When they arrived, they found a healthy ten-month-old happily cooing in her crib in the bedroom. Downstairs in the kitchen lay three dead bodies, all dressed in black, next to a hastily scrawled note. And the four other children reported to live at Cheyne Walk were gone.
My review: If you need an unbelievable page turner to get you through the cold and gloomy winter days, this is it! It's incredibly dark and twisted and really kept me guessing. I just could not stop reading it! This would make a great book club selection because there is just SO much to discuss too. I highly recommend it! I rate this book 9/10. Other twisty and atmospheric family dramas I loved are: The Dutch House and The Immortalists.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Book Blurb: Zachary Ezra Rawlins is a graduate student in Vermont when he discovers a mysterious book hidden in the stacks. As he turns the pages, entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, key collectors, and nameless acolytes, he reads something strange: a story from his own childhood. Bewildered by this inexplicable book and desperate to make sense of how his own life came to be recorded, Zachary uncovers a series of clues—a bee, a key, and a sword—that lead him to a masquerade party in New York, to a secret club, and through a doorway to an ancient library hidden far below the surface of the earth. What Zachary finds in this curious place is more than just a buried home for books and their guardians—it is a place of lost cities and seas, lovers who pass notes under doors and across time, and of stories whispered by the dead. Zachary learns of those who have sacrificed much to protect this realm, relinquishing their sight and their tongues to preserve this archive, and also of those who are intent on its destruction. Together with Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired protector of the place, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances, Zachary travels the twisting tunnels, darkened stairwells, crowded ballrooms, and sweetly soaked shores of this magical world, discovering his purpose—in both the mysterious book and in his own life.
My review: I was SO excited to read this after loving this author's previous book. And I was SO let down. This book started really well and I loved where the story line was going. But the plot majorly stalled in the middle - and it's a quite long book - and never really recovered. I tried skimming the last half of the book but even that was so boring just to skim it. If you want something similar but that reads quicker I suggest The Shadow of the Wind and if you haven't read this authors first book The Night Circus I can highly recommend that. This book didn't hold a candle to these two though, sadly. I rate this book 1/10. One point for a good idea, 9 points docked for not really following through on it.
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Book Blurb: 1932, Minnesota—the Lincoln School is a pitiless place where hundreds of Native American children, forcibly separated from their parents, are sent to be educated. It is also home to an orphan named Odie O’Banion, a lively boy whose exploits earn him the superintendent’s wrath. Forced to flee, he and his brother Albert, their best friend Mose, and a brokenhearted little girl named Emmy steal away in a canoe, heading for the mighty Mississippi and a place to call their own.
Over the course of one unforgettable summer, these four orphans will fly into the unknown and cross paths with others who are adrift, from struggling farmers and traveling faith healers to displaced families and lost souls of all kinds.
My review: This book is going to be on A LOT of "best books of 2019" for sure. This was compulsively readable and I could not put this book down. I really did not want to say goodbye to these characters either. It's so heartbreaking but beautiful at the same time. Your heart will be warmed. I rate this book a 9/10.
Currently reading:
The Glittering Hour (loving it so far!)
