2019: The 12th Annual Year in Books

This year I read 73 books, which is a lot! Last year I read 58 and my average for the previous decade of reading was 52 books per year. This is the second-most books I’ve read in a year (the most is 90), beating out 2015’s 71 books.

  •  Page count: 23,510. Interestingly, this is only about 1,300 more pages than last year, so I read a lot more books this year but they were shorter.
  • Library use: 30 of this year’s 73 books were from the library. I did start the year trying to read through books I already own, but the allure of the library is strong, especially because I have made it a weekly custom to ride my bike to the local branch.
  • Female/male authors: 58 books by women authors, 3 books with multiple authors that included men and women, and 12 just men. That means about 80% of the books I read this year were written by women, even excluding the mixed-gender authors.
  • Digital and analog: 42 ebooks, 31 paper books. ebooks are more convenient, especially when traveling or lounging in the bath, but I still enjoy paper books.
  • Fiction and non-fiction: 42 fiction, 31 non-fiction. I read a lot more non-fiction this year. I’m preoccupied with the world and what’s happening in it. I’m reading for the revolution.
  • Books in other languages: just one, though I started and abandoned several. 2020 may be more fruitful on this front.
  • Favorites: This is a lot of favorites, but I have good taste so it makes sense that a lot of the books I read would be that good. Looking at my list, I want to recommend almost everything as a favorite but I kept it to just these 10.

And now for the list!

Date FinishedTitleAuthor
1/1/19Read and Riot: A Pussy Riot Guide to ActivismNadya Tolokonnikova
1/8Cold SteelKate Elliott
1/10Crow After Roe: How “Separate But Equal” Has Become the New Standard In Women’s Health And How We Can Change ThatRobin Marty and Jessica Mason Pieklo
1/15Fighting Fascism: How to Struggle and How to Win Clara Zetkin
1/17She Would Be KingWeyétu Moore
1/28Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession Alice Bolin
2/2The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking, and the New Gospel of Adoption Kathryn Joyce
2/4My Sister, the Serial KillerOyinkan Braithwaite
2/18The Mortal WorldGenevieve Cogman
2/19The Third HotelLaure Van den Berb
2/21Roller GirlVictoria Jamieson
2/24Tomorrow’s KinNancy Kress
3/7If Tomorrow Comes Nancy Kress
3/18Terran Tomorrow Nancy Kress
3/21The Light BrigadeKameron Hurley
3/21Brillant ImperfectionEli Clare
4/2The Raven TowerAnn Leckie
4/9SemiosisSue Burke
4/12VoxChristina Dalcher
4/26Lost Children Archive: A NovelValeria Luiselli
4/29How Long ’til Black Future MonthN. K. Jemisin
5/1Handbook for a Post-Roe AmericaRobin Marty
5/8A Memory Called EmpireArkady Martine
5/13Wild SeedOctavia Butler
5/15The Poisoned City: Flint’s Water and the American Urban TragedyAnna Clark
5/24Ninety Percent of Everything: Inside Shipping, the Invisible Industry that Puts Clothes on Your Back, Gas in your Car, and Food on Your PlateRose George
5/26Mind of My MindOctavia Butler
5/31I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of LifeEd Yong
6/1El Espejo EnterradoCarlos Fuentes
6/5CirceMadeline Miller
6/13The Collected SchizophreniasEsmé Weijun Wang
6/20The Night TigerYangsze Choo
6/22Anti-Social Media: How Facebook Disconnects us and Undermines DemocracySiva Vaidhyanathan
6/26Mother of EdenChris Beckett
6/29Daughter of EdenChris Beckett
7/4The Big Nine: How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking Machines Could Warp HumanityAmy Webb
7/6The Water CureSopihe Mackintosh
7/13Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, WitchNeil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
7/16The Black God’s Drums P. Djèlí Clark
7/23Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for MenCaroline Criado Perez
7/24Storm of LocustsRebecca Roanhorse
7/27This Is How You Lose the Time WarAmal el-Mohtar, Max Gladstone
8/1How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention EconomyJenny Odell
8/10Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of LanguageGretchen McCulloch
8/13Late in the Day: A NovelTessa Hadley
8/15WitchmarkC.L. Polk
8/23Confessions of the FoxJordy Rosenberg
8/26Not Funny Ha-Ha: A Handbook for Something HardLeah Hayes
9/17House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian MafiaCraig Unger
9/17Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of PlantsRobin Wall Kimmerer
9/20Bring the War Home: The White Power Movement and Paramilitary AmericaKathleen Belew
9/22The TestamentsMargaret Atwood
9/27InlandTéa Obreht
10/4The Plot to Hack America: How Putin’s Cyberspies and WikiLeaks Tried to Steal the 2016 ElectionMalcolm Nance
10/14The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and GirlsMona Eltahawy
10/23New Suns: Original Speculative fiction by People of ColorNisi Shawl (editor)
10/29Archaeology from Space: How the Future Shapes Our PastSarah Parcak
11/4Burial Rights: A NovelHannah Kent
11/9Interference Sue Burke
11/11In the Dream House: A MemoirCarmen Maria Machado
11/16A Jewel Bright SeaClaire O’Dell
11/19Magic for LiarsSarah Gailey
11/23Silent SpringRachel Carson
11/26The Ten Thousand Doors of JanuaryAlix E. Harrow
11/30Inconspicuous Consumption: The Environmental Impact You Don’t Know You HaveTatiana Schlossberg
12/9Threads of Life: A History of the World through the Eye if a NeedleClare Hunter
12/10You Have the Right to Remain Fat: A ManifestoVirgie Tovar
12/16All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator Barry Levine and Monique el-Faizy
12/20You Look Like a Thing and I Love You: How Artificial Intelligence Works and Why It’s Making the World a Weirder PlaceJanelle Shane
12/23How to Be an AntiracistIbram X. Kendi
12/26Gideon the NinthTamsyn Muir
12/28ALL SYSTEMS REDMartha Wells
12/30Artificial Condition Martha Wells