A Look Back on My Books of 2019.

Merry Christmas!!  Sending you warm thoughts with wishes of a healthy, happy, and book-filled new year!

Originally I was going to list my favorite books of the year, but that turned out to be an impossible task because all of the books I read this year were excellent. I couldn’t choose a favorite. Having said that, I did put a star by the ones that you might want to float to the top of your list if you are having a hard time deciding which one to read first.   

Historical Fiction:

• ¬The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michele Richardson (historical references to the pack horse program during the 1930s and blue people of Kentucky)

• The Autobiography of Mrs. Tom Thumb by Melanie Benjamin (Based on a woman who was 2’8” tall)

• The Girls in the Picture by Melanie Benjamin (about silent film star Mary Pickford and screenwriter Frances Marion)

• I Always Loved You by Robin Oliveira (about Mary Cassatt’s relationship with Edgar Degas and Berthe Morisot’s relationship with Edouard Manet)

• The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri (refugees from Syria)  

Historical Fiction About WWII:

• ¬Beneath the Scarlet Sky by Mark Sullivan (based on a true story of Italian resistance and espionage in WWII) 

• We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter (based on a true family’s survival in WWII)

• The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris (based on a true couple who fall in love in Auschwitz)

• The Last Train to London by Meg Waite Clayton (based on the true Kindertransport before WWII)

Fiction:

• ¬A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (destined to be a literary classic)

• Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman (hilarious)

• Uncommon Type by Tom Hanks (short stories)

• The Lager Queen of Minnesota by J. Ryan Stradal (sister dynamics and the beer industry)

• Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald (a time-traveling romance) 

• The Curse of the Werepenguin by Allan Woodrow (laugh-out-loud kids’ book)

• The Code of the Woosters by P.G. Wodehouse (slapstick classic)

Memoirs:

• ¬Educated by Tara Westover (despite an oppressive home life, a girl defiantly gets an education) 

• Twenty Chickens for a Saddle by Robyn Scott (a girl growing up in Africa)

• Bill Bryson’s African Diary (from 2002 trip)

Non-Fiction:

• ¬Letters of a Woman Homesteader by Elinore Pruitt Stewart (real letters from a woman in Wyoming in 1900s)

• The Private Lives of the Impressionists by Sue Roe (art) 

• Night Witches by Bruce Myles (about the real female Russian pilots fighting the Germans in WWII)

• The Library Book by Susan Orlean (the L.A. library fire in 1986)

• Bad Girls Throughout History by Ann Shen (compilation of 100 notable women)

• Beneath the Tamarind Tree by Isha Sesay (the abduction of almost 300 girls in Nigeria)

• The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu (self-help book on joy)

• Creepy and True: Mummies Exposed by Kerri Logan Hollihan (kids’ book about mummies)

Happy Reading!

Annette