2019: The Year In Books

As we wrap up 2019, it is time to take a look back at the 28 books I read over the past year, an increase of 6 books over last year.  Of those 28, 7 were non-fiction and, of the 21 novels, only 3 were tied to a TV show.  Only one of the books came out of my dwindling “to-read” drawer, 19 were e-books, and, for the first time, there was 1 audio book.  I read nearly 9,500 pages, my second highest total of all time.

Once again, a majority of the books I read this year were by authors I’ve never read before. The 15 authors that I read for the first this year were:

  • Bill Clinton
  • Charles Willeford
  • Nell Scovell
  • Ernest Cline
  • Katrin Schumann
  • Lindy West
  • Luke Jennings
  • Agatha Christie
  • W. P. Kinsella
  • Aziz Ansari
  • John Gregory Betancourt
  • Julie Gregory
  • Mindy Kaling
  • Anthony Stevens
  • Louis Strauss
  • Dean Wesley Smith
  • Kristine Kathryn Rusch
  • Nell Zink
  • Stephanie Wittels Wachs

Jeffery Deaver and Karin Slaughter were the only authors that I read multiple titles from during 2019.

5 of the books I read were released this year, while 5 of them were released last century, with the oldest first published in 1934.

Finally, the breakdown by month.  My vacation to Hawaii in February and being off in December certainly helped pad its totals a tad bit.

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Book 27 (of 52) – Doxology

Doxology – Nell Zink

Nell Zink’s fifth novel, Doxology, is basically two inter-connected stories with a tragedy separating them.  The first half is the tale of a punk adjacent couple and their friend who somehow becomes a pop sensation.  When the World Trade Center is attacked on 9/11, the couple bring their daughter to Washington DC, leaving her with her grandparents, and the story follows her life, through high school, college, and the 2016 Presidential campaign, which leaves her pregnant and, in a twist of fate, headed back to New York and her parents.

I picked this book up after seeing a review in the Chicago Tribune calling it the “Gen-X novel of the year.”  I don’t know if I’m willing to go that far, but I enjoyed the work.  The first half more than the second, as the story of Pam and Daniel, and how the attacks of 9/11 changed their world, resonated a little more than the coming of age of Flora, who wants to save the world and works for the Jill Stein campaign.  I haven’t come into contact with Zink’s work before this, so I may keep a look out and see what else she has to offer.