My Best Reads of 2019

Happy holidays! A year passes so quickly. Sharing book recommendations has been one of my favorite ways to stay connected with friends both far and near. I shared my Best of 2018 last year, so here is the best of 2019.

2019 was the year of the DNF: did not finish. I started and stopped so many books; I was a fickle reader. But I loved what I finished, and have a few recommendations to share. What were your top reads in 2019?

Top sources for book ideas:

• Book Riot, especially the Read Harder Challenge ideas
• Indie Next List from Indiebound, the independent bookstore association
• NPR Book Concierge
• Well Read Black Girl

2019 obsessions: this year I read multiple books about space (moon landing anniversary), spies, data visualization, Jane Austen reinterpretations, and Victorian lady detective mysteries.

Top Fiction

Ayesha at Last by Uzma Jalaluddin – one of four(!) Jane Austen reinterpretations I read this year; Ayesha Shamsi is a hijabi teacher in Toronto with dreams of becoming a poet. Her foil, conservative mama’s boy Khalid Mirza, is just as aloof as Mr. Darcy. You know how it’s going to end before you pick it up, but I still enjoyed guessing how Jalaluddin would spin the tale. If you like this, you will also like Unmarriageable by Soniah Kamal, also published in 2019.

Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – My second pick involves…bear with me…necromancers in space. Duos from nine ancient houses are brought together to compete for a chance at immortality. Gideon, from the near-moribund Ninth House, must support her frenemy Harrow through the challenge. It’s not perfect, but it was compelling. The Westing Game meets Harry Potter with a dash of Breakfast Club. Deeply weird, and stuck with me long after I closed the book.

Top Short Story

Exhalation by Ted Chiang – short story collections are always a little uneven, but Ted Chiang’s sci-fi meditations on humanity and technology captured my attention, particularly the titular story, “Exhalation.”

Top Nonfiction

Greek to Me: Adventures of the Comma Queen by Mary Norris – former New Yorker copywriter Mary Norris takes us on an exuberant journey to Greece, a country she grew to love over 20+ years of study and travel. Morris’ enthusiasm for the subject leaps off the page. I read this quick memoir in one plane ride. Now looking for tickets to Athens…….

Thick: And Other Essays by Tressie McMillan Cottom – professor and sociologist McMillan Cottom straddles the line between academic and popular writing. I picked up Thick after reading her essay in Time, “I was pregnant and in crisis. All doctors saw was an incompetent black woman,” which is reprinted in Thick. You may not agree with all of her conclusions, but she makes you think hard about your own assumptions.

Top Graphic Novel/Memoir

Eternity Girl by Magdalene Visaggio – if you liked Spider Man: Into the Spider-verse, you’ll like Visaggio’s comic about a girl with eternal life, who is torn between saving the universe and ending it.

Hot Comb by Ebony Flowers – Flowers uses stories about her hair to talk about self-image, racism, and class.

Top Professional Development/Self Improvement

Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic – I became obsessed with improving the readability of my charts after I worked on a project this year which required dozens of them. Knaflic’s is the best generalist take on data visualization that I found. She even provides sample “clean-ups” and improvements. Anyone who makes charts will benefit from skimming this book. She just came out with a workbook with more practice. My favorite tip: human brains process stacks of horizontal bars better than pie charts. I’ll never Pie again.

Rituals for Work by Kursat Ozenc, PhD and Margaret Hagan, PhD – I’m a believer that rituals and shared values cement a team. Rituals for Work is occasionally too woo-woo for my cold finance heart, but I enjoyed learning what other companies do and thinking about how rituals build team culture.

Top Cookbook

The Food of Sichuan by Fuchsia Dunlop – this is an upgraded reissue of a 2003 cookbook, with more pictures and refreshed recipes. If you want one accessible Chinese cookbook, you can’t go wrong with Dunlop’s. Her love of Chinese cuisine – and her ability to guide you through cooking it – is incredible. Do not settle for the Kindle edition. You need the physical copy in your hands.

My books for the holiday break:

• Emma (fiction)– as soon as I saw the trailer for the upcoming movie, I knew I needed a reread. It’s much more fun as a second read than it was when I was forced to read it in high school.
• American Spy (fiction) – espionage is one of my obsessions. FBI agent Marie Mitchell is recruited for a secret mission involving the leader of Burkina Faso. Who is she loyal to, and who is loyal to HER?
• Over the Top by Jonathan Van Ness (memoir): in high school my house was the spot where friends gathered for Chinese food and the original “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” on Tuesday nights. So I’ve always had a soft spot for the Queer Eye guys. I bought this for my little sister’s Christmas gift; I plan to intercept, read, and rewrap before she knows any better.

Have a happy holiday, and looking forward to many more reads with you in 2020.