Thinking back to the beginning of last month and knowing it was only a little over four weeks ago feels almost unbelievable. So much has changed and continues to change and it is a scary time for everyone. I have also felt a little vulnerable to share, even on this relatively small public platform because many of my feelings seem(are?) trivial in the larger scheme of things.
{image via Liz & Mollie}
Continue reading “Everything I Read in March 2020 {Book Recap & Ratings}”
It’s the time of the year where the end of the year recaps are everywhere! When thinking about how I wanted to share my own reading wrap up of 2019, I thought it might be fun to not only share mine but also include a bunch of my reading friend’s feedback from #bookstagram so that is what I am sharing today!
A few days ago I shared on #bookstagram HERE that I would love to include feedback from my fellow bookworms when I shared my reading recap of 2019.
I asked them to share their favorite books that they read in 2019, the ones that didn’t meet the hype and the ones they are looking forward to reading/publishing in 2020 and boy did they deliver!
SO many reading friends took the time to share their feedback and today I am excited to be sharing it with you!
I love posting my own reading wrap-ups and recommendations but I also love being able to share other people’s perspectives and genres that might be outside of what I tend to regularly read.
While putting this post together I loved seeing the wide variety of answers because it is just so fascinating that we all react to books so differently…even when we read similar titles!
This blog post is definitely a long one, but I am hoping it inspires your own reading lists and helps you discover some titles and authors you might not have previously heard of.
While not everyone on this list is a “book reviewer”, everyone is an avid reader and I loved the diversity this allowed for. If they do share books publicly, I included a link to their Instagram page for easy access along with their first names.
You will notice that some of the books that are shared below are either ARCs that have not been officially published yet and some people shared books that were highlights of their 2019 reading even if they were published in previous years.
I am including links to all of these books for easy access where you can easily see more details about each of these titles.
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim, The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff and A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum.
Ninth House and Saint X.
I am excited about American Dirt finally coming out because I loved it!
Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center, The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer and The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo.
I read ARCs of The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett and loved them!!
American Dirt, Just Mercy and The Most Fun We Ever Had.
A Good Neighborhood, Saint X, The Hunger Games prequel The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins, Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner, This Won’t End Well by Camille Pagan, and Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano.
The Only Plane in the Sky by Garrett M. Graff, Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan and The Testaments by Margaret Atwood.
Long Bright River (already read and loved!) by Liz Moore, We Wish You Luck by Caroline Zancan, American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel and The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen and Where The Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah.
Good Girls Lie by J.T. Ellison.
A Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs.
Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides and The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See.
I was really excited about The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman and it just fell flat for me.
Untamed by Glennon Doyle and The Ways We Said Goodbye by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White.
The Gift of Failure by Jessica Lahey and To Have and To Hold by Molly Millwood were my top two picks of 2019.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb.
Most excited about Jenni Allen’s book coming out called Get Out of Your Head but so much more! I am a lover of nonfiction mostly!
The Gown by Jennifer Robson, The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah and Wonder by R.J. Palacio.
Where The Crawdads Sing (loved the story, but it was such a slow read for me) and Sing, Unburied Sing (DNF)
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle and The Return by Nicholas Sparks.
Daisy Jones & The Six and The Things You Save in a Fire by Katherine Center.
Normal People by Sally Rooney and Three Women by Lisa Taddeo didn’t work for me.
American Dirt and My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell.
ErinInheritance by Dani Shapiro, Normal People and The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri.
I felt that both The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Most Fun We Ever Had did not live up to the hype.
American Dirt and Untamed!
Long Bright River, Dear Wife, and Little Fires Everywhere.
The Silent Patient & A Nearly Normal Family
Darling Rose Gold and American Dirt.
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, Inheritance by Dani Shapiro and This is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel.
Sadly, City of Girls by Elizabeth GIlrbert did not live up to the hype for me. Neither did Lost Roses by Martha Hall Kelly (though I loved Lilac Girls the prequel).
Dying to get to American Dirt and Know My Name by Chanel Miller soon!
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, The Last Time I Lied by Riley Sager, and The Idea of You by Robinne Lee.
When All Is Said by Anne Griffin and The Night Tiger by Yangsze Choo.
I’m most excited about Love Her or Lose Her by Tessa Bailey, You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen, and Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel.
Night Road by Kristin Hannah, The Most Fun We Ever Had by Claire Lombardo, Say You Still Love Me by KA Tucker, and Bad Blood by John Carreyrou.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz and The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead.
American Dirt and Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid (publication on the last day of 2019 counts as 2020, right?!)
ShannonThe Flatshare by Beth O’Leary and Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid.
The Unhoneymooners and Normal People.
American Dirt and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes.
Maybe You Should Talk to Somone (total surprise as nonfiction books are not my favorite) and Where The Crawdads Sing.
The Giver by Lois Lowry (I have always wanted to read it but it was SUCH a slow read for me) and The Silent Patient (highly recommended but also a slow read and just couldn’t’ get into it.)
Soooo many on my TBR list, but thinking of starting with The Tattooist of Auschwitz, Things You Save in a Fire or The Most Fun We Ever Had.
Beyond The Point by Claire Gibson, Verity by Colleen Hoover, The Swallows by Lisa Lutz and Call me God.
My Friend Anna and Saint X.
The Missing Sister, The Girls Weekend and Long Bright River.
The Book Women of Troublesome Creek, Cilka’s Journey and Where The Forest Meets The Stars.
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and The Flatshare.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle and Brave Girl, Quiet Girl by Catherine Ryan Hyde.
Where The Crawdads Sing, Queen Bee, and Cemetary Road.
Still Lives by Maria Hummel.
The Two Lives of Lydia Bird by Josie Silver and The Lies that Bind by Emily Giffin
The Dutch House, City of Girls, and A Hundred Summers.
Normal People and the end of After The Flood.
Daisy Jones & The Six, Big Lies in a Small Town by Diane Chamberlain and Just Another Kid by Torey L. Hayden (while this book was first published in 1988 I read it for the first time in 2019.)
Summer of ’69 by Elin Hilderbrand and Run Away by Harlan Cobin were both books I really looked forward to and fell short for me.
Writers & Lovers by Lily King, My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell and The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren.
A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Sun Does Shine by Anthony Ray Hinton.
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah.
The Ensemble by Aja Gabel, Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid, and Miracle Creek by Angie Kim.
Where The Crawdads Sing – I think it’s possible the hype was too high by the time I read it.
The Wreckless Oath We Made by Bryn Greenwood, Children of Virtue & Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi, A Woman is No Man by Etaf Rum.
Red At The Bone by Jacqueline Woodson
Long Bright River by Liz Moore, These Ghosts Are Family by Maisy Card, The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Madel, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins.
A Woman is No Man, The Lost Man and She Said were some top books.
American Predator, Get a Life Chloe Brown and Verity (I know everyone loves it but aargh the stupid naive woman trope!!)
The Dearly Beloved, Ask Again, Yes, Ten Thousand Doors of January and Gilead.
The Last Romantics, The Huntress, and The Starless Sea.
The World That We Knew and The Dutch House were my absolute favorites.
Nevermoor and The Giver of Stars were books I was so excited about but just weren’t for me.
Very excited for American Dirt and The Heir Affair!
Daisy Jones & The Six, The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo and A Woman is No Man.
American Dirt and A Good Neighborhood.
The Beekeeper of Aleppo, The Dearly Beloved, The Dream Peddler, Ask Again, Yes, Daisy Jones & The Six, The Bookish Life of Nina Hill and The Flatshare.
Three Women and Talking to Strangers (I felt hoodwinked by the marketing of both of them.)
Saint X, Valentine and American Dirt.
The Stand by Stephen King, The Craftsman by Sharon Bolton and The Chesnut Man by Soren Sveistrup.
The Whisper Man, Good Girl, Bad Girl, and Elevator Pitch.
The Other People by CJ Tudor, Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough and The Dilemma by BA Paris.
Ask Again, Yes, The Flatshare and Rise and Fall: The Story of 9/11.
Once Upon a River and The Bromance Bookclub.
The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel!
A Woman is No Man, and There’s Something About Sweetie.
The Beautiful and We Met in December.
Such a Fun Age, Ten Things I Hate About Pinky and In Five Years.
Beyond The Point, The Girl in the Letter and One True Loves.
I have so many on my TBR that aren’t 2020 book releases…Things You Save in a Fire, Labor with Hope and The Most Fun We Ever Had.
The Great Alone, The Things We Cannot Say and The Idea of You.
Next Year in Havana (too slow for me)
Looking forward to American Dirt and Long Bright River!
The Silent Patient and The Unhoneymooners.
Looking forward to Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson and In Five Years by Rebeca Serle!
You probably noticed a pattern in this post, but American Dirt is most definitely the most anticipated book of 2020!! I read an ARC copy this past month and I can’t wait to share my thoughts soon, but let’s just say, I already know it will be one of my top 2020 reads because it was THAT GOOD.
My 2019 reading recap will be posted soon, in the meantime, you can see check out my favorites of 2019 (so far!) post from July, to see how things were stacking up at the halfway point.
Thank you to everyone who shared in today’s post! I hope this has inspired your own book list and helps make 2020 your best reading year yet! Happy reading. <3
*I apologize in advance for any errors or misunderstanding with titles/book covers when transcribing these results from Instagram to this blog post. I am happy to update anything if necessary! <3
Disclosure: Some of the links on this blog are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission that helps support this blog (at no cost to you). Thank you!
September always seems like the longest month to me…well along with January! It is filled with lots of great things but it always seems to last forever. The good thing about it seeming to last so long is that I read a lot of great books!
September was filled with a lot of amazing reading and a couple of books that were a bit of a disappointment…. My very favorite books of the past month were The Things We Cannot Say by Kelly Rimmer and The Dearly Beloved by Cara Wall. They were not on my reading radar beforehand and completely blew me away! I also loved Fair Play by Eva Rodsky and Wild Game by Adrienne Brodeur is now one of my favorite memoirs ever!
I really was looking forward to The Other’s Gold and The Nickel Boys and both of those were rather disappointing for me. I will include links to my book reviews of all of these in my recap below.
My book review of The Things We Cannot Say can be found HERE.
You can read my full review of The Dearly Beloved HERE
*My full review will be coming soon…
My full review of Fair Play can be found HERE
*My full review is coming soon.
*My full review is coming soon.
*My full review is coming soon.
You can read my full review of The Nickel Boys HERE.
You can read my full review of The Other’s Gold HERE.
You can read my full review of Wild Game HERE.
You can read my full review of Amerian Predator HERE.
You can read my full review of Before and After HERE.
*The links above are Amazon affiliate referral links. When you click on one of these links and make a purchase, I receive a small percentage that helps support this blog at no cost to you. You can read more about this on my FAQs page HERE. Thank you!
