Goodreads Staffers' Top Three Books of the Year

My top three books for 2019:

1. Bad Blood
2. Furious Hours
3. Educated

Dave wrote: "How did 'Rebecca' get a place in the top books of the YEAR?"

Hi Dave,
I think the sub-heading - which relates to 'this' comment list - just says 'best reads' this year. There's 'a lot' above that are way, way pre-2019!
Cheers, Dr.M

My Top 3 tho others come close

Restless - William Boyd

All My Puny Sorrows - Miriam Toews

The Girl With All the Gifts - MR Carey

Becoming by Michelle Obama
Shoot Like a Girl by Mary Jennings Hegar
Bad Blood by John Carreyou

My previous 3 would have been:
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje;
Murmur by Will Eaves;
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders.
But now I would want to add:
Sudden Traveller by Sarah Hall,
and:
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter,
and (Oh, dear, can't stop …)
Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World by Anand Giridharadas.

My top 3 this year:

"The Silent Patient" by Alex Michaelides

"The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz

"The Goldfinch" by Donna Tartt

Manuela wrote: "Wow.. thats a lot of recommended reading. Ill add my own:
1. Americanah - Chimmanda Ngozi Adichie
2. Charlotte - David Foenkinos
3. Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead"

Personally, I disliked the UnderGround Railroad. Too many liberties were with historical facts. Being a historical fiction fan, I like historical fiction to be historically accurate.

Scott D.

So hard to choose! While I reserve the right to change my choices at any time (depending on my mood and memory) I'm going to go with:
1. Things You Save in a Fire
2. Evvie Drake Starts Over
3. Tell Me Everything

Sorry, I can't adhere to these rules. I'm including a few more:

4. She Was the Quiet One
5. The Bookish Life of Nina Hill
6. The Woman in Cabin 10
7. Where the Crawdads Sing

1.) Becoming, 2.) Zealot, and 3.) Disappearing Earth.

Wish I could sneak in two more (Daisy Jones & The Six, and The Huntress). There! I just did.

Happy to see several Goodreads staff enjoyed Circe. Wonderful book.

Hard to choose , but my top 3 were :
-Inheritance Cycle book 4 by Christopher Paolini
-Christmas In Plains by Jimmy Carter
-Shotguns and Stagecoaches by John Bossenecker

Jikkethebookworm❤️ wrote: "My top 3:

1. Narnia the lion the witch and the wardrobe - C.S Lewis
2. Lord of the rings triology - J.R.R Tolkien
3. Circe - Madeline Miller"

Good list ! I gotta read Circe , that's the only one of yours I have'nt read .

* Rising: Dispatches from the New American Shore, Elizabeth Rush
* Circe, Madeline Miller
* The Great Alone, Kristin Hannah
* My Sister, the Serial Killer, O. Braithwaite

Grace wrote: "Many books listed are not 2019"

They are books the staffer read this year, not necessarily books that were published this year.

Mine

My three for 2019 are:

1) Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
2) Love Walked in by Maria De Los Santos
3) Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Inheritance by Dani Shapiro
The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek by Kim Michelle Richardson

1. The Great Believers
2. Daisy Jones and The Six
3. The Fifth Season

and a close runner-up: Dark Age

#1 How Democracies Die
#2 Ohio
#3 Sing Unburied Sing

1. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
2. The Road Back To You by Ian Morgan Cron
3. The Huntress by Kate Quinn

1. Kristin Hannah wrote The Great Alone

2. A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith

3. by Anthony Ray Hinton

The shadowyear
The priory of the orange tree
Twelve kings of Sharakhai

I totally enjoyed WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING.

My Top Three Reads of the Year: The 71/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle was leaps and bounds above the rest.

I usually prefer fiction - but not this year:

1. To Speak for the Trees by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
2. Say Nothing by Patrick Radden Keefe
3. A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell

I agree with Debbie that everyone should read Red Notice by Bill Browder.

Everyone should read my translation of The Pope's Left Hand, translated from Die Linke Hand des Papstes by F. C. Delius, one of Germany's foremost contemporary authors.

It is a very readable ninety-page novella about a fictional chance encounter with the Pope (the German one) in a Protestant church in the middle of Rome in 2011. It takes readers on a wild ride through the history of Rome, the popes, the Vatican, corruption at the highest levels, the Nazi occupation of Rome and the deportation of Roman Jews, German-Italian relations, and much more. It has a surprise twist ending: what was the pope doing, incognito, in a Protestant church, without fanfare, without attracting any notice. No spoilers here.

Robert A. Cantrick
translator

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
Gone With The Wind (reread) by Margaret Mitchell
Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan So much better than the film (cliche I know)☮️❤️📚3 strong female protagonists

Bad Blood
Say Nothing
Before We Were Yours

!!!

It's always so hard to pick top favorites, because every book is so different and I learn from each one. At least for this year of 2019, I was most moved by: "Flight Behavior", "Where the Crawdads Sing", and "The Lemon Tree".

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts
Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane

The Queen Of Nothing
The Missing Of Clairdelune
King Of Fools

Darkness For Light by Emma Viskic.
Bitter Wash Road by Garry Disher.
Dark Sacred Night by Michael Connelly.

Take Control of Your Life


Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds


The Moment of Lift: How Empowering Women Changes the World

2019 not a standout book reading year for me, but the three that really stood out were:
1. Isabella Tree - Wilding
2. Thomas Keneally - Confederates
3. Peter Pomerantsev - This is not Propaganda

Trying to keep them to currently released books:
1. Daisy Jones & the Six
2. Silent Patient
3. Inside Trump’s White House
4. The summer of 69
5. Al Capone & Elliot Ness. ( I am from Chicago)

Diana wrote: "Nicola wrote: "That was interesting. I found a few new books to add to the ever-increasing Want To Read list.

I only joined Goodreads this year to try and get back into the habit of reading, and t..."

I read this and listened to it as an auidiobook, and it's one of those where the author being the reader really adds to the story.

My top choice for this year is ВЪЗВИШЕНИЕ by Milen Ruskov. Its Hungarian translation by Péter Krasztev, titled Felmagasztosulás, is also brilliant. This book won the European Union Prize for Literature in 2014.

I can easily pick 2: The Quite Nice and Fairly Accurate Good Omens Script Book and Dark Age.
As for my third pick, I'm torn between His Dark Materials (which was a reread for me as it is one of all time favourites), The Night Circus or The Harm Tree (by a debut author who is definitely one to watch out for). It's a hard decision. Eeny meanie miney mo... OK, fine if I have to, I choose The Night Circus.
If only you asked for my Top 5...

The Nightingale-Kristin Hannah
A Man Called Ove-Fredrik Backman
A Thousand Splendid Suns-Khaled Hosseini

1. Unnatural causes by Dr Richard SheppardUnnatural CausesCilka's JourneyBehind Her Eyes
2. Cilka's journey by Heather Morris
3. Behind her eyes by Sarah pinborough

1. Labryinth of the Spirits-Carlos Ruiz Zafon

2. North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

3. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz

i didnt keep track of my reading this year so its more like the best 3 books of the last 3 month

in no particular order:
the storm crow by Kalyn Josephson
city of bones by Cassandra Clare
askir saga by Richard Schwartz

My top three:

The Goldfinch
The Brothers K
Hag-Seed

It's difficult to narrow it to three books. 2019 was a good reading year.

1. The red pyramid by rick riordan (tried doing some kids books)

2. The ninth house by Leigh bardugo

And 3. IT by Stephen King

My favorite three this year 1. Ninth House 2. The Mirror Visitor and 3. Holy sister

My top three:

1. Where the crawdads sing by Delia Owens
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

2. Will my cat eat my eyeballs by Caitlin Doughty
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

3. The time traveller's wife by Audrey Niffenegger
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

1. There There by Tommy Orange
2. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
3. The Paris Architect by Charles Belfoure

1. Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
2. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
3. Sacré Bleu: A Comedy d'Art by Christopher Moore

In order of contention,
- The Raven Tower
- Handmaid's Tale, Testaments
- Emma in the Night
- Six of Crows,Crooked Kingdom
- This winter of the witch

I could not separate them out, and obviously could not pick just 3 books!

my top three are: