Books Read 2019

I (Laynie) am happy to announce I read 100 books in 2019…and somehow it wasn’t even a stretch. (Though I did get worried about meeting my goal when I decided to re-read the entire Harry Potter series in the fall. I love them, but the 700+ pages were bogging down my stats.)

Nevertheless we prevailed.

Here is my list. I’ve put four or five stars beside the ones I recommend. You can ignore the others. There is one I rather close to hated and would give it negative stars here except I don’t want to give it any more attention than it deserves.

So without further ado….

1. Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

2. Mere Christianity - C.S. Lewis

3. Devil in the White City - Erik Lawson

4. Becoming - Michelle Obama

5. The Silent Wife - A.S.A Harrison

6. This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel

7. No Relation - Terry Fallis

8. Beautiful Boy - David Sheff ****

9. Us Against You - Fredrick Backman *****

10. Dear Mrs. Bird - AJ Pearce

11. Twelve Hearts - Lindsay Blake and Layne James

12. Sweetbitter - Stephanie Danler

13. Hope - Anne Lamott

14. The Nowhere Girls - Amy Reed

15. Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens ****

16. Never Let Me Go - Kazuo Ishiguro

17. Homes - Abu Bakr Al Rabeeah, Winnie Yeung

18. The Tattooist of Auschwitz - Heather Morris

19. Becoming Mrs. Lewis - Patti Henry

20. The Air You Breathe - Frances de Pontes Peebles ****

21. Before We Were Yours - Lisa Wingate

22. Once Upon a River - Diane Setterfield

23. Home Fire - Kamila Shamsie

24. The Spice Box Letters - Eva Makis

25. Looking for Alaska - John Green

26. The Orphan’s Tale - Pam Jenoff

27. My Sister’s Keeper - Jodi Picoult

28. A Mind Spread Out on the Ground - Alicia Elliott

29. The Gown - Jennifer Robson

30. The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin

31. Whiskey in a Teacup - Reese Witherspoon

32. Boy Erased - Garrard Conley

33. How to Retire Rich - James O'Shaughnessy

34. The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna - Julia Grames

35. A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult

36. When We Left Cuba - Chanel Cleeton

37. The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls - Anisa Gray

38. The Medicine Walk - Richard Wagemese

39. The Last Romantics - Tara Conklin ****

40. Daisy Jones & the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid

41. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney

42. Normal People - Sally Rooney

43. Common Type - Tom Hanks

44. We Were All Drowning - Layne James

45. We Were All Drowning - Layne James

46. Idaho - Emily Ruskovich

47. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - Mark Haddon

48. My Sister, the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite

49. A Well-Behaved Woman - Therese Anne Fowler

50. There, There - Tommy Orange

51. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee *****

52. The Night Circus - Erin Morgenstern

53.  The Great Alone - Kristin Hannah

54. We Were All Drowning - Layne James

55. After You - Jojo Moyes

56. When Life Gives You Lululemons - Lauren Weisberger

57. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark - Michelle McNamara

58. Pachinko - Min Jin Lee

59. Z - Therese Anne Fowler

60. The Clay Girl - Heather Tucker *****

61. The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas

62. The Map of Salt and Stars - Zeyn Joukhadar****

63. Red, White, and Royal Blue - Casey McQuiston

64. The Book Thief - Markus Zusak

65. Our Homesick Songs - Emma Hooper****

66. Bad Ideas -  Missy Marston

67. Sing, Unburied Sing - Jesmyn Ward

68. The Gifted School - Bruce Holsinger

69. A Woman Is No Man - Etaf Rum*****

70. Less - Andrew Sean Greer

71. Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane*****

71. Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend - Matthew Dicks

72. Rich People Problems - Kevin Kwan

73. A Nearly Normal Family - M.T. Edvardsson

74. We Were All Drowning - Layne James

75. The Tipping Point - Malcolm Gladwell

76. The Virgin Suicides - Jeffrey Eugenides

77. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - J.K. Rowling

78. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - J.K. Rowling

79. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - J.K. Rowling

80. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J.K. Rowling

81. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - J.K. Rowling

82. Marlena - Julie Buntin****

83. The Pisces - Melissa Broder

84. Girls Like Us - Christina Algers

85. The Octopus Curse - Salma Farook

86. The Most Fun We Ever Had - Claire Lombardo****

87. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince - J.K. Rowling

88. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - J.K. Rowling

89. Braving the Wilderness - Brene Brown

90. Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins

91. The Burning Case for a Green New Deal - Naomi Klein

92. The Whole-Brained Child - Daniel J. Siegel, Tina Payne Bryson 

93. On Writing - Stephen King

94. Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style - Kurt Vonnegut and Suzanne McConnell

95. Catching Fire - Suzanne Collins

96. Mockingjay - Suzanne Collins

97. Dear Enemy - Jean Webster

98. We Were All Drowning - Layne James

99. House Rules - Jodi Picoult 

100. Meander, Spiral, Explode: Design and Pattern in Narrative - Jane Alison

Toast Wine Bar//Remember Us//Book Clubs

If you haven’t been following along with Layne’s writing journey, here’s a quick re-cap:

• Her book, Remember Us, (which she wrote with her friend Lindsay) came out January 22, 2019.

• She and Lindsay have made themselves available to connect with 100 book clubs (!) and are loving it so far. (If you’re in a book club, know someone in a book club or want to start a book club, THANK YOU for considering our book for your next selection.)

• Layne likes writing. And talking about books.

Last night the Jono half of us put little man to bed and Laynie headed out to the Toast Wine Bar to meet up with their book club. A three-course meal later….

It was an AMAZING night of meeting new friends, eating delectable foods, drinking wine and talking all things Remember Us.

Also: if you haven’t yet visited Toast in downtown Hamilton, you MUST make a date to meet a friend there, your spouse, yourself. It’s quaint, charming, and full of good eats and drinks. You’re welcome.

x.