Play Book Tag discussion

After carefully reading the instructions, please post your top 10 titles for this year in a post below between now and January 3rd. Any book that is included must have been completed in 2019.

If you would copy the format I use in my sample post below, that would be great.

You do not need to post your top ten in any specific order, but you are certainly free to do so, but please don't include numbers in your list.

We'd love to hear your comments on your top 10. Please post them below your list.

If you must make a change to your list after it is posted, please just note it by editing your existing post at the bottom to read:

EDITED: date, changed Title A to Title B

For fun, please post your least favorite title of the year at the bottom of your message.

Then, after all that, if you choose - - please post your top 10 of the Decade using the same format. These must be books you have read between the year 2010 and now (but they may have been published at any time.

****SAMPLE ONLY****

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies of a Silicon Valley Startup - Carreyou
Born a Crime - Noah
The Heart's Invisible Furies - Boyne
A Ladder to the Sky - Boyne
Educated - Westover
The Collector - Fowles
Blood Meridian - McCarthy
Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Thien
Three Little Words - Rhodes-Courter
From a Low and Quiet Sea - Ryan

I didn't feel as though this year was one of my best, but I did choose some great non-fiction . . .four of my ten selections were non-fiction, and they were all outstanding and memorable. Books I will recommend around for awhile. I love fiction, but this year, my non-fiction reads superseded my fiction ones.

I want to also comment on Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West. This book is not one I'd go around recommending, but it made my top 10 because it was my most thought provoking read by a long shot. It's ambiguous ending throws everything you've read before it into question, and its classic theme of good vs. evil is attacked in a completely fresh way. NOT a fun read by any means and very violent, but worthy.

Finally, I will read anything John Boyne writes going forward. To have two books on my list of ten by him means something good.

Least Favorite Title: The Milkman by Anna Burns

Decade:

Title 1 - Author 1
Title 2 - Author 2
Title 3 - Author 3
Title 4 - Author 4
Title 5 - Author 5
Title 6 - Author 6
Title 7 - Author 7
Title 8 - Author 8
Title 9 - Author 9
Title 10 - Author 10

Olive, Again - Elizabeth Strout
Consent - Donna Freitas
The Only Plane in the Sky - Garret Graff
The Man Who Saw Everything - Deborah Levy
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo
In the Dream House - Carmen Maria Machado
Three Women - Lisa Taddeo
Someone Knows My Name - Lawrence Hill
Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert

This year was NOT a good reading year for me. My list is pretty much in order.

I have three books to go to reach my goal of 50 books. That's a pretty low number. It didn't help that I wasted my time (twice) trying to read Ducks, Newburyport. None of the books I am currently reading (which I hope will get me to 50) are going to make my top 10. I'm quite sure of that.

So when I tallied up my five star reviews, I had exactly 10 after eliminating re-reads from contention (Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup and The Handmaid's Tale would both make this top 10 list if I were to count re-reads, knocking the two off the bottom.

My least favorite title: Ducks, Newburyport. It was my only DNF. Frankly, there were some other pretty bad books this year, but I just couldn't bear the writing style on this one no matter how hard I tried (and believe me I tried hard).

It's going to be tough to come up with a decade list! But I'll give it a try. For now, consider it "in progress." Using the export function, I've at least been able to narrow my list to 97 eligible (5 star reads read in this decade).

A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - Atul Gawande
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yoko Ogawa
East of Eden - John Steinbeck
Hot Milk - Deborah Levy
Born A Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood - Trevor Noah
Far from the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for Identity - Andrew Solomon
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne
The Nix - Nathan Hill
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillebrand

Women Talking-Miriam Toews
The Day The World Came To Town-Jim DeFede
The Map of Salt and Stars-Zeyn Joukhadar
The House At The Edge of Night-Catherine Banner
Destiny of the Republic-Candice Millard
The Golem And The Jinni-Helene Wecker
The Plotters-Un-Su Kim
Cutting For Stone-Abraham Verghese
Madam Fourcade's Secret War-Lynn Olson
Fall and Rise-Mitchell Zuckoff

I had a good reading year-As of today I am 2 books a head of my goal of 120 read. I knew picking a Top Ten was going to be hard, so I have been working on it for the last few weeks.

No surprise that in my top ten , three of the books were read because of the TAG, three were for HORIZONS and one was off my TRIM! This group has helped me find so many great books-I thank you all!

My absolute favorite was The Day the World Came to Town: 9/11 in Gander, Newfoundland-It really filled me with joy and re-ignited my faith in mankind.

My least favorite was The High Mountains of Portugal-I missed something along the way, because I just did not get it.

Top Ten of The Decade

The Help-Kathryn Stockett
Into Thin Air-Jon Krakauer
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society-Mary Ann Schaffer
All The Light We Cannot See-Anthony Doerr
Flags of Our Fathers-D. James Bradley
Devils Brood-Sharon Kay Penman
Year of Wonders-Geraldine Brooks
The Nightingale-Kristin Hannah
A Column Of Fire-Ken Follett
We Were The Lucky Ones-Georgia Hunter

William Shakespeare's Verily a New Hope - Ian Doescher
William Shakespeare's The Empire Striketh Back - Ian Doescher
William Shakespeare's The Jedi Doth Return - Ian Doescher
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Bronte


Please note that the first three favourite books were dramatized audiobooks. The other was a reread. Doescher knows both Shakespeare and Star Wars extremely well.

There were a few books I gave 1 star to, but by far the worst one that I suggest you do NOT spend money on is

My Least Favourite:

London in the Dark by Victoria Lynn



TOP BOOKS OF THE DECADE in no particular order:

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The History of Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
The Republic of Dirt - Susan Juby
The Housekeeper and the Professor - Yōko Ogawa
The Martian - Andy Weir
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption - Laura Hillebrand
My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry - Fredrik Backman
Snowflower and the Secret Fan - Lisa See
Right Ho, Jeeves! - PG Wodehouse
The Summer Before the War - Helen Simonson

This is not completely accurate due to the fact that I didn't even go online until 2013 and lost many ratings when we moved here from Shelfari--transfer didn't work completely and I chose only from the ones with 5 stars here (and even that was so very hard!)

Circe-Madeline Miller
Before the Fall-Noah Hawley
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI-David Grann
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams
Tell the Wolves I'm Home-Carol Rifka Brunt
Three Bags Full-Leonie Swann
The Lost World-Michael Crichton
Fool Moon-Jim Butcher
Cinder-Marissa Meyer
The Clockmaker's Daughter-Kate Morton

This was tough for me, since I've only finished twelve book this year. I haven't quite finished Three Bags Full yet, but I can already tell it's going to be a top book for me this year. The Clockmaker's Daughter is honestly only on there to make it ten, it was a 3.5 star read for me.

Least Favorite: Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

I did not have very good luck with the classics I tried out this year, but this was definitely the worst of the bunch.

Decade:
The Lord of the Rings-J.R.R. Tolkien
And Then There Were None-Agatha Christie
Meddling Kids-Edgar Cantero
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI-David Grann
Jurassic Park-Michael Crichton
Circe-Madeline Miller
The Phantom Tollbooth-Norton Juster
Before the Fall-Noah Hawley
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-Douglas Adams
The Hobbit, or There and Back Again-J.R.R. Tolkien

Just making sure.... for either lists the book can be published anytime. It’s the year and decade we read them, right?
(Because I only read one 2019 book and most of my top list is 20th century)

You've got it, Idit! Publication date doesn't matter.

Anita wrote: "So when I tallied up my five star reviews, I had exactly 10 after eliminating re-reads ..."

Wow, Anita! I'm impressed you had ten 5-star books! You're usually a tough rater, as I am.

In no particular order, my top 10 of 2019 are -

Lanny - Max Porter
The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
The Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
Night Boat to Tangier - Kevin Barry
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
The Nickel Boys - Colson Whitehead
Olive Again - Elizabeth Strout
In the Dream House - Carman Maria Machado
Spring - Ali Smith

Books that I had to bump from the list that were soooo close were Tin Man, Frankissstein, The Man Who Saw Everything, and Catch and Kill.

I had an ok reading year given that I have been much busier with work this year. My goal was 80 and I am currently at 78 with a few books on the go so I should hit my goal exactly. I do feel as though I cheated though as a lot of them were graphic novels.

The book that stands out as the one I liked the least this year is 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World. It was the book that I was most annoyed to have spent my time on.

Going purely on gut I am going to start my top 10 of the decade now, and I'll add to it as I go. Edit - I started with a top 33 and hat to whittle it down to ten which was REALLY hard. I think this is it. I really wanted to add both Marra's but decided on one to make room for something else.

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
A Girl is a Half Formed Thing - Eimear McBride
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
The Narrow Road to the Deep North - Richard Flanagan
The Shepherd's Hut - Tim Winton
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena - Anthony Marra
Life After Life - Kate Atkinson
The Broken Shore - Peter Temple
The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne

Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro
Ragtime - E L Doctorow
The Go-Between - L P Hartley
The Story of a New Name - Elena Ferrante
The Garden of the Finzi-Continis - Giorgio Bassani
Fingersmith - Sarah Walker
Boy Swallows Universe - Trent Dalton
Homesick - Eshkol Nevo
Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
The Way of Kings - Brandon Sanderson

Honorary mention: Wise Blood by Flannery O'Connor, Andy Warhol by Typex, Who's afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Albee and the Iliad and all its retellings

Most hated... there are 3 or 4 in the running but I'll go with Codename Villanelle which was so so bad it was almost entertaining. but couldn't even pull that.

My list keeps changing according to mood. But at least 5 of these books are there no matter what.
It's been a very busy year, with lots of books, but many of them listened to rather than read.
I didn't start using goodreads till the end of 2017, and was on a reading slump for few years prior to it where I mainly read fan-fiction or reread old favourites.
So my list of my decade will consist mainly of the list of 2018-19 reads.

Nights at the circus - angela carter
The Tin Drum - Gunter Grass
Rebecca - Daphne du Maurier
Love in the times of cholera -Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The magicians series - Lev Grossman
The Fox was ever the Hunter - Herta Muller
The Temple of the Golden Pavilion - Yukio Mishima
The Lives of Girls and Women - Alice Munro
Ragtime - E L Doctorow
The Neapolitan Novels 1+2 - Elena Ferrante

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "So when I tallied up my five star reviews, I had exactly 10 after eliminating re-reads ..."

Wow, Anita! I'm impressed you had ten 5-star books! You're usually a tough rater, as I am."

Yeah, I will confess that when I compare this list to years prior, I feel I may have been a little softer this year . . .although some are super solid. I started the year off with a bunch of terrible books, which honestly I think made the rest of the books seem much better by comparison.

Susie wrote: "In no particular order, my top 10 of 2019 are -

Lanny - Max Porter
The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
The Song of Achilles - Madeleine Miller
On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous - Ocean Vuong
Nigh..."

The Road would be on my list, but I read it in 2009. Dang.

Anita wrote: "The Only Plane in the Sky - Garret Graff
The Man Who Saw Everything - Deborah Levy"

Sorry your reading year wasn't better! I guess they all can't be winners. Here's hoping 2020 far surpasses this year!

These two books on your list are definitely on mine as well. Especially The Only Plane in the Sky. So many great reviews of that one this year.

Joanne wrote: "No surprise that in my top ten , three of the books were read because of the TAG, three were for HORIZONS and one was off my TRIM! This group has helped me find so many great books-I thank you all!."

I love seeing this!!! Nothing makes me happier than members who truly enjoy PBT and find their reading exposure expanded because of the excellent members of this group. :)

Joanne wrote: "The House At The Edge of Night-Catherine Banner
Destiny of the Republic-Candice Millard"

These are two that I really want to read as well. It may have even been your review of the The House At The Edge of Night that got that book on my radar! Destiny of the Republic has been on my TBR for years and I have no idea why I keep dragging my feet on it.

The Day the World Came to Town is also piquing my interest...

Darci wrote: "This was tough for me, since I've only finished twelve book this year. "

We should have said that you could nominate up to 10 books! If you think that only some of those books are really worthy of being nominated, then you can edit your list down. We will still have a PBT Top 10, but you have have a fewer than that on your own "Top" list!

Susie wrote: "The Dutch House - Ann Patchett"

Not surprisingly, we have little overlap in our lists (I haven't posted mine yet but I have a good idea of what will be on there). But, we both loved The Dutch House!

Idit wrote: "[Tess of the D'Urbervilles | Thomas Hardy"

Idit, first, will you please edit your post so that it exactly matches Anita's example? She has dashes between the title and author and you have vertical lines.

I know it seems like a minute detail, but she uses a function in excel that breaks the lines at the dashes to create two columns.

Also, I MUST get to Tess of the D'Ubervilles. It is definitely going to happen in 2020 and I am going to see if I can find a good audiobook.

I love the Top 10 list time! I am not ready to post mine yet, but I am getting close...

Nicole R wrote: "Joanne wrote: "The House At The Edge of Night-Catherine Banner
Destiny of the Republic-Candice Millard"

These are two that I really want to read as well. It may have even been your review of the T..."

I know you will love both of these Nicole-I hope you can get to them in 2020

I love seeing everyone's lists. I'm going to wait a bit to post my list since I'm pretty sure one of the books I'm reading now will make it on there.

I had a good reading year - 142 so far and hope to get to at least 145.

Here is my 2019 list in some sort of order
(Agent) M - Hemming (my version is just called M)
Natives - Akala
Bad Blood - Carreyou
Fascism - Albright
Taurus - Kirkman
The Stranger Diaries - Griffiths
The Good Daughter - Slaughter
A Long Night In Paris - Alfon
Macbeth - Nesbo
If I Die Before I Wake - Koch

My worst book was No Innocent Bystanders - Doucot.

My decade list is pretty similar to my 2019 one as I've been rearranging my Goodreads account all year so years are out of sync but I know I've read these in the last 3 years. Basically 1-3 are the same, plus The Good Daughter by Slaughter has remained!

Decades list:
M - Hemming
Natives - Akala
Bad Blood - Carreyou
The Boys In The Boat - Brown
Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race - Eddo-Lodge
Talking to the Dead - Bingham
The Good Daughter - Slaughter
Every Dead Thing - Connolly
Faceless Killers - Mankell
The Alienist - Carr

Hi Jenny, will you please edit your list to remove he numbers to conform with Anita’s instruction? Thanks!

Top 10 of 2019

Educated - Tara Westover
Elinor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
Underground Railroad - Colson Whitehead
Where the Crawdads Sing - Delia Owens
Incidents in the Life of A Slave Girl - Harriet Ann Jacobs
Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann
The Library Book - Susan Orlean
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry - Rachel Joyce
The Mysterious Mr Quinn - Agatha Christie
Year One - Nora Roberts

Quite a variety of genres here. The Christie was one I picked up for a challenge and was blown away. A collection of stories told by an observer narrator which all have a mysterious character showing up.

Least Favorite
My Point...And I Do Have One - Ellen DeGeneres
Funny lady, but it does not translate to the written page.

The Decade in no particular order

The Help - Kathryn Stockett
Hunger Games - Suzanne Collins
City of Thieves - David Benoit
Still Alice - Lisa Genova
The Martian - Andy Weir
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles
The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra
Educated - Tara Westover
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande

Nicole R wrote: "Hi Jenny, will you please edit your list to remove he numbers to conform with Anita’s instruction? Thanks!"

Of course will do so now

10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Shafak
The God of Small Things - Roy
Atonement - McEwan
To the Bright Edge of the World - Ivey
A Fine Balance - Mistry
American Rust - Meyer
The Good Shepherd - Forester
The Splendid and the Vile: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz - Larson
Peony - Buck
The Humans - Haig

I had another great year of reading! I'd like to mention the other books I've given 5 stars this year, since it was so hard to decide which were my favorites (and I don't give a lot of 5 stars as you may have noticed):
The Hours - Cunningham
The Great Halifax Explosion: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism - Bacon
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West - Sides
Wonder Boys - Chabon
Inland - Obreht
The All-True Travels and Adventures of Lidie Newton - Smiley
In the Shadow of the Banyan - Ratner

My least favorite and my only 1 star:
The Holidays: Choose Your Own Misery - MacDonald

Decade:

All the Light We Cannot See - Doerr
Once Upon a River - Setterfield
10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World - Shafak
The God of Small Things - Roy
Atonement - McEwan
The Nix - Hill
The Goldfinch - Tartt
The Queen of the Night - Chee
A Gentleman in Moscow - Towles
To the Bright Edge of the World - Ivey

For my "decade" list, I have to admit this is not the best sampling, since up through 2015 I was reading mainly business books (not surprisingly, none of them made the list), so the books listed above are really my favorites from the last 4 years.

As always, I am planning to post mine on Jan. 1.

Help--I don't understand the decade list--I don't see instructions for this here. True, I am very sleep deprived and --- deleted as not relevant to thread! Do you mean my top reads of the decade from 2010 to now OR when they were published????????????????????? Feeling rather dumb right now.

Karin, the top books you have read this decade regardless of when they were published.

Same with top ten of this year. The requirement is that you read each book this year and publication year does not matter.

Nicole R wrote: "Karin, the top books you have read this decade regardless of when they were published.

Same with top ten of this year. The requirement is that you read each book this year and publication year do..."

Thanks. I should have known this, I'm sure. I will work on this.

Joanne wrote: "Women Talking-Miriam Toews
The Day The World Came To Town-Jim DeFede
The Map of Salt and Stars-Zeyn Joukhadar
The House At The Edge of Night-Catherine Banner
Destiny of the Republic-Candice Millard..."

Love your lists. Women Talking is going to make mine for the year. I don't have it quite ready to post yet.

I have updated my post in Message 4 with decade list.

My top 10 for 2019:

Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
The Nix - Nathan Hill
The Summer Book - Tove Jansson
There There - Tommy Orange
Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Heart Berries - Terese Marie Mailhot
Killers of the Flower Moon - David Grann
When We Rise: My Life in the Movement - Cleve Jones
The City of Falling Angels - John Berendt
Educated - Tara Westover

I had a good reading year. My list is split evenly between fiction and non-fiction this year.
Honorable mentions include La Belle Sauvage, The Mere Wife, and Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter.

Worst book: Something in the Water. The story was okay-ish; the writing style was not at all to my taste.

Decade:

The Tsar of Love and Techno - Anthony Marra
The Nix - Nathan Hill
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghese
Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Martian - Andy Weir
Barkskins - Annie Proulx
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate - Naomi Klein

Top 10 Reads in 2019
(Includes year published just because it is interesting to me)

All Quiet on the Western Front—Remarque 1929
The Only Plane in the Sky—Graff 2019
The Great Alone—Hannah 2018
The Heart’s Invisible Furies—Boyne 2017
Between the World and Me—Coates 2015
Where the Crawdads Sing—Owens 2018
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—Marra 2014
We Crossed a Bridge and it Trembled: Voices from Syria—Pearlman 2017
Beartown—Backman 2017
Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood—Noah 2016
Honorable Mention: A Ladder to the Sky—Boyne 2018 (Didn’t want to include 2 books by the same author)

I have had a wonderful reading year! In September I had a total knee replacement and I am transitioning into retirement. I have more time and interest in reading. I joined PBT this year and that has definitely pushed my boundaries quite a bit, beyond contemporary and historical fiction. Looking at this list, I am happy that it includes 4 non-fiction titles and 1 classic. I also ventured into audible books with some success, although I do still prefer print.

Best Books of the Decade
Includes 5 from this past year! I read many more books in 2019 than any other year this decade, which accounts for some of that. I also only started tracking books in GR in 2012, which had me guessing on 1 or 2.

All Quiet on the Western Front—Remarque 1929
The Heart’s Invisible Furies—Boyne 2017
Between the World and Me—Coates 2015
Where the Crawdads Sing—Owens 2018
A Constellation of Vital Phenomena—Marra 2014
Circe-Miller 2018
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife-Elison 2014
The Nightingale-Hannah 2015
Matterhorn-Marlantes 2009
Fight Club-Palahniuk 1995

My best books of the year (I don't think I'm likely to read anything else that will displace these):

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett M. Graff
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
The Night Fire - Michael Connelly
Storm Cursed - Patricia Briggs
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe - Benjamin Alire Saenz
Ancillary Mercy - Ann Leckie
Spinning Silver - Naomi Novik
Us Against You - Fredrik Backman
Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
Becoming - Michelle Obama

Top 10 of the decade (and it's cruel to make us cut the list down to only 10!):

The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 - Garrett M. Graff
When Breath Becomes Air - Paul Kalanithi
Indian Horse - Richard Wagamese
Beartown - Fredrik Backman
Being Mortal - Atul Gawande
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft - Stephen King
For Goodness Sex - Al Vernacchio
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
Doc - Mary Doria Russell
The Golem and the Jinni - Helene Wecker

Nicole - No problem. I’ll fix the format when I reach an actual computer.

Here's Amy's Roundup:

Top Ten 2019

Becoming – Michelle Obama
Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
Map of Salt and Stars – Jennifer Joukhabar
The Invisible Bridge – Julia Ohrringer
Labryinth of the Spirits – Carlos Ruiz Zafon
Where the Crawdads Sing – Delia Owens
American Princess – Stephanie Marie Thornton
The Aviators Wife – Melanie Benjamin
Clockmaker’s Daughter – Kate Morton
Once Upon a River – Diane Setterfield

Top Ten for the Decade:

The Weight of Ink – Rachel Kadish
Beartown – Frederick Backman
Hearts Invisible Furies – John Boyne
Daisy Jones and the Six – Taylor Jenkins Reid
The Nix – Nathan Hill
The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah
All the Light You Cannot See – Anthony Doerr
The Marriage of Opposites – Alice Hoffman
A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
Constellation of Vital Phenomena – Anthony Marra

Honorable Mention

The Hate You Give – Angie Thomas
Ordinary Grace – William Kent Krueger

2019 Top Ten

Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
Watchers - Dean Koontz
11/22/63 - Stephen King
Here Be Dragons - Sharon Kay Penman
Nefertiti - Michelle Moran
IQ - Joe Ide
Vicious - V. E. Schwab
Five Smooth Stones - Ann Fairbairn
Lost Man - Jane Harper
Lost Queen - Signe Pike

Decade Top Ten

Tombland - C. J. Sansom
One in a Million Boy - Monica Wood
Cutting for Stone - Abraham Verghase
Five Smooth Stones - Ann Fairbairn
The Sunne in Splendour - Sharon Kay Penman
Martian - Andy Weir
Ordinary Grace - William Kent Krueger
Ready Player One - Ernest Cline
Doc - Mary Doria Russell
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand

Worst Book
The Dutch Wife - Ellen Keith

The decade top 10 is going to be tricky as I only started tracking and rating diligently in 2016. But I am sure I can pull 10 from then.

The real competition for me for 2019...worst book. I have multiple contenders battling it out for dead last.🤣

I love this thread so much!

This is going to be very difficult because I didn't start tracking in Goodreads consistently until a few years ago... I think I'll have to just think about books that are unforgettable and go with those, although I suspect they will all be more recent reads :P

Susie wrote: "I love this thread so much!"

The PBT Top 10 is one of my highlights of the year! I love seeing what we all read.

Olivermagnus wrote: "2019 Top Ten

I knew SKP would make your lists-I really struggled in my top ten
Decade reads, but in the end Devil's Brood is my all time favorite of hers.

I am sure you know that her new one is out soon-I am salivating for it! So much so that I picked up Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands last week at the library to give myself a primer, as my knowledge of this era is really limited to what Penman has taught me. It is actually very readable, almost fiction-like-you might enjoy it

2019 Reads: I feel like 2019 was a catch-up year for me in terms of top ten reads. I read a number of classics that I hadn't yet gotten to and read a handful of PBT favorites from years past. I would like to point out that nearly half my list is made up of books I read for our cultural challenge this year; two of which weren't even on my radar at the beginning of the year!

Morning Star - Brown
The Thorn Birds - McCullough
The Count of Monte Cristo - Dumas
A Thread of Grace - Russell
Shotgun Lovesongs - Butler
Jane Eyre - Bronte
Less - Greer
White Chrysanthemum - Bracht
Rules of Civility - Towles
The Sandcastle Girls - Bohjalian

Decade Reads: I'm exclusively working off of my GoodReads lists, and they only go as far back as 2016. Still, a brilliant half decade list.

Red Rising - Brown
The Night Circus - Morgenstern
Born a Crime: Stories from a South Africa Childhood - Noah
The Martian - Weir
All the Light We Cannot See - Doerr
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo - Larsson
Dune - Herbert
The Thorn Birds - McCullough
Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption - Hillenbrand
The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics - Brown

Booknblues wrote: Love your lists"

Thank you BnB! All of you here, at PBT, deserve the credit for my reading this year. This was my first full year here and you all gave me so much to read (blew that Tumbling Turret of TBR right out of the water!). I am no longer a "rookie" and I feel well-read because of this group.

Top 10 for 2019

There There - Tommy Orange
An American Marriage - Tayari Jones
City of Girls - Elizabeth Gilbert
The Rosie Project - Grame Simsion
Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Red Notice - Bill Browder
Bad Blood - John Carreyrou
Hunger - Roxane Gay
The Sun is Also a Star - Nicola Yoon
A Ladder to the Sky - John Boyne

Top 10 for Decade:

All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
Beartown - Fredrick Backman
Rules of Civility - Amor Towles
Us Against You - Fredrick Backman
Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
Shotgun Lovesongs - Nickolas Butler
Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn
The Boys in the Boat - Daniel James Brown
Unbroken - Laura Hillenbrand
A Gentleman in Moscow - Amor Towles

Joanne wrote: " Olivermagnus wrote: "2019 Top Ten

I knew SKP would make your lists-I really struggled in my top ten
Decade reads, but in the end Devil's Brood is my all time favorite of hers.

I a..."

It's a hard choice when it comes to SKP. I'm putting When Christ and His Saints Slept on the Unofficial 2020 Trim and might put Sunne on too, just because I want to reread them both some day. I added Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands too.

My favorites for 2019 are:

Ask Again, Yes - Mary Beth Keane
The Dutch House - Ann Patchett
Daisy Jones and the Six - Taylor Reid Jenkins
The Lager Queen of Minnesota - Ryan Stradal
The Art of Leaving - Ayelet Tsabari
Becoming - Michele Obama
Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe - R. McNamee
The Far Field - Mahuri Vijay
Exit West - Moshin Hamid
My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok

My favorites for the decade are:

The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt
Hillbilly Elegy - JD Vance
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Salt Houses - Hala Alyan
On the Move: A Life - Oliver Sacks
The Unseen World - Liz Moore
Exit West - Moshin Hamid
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail - Cheryl Strayed

I've been enjoying reading all of your lists. Reading opens us up to so much, doesn't it?

LibraryCin wrote: "Anita wrote: "So when I tallied up my five star reviews, I had exactly 10 after eliminating re-reads ..."

Wow, Anita! I'm impressed you had ten 5-star books! You're usually a tough rater, as I am."

Lol, Cindy - - so I just got my Goodreads year in review, and my average rating was 3.8 versus 3.6 last year - - which is strange because I thought last year was a much better reading year than this one, lol. I must be getting soft in my old age.