My Reading Year - 2019

Another delightful year of reading has come to an end. Time to reflect on the year that was.

My reading goal for 2019, as documented in my challenge was 30 books. I narrowly missed out by one, having read 29 titles this year.

My list included only a handful of books which I wrote about in my planning for 2019 post on 1 January 2019. While I had intended to read a large stack of books, many of them fell down the list of priorities as new books came into my life. I did tick a few off my list though, including Becoming by Michelle Obama and Educated by Tara Westover.

For the past few years I have created a reading bingo card in an attempt to diversify my reading (achievements highlighted below).  This worked well this year, encouraging me to read different genres and new authors, although I missed out on a lot of categories I had intended to pursue.

B	I	N	G	O
19th Century  Classic	First Novel  in a Series	Adapted into a  Film/TV Show	Australian Literary  Prize Longlister	Short Story Collection
Essay  Collection	Set in Space or at Sea	Pre-19th Century Classic	Fiction Based on a True Story	Current Affairs  / Politics
Book on the 1001 List	Banned Book	Features a Strong  Female Protagonist	Set in the Future	New York Times Bestseller
Spin Off from  a Classic	Mystery or Crime Novel	Booker Prize Longlister	Published in 2019	20th Century Classic
Legal Thriller	Biography  or Memoir	Set during  Wartime	Poetry Collection	Book with a  colour in title

So here's what I read in 2019:

Fiction

I started the year with two compelling novels I had long wanted to read: Patricia Highsmith's Deep Water (1957) and The Children Act (2014) by Ian McEwan. Both are thin books which have hidden depths, and both involve failing marriages. Highsmith's novel is full of suspense and intrigue which had me gripped from the outset. McEwan's is multi-layered with a strong female protagonist. I loved them both.

Next, on the advice of my aunt Jeanne, I read Belinda Bauer's Snap (2018) which was an enjoyable, page-turning crime thriller. Then I read Nora Ephron's Heartburn (1983) which I didn't like at all, followed by Meg Wolitzer's The Wife (2004) which I loved.

After attending the Sydney Writers' Festival in May, I started gathering books written by authors I heard speak. Oyinkan Braithwaite's My Sister, The Serial Killer (2018) is a delightful, darkly comedic, debut novel set in Nigeria.

While travelling throughout Morocco in June I read An American Marriage (2018) by Tayari Jones, winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction. This is the book that I recommended most often to people this year. On that trip I also read The Tattooist of Auschwitz (2018) by Heather Morris which I found to be a terribly written fictionalisation of a true story.  

My reading took off in August and September when I read some terrific novels. John Lanchester's dystopian The Wall (2019) was a great cautionary tale about climate change, nationalism and isolationism.  Then I was hooked by La Belle Sauvage - the first of the new 'The Book of Dust' trilogy by Philip Pullman - which took me back twenty years to my love of Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series. Then I returned to Gilead with the hotly anticipated sequel to The Handmaid's Tale, Margaret Atwood's The Testaments (2019) which was well worth the wait! This was followed by Brian Bilston's delightful Diary of a Somebody (2019) which had me laughing aloud. 

I also read some Australian fiction this year. Bruny (2019), a political thriller set in Tasmania by Heather Rose, was an interesting read although it didn't meet all my expectations. John Purcell's The Girl on the Page (2018) was great fun as well. Set in the London publishing world, it is a book-lovers delight.  

I finally got around to reading Mark Haddon's The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (2003) and can now see what all the fuss was about. It was great! And, on the last day of the year, I finished George Eliot's Silas Marner (1861) a classic I had been meaning to read since the last century! 

Reflecting on the novels I read over the past year there were a lot about doomed relationships. - An American Marriage, The Wife, The Children Act, Heartburn, Deep Water all had failing marriages, while My Sister, the Serial Killer and Diary of a Somebody also focussed on relationship troubles.  If anything these novels served to reinforce the importance of trust and love and made me grateful for my own marriage.  I also read a lot of dystopian or speculative fiction, which is one of my favourite genres. The Wall, The Testaments, La Belle Sauvage, and to a lesser extent Bruny, all showed a world that I do not want to live in and one that is not so far out of step with the path the world is heading today.

Of the more than a dozen novels I read this year the one I would most recommend to others is Tayari Jones' An American Marriage. The story of newlyweds suddenly separated by incarceration is a deeply rich story of race, justice, hope and love. I described it at the time as 'heartbreaking and beautiful' and, of all the great books I read this year, it is the one I think about most often. 

Non-Fiction

I read a lot of biographies and memoirs this year. I started the year with Tara Westover's fascinating Educated (2018) - the story of a girl growing up in a Mormon survivalist family and her journey to become a Cambridge-educated professional. Vicki Laveau-Harvie's award winning The Erratics (2018) is the story of another dysfunctional family and a different kind of escape. The memoir centres around the author coming home to care for elderly parents after a long absence and coming to terms with the toxicity of the family environment.

Helen Garner's Yellow Notebook - Diaries Volume 1 (1978-1987) was published this year and I really enjoyed reading this decade in a writer's life. I am not sure what drew me to read Michael Caine's latest memoir, Blowing the Bloody Doors Off (2018) but I liked it, especially as I also listened to it read by the actor himself. 

Michelle Obama's Becoming (2018) was a refreshingly candid memoir and left me feeling great admiration for the author. Likewise Gillian Trigg's Speaking Up (2018) provided great insights into her time at the Human Rights Commission and the long way we need to go to improve human rights in Australia. For something quite different, I also greatly enjoyed Emily Nussbaum's essay collection I Like to Watch (2019) which is a compilation of her television reviews, interviews and though pieces.

In terms of politics and current affairs, I enjoyed Niki Savva's Plots and Prayers (2019) about the downfall of Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a follow up to her 2016 book The Road to Ruin about Tony Abbott.  Michael Lewis' The Fifth Risk (2018) was recommended to me by my cousin Graham and I found it fascinating. Lewis focussed on the transition of government from Obama to Trump and the way in which three key federal agencies were impacted by the ignorance and arrogance of the incoming regime. I also read Annabel Crabb's Quarterly Essay Men at Work (2019) about the barriers men face in relation to parenthood. 

While I liked all the non-fiction I read this year, if I had to choose one favourite I would pick Michelle Obama's Becoming. 

Poetry 

Poetry was a bit hit and miss for me this year. Early in the year I borrowed Kate Lilley's Ladylike from the library and I could not get in to it. While I managed to read the whole collection, I never managed to write a post about it. 

In the year the world lost Clive James, I read his Injury Time in March which I found most enjoyable despite the dark spectre of death hanging over it.  But my favourite book of poetry this year, was a novel about a struggling poet. Brian Bilston's Diary of a Somebody was absolutely delightful and one of my favourite books of the year. 

Audiobooks

This year I took out a subscription to Audible and over the course of the year I have enhanced my physical reading with listening to audiobooks. It helps me on my commute to listen to the book while walking and taking the train, as I read along with it. My cousin Graham calls this 'power reading' and I have found it to be a great way to read, especially books I have struggled to read or where the narrator's voice adds to the storytelling.  

This year I listened to Michael Caine read his memoir Blowing the Bloody Doors Off, Andrew Sachs (Manuel!) read Silas Marner, Michael Sheen read La Belle Sauvage, and Gillian Triggs read her memoir Speaking Up. Plus, after I finished reading Atwood's The Testaments, I then listened to the audiobook and got to relive it again. 

Best of 2019
Of all the books I read this year the ones I regard most highly are Tayari Jones' An American Marriage, Michelle Obama's Becoming and Brian Bilston's Diary of a Somebody Honourable mentions would extend to Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Meg Wolitzer's The Wife, Ian McEwan's The Children Act and Patricia Highsmith's Deep Water.

The worst books I read this year were Jim Broadbent's graphic novel Dull Margaret (2018), Morris' The Tattooist of Auschwitz and Nora Ephron's Heartburn.