Of the 76 books I got through last year, I actually managed to read some 2019 releases (and was lucky enough to read some pre-release). I still have a huge amount of 2019 books on my 'to read' pile - so if you think something is glaringly missing, I probably haven't got to it yet.
But, for now- here are the books published last year that made me smile, cry, ponder and generally be quite neglectful of my husband.
10. Lanny - Max Porter
What's it about?
There’s a village sixty miles outside London. It’s no different from many other villages in England: one pub, one church, red-brick cottages, council cottages and a few bigger houses dotted about. Voices rise up, as they might do anywhere, speaking of loving and needing and working and dying and walking the dogs.
This village belongs to the people who live in it and to the people who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England’s mysterious past and its confounding present. But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort, a figure schoolchildren used to draw green and leafy, choked by tendrils growing out of his mouth.
Dead Papa Toothwort is awake. He is listening to this twenty-first-century village, to his English symphony. He is listening, intently, for a mischievous, enchanting boy whose parents have recently made the village their home. Lanny
Why I loved it
This is a book for those who like their magic mixed with gritty realism. It is disquieting and confusing, whilst also uplifting and mesmerising. Porter writes like no-one I've ever read before, that's for sure. Lanny is part poetry, part prose; it's lyrical, beautiful but confounding. The imagery is so powerful and the style so unique. This is not traditional storytelling, at least not in the way that you might expect the words to appear on the page in a traditional sense. Porter isn't one for any kind of conventions and when you're dealing with plots as magical as this, that makes perfect sense. I fully recommend reading 'Grief is the thing with feathers' first.
You can read my full review of Lanny here
Read this if... you want something a bit left-field that will make you think about literary genres in a new way.
9. Machines like me - Ian McEwan
What's it about?
Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turing achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. In a world not quite like this one, two lovers will be tested beyond their understanding.
Machines Like Me occurs in an alternative 1980s London. Charlie, drifting through life and dodging full-time employment, is in love with Miranda, a bright student who lives with a terrible secret. When Charlie comes into money, he buys Adam, one of the first batch of synthetic humans. With Miranda’s assistance, he co-designs Adam’s personality. This near-perfect human is beautiful, strong and clever – a love triangle soon forms. These three beings will confront a profound moral dilemma. Ian McEwan’s subversive and entertaining new novel poses fundamental questions: what makes us human? Our outward deeds or our inner lives? Could a machine understand the human heart? This provocative and thrilling tale warns of the power to invent things beyond our control
Why I loved it
For a book about robots this managed to avoid a lot of the clichés you find in this genre. This isn't a book where the robot doesn't know he's a robot, or where AI takes over the world. Adam knows from the start what he is, and actually this knowledge causes him more consternation than anything
Machines Like Me manages to cover a huge amount of moral topics without ever becoming 'preachy'. It tackles the fundamental question of what it means to be alive and human, or to have conscious thought. It shows you just how blurred the line is between human and 'other'. And this is what McEwan is best at - dancing around that blurred line. The book cleverly explores what human interactions might be like with a lifelike machine that is as close to consciousness as we can imagine.
You can read my full review of Machines Like Me here
Read this if... You're into anything dystopian or sci-fi and you want to feel even more confused about what really makes us 'human'.
8.The Last - Hanna Jameson
What's it about?
Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of the L’Hotel Sixieme in Switzerland after an academic conference, still mulling over how to respond to his wife, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, then New York, then London, and finally Berlin. That’s all he knows before news outlets and social media goes black—and before the clouds on the horizon turn orange.
Now, two months later, there are twenty survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Those who can’t bear to stay commit suicide or wander off into the woods. Jon and the others try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when the water pressure disappears, and Jon and a crew of survivors investigate the hotel’s water tanks, they are shocked to discover the body of a young girl.
As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating the death of the little girl as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?
Why I loved it
Turns out I am quite the morose little creature, because recently I have found myself really loving anything with a post-apocalyptic theme to it. I love books that look at how people react when the world as they know it has been ripped out from under their feet.
An extra element of this story, is that they discover the body of a girl (in an eerily similar discovery to that of the real life disappearance of Elisa Lam - tip, don't go following that one if you're easily creeped out!) and you have end of the world drama tied up with a classic murder mystery - really what's not to like?!
Genuinely chilling in parts as the author manages to explore the whole range of emotions that humans are likely to go through when faced with 'the end of the world'. It's just sufficiently harrowing enough, but there is also plenty of uplifting moments and real warmth and humour amongst the survivors.
You can read my full review of The Last here
Read this if...you're after a post-apocalyptic book with a twist
7. The Hunting Party - Lucy Foley
What's it about?
All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.
The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.
Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?
Why I loved it
Atmospheric, chilling and deftly plotted, this is exactly as satisfying as a murder mystery should be. The story is told through 5 alternating narratives, of both the guests and the workers that look after the remote lodge. In a nice twist, not only do we not know who the murderer is, but for most of the book we don't know who the murdered victim is either.
The best thing about this book is how cleverly the intricacies of the old friendships are revealed. The reasons behind the group dynamic slowly unfold throughout the story as their shared secrets are revealed. Some of the characters were duplicitous, selfish and needy - ooohhh they made for such wonderful reading.
This was such a straightforward delight of a book to read. A totally character-driven murder mystery and a very satisfying read.
You can read my full review of The Hunting Party here
Read this if...you love a good, old fashioned, chilling and atmospheric murder mystery
6. Twas the Nightshift Before Christmas - Adam Kay
What's it about?
Twas The Nightshift Before Christmas is the hilarious, poignant and entertaining story of the life of a junior doctor at the most challenging time of the year.
With twenty-five tales of intriguing, shocking and incredible Christmas incidents, the British public will finally appreciate the sacrifices made and the challenges faced by the unsung heroes of the NHS.
Why I loved it
If you've not read Kay's book, 'This is going to hurt', then you must have been living under a rock. It's hilarious, compassionate and heartwrenching. Boy, can he tell an anecdote.
His follow up book is just more of the same utter brilliance. This had me snorting with laughter all through Christmas and also reminding myself how lucky we are to live in a country with the NHS and the dedicated employees that make it work through the festive period. It is blisteringly funny and Kay recounts the stories with his usual dry, tongue in cheek manner. My only criticism is that it isn't longer.
Read this if...you don't mind people looking at you strangely whilst you try to muffle your uncontrollable laughter in public.
5. The Suspects - Katharine Johnson
What's it about?
When you're bound together by secrets and lies who do you trust?
Bristol, 1988.
Five young graduates on the threshold of their careers buy a house together in order to get a foot on the property ladder before prices spiral out of their reach. But it soon becomes the house share from hell.
After their New Year's Eve party, they discover a body - and it's clear they'll be the first suspects. As each of them has a good reason from their past not to trust the police, they come up with a solution - one which forces them into a life of secrets and lies.
But can they trust each other?
Why I loved it
On her blog, Katharine Johnson says of her books, " They’re all stories about ordinary people who may be flawed but not evil and through a bad decision find themselves in a nightmarish situation. As Emily says in The Suspects “We aren’t bad people – we just made a bad choice.”
I can't count the amount of thrillers I have read where characters get themselves into shady situations by making spurious decisions that have you scratching your head. It's frustrating when a book lifts you out of the narrative because you are going "Oh, come on, who would do that?!" And this is where Johnson's storytelling excels - she makes everything the characters do seem so rational!
This is one intricate, carefully plotted story line. Nothing is quite as it appears at the beginning and there are some excellent, unpredictable twists. The characters are well defined and so believable and the writing flows effortlessly. I absolutely could not put this down and devoured it in almost one sitting.
You can read my full review of The Suspects here
Read this if... you're bored of reading predictable thrillers and want to be genuinely surprised by a relatively unknown author.
4. Sweet Sorrow - David Nicholls
What's it about?
One life-changing summer
Charlie meets Fran...
In 1997, Charlie Lewis is the kind of boy you don't remember in the school photograph. His exams have not gone well. At home he is looking after his father, when surely it should be the other way round, and if he thinks about the future at all, it is with a kind of dread.
Then Fran Fisher bursts into his life and despite himself, Charlie begins to hope.
But if Charlie wants to be with Fran, he must take on a challenge that could lose him the respect of his friends and require him to become a different person. He must join the Company. And if the Company sounds like a cult, the truth is even more appalling.
The price of hope, it seems, is Shakespeare.
Poignant, funny, enchanting, devastating, Sweet Sorrow is a tragicomedy about the rocky path to adulthood and the confusion of family life, a celebration of the reviving power of friendship and that brief, searing explosion of first love that can only be looked at directly after it has burned out.
Why I loved it
Sweet, nostalgic and full of teenage angst. This is a book that pulls on the heartstrings, whilst managing to no be at all twee. Nicholls brings his usual inimitable style to this coming of age classic; full of wry humour, startling observations and genuine empathy for his characters.
In amongst this tale of 'first-love' is interwoven another story - about fractured families, mental illness and the relationships children have with their parents. It sounds heavy, but it's all handled so deftly that it never felt 'worthy' for a second. Even the most traumatic moments manage to hold onto a glimmer of humour (especially the relationship between Charlie and his father). Plus the sections that describe friendships between teenage boys made me hurt from laughing. (Side note - we listened to the audio-book on a long car journey and shared many a wry look with one another - Chris loved it too)
Read this if... You want a book with some real heart and are up for a bit of 90's nostalgia.
3. The Nickel Boys- Colson Whitehead
What's it about?
Colson Whitehead brilliantly dramatizes another strand of American history through the story of two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim Crow-era Florida.
As the Civil Rights movement begins to reach the black enclave of Frenchtown in segregated Tallahassee, Elwood Curtis takes the words of Dr. Martin Luther King to heart: He is "as good as anyone." Abandoned by his parents, but kept on the straight and narrow by his grandmother, Elwood is about to enroll in the local black college. But for a black boy in the Jim Crow South in the early 1960s, one innocent mistake is enough to destroy the future. Elwood is sentenced to a juvenile reformatory called The Nickel Academy, whose mission statement says it provides "physical, intellectual and moral training" so the delinquent boys in their charge can become "honorable and honest men."
In reality, The Nickel Academy is a grotesque chamber of horrors, where the sadistic staff beats and sexually abuses the students, corrupt officials and locals steal food and supplies, and any boy who resists is likely to disappear "out back." Stunned to find himself in such a vicious environment, Elwood tries to hold on to Dr. King's ringing assertion "Throw us in jail and we will still love you." His friend Turner thinks Elwood is worse than naive, that the world is crooked and the only way to survive is to scheme and avoid trouble.
The tension between Elwood's ideals and Turner's skepticism leads to a decision whose repercussions will echo down the decades. Formed in the crucible of the evils Jim Crow wrought, the boys' fates will be determined by what they endured at The Nickel Academy.
Based on the real story of a reform school in Florida that operated for one hundred and eleven years and warped the lives of thousands of children, The Nickel Boys is a devastating, driven narrative.
Why I loved it
This book is just as brilliant as you would expect anything with Colson Whitehead's name on it to be. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising that a story about the segregation and systemic racism at this time in American history, is a harrowing read. And yet Whitehead peppers it with such beautiful moments of good humour and friendship.
Colson's writing is both clever and subtle, he never embellishes too much, he just lets this simple story tell itself. By doing so, the stark horrors that happen to these young men are fully realised, with no literary imagery needed to intensify their impact. The atrocities carried out in this book will often have your heart in your mouth and a lump in your throat. And yet there manages to be positivity and resilience of human spirit in the sections that follow our characters later in their lives. This is a truly powerful book, with an additional clever moment towards the end that made me go back and reconsider some of what I had read.
You can read my full review of The Nickel Boys here
Read this if... You are prepared to be blown away by a book that looks unflinchingly at race relations at this time in American history, and all the horrors that it entails
2. Daisy Jones & The Six - Taylor Jenkins Reid
What's it about?
Everyone knows Daisy Jones & The Six: The band's album Aurora came to define the rock 'n' roll era of the late seventies, and an entire generation of girls wanted to grow up to be Daisy. But no one knows the reason behind the group's split on the night of their final concert at Chicago Stadium on July 12, 1979 . . . until now.
Daisy is a girl coming of age in L.A. in the late sixties, sneaking into clubs on the Sunset Strip, sleeping with rock stars, and dreaming of singing at the Whisky a Go Go. The sex and drugs are thrilling, but it’s the rock 'n' roll she loves most. By the time she’s twenty, her voice is getting noticed, and she has the kind of heedless beauty that makes people do crazy things.
Also getting noticed is The Six, a band led by the brooding Billy Dunne. On the eve of their first tour, his girlfriend Camila finds out she’s pregnant, and with the pressure of impending fatherhood and fame, Billy goes a little wild on the road.
Daisy and Billy cross paths when a producer realizes that the key to supercharged success is to put the two together. What happens next will become the stuff of legend.
Why I loved it
This was my first ever audiobook and boy, did I manage to start with a humdinger. I can’t think of a higher accolade for this book then that on several occasions I was convinced I was listening to real music documentary. I’m not the first person to say that this book is so achingly realistic, that I was sorely tempted to Google the band and look up their songs, so convinced was I that they had to be real.
The author captures the atmosphere of the 70s music scene absolutely and you feel like you are right there in the audience watching them rock out every night. Not only does it feel so authentic, but it explores the really gritty issues - love, obsession, jealousy, addiction, feminism, sacrifice and fame. Done as a compilation of interviews, the story is teased out by all the narrators -and it was so intriguing how they remember events unfolding differently depending on their viewpoint. You are left to interpret who might be remembering events accurately and who is looking back through rose-tinted glasses.
This book is brilliant and the audio book is spectacularly done.
You can read my full review of Daisy Jones & The Six here
Read this if....you want to try out audio books and aren't sure what to start with - this works especially well as the book is based on retrospective interviews with all the characters.
1. The Binding - Bridget Collins
What's it about?
Books are dangerous things in Collins's alternate universe, a place vaguely reminiscent of 19th-century England. It's a world in which people visit book binders to rid themselves of painful or treacherous memories.
Once their stories have been told and are bound between the pages of a book, the slate is wiped clean and their memories lose the power to hurt or haunt them.
After having suffered some sort of mental collapse and no longer able to keep up with his farm chores, Emmett Farmer is sent to the workshop of one such binder to live and work as her apprentice. Leaving behind home and family, Emmett slowly regains his health while learning the binding trade. He is forbidden to enter the locked room where books are stored, so he spends many months marbling end pages, tooling leather book covers, and gilding edges. But his curiosity is piqued by the people who come and go from the inner sanctum, and the arrival of the lordly Lucian Darnay, with whom he senses a connection, changes everything.
Why I loved it
Oooof...THIS BOOK.
I'm not sure I even know where to start with this one. I've fallen completely and utterly in love with everything about this book. The cover, for starters, I mean - just LOOK at it. And rest assured that this a book that is as cleverly crafted as it is beautiful.
This appears to fall under the genre of 'fantasy historical fiction', and had I known that, I dread to think...I might have avoided it. For me, that conjures up ideas of knights on horseback or tales of wizards and mythical beasts. Not so, not at all.
Imagine the worst thing that could ever happen to you and how hard it would be to deal with that for the rest of your life. Then imagine you could visit someone who could remove that memory from you, so for you it is as if it never even happened. And you can never relearn your history, unless your book is destroyed. Isn't the concept itself just utterly enthralling? So often, amazing plot concepts exist and then aren't well executed and it breaks your heart when what should be an epic book, falls flat on its face. But Collins has taken this idea and woven the most beautiful story out of it.
There aren't enough superlatives for me to describe how I feel about this book. I found it evocative, passionate, wondrous, magical, earthy and tantalising. I fell in love with the characters and their relationships with each other were so beautifully crafted. It is utterly beguiling from start to finish.
You can read my full review of The Binding here
Read this if... you're open to something just a little bit magical and you believe in love over anything else.
I also loved Daisy Jones!