My Favorite Books of 2019 (Part 1)

Happy Fourth of July to all my U.S.A. readers!

We’re well past this year’s halfway mark, and with that, I’m happy to announce that I’m actually ahead of my Goodreads Reading Challenge of reading fifty books in 2019. This time last year I was flailing around, trying to catch up with my annual reading goal by hosting a personal Post-Mid Year Freak out Read-a-thon. It seems that the same strategy I usually employ to catch up on my reading goal—picking shorter books and reading contemporary fluff—helped put me ahead of schedule. Ultimately though, it was the huge chunks of time I’ve had being in the waiting since I graduated combined with a streak of great book recommendations that allowed me to stay on top of the challenge.

It’s time to pay it forward by highlighting the best of the great book recommendations that I read. Here are my favorite books of 2019 (so far):

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan

[Goodreads]

Graphic novels and comics have been increasingly popular in the bookish community, and Saga was one series that I saw everywhere. Once I finally picked it up, it drew me in immediately with its story of a forbidden inter-species relationship in the midst of a intergalactic, space war. The variety of species and characters in this series was so fun to see and the writing was humorous (even though the main characters were on the run for being the most wanted beings in the galaxy). However, 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚎𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚜𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚘𝚏𝚏𝚎𝚗𝚜𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚐𝚞𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎𝚜, which I want to address in another post.

What I Know For Sure by Oprah Winfrey

[Goodreads/My Review]

Before this book, I had never consumed any Oprah-related content. What I Know For Sure was a nice introduction to her backstory while also being a great compilation of her life lessons. Many of the lessons were things that have been preached before, but Oprah paired them with anecdotes and a very soothing writing voice (😅) that made me process them in a new way.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

[Goodreads]

I knew when I picked up this book that it would be an automatic favorite. On the Come Up told the story of a young, African American girl trying to start her rapping career amidst ongoing political and social turmoil in her neighborhood. It was as emotional, informative, and important as its preceding book, The Hate U Give. There were so many issues that Thomas touched based on—drug addiction being one that really resonated with me—all while telling a difficult coming of age story.

Stronger, Faster, More Beautiful by Arwen Elys Dayton

[Goodreads]

ᴛʜɪs ʙᴏᴏᴋ ɪɴ ᴏɴᴇ ᴡᴏʀᴅ: W I L D. It started off so unassuming, like a standard science fiction book. And then it broke me 😳.

Drama aside though, Stronger, Faster, More Beautiful told multiple, sci-fi-horror stories, moving the plot line forward with a series of time jumps into the future. This allowed Dayton to introduce new technologies whilst dropping plot twist after plot twist. Each story was so unique and portrayed a different science fiction theme, making this the perfect book for sci-fi fans.

Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

[Goodreads/My Review]

Station Eleven is my FAVORITE, favorite book of 2019 thus far. I poured all my feelings for this book in my review for it, so I’m feeling a little lost for words right now 😅. In short, this book is marketed as a story of survival in a post-apocalyptic world, but it was so much more than that. St. Mandel wrote an unsettling reflection on civilization that left me existential, yet hopeful.