Books of 2019

At the end of each year, I love going back and reviewing what I read. It's funny to go back to previous years and look at those lists as well - there are books on those lists (and the one below) that I have read again and again during different seasons of my life.

When all of the books are stacked up against each other, it's easier to decipher patterns or themes of the year. This year, I was a bit more intentional about my spiritual reading, so there are more books on here that are in that genre. At the beginning of the year, I was still in my thriller mystery "girl in the train/window/woods/gone" phase, but I was worn out by March and so made a bit of space for other books. I also made a huge shift in my life (changing jobs, moving across the country) so there are quite a few books on here about trust, transition, and growth.

My favorite way to really measure the impact of the books I've read, however, is to highlight the ones I sent to other people. If a book really impacts me, I usually head to Amazon and ship copies to other people who I think would enjoy it as well. I started this practice late in 2018 after I realized that I kept mailing my favorite books away and then had to buy myself new copies anyway. I also love receiving books - so thank you to my friends who have reciprocated and sent me their favorites!

Below is the list of books I read in 2019. I've bolded the best ones, and notated the ones that I sent or recommended to other people. Let me know if you read any of them or if you want me to send you one (gifts are not my love language, but sharing books might be!)

Books of 2019

1. An Anonymous Girl
2. A Thousand Splendid Suns
3. Atomic Habits
4. Bad Blood
5. Beautiful Boy
6. Bird By Bird
7. Becoming
8. Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime
9. Devil in the White City
10. Educated
11. Ego is the Enemy
12. Girl Stop Apologizing
13. Girl Wash your Face
14. Give Me Your Hand
15. Gone Girl
16. I Found You
17. In the Woods
18. Intuitive Eating
19. It's Not Supposed to Be This Way
20. Just Mercy
21. Letter to Suffering Church
22. Luckiest Girl Alive
23. Mao's Last Dancer
24. Mere Christianity
25. Molly's Game
26. Nine Perfect Strangers
27. Nothing to Prove (Gave this one away... whoops!)
28. One Day in December
29. Own Your Everyday
30. Prep
31. Present over Perfect
32. Rules of Civility
33. Screwtape Letters (I have the pdf and have emailed to a few people)
34. Story of a Soul (Recommended to many, many people. Couldn't stop talking about it. Sorry friends.)
35. Talking to Strangers
36. The Best Yes (Sent this to one person)
37. The Confidence Code (Bought this for my mom so we could read together)
38. The Defining Decade** (I bought this book for six people, so clearly I loved it)
39. The Dinner
40. The Favorite Sister
41. The Happiness Project (Went to see Gretchen Rubin on her podcast tour, deeply obsessed with her and all of her work. You can see more at gretchenrubin.com)
42. The Kite Runner
43. The Moment of Lift
44. The Obstacle is the Way
45. The Secret Place
46. The Way
47. Then She Was Gone
48. To Hell with the Hustle (Sent this to one person)
49. Today Will Be Different
50. Unshakable
51. Watching You
52. You're Not Lost

Happy reading in 2020! Let me know if you pick up any of the above and we can chat about it over coffee or Facetime or just come to DC and we can walk and talk.

XO!
Jane