In the spirit of end-of-year lists, here are the ten books I read in this year that stand out in my mind. For me, it hasn’t been a year for pipe smoking and high literature. I’ve been enjoying myself instead. Of all the books I read this year, I enjoyed these ten the most.
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Some of the covers stand for books in a series I read (or am still reading) in 2019:
- Philip Pullman’s “The Secret Commonwealth” is the second book of a planned trilogy called “The Book of Dust,” of which “La Belle Sauvage” was the first (I read & reviewed that one in 2018)
- “Abaddon’s Gate” is a placeholder for the entire 9-novel “The Expanse” series (it’s #3 in the series … I’m currently reading #6, and plan to write an overall review when I’ve finished them all)
- “The Calculating Stars” is the 1st of 2 science fiction novels by Mary Robinette Kowal (the other is “The Fated Sky”)
- Michael Connelly’s “The Late Show” is the first of a new series featuring Renée Ballard, a woman police detective in Los Angeles, who occasionally works with a certain Harry Bosch
- The Lee Child cover, “Blue Moon,” represents the entire 24-novel Jack Reacher series, which I started reading in 2018 (and will keep reading as long as Lee Child keeps cranking them out)
Each cover links to my Goodreads review of the book or the series.