2019 Reading Review

Here is my second annual Sam’s reading review. I would much rather read recommendations from friends and acquaintances than random lists online, so please, please, please let me know what you have read recently and enjoyed.

Best Nonfiction:

Know My Name, by Chanel Miller:
This was the most powerful book I read this year, without a doubt. Miller reclaims her voice and name and identity, and in doing so provides an example of enormous grace.

Educated, by Tara Westover:
I totally misunderstood what this book was about until I started reading it. Incomprehensible adversity, and Westover’s incredible path out of her family home and into the rest of the world.

Barbarian Days, by William Finnegan:
He writes about surfing with a poetry that is striking even to someone, like me, who has no idea what he is talking about. He somehow weaves a tale through his entire life, connected by the thread of surfing.

Best Fiction:

Radio Free Vermont, by Bill McKibben:
This is a quick read, a comical look at a seceding Vermont. It is a good escape from heavier reading, and is a good mix of likable characters and funny plot.

Watership Down, by Richard Adams:
Reminds me of the Redwall books of my youth, but more serious somehow. Turns out rabbit society struggles with many of the same challenges human society does, despite the fact that, you know, they are rabbits.

Where The Crawdads Sing, by Delia Owens:
Beautiful descriptions of a part of nature not often highlighted, and an excellent tale of…redemption? I’m not sure, but I loved this book.

The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran:
Compelling writing, this short book is understated, and thought-provoking. I will come back to passages from this over and over, I think.

I have a number of other honorable mentions I didn’t include here, for the sake of brevity. Let me know if you would like those, and again, please send me recs for what to read in 2020.