Some Cannibals, a Businessman and a Witch Walk Into a Room, Or: My Year in Books

Last year, in an attempt to do a little digital detox, I made a goal to read a book a month. Unlike previous goals such as “don’t eat cookies literally every day,” reading was easy to stick with—so I’ve kept up the tradition and almost doubled my books read count in 2019. Here’s the list: FictionAn Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Hank GreenThe Adults, Caroline HulseAkin, Emma DonoghueAn Anonymous Girl, Greer HendricksThe Arrangement, Sarah DunnThe Beekeeper’s Pupil, Sara GeorgeBig Little Lies, Liane MoriartyThe Book of Essie, Meghan MacLean WeirConversations with Friends, Sally RooneyDoxology, Nell ZinkEmergency Contact, Mary H.K. ChoiThe Farm, Joanne RamosThe Female Persuasion, Meg WolitzerFleishman is in Trouble, Taffy Brodessor-AkmerFrench Exit, Patrick deWittGive Me Your Hand, Megan AbbottHis Favorites, by Kate WalbertI’m Fine and Neither Are You, by Camille PaganThe Intermission, Elyssa FriedlandThe Memory Police, Yoko OgawaMiss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Winifred WatsonThe Most Fun We Ever Had, Claire LombardoMy Ex-Life, Stephen McCauleyMy Sister the Serial Killer, Oyinkan BraithwaiteNecessary People, Anna PitoniakThe Newlyweds, Nell FreudenbergerNine Perfect Strangers, Liane MoriartyNormal People, Sally RooneyOdd One Out, Nic StoneThe Power, Naomi AldermanQueenie, Candice Carty-WilliamsRoom, Emma DonoghueStay Up with Hugo Best, Erin SomersThings You Save in a Fire, Katherine CenterTrust Exercise, Susan ChoiVacuum in the Dark, Jen BeaginVery Nice, Marcy DermanskyThe Water Cure, Sophie MackintoshWe Cast a Shadow, Maurice Carlos RuffinNonfictionErosion: Essays of Undoing, Terry Tempest WilliamsGood Strategy/Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters, Richard P. RumeltThe Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, Daniel James BrownNicholas and Alexandra, Robert K. MassiePledged: The Secret Life of Sororities, Alexandra RobbinsRelentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons, Bryan PowellThe Rise of the Ultra Runners: A Journey to the Edge of Human Endurance, by Adharanand FinnStrong: A Confidence Journal for Runners and All Brave Women, Kara GoucherThree Women, Lisa TaddeoWolfpack: How to Come Together, Unleash Our Power, and Change the Game, Abby WambachMemoirAWOL on the Appalachian Trail, David MillerDear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, & Advice for Living Your Best Life, Ali WongEverything’s Trash But It’s Okay, Phoebe RobinsonFraud: Essays, David RakoffThe Glass Castle, Jeannette WallsInitiated: Memoir of a Witch, Amanda Yates GarciaNo One Tells You This, by Glynnis MacNicolThe Push: A Climber’s Journey of Endurance, Risk, and Going Beyond Limits, Tommy CaldwellScrappy Little Nobody, Anna KendrickShoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, Phil KnightTogether: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap, Judy GoldmanUnwifeable: A Memoir, Mandy StadtmillerWe Are Never Meeting In Real Life, Samantha IrbySome common themes and hot takes:Once again, really just a lot of memoir. Can’t get enough! I thought a lot of the “best of 2019” books like Doxology, The Water Cure, The Female Persuasion, Normal People and, most notably, Trust Exercise were just so-so. There were exceptions, like The Farm and We Cast a Shadow, but my key takeaway is not to buy the hype.Is it just me, or are books featuring open marriages, teacher-student affairs or women who have a lot of casual sex to mask their pain and/or loneliness getting a little long in the tooth? Between the nonfictional Three Women and the memoir Unwifeable to all the novels I read featuring one or more of these, it just became sort of a downer. And while Three Women and Unwifeable get a pass because, you know, real life, I’m just bored with all of these stories in fiction since they so rarely have anything new or particularly poignant to say. I am officially too old for YA. I read two young adult novels—Emergency Contact and Odd One Out—and suffered through both. So, of the 60 books I read in 2019, which are get the metaphorical Hannah Book Club seal? The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of a Donner Party Bride, Daniel James BrownI am not an audiobook or podcast person—I hate listening to talking, probably because I would generally prefer to be the one speaking. But when my husband and I drove to Austin, Texas last February, we needed some shared entertainment since our musical tastes are too at-odds to withstand a 12-hour car ride. Friends had recommended this book. Since it was exactly 12 hours, so we gave it a shot, then spent the next few months talking about the Donner Party and only the Donner Party at dinner, drinks, parties and weddings, which I’m sure has done great things for our social standing. I’ll warn you, it starts off slow as Brown gives an abundance of backstory and painstakingly sets the scene. (If I had been reading the book, it’s like I’d have skimmed the first bit of it, but that’s a little more difficult to pull off with an audiobook.) Just as we were beginning to wonder out loud when people were going to start eating each other, things got good. I learned from this book—not just about the Donner Party, but about snow blindness, hypothermia and the larger historical context of the movement West. This book is harrowing but it’s absolutely fascinating. Room, Emma DonoghueI devoured this book, starting it one evening and finishing it the next morning. Then I watched the movie (which starts the amazing Brie Larson and is very well done). Similar to The Indifferent Stars Above, it’s the type of book that just sticks in your head—and as a work of fiction it’s a tremendous feat. I also read Emma Donoghue’s newest work, Akin, which was very, very good and completely different from Room in both tone and premise (though both books do feature an adult and child essentially stuck with each other). Mad props to this women for being able to write so expertly from the point-of-view of a five-year-old boy and an 80-year-old man. Initiated: Memoir of a Witch, Amanda Yates GarciaMost of my books come from the library, but when it was the week of Halloween and I saw this on display at my local bookshop, I had to snag it. This was an impulse buy without regret. Written by a professional witch (it’s a thing!), the book is personal, political and mythological all at once. Even if you, like me, have no experience with spell casting, this book is a magical feminist manifesto. Shoe Dog: A Memoir by the Creator of Nike, Phil KnightAnd now for something completely different—a business memoir! By a MAN! Hear me out, though. Shoe Dog is a truly fascinating read, because the Nike we know today is certainly not the Nike of the 60s. It is absolutely wild to read how the company was started, with an origin story that seems completely impossible in today’s era. If you’re interested in sports, business or history, this is a great read, and if you like all three, even better. The Power, Naomi AldermanThe one-sentence pitch I served up a co-worker for this book: “The Handmaid’s Tale, but opposite.” I don’t know about you, but it’s 2019, and I am here for men’s subjugation. (At least in fiction, but think it could be worth a shot IRL…) The comparisons to The Handmaid’s Tale are unsurprising, given the author’s relationship with Margaret Atwood. This book-within-a-book follows multiple characters’ stories, which I almost always enjoy as it keeps things feeling fresh. While the premise is interesting enough on its own, I think it’s the execution and style that made this book such an entertaining and powerful (seewhatididthere) read.Here’s to a new year and new books! If you have recommendations—particularly for memoir—send ‘em my way.