2019 Yearly Recap

I feel like I had a good reading year this year. The last quarter was not as productive, and it wasn't as filled with good books (a lot of them were mediocre). But I am super pleased with everything I accomplished this year. One of my goals for the year was to read 5 plays by Shakespeare, and I did that--I read Hamlet on December 30 to finish it off. I haven't read much Shakespeare (other than the sonnets) on my own, and it was such a pleasure to read those this year. I hope to read some more in 2020.

Here are my favorites for this year:

Best of the year: A Gentleman in Moscow. I listened to it once and read it another time. I just loved it so much and have been trying to get everyone to read it.

Best non-fiction: Being Mortal, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years (I didn't read much non-fiction this year, but these two were excellent)

Best classics: Count of Monte Cristo, David Copperfield, All Creatures Great and Small, A Little Princess, Little Women (okay, basically all of the classics)

Best read-alouds to the boys: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (of course!!), The Penderwicks

Best audiobooks: The Mother-in-Law, The Bookshop on the Corner, Pride, One of Us Is Lying (all of these were great books and great audiobook productions)

Best fiction: Station Eleven, Unaccustomed Earth, Oathbringer

I was feeling a little bit blah about my reading for this year until I went back and saw all of these really excellent books I read earlier this year that I forgot about. Almost all of these were from the first half of this year, which shows how I've been in a sort of slump and choosing all sorts of lame books to read lately. I'm excited to read some more high quality stuff next year. I'm setting a goal to read 25 Newbery award winners next year, so hopefully there are some really good middle-grade books to add to my list.