Year-End Lists

Constance Grady: The Best Books I Read in 2019, as published by Vox

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020]

Fiction

• Fleishman Is in Trouble
  Taffy Brodesser-Akner
• The Dead Queens Club
  Hannah Capin
• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• City of Girls
  Elizabeth Gilbert
• Normal People
  Sally Rooney
• Women Talking
  Miriam Toews
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead

Science Fiction and Fantasy

• Ninth House
  Leigh Bardugo
• Exhalation
  Ted Chiang
• Gideon the Ninth
  Tamsyn Muir
• The Book of Dust

  The Secret Commonwealth
  Philip Pullman

Nonfiction

• Sounds Like Titanic
  Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman
• Because Internet

  Understanding the New Rules of Language
  Gretchen McCulloch
• Midnight Chicken

  & Other Recipes Worth Living For
  Ella Risbridger
• Trick Mirror

  Reflections on Self-Delusion
  Jia Tolentino

Powell's Books: Best Fiction of 2019

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 • The 18 Best Novels of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2019 • Best Fiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead
• The Beadworkers
  Beth Piatote
• The Need
  Helen Phillips
• The Shadow King
  Maaza Mengiste
• The Man Who Saw Everything
  Deborah Levy
• The Reckless Oath We Made
  Bryn Greenwood
• Black Light
  Kimberly King Parsons
• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
  Ocean Vuong
• The Factory
  Hiroko Oyamada
• The Golden State
  Lydia Kiesling
• Flights
  Olga Tokarczuk
• The Dearly Beloved
  Cara Wall
• Girl, Woman, Other
  Bernardine Evaristo
• The Topeka School
  Ben Lerner
• Convenience Store Woman
  Sayaka Murata
• The Dreamers
  Karen Thompson Walker
• Like
  A.E. Stallings
• Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
  Olga Tokarczuk
• The Starless Sea
  Erin Morgenstern
• Lanny
  Max Porter

Entertainment Weekly: The 10 Best Books of 2019, compiled by David Canfield and Leah Greenblatt

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015]

1. Normal People
   Sally Rooney
2. The Nickel Boys
   Colson Whitehead
3. Say Nothing

   A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
   Patrick Radden Keefe
4. Fleishman Is in Trouble
   Taffy Brodesser-Akner
5. Bowlaway
   Elizabeth McCracken
6. Girl, Woman, Other
   Bernardine Evaristo
7. Disappearing Earth
   Julia Phillips
8. Nothing to See Here
   Kevin Wilson
9. The Yellow House
   Sarah M. Broom
10. The Need
    Helen Phillips

Michael Silverblatt: Best Books of 2019, as posted by KCRW, a list of favorites from the host of Bookworm

[see also 2021]

Three books by Eve Babitz

• Eve's Hollywood
  Eve Babitz
• Slow Days, Fast Company

  The World, The Flesh, and L.A.
  Eve Babitz
• I Used to Be Charming

  The Rest of Eve Babitz
  Eve Babitz

• American Sonnets for My Past and Future Assassin
  Terrance Hayes
• Making Comics
  Lynda Barry
• Where Reasons End
  Yiyun Li
• A Sand Book
  Ariana Reines
• Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming
  László Krasznahorkai
• Dunce
  Mary Ruefle
• Black Leopard, Red Wolf
  Marlon James
• A Wonderful Stroke of Luck
  Ann Beattie

Two books by Dave Eggers

• The Parade
  Dave Eggers
• The Captain and the Glory
  Dave Eggers

Molly Young: The Best Books of 2019, as published by New York Magazine’s Vulture

[see also 2020]

1. The Topeka School
   Ben Lerner
2. In the Dream House
   Carmen Maria Machado
3. Stay and Fight
   Madeline ffitch
4. The Book of X
   Sarah Rose Etter
5. Oval
   Elvia Wilk
6. Vernon Subutex One
   Virginie Despentes
7. Trust Exercise
   Susan Choi
8. How to Do Nothing

   Resisting the Attention Economy
   Jenny Odell
9. Machines Like Me
   Ian McEwan
10. Doxology
    Nell Zink

Powell's Books: Best Nonfiction of 2019

[see also Best Nonfiction of 2023 • Best Fiction of 2023 • Best Nonfiction of 2022 • Best Fiction of 2022 • The 14 Best Nonfiction Books of 2021 • The 18 Best Novels of 2021 • Best Fiction of 2020 • Best Nonfiction of 2020 • Best Fiction of 2019 • Best Fiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2018 • Best Nonfiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2017 • Best Fiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction of 2016 • Best Nonfiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction Books of 2015 • Best Fiction of 2014 • Best Nonfiction of 2014]

• Go Ahead in the Rain

  Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• Our Man

  Richard Holbrooke and the End of the American Century
  George Packer
• Three Women
  Lisa Taddeo
• The Collected Schizophrenias
  Esmé Weijun Wang
• How to Do Nothing

  Resisting the Attention Economy
  Jenny Odell
• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom
• Underland

  A Deep Time Journey
  Robert Macfarlane
• In the Dream House
  Carmen Maria Machado
• Trick Mirror

  Reflections on Self-Delusion
  Jia Tolentino

Maureen Corrigan: Favorite Books of 2019, as aired on NPR’s Fresh Air

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2015 • 2011]

Fiction

• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead
• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• The Dutch House
  Ann Patchett
• Lost and Wanted
  Nell Freudenberger
• Orange World and Other Stories
  Karen Russell
• On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous
  Ocean Vuong

Nonfiction

• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom
• Black Is the Body

  Stories from My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, and Mine
  Emily Bernard
• How We Fight for Our Lives
  Saeed Jones

Laura Miller: The 10 Best Books of 2019, as published by Slate

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017]

Fiction

• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• Gingerbread
  Helen Oyeyemi
• Normal People
  Sally Rooney
• Fall; or, Dodge in Hell
  Neal Stephenson
• The Nickel Boys
  Colson Whitehead

Nonfiction

• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom
• Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

  Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval
  Saidiya Hartman
• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe
• Underland

  A Deep Time Journey
  Robert Macfarlane
• Audience of One

  Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America
  James Poniewozik

Dan Kois: The 10 Best Books of 2019, as published by Slate

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2020]

Nonfiction

• Wild Game

  My Mother, Her Lover, and Me
  Adrienne Brodeur
• We Can Make A Life
  Chessie Henry
• Limbo
  Dan Fox

Fiction, Comics, and Poetry

• Deaf Republic
  Ilya Kaminsky
• Women Talking
  Miriam Toews
• Late in the Day
  Tessa Hadley
• The Raven Tower
  Ann Leckie
• The Hard Tomorrow
  Eleanor Davis
• A Mistake
  Carl Shuker
• Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl
  Andrea Lawlor

Christopher Borrelli: The 10 Best Books of 2019, as published by The Chicago Tribune

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2018]

Fiction

• Ducks, Newburyport
  Lucy Ellmann
• Lost Children Archive
  Valeria Luiselli
• The Memory Police
  Yoko Ogawa
• Growing Things
  Paul Tremblay
• American Spy
  Lauren Wilkinson

Nonfiction

• Go Ahead in the Rain

  Notes to A Tribe Called Quest
  Hanif Abdurraqib
• The Yellow House
  Sarah M. Broom
• How to Hide an Empire

  A History of the Greater United States
  Daniel Immerwahr
• Good Talk

  A Memoir in Conversations
  Mira Jacob
• Say Nothing

  A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland
  Patrick Radden Keefe

And 15 almost top-10s, well worth your time

• The Peanuts Papers

  Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life
  Andrew Blauner (editor)
• Exhalation
  Ted Chiang
• Trust Exercise
  Susan Choi
• Thick

  And Other Essays
  Tressie McMillan Cottom
• Me
  Elton John
• The Very Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan
  Caitlín R. Kiernan
• The Institute
  Stephen King
• The Topeka School
  Ben Lerner
• Underland

  A Deep Time Journey
  Robert Macfarlane
• Savage Appetites

  Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession
  Rachel Monroe
• I Like to Watch

  Arguing My Way Through the TV Revolution
  Emily Nussbaum
• Disappearing Earth
  Julia Phillips
• Audience of One

  Donald Trump, Television, and the Fracturing of America
  James Poniewozik
• Trick Mirror

  Reflections on Self-Delusion
  Jia Tolentino
• One Day

  The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary 24 Hours in America
  Gene Weingarten