Best Books from 2019

Book Summary

Lillian and Madison were boarding school roommates and friends from very different backgrounds. However, they’ve barely spoken since a scandal forced Lillian to leave school.

A decade later, Lillian’s life is not on the track she’d imagined for herself, so when she receives a call from Madison asking her to help care for Madison’s twin step-children who are moving in, Lillian figures she has nothing to lose.

But there is a catch: both kids spontaneously burst into flames when they are agitated. Madison needs to keep this fact a secret while her husband runs for public office. Despite knowing nothing about raising kids, Lillian agrees to take on the role, and throughout one summer, she and the kids learn together how to keep their cool—literally. It may even prove to be the start of a whole new life for Lillian.

Book Summary

Playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead aim to put up a Broadway show, and they plan to use the Chelsea Hotel – a hot spot for creatives and artists – to get the ball rolling. But they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to producing a Broadway show isn’t the art, but the politics. 

This story spans the 1940s-60s, but it’s centered around the era of McCarthyism in the 1950s. As the Red Scare is sweeping the country, those in the entertainment industry are in the cross-hairs, and there is pressure to point fingers.

Book Summary

Deya is an 18-year-old living in Brooklyn whose parents died in a car accident when she was young. Although she does not want to get married, her grandparents insist that she begin meeting with suitors. Just like her mother, Isra, who had no choice when she left Palestine as a teen to marry Adam, Deya is also not given the freedom to choose her own future.

When a mysterious, yet somehow familiar-looking, woman gives Deya a secret note, she begins to question everything she was told about her past, including what really happened to her parents.

Told from the alternative POV of Deya and Isra, dark complex secrets will be revealed. We also see her grandmother, Fareeda, navigate the issues unique to her generation of women.

Book Summary

Cassie was one of the only female firefighters at her Texas firehouse, but she was welcomed as part of the family and loves her job. When an unexpected turn of events forces her to uproot her life and move to Boston, Cassie finds that her new firehouse has never had a female firefighter.

With a lack of funding, poor facilities, and an old-school hazing culture, the firehouse is not happy to have a woman join their crew.

Book Summary

Alicia and Gabriel seemed to have the perfect life. Living in a grand house overlooking a London park, Alicia was a famous painter, and Gabriel an in-demand fashion photographer. But one evening, Gabriel returns home late from a job, and Alicia shoots him in the face five times. Then, she never speaks another word.

Her refusal to explain herself or utter any other word escalates the mystery and captures public interest. Alicia is locked away from the spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London. All the while, the price of her art skyrockets.

A criminal psychotherapist named Theo is determined to get Alicia to speak so that he can finally be the one to unravel the mystery. But as his search for the truth becomes all-consuming, he risks losing himself to the case.

Book Summary

Inspired by the author’s own family history, this novel is a tragic love story. Alina and Tomasz were best friends who planned to marry. But when their village falls to the Nazis, Alina doesn’t know if Tomasz is alive or dead. 

Decades later, Alice is struggling to support her son, who was born with an autism spectrum disorder. When her grandmother is hospitalized, she begs Alice to return to Poland to see what became of those she loved. Alice travels to Poland and begins to uncover her grandmother’s story.

Book Summary

Francis and Brian began their careers as cops in the NYPD at the same time and soon after became next-door neighbors in a commuter suburb of Manhattan.

Francis’s wife, Lena, was very lonely during those years, but Brian’s wife, Anne, rebuffed her attempts at friendship. Nonetheless, their families’ lives became intertwined over the years as the children grew up together.

When their kids are teens, a tragedy occurs that rocks both families and reverberates over the next four decades.

Book Summary

Kristen is doing her best at adulting. She is planning her best friend’s wedding while also planning an unfortunate surgery that means she won’t be able to have her own children. She tells herself it’s okay because her boyfriend doesn’t want kids, even though she does. 

When she meets the best man, Josh, their friendship grows rather quickly. Soon, it’s like they’ve known each other forever. While he’s everything a great boyfriend should be, especially compared to her current boyfriend, she keeps him firmly in The Friend Zone, both out of respect for her relationship and because she knows the thing he wants most is a large family. And that’s the one thing she can’t provide.

Book Summary

This sci-fi novel explores the role of memory in our perception of reality.

Barry Sutton, an NYC cop, is investigating a devastating new phenomenon called False Memory Syndrome. This mysterious affliction drives victims mad with memories of a life that they never lived.

Meanwhile, neuroscientist Helena Smith has dedicated her career to the creation of technology that will preserve people’s most precious memories. Her goal is to allow anyone to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, or the precious final moments with a dying loved one.

As Barry digs deeper into his investigation, he discovers something even more terrifying than the disease – a force that attacks not just minds, but the very fabric of the past. Together with Helena, can he defeat it?

Book Summary

Set against the backdrop of the Iranian Coup, Roya, an idealistic teenage girl finds a literary oasis in the neighborhood book and stationery shop.

The owner introduces her to his favorite customer, the handsome Rumi, who has a passion for justice and poetry. The two fall in love, but are separated on the eve of their marriage. Finally, they are reunited sixty years later when both are living in America. Together they discover the truth of what really happened all those years ago in the town square.

Book Summary

This is a moving coming-of-age novel about how fragrances connect us to our memories and help us share our lives. Emmeline grows up on a remote island with her father, who teaches her about the world through her sense of smell. Throughout her enchanted childhood, the only thing her father won’t explain are the mysterious scents stored in the drawers that line the walls of their cabin, or the origin of the machine that creates them.

As Emmeline ages, her curiosity gets the better of her, and she finds herself vaulted out into the real world, with all its ups and downs—love, betrayal, ambition, and revenge.

Book Summary

This might just be the perfect historical fiction beach read for the summer – a family drama that brings the 60s to life in vivid, nostalgic detail.

Each year, the children of the Levin family have looked forward to spending their summer in Nantucket with their grandmother. But in the summer of ’69, thirteen-year-old Jessie is the only sibling who can make the trip. One of her older sisters is pregnant with twins, the other is caught up in the civil rights movement, and her older brother has recently been deployed to the war in Vietnam.

The summer proves to be more eventful than normal: Vietnam, Woodstock, the moon landing, the Chappaquiddick affair, Jessie’s first heartbreak, and a grandmother with a few secrets of her own.

Book Summary

The impoverished residents of Troublesome Creek struggle for nearly everything, but thanks to Roosevelt’s Kentucky Pack Horse Library Project, they aren’t lacking books.

Book Woman Cussy Mary Carter is not only Troublesome Creek’s own traveling library but also the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry. But not everyone approves of Cussy’s family or the government Library Project. Cussy wants to bring the joy of books to the hill folks, but she has to confront prejudice and suspicion as old as the Appalachians.

Book Summary

Lucy hoped for a mother-in-law who would welcome her, but Diana kept her at arm’s length from their first meeting. Diana was perfectly polite and friendly, but it was clear to Lucy that she was not who Diana pictured for her son.

Years later, Diana has been found dead. A suicide note says that she ended her life because of a cancer diagnosis, but the autopsy finds no cancer. What it did find were traces of poison and evidence of suffocation.

Who wanted Diana dead? And what motivated her to change her will to disinherit both of her adult children shortly before her death?

Told from two points of view, we see this story through both Diana’s and Lucy’s eyes.

Book Summary

It’s the 1960s, and Elwood has been raised by his loving but strict grandmother. His hard work and focus on always doing the right thing are about to pay off. 

Elwood is getting ready to enroll in the local black college and has big dreams. Everything changes when an innocent mistake causes him to be sent to The Nickel Academy to be “reformed” from his so-called crimes.  

While the 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Nickel Boys is fiction, it’s based on real “schools” and the unspeakable treatment of young Black men who were sent there during the 1960s. Elwood does his best to remain optimistic, but his positive attitude is challenged by his new friend Turner, who has experienced a different world growing up.

Book Summary

Three years ago, Amy’s husband left on a business trip and just decided not to come back. Forced into single parenthood and with no child support, she did what she had to do – cutting back expenses and taking a job as a school librarian. Now, her husband has shown back up out of the blue, wanting to reconnect with his teenagers. Amy is reluctant to let him have them over the summer, but she finally gives in.

With her newfound freedom, Amy decides to escape rural Pennsylvania to attend a librarian conference in NYC. Overworked and underappreciated, Amy describes herself simply as “a 40-year-old mom-shaped-librarian.” But her old friend Talia, a fashion magazine editor in the city, wants to help her see herself in a new light. A makeover, a few blind dates, and a trending hashtag later, Amy gets a glimpse of what her life could have been if she had chosen different priorities.

Just as Amy is struggling with whether to stay in this exciting new chapter of her life or return to the life she left behind, a crisis brings her two worlds crashing together.

Book Summary

When English Alice Wright marries an American, she looks forward to moving to the US. But life in Kentucky comes with an overbearing father-in-law, so Alice takes an opportunity to join Eleanor Roosevelt’s team of traveling packhorse librarians. 

Alice bans together with Margery and three other women to become the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. They must rely on friendship, courage, and perseverance in this beautiful story about making a difference.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story of Hiram Walker who was born into bondage but possesses a mysterious power. He almost drowns when his carriage crashes into a river, but instead, a blue light lifts him up and lands him a mile away. Following this brush with death, Hiram is motivated to rebel against his enslavement.

Hiram embarks on an unexpected journey into the underground war on slavery, taking him from the corrupt grandeur of Virginia’s plantations to guerrilla cells in the wilderness, and from the deep South to the dangerous but utopic movements in the North.

Even as Hiram enlists in the underground war between slave owners and the enslaved, all Hiram wants is to return to the Walker Plantation to free the family he left behind. But before he can do so, he must first master his magical gift.

Book Summary

Alex is the early 20-something son of the first female US President, and Prince Henry is the 2nd in line to the British Throne. Alex considers Henry his nemesis, and the two get into an embarrassing scuffle during a royal wedding.

In order to calm the press and convince them the sons of the US and England aren’t foes, Alex and Henry agree to make public appearances as friends over the course of several months. After spending more time together, and exchanging many amusing text messages, Alex realizes there is much more to Henry than he assumed.

Book Summary

This novel chronicles the meteoric rise of a fictional, iconic 1970s rock band – The Six – and their beautiful lead singer, Daisy Jones. The story is told through a series of “behind the music” style interviews that will make you feel like you are right there with them in the hard-partying 70s music scene.

As you hear from each band member, the story of these complex characters unfolds, ultimately revealing the mystery behind the band’s infamous breakup.

Book Summary

This novel focuses on the intertwined relationship between Alix, a successful white woman, and Emira, her toddler’s 25-year-old black babysitter.

When Emira visits Alix’s neighborhood high-end grocery store, an overzealous security guard believes she’s kidnapped Briar, Alix’s daughter. The encounter between Emira and the guard is filmed, making Emira both angry and embarrassed. Alix is also upset and determined to do something, but then the viral video brings something from her own past to light.

Book Summary

This novel tells the story behind The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through the eyes of Maud, the wife of author L. Frank Baum. The book follows two storylines: one tells the story of Maud’s youth as the rebellious daughter of a leading suffragette and the early years of Maud and Frank’s marriage on the prairie. 

The second storyline takes place in 1930s Hollywood when Maud learns that MGM is adapting The Wonderful Wizard of Oz into a movie. Then 77, Maud finagles her way onto the set in hopes of ensuring the producers stay true to the spirit of the book. She meets Judy Garland and recognizes the yearning that defined her own life story.

Book Summary

Joanna Teale has thrown herself into dawn-to-dusk work studying nesting birds in rural Illinois for her graduate program. It’s a great distraction from the loss of her mother and her own breast cancer battle.

Out of nowhere, a bruised girl named Ursa shows up. The girl claims to have been sent from the stars to witness five miracles but provides no other background information. Concerned about the bruises, Joanna lets the girl stay while enlisting the help of her reclusive neighbor to solve the mystery of where the girl came from.

Miracles occur over the summer, but as the end of summer and the fifth miracle approach, Ursa’s dangerous past also gets closer.

Book Summary

Cyril grew up in poverty, but after WW2, an investment changed the course of his future. With his enormous new wealth, he buys a lavish estate named the Dutch House in a Philly suburb. While he buys it with the best intentions as a surprise for his wife, the home is also the beginning of his family’s downfall. 

The book’s narrator is Cyril’s son Danny. His stepmother has now exiled Danny and his beloved sister Maeve from the grand house. For the next five decades, after being thrown back into poverty, Danny and Maeve return to look at the home from beyond the gates, like checking in on a relative. The only thing keeping the siblings moving forward in life is their bond with each other.

Book Summary

Chanel Miller first took the world by storm in 2016 as Emily Doe after her victim impact statement in a sexual assault hearing against Brock Turner went viral. Her memoir goes into more depth about her life before, during, and after that night. She’s vulnerable and brave, sharing her struggles each step of the way.

While the prominent Me Too Movement started in 2017 with Harvey Weinstein, Chanel Miller’s bravery and beautiful writing was a precursor and opened millions of eyes to the second assault women face in the courts and public perception.

Book Summary

With no other settlers around for more than twenty miles, the Benis and Webber families have always relied on one another. All of that comes to an end when Ernest Bemis finds his wife in a compromising situation with the neighbor. With survival on the frontier the last thing on his mind, Ernest makes an impulsive decision that lands him in prison. 

The women left behind – Cora and Nettie Mae – have no choice but to set aside their rage and remorse and come together as a means of survival. They share the duties of working the land and raising their children, including Nettie Mae’s son, Clyde, and Cora’s daughter, Beulah. When love blossoms between Clyde and Beulah, their mothers’ bond will once again be tested.

Book Summary

While roommates aren’t a concept unique to the 2010s, this decade was the rise of the sharing economy from ride-sharing to desk-sharing in coworking spots. The Flatshare takes this prevalence into a British apartment.

When night-shift worker Leon needs extra cash to help a family member, he decides to get a roommate. The problem is that he has a one-bedroom flat with just one bed. So he places an ad for someone to sleep in his bed while he’s at work. Of course, they’ll never be home simultaneously, but it’s still a crazy plan. But it’s just the affordable solution that Sophie needs after a breakup.

Book Summary

Told from the perspective of an older woman looking back on her youth, City of Girls is a fictional life story set in the New York theater world during the 1940s. 

Nineteen-year-old Vivian has been kicked out of Vassar College due to poor performance, and her affluent parents send her to live with her aunt, who owns a flamboyant but crumbling midtown theater called the Lily. 

Other charismatic theater employees, from showgirls to Olive, the no-nonsense secretary who keeps everyone in line, have their own spaces on the 3rd and 4th floors. Vivian loves fashion and is a talented seamstress, which is perfect for making clothes for the Lily dancers on and off the stage.

The main setting of the book is 1940s New York City, spanning the years before the US entered WW2, along with the war years. Vivian reflects on the events of those years, including a personal mistake that almost ruined the course of her life in a moment.

Many years later, at the age of 95, she tells her story, musing that “at some point in a woman’s life, she just gets tired of being ashamed all the time.”

Book Summary

January Scaller is the ward of wealthy Mr. Locke. She lives in his sprawling mansion, which is filled with artifacts and curiosities. Everything in the mansion is carefully maintained despite being largely ignored and utterly out of place.

Among the treasures, January finds a strange book. Within its pages, she discovers a tale of secret doors, love, adventure, and danger. With each turn of the pages, January discovers a story that seems to be increasingly entwined with her own.

Book Summary

What should a bride and groom do if they get food poisoning and are too sick to go on their non-refundable honeymoon to Hawaii?

Give it to the Best Man and Maid-of-Honor, of course.

That would have been perfect if the duo didn’t hate each other. Follow along as they try to avoid each other while still taking advantage of all the pre-paid activities on a vacation intended for a newlywed couple.