Holiday Post 2019: Books and Reading

Welcome to the third post in my series of holiday posts for 2019. Today we look at books, reading, and the ever popular during this time of the year book lists. This is where everybody and their third cousin makes a list of what is (allegedly) the best of the year in books. I do this in part to get an overview of what was out there in the past year. This year people are doing end of the decade (although the decade technically does not end until 2020, but that is a lost cause pointing it out), so we are also getting a lot of "Best of the Decade" lists. In addition, I do this because I do not always keep up with the best and latest when it comes to reading. I read very eclectically, and I often read and review back shelf books that are new to me. So this gives me a sense of what everybody else was hyping or rushing to read. Naturally, I will add some commentary here or there. As much as possible, I avoided linking the usual suspects (NYT, WaPo, etc.) that everyone else already shares and knows.  For my four readers, if you need ideas of what to read next, here are plenty of options.

General Lists

A small sampling of some of the big lists out there. 

•  United States: 
• Library Journal has their list of best books of 2019. They have the list broken down in categories.
• New York Times Book Review has their 100 notable books for 2019. List includes fiction, nonfiction, and poetry.
• GQ also has a best books of 2019 list.
• Libraries often put out their "best of" lists as well.
• Here is the selection of best books of 2019 from New York Public Library.
• Here is Chicago Public Library's list of best books for 2019.
• Library Reads has their small list of 2019 favorites (warning: PDF file). These are selected by librarians around the U.S.
•  International: 
• The Guardian has their best of 2019 book list. 
• The Irish Times as their 2019 best books list too.
• Le Pointe offers the 30 best books for 2019 (French).
• El Pais went on ahead and picked their 21 best books of the 21st century (well, really the first two decades of this century, but their title sounds that much more dramatic. Spanish). They had 84 jurors/experts pick out the selections for this list. 
• La Vanguardia has their selection of best books of the decade (Spanish). They narrowed it down to 12 works
• Those "best of decade" and other retrospective lists. As some know, technically the decade does not end until 2021, but I am not fighting that battle here. 
• Slate offers the 50 best nonfiction of the past 25 years. From this list I've read Fun Home, Columbine (link to my review), and The Lost City of Z.
• Lit Hub has their best 20 novels of the decade. 

Specific topic lists

• Some holiday themed lists: 
•  Christmas romance novels for 2019 via Broke By Books.
• Jo Blo has a list of holiday gift books. It is not "holiday themed books." Rather, this is a list of books on films and the film industry that they think make good holiday gifts. There are some titles here that sound interesting for the film geek.
• Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl offers her top ten cozy Christmas book titles.
• TOR looks at a decade of change in Science Fiction and Fantasy. List covers 2010 to 2019.
• RA for All: Horror blog has its top ten horror of the year that the blogger and librarian read.
• Fine Books and Collections blog has a list of books about books for the holiday season.
• John Warner at Just Visiting blog has a list of books for the (higher education) educator.
• Joshua Kim at Learning Innovation blog has his list of 2019 nonfiction books he reviewed for Inside Higher Ed.
• Revista Arcadia (Colombia) has selected a list of 100 books written by women in the last 100 years (1919-2019) chosen by a jury panel of 91 members. If you want the list in a more reader friendly format (rather than the graphics heavy slide show), find it here at Infobae.
• Via World Literature Today, the 75 notable translations (into English) of 2019.
• Electric Lit offers "14 Unmissable Poetry Books from 2019." 
• Refinery 29 offers a list of "10 Incredible Books about Sex & Sexuality."
• LGBTQ Nation has a list of the "Best 10 Books about Bisexuality." 
• Mat Auryn at For Puck's Sake has his list of favorite witchy books for 2019. These are books Auryn read and reviewed on his blog. From the list, I have Backwoods Witchcraft on my TBR list; my library recently bought a copy, so I hope to borrow it to read. In addition, I did read Morbid Magic (link to my review of it; I was not as impressed as Auryn was with it, but the book is still worth a look).

Graphic novels, comics, and manga

• Via Comics Beat, their list of 50 Queer Comics.
• Dark Horse Books blog lists their best comics of 2019.
• CBR.com has some interesting lists: 
• A ranking of the ten best Gundam mangas to read. 
• And if you like Gundam, they also offer a list of 10 Mecha animes to watch.
• They also rank the bestselling mangas of the 2010s.

Bookish Things and Trivia

• Lit Hub has a list of 78 Best Book Covers of 2019.
• RA for All has a post on how to handle a common issue librarians get, especially at public libraries: how to handle patrons who want books on the many book lists this time of year only to find those books are already checked out. The librarian blogger suggests how to use those lists to help you instead of get you overwhelmed and do further reader's advisory.