The 100 Must-Read Books of 2019

Stirring novels and short stories, thought-provoking histories, affecting memoirs and more. These are the books that captured our attention.

—Naina Bajekal, Emma Barker, Judy Berman, Andrew R. Chow, Kelly Conniff, Eliana Dockterman, Merrill Fabry, Lori Fradkin, Lucy Feldman, Annabel Gutterman, Suyin Haynes, Nate Hopper, Cady Lang, Sam Lansky, Belinda Luscombe, Lily Rothman, Eben Shapiro, Lucas Wittmann, Elijah Wolfson

Realistic Fiction

all-this-could-be-yours
doxology
ducks-newburyport
the-dutch-house
find-me
fleishman-is-in-trouble
girl-woman-other
lost-children-archive
the-man-who-saw-everything
miracle-creek
mostly-dead-things
the-nickel-boys
normal-people
nothing-to-see-here
olive-again
on-earth-were-briefly-gorgeous
the-other-americans
patsy
queenie
red-at-the-bone
searching-for-sylvie-lee
supper-club
the-revisioners
the-shadow-king
the-topeka-school
trust-exercise
the-unpassing
women-talking

Suspense & Altered Worlds

american-spy
black-leopard-red-wolf
bunny
the-chain
the-farm
inland
the-need
ninth-house
the-old-drift
an-orchestra-of-minorities
quichotte
recursion
the-starless-sea
the-testaments
the-water-dancer
where-reasons-end

Literature in Translation

the-capital
china-dream
drive-your-plow-over-the-bones-of-the-dead
it-would-be-night-in-caracas
the-memory-police
stalingrad

Short Stories & Poetry

everything-inside
exhalation
lot
magical-negro
oculus-poems
sing-to-it
the-tradition

Memoir & Essays

the-collected-schizophrenias
dear-girls
good-talk
how-we-fight-for-our-lives
in-the-dream-house
once-more-we-saw-stars
over-the-top-a-raw-journey-to-self-love
the-source-of-self-regard
survival-math
thick
trick-mirror
the-undying
the-unwinding-of-the-miracle
the-yellow-house

History & Politics

edison
the-education-of-an-idealist
the-heartbeat-of-wounded-knee
midnight-in-chernobyl
the-mueller-report
places-and-names
stony-the-road
this-land-is-our-land
a-warning

Society & Science

the-age-of-surveillance-capitalism
because-internet
diversity-inc
the-great-pretender
how-to-be-an-anti-racist
how-to-do-nothing
how-to-hold-a-grudge
maybe-you-should-talk-to-someone
the-moment-of-lift
self-portrait-in-black-and-white
the-uninhabitable-earth
three-women
underland

True Crime & Journalism

catch-and-kill
furious-hours
know-my-name
my-friend-anna
say-nothing
she-said
things-we-didnt-talk-about-when-i-was-a-girl
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