BOOKS

2019 Booklist

A few years back I began plugging my reading list into a spreadsheet because I was curious what percentage of books I read were by Americans vs Canadians, how many were by Black or Indigenous authors, how many were fiction vs non-fiction, and so on. One of the most striking things I noticed when doing that was that I was reading nearly 10 books by men for every one by a woman. This was never a conscious decision on my part, just the kinds of places I got book recommendations from tended to favour male authors and when the authors I read cited sources I followed through and read, more often than not that’d be another man. That is one of the disadvantages of trying to read a lot of canonical books and scholarship from the early 20th century, I guess.

I did better last year, getting the imbalance down to around two men per woman, but still, that isn’t balanced. In 2019 I vowed to overcome that.

In the end I read 64 books last year, with 38 books by women vs 26 by men. Slightly more than half of what I read was fiction, slightly less than half American, a quarter Canadian, one in 6 by a Black author, only one in 20 Indigenous (the previous two years I was taking courses on Indigenous issues so I largely took a break from that topic this year).

The best classic books I read in 2019 were Alex Haley’s “Roots” and Zora Neale Hurston’s “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” Gabrielle Roy’s “The Tin Flute” was really good too and would be the Canadian entry in that category.

I’d put Elena Ferrente’s “The Days of Abandonment”, Pat Barker’s “The Silence of the Girls”, Mary Gaitskill’s “Bad Behaviour”, and Madeline Miller’s “Circe” on the list of really great fiction I would have overlooked had I not been explicitly trying to include more women. Great reads, all.

Lindy West’s “Shrill” falls into the same category though with non-fiction, as does “Invisible Women” by Caroline Criado Perez. Liz Plank’s “For the Love of Men” too, which is about toxic masculinity and really should be read by men but has a title and jacket design that suggest it is being marketed mostly toward women, which is a shame. Definitely a good one for men to read.

Shane Bauer’s “American Prison”, Albert Woodfox’s “Solitary”, and Angela Davis’s “If They Come in the Morning” were all good books and solid reminders of how screwed up the justice system in the US was even before the current administration. I gave money to RAICES and Amnesty International after reading them.

  1. Jin, Ha - War Trash
  2. Gossage and Little - Illustrated History of Quebec
  3. Gougeon, Gilles - A History of Quebec Nationalism
  4. Mann, Susan - The Dream of Nation
  5. Jacobs, Jane - The Question of Seperatism
  6. Vargas, Jose Antonio - Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen
  7. Armstrong, Elizabeth - The Crisis of Quebec: 1914-1918
  8. Baillargeon, Denyse - Making Due
  9. Edugyan, Esi - Washington Black
  10. Morrison, Toni - The Bluest Eye
  11. Trudeau, Pierre Elliot - The Asbestos Strike
  12. Dubois, W. E. - The Souls of Black Folks
  13. Roy, Gabrielle - The Tin Flute
  14. Hill, Lawrence - The Book of Negros
  15. Rice, Waubgeshig - Moon of the Crusted Snow
  16. Orange, Tommy - There There
  17. Bauer, Shane - American Prison
  18. Jacobs, Jane - Dark Age Ahead
  19. Steward, Geoff - In Search of Nice Americans
  20. Sakamoto, Mark - Forgiveness
  21. McCarthy, Cormac - The Road
  22. Ferrente, Elena - The Day of Abandonment
  23. Ishiguro, Kazou - An Artist in the Floating World
  24. Miller, Sam J. - Blackfish City
  25. Ferrente, Elena - My Brilliant Friend
  26. Ferrente, Elena - The Story of a New Name
  27. Ferrente, Elena - Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
  28. Ferrente, Elena - The Story of a Lost Child
  29. Perez, Caroline Criado - Invisible Women
  30. Painter, Nell Irvin - The History of White People
  31. Haley, Alex - Roots
  32. Katz, Jonathan - The Big Truck Went By
  33. Woodfox, Albert - Solitary
  34. Jen, Gish - Typical American
  35. Hurston, Zora Neale - Their Eyes Were Watching God
  36. Wong, Lindsey - The Woo Woo
  37. Immerwahr, Daniel - How to Hide an Empire
  38. Yeung, Winnie - Homes
  39. Dalcher, Christine - Vox
  40. Barker, Pat - The Silence of the Girls
  41. Gaitskill, Mary - Bad Behaviour
  42. Bala, Sharon - The Boat People
  43. Hurston, Zora Neale - Barracoon
  44. Steinbeck, John - Cannery Row
  45. Murakami, Haruki - Killing Commendatore
  46. Shell, Ellen Ruppel - Cheap
  47. Nichols, Tom - The Death of Expertise
  48. Stedman, M. L. - The Light Between the Oceans
  49. Dumont, Eric - Songs for the Cold of Heart
  50. Thanh, Yasoko - Mistakes to Run With
  51. Riley, Swendoline - First Love
  52. Miller, Madeline - Circe
  53. Lent, Jeremy - The Patterning Instinct
  54. Kendi, Ibram X. - Stamped from the Beginning
  55. Ólafsdótter, Audur Ava - Butterflies in November
  56. Deparle, Jason - A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves
  57. West, Lindy - Shrill
  58. Evaristo, Bernadine - Girl, Woman, Other
  59. Renzetti, Elizabeth - Shrewed
  60. Plank, Liz - For the Love of Men
  61. Hjorth, Vigdis - Will and Testament
  62. Van Llewyn, Sophie - Bottled Goods
  63. Davis, Angela Y. - If They Come in the Morning
  64. Currid-Halkett, Elizabeth - Sum of Small Things

The overall best books I read in 2019?

Non-fiction, I’d have to go with Jason Deparle’s “A Good Provider is One Who Leaves” which tells the story of a large Filipino family as members immigrate all over the world in search of opportunity. Exceptional reporting, fantastic storytelling, and a hugely important topic.

Fiction, I think Bernadine Evaristo’s “Girl, Woman, Other” probably takes it. Again, this one probably falls into the category of books I’d have skipped because it didn’t sound like it “was for me”, but that would have been a huge mistake. Great book that invites the reader into the minds of a dozen or so women from a broad range of ages, classes, backgrounds, and sexualities. I super duper recommend it.