Books I’m looking forward to in 2019

Very early in our relationship—just after we started dating—Bill suggested that I read his favorite book, The Great Gatsby. I told him I already had. Twice. It was one of those moments when we realized we might just be perfect for each other. And now, as we prepare to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary, we live in a house full of books and still pass recommendations back and forth.

At the end of each year, I like to look back at the books I’ve read and start thinking about what’s next on my list. I spent much of this year doing something I’ve never done before—writing a book—so I’m going into 2019 with a new appreciation for both what it takes to create a book and what a good book can do for a reader. So much of what I know I learned from the people willing to submit to the exhilarating and frustrating process of writing, editing, and rewriting their ideas into something ready to be published and shared.

Thanks to them, 2018 was a great year for book lovers, and 2019 is shaping up to be another one. Here are a few of the books I’m looking forward to reading in the new year.

Brave Not Perfect by Reshma Saujani

Reshma Saujani, the founder of Girls Who Code, thinks it’s time for girls to stop playing it safe. In her powerful 2016 TED Talk, Reshma argues that as a society, we teach boys to be brave and girls to be perfect. This book expands on those themes and urges us to start thinking more critically about the messages we send girls about how to act and who to be. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s the book my teenage self needed to read.

On the Come Up by Angie Thomas

I sometimes make a point of reading what my kids are reading, and last year, I was especially glad I did. Angie Thomas’s first novel, The Hate U Give, was one of my favorite books of 2018. It’s technically a young adult novel, but it’s timely, wise, and wrenching. I’m looking forward to seeing the world through the eyes of another one of Angie Thomas’s characters.

We Are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai

What does it mean when you can’t go home again? Malala knows all too well. At a time when conflict has forced more than 65 million people from their homes, her new book is an important and compassionate look at the lives of the people so often lumped together under the word “refugee.”

The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead

Colson Whitehead’s last book, The Underground Railroad, was a New York Times bestseller that won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award—so I know I’m not the only one with great hopes for The Nickel Boys. At their best, novels hold up a mirror to society. That’s what The Underground Railroad did by grappling with the unspeakable evils of slavery, and what I think we’ll find in this new novel set in a boarding school in the Jim Crow South.

The Testaments by Margaret Atwood

Margaret Atwood’s brilliance is writing a story that both teaches her readers something new and keeps them turning the page. The Testaments is her much-anticipated sequel to her sensational—and terrifying—book, The Handmaid’s Tale. I look forward to having it keep me up at night. (I think.)

Now that I’ve shared my list, I’m curious to hear what’s on yours! Feel free to share your recommendations below.