Wednesday, January 1, 2020

Books Read 2019


This is my annual post of books read. A dear friend from high school posted her favorite books of the year for 2019 and my total is far short of hers or most of the people that commented on her post, but I'm good with my 24 books for the year. Here is the list with comments afterwards.

Title Author Date
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup John Carreyrou 1/19
Child of the Forest: Based on the Life Story of Charlene Perlmutter Schiff Jack L. Grossman 1/19
Sticking Points Hadyn Shaw 1/19
Gay Girl Good God Jackie Hill Perry 1/19
The Ride of Our Lives: Roadside Lessons of an American Family Mike Leonard 2/19
The Whistler John Grisham 2/19
All the Way Home Ann Tatlock 3/19
Miles from Where We Started: A Novel Cynthia Ruchti 4/19
What I Wasn't Expecting When I Was Expecting Kristina Smith 4/19
Degrees and Pedigrees: The Education of America's Top Executives Michael T. Nietzel 5/19
When I Was Yours: Absolutely Heartbreaking World War 2 historical fiction Lizzie Page 5/19
My Father's Wives Mike Greenberg 6/19
The Confessions of a Corporate Trainer: An Insider Tells All Jonathan Halls 6/19
The Alice Network: A Novel Kate Quinn 7/19
Power of Prayer EM Bounds 7/19
The Go Giver Bob Burg/John David Mann 7/19
Not Without My Father: One Woman's 444-Mile Walk of the Natchez Trace Andra Watkins 8/19
Hiking Through: One Man's Journey to Peace and Freedom on the AT Paul Stutzman 8/19
10 Steps to Successful Mentoring Wendy Axelrod 9/19
The Rooster Bar John Grisham 8/19
The Power of Moments Chip Heath 10/19
Before We Were Yours Lisa Wingate 11/19
The Carpenter Jon Gordon 12/29
An American Marriage Tayari Jones 12/19


My favorite book of the year was the first I completed: Bad Blood. It's the story of the rise and fall of Theranos, a blood testing start-up in Silicon Valley that was built on a hoax.

A different Lynn Klopfenstein recommended Child of the Forest which is written by his former student. It tells the real life story of a girl who escaped the ghettos of Warsaw to live in the forest for two years evading the Nazis. It is horrific but must be told and remembered. I hear it is in discussion to be made into a movie.

I always like Jayne Bartrand's recommendations and The Ride of Our Lives was no exception.

This year included several stories of people taking in children. Before We Were Yours was probably the most disturbing. Lisa Wingate has several other books about the Tennessee orphans but I don't know if I'm ready to read more.

I typically like Bill Gates year end recommendations. This year the only one that looked interesting was An American Marriage. It is fiction but is a perspective of how incarceration affects black families. I enjoyed it and am reading a second book by her but since I'm not finished with it so it will be on the 2020 list.

Five books were for work. All were physical books while the rest were e-books easily read on the train where I do most of my reading with the exception of vacation reading.

Mid-year I read two hiking books back-to-back about hiking thanks to my cousin Judy's influence.

The Power of Moments I read twice and hope to implement ideas into work and other parts of life. One thing I did was dress up as Rhoda from Acts 12 to greet the BSF leaders at our Monday morning meeting. That certainly was an unexpected moment for them as I stood at the door looking out, "Peter, Peter is that you? Oh, no, but please come in and pray with us for Peter's release. Pray, we must pray!!!"

Always look for suggestions for reading. What do you recommend?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Quite a list!!! Great job!!! --Ann

Barbara Anne Waite said...

Good to see your list- honored that I actually influence readers. I just finished The Indigo Girl ( rather similar to the book I am attempting to write) . I had read a rather boring non -fiction "Letters of Eliza Lucas Pickney 1700's " two years ago while doing research on Antigua. Eliza born on Antigua was left in charge of her father's 3 plantations in SC when she was only 16- she experimented with growing Indigo ( she had known it was a crop in Antigua). Indigo became HUGE profitable crop for SC and George Washington asked to be pallbearer when she died due to her influence on economy. I wanted to include Indigo crops in my book. Then I discovered there is a novel ( broad market) called Indigo Girl based on life of Eliza. Parts I thought could have been left out but rather well done as far as blending of fact and fiction. I started "wrapped in Rain" by Charles Martin- great so far. Just read Veiled in Smoke- comes out in Feb 2020- fascinating story of Great Chicago fire. Jocelyn Green's Wedded to War " audible was favorite for 2019- civil war begining of sanitary commission nurses. Daughter of Rome by Tessa Ashfar very good imigination about Priscilla and Aquilla. Enjoyed becoming Mrs Lewis, loved My Dearest Dietrick, also enjoyed The Spice King by Elizabeth Camden. Many others read this year, but these stick in memeory bank. I have discovered I love listening to audible books. Can do 2 things at once with audible.