Opening the archive
Year archive
Books selected by independent literary juries and editorial teams in 2019, gathered into one transparent, source-linked reading list. The chronology uses the award year for prizes and list year for editorial recommendations.
Showing 1–48 of 386
10 Minutes, 38 Seconds In This Strange World by Elif Shafak appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, fiction, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
1919 by Eve L. Ewing appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around eye-opening reads, for history lovers, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Illustrated nonfiction connects major events of 1919 to civil rights, labor, immigration, and politics today.
A Dream About Lightning Bugs: A Life Of Music And Cheap Lessons by Ben Folds appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, nonfiction, biography & memoir, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Friend Is A Gift You Give Yourself: A Novel by William Boyle appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, seriously great writing, funny stuff, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Good American Family: The Red Scare And My Father by David Maraniss appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, nonfiction, biography & memoir, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Good Kind Of Trouble by Lisa Moore Ramée appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Good Provider Is One Who Leaves: One Family and Migration In The 21st Century by Jason DeParle appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around family matters, identity & culture, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Is For Audra: Broadway's Leading Ladies From A To Z by John Robert Allman, illustrated by Peter Emmerich appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, for music lovers, no biz like show biz, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, it’s all geek to me, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Particular Kind Of Black Man: A Novel by Tope Folarin appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, identity & culture, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Prince On Paper: Reluctant Royals by Alyssa Cole appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around love & romance, let’s talk about sex, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
After terrorism and disease make public gatherings illegal, music is consumed through corporate virtual spaces. Former performer Luce keeps live music alive underground while recruiter Rosemary begins to question the company that controls her access to artists.
A Spectral Hue by Craig Laurance Gidney appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, identity & culture, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Wild And Precious Life: A Memoir by Edie Windsor and Joshua Lyon appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, for history lovers, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
A Woman Of No Importance: The Untold Story Of The American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, for history lovers, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Acid For The Children: A Memoir by Flea appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, biography & memoir, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Agent Running In The Field: A Novel by John le Carré appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, mysteries & thrillers, tales from around the world, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Alienation by Inés Estrada appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
All About Dinner: Simple Meals, Expert Advice by Molly Stevens appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Aloha Kitchen: Recipes From Hawai'i by Alana Kysar appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, tales from around the world, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Aloha Rodeo: Three Hawaiian Cowboys, The World's Greatest Rodeo, And A Hidden History Of The American West by David Wolman and Julian Smith appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around eye-opening reads, for history lovers, for sports lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
American Pop: A Novel by Snowden Wright appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, fiction, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
American Spy: A Novel by Lauren Wilkinson appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, mysteries & thrillers, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
The story of a Pennsylvania family challenging pollution associated with natural-gas extraction near their home.
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are separated when Roy is wrongfully imprisoned. Their letters record a marriage changing as Celestial builds a life during his absence.
An American Summer: Love And Death In Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, the states we’re in, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
An American Sunrise: Poems by Joy Harjo appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around eye-opening reads, for history lovers, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Another by Christian Robinson appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, kids’ books, eye-opening reads, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Any Old Diamonds by KJ Charles appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around love & romance, let’s talk about sex, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Are You Listening? by Tillie Walden appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around comics & graphic novels, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, fiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Ask Again, Yes: A Novel by Mary Beth Keane appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around family matters, fiction, staff picks, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Audience Of One: Donald Trump, Television, And The Fracturing of America by James Poniewozik appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, nonfiction, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Ayesha At Last by Uzma Jalaluddin appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, fiction, book club ideas, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Be Recorder: Poems by Carmen Giménez Smith appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around identity & culture, the states we’re in, short stories, essays & poetry, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Beirut Hellfire Society: A Novel by Rawi Hage appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, historical fiction, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Best Friends by Shannon Hale, illustrated by LeUyen Pham appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, fiction, comics & graphic novels, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Big Wonderful Thing: A History Of Texas by Stephen Harrigan appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around nonfiction, eye-opening reads, for history lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Black Card: A Novel by Chris L. Terry appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around fiction, identity & culture, for music lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Black Is The Body: Stories From My Grandmother's Time, My Mother's Time, And Mine by Emily Bernard appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, book club ideas, identity & culture, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, sci fi, fantasy & speculative fiction, seriously great writing, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Black Souls by Gioacchino Criaco, translated by Hillary Gulley appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around mysteries & thrillers, identity & culture, the dark side, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Blood: A Memoir by Allison Moorer appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around staff picks, biography & memoir, nonfiction, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bobby At Home: Fearless Flavors From My Kitchen: A Cookbook by Bobby Flay, Stephanie Banyas and Sally Jackson appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around cookbooks & food, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bowlaway: A Novel by Elizabeth McCracken appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around book club ideas, fiction, family matters, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bringing Down The Duke by Evie Dunmore appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around love & romance, let’s talk about sex, for history lovers, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
Bruce’s Big Storm by Ryan T. Higgins appears in NPR’s 2019 Books We Love guide. NPR’s editors categorized the recommendation around kids’ books, funny stuff, placing it within the year’s broader reading conversation.
