Best Books of the Decade (!!) 2010-2019 Reading
I know people are talking about this at length, but I can’t believe that the 2010’s are coming to a close. It still feels like it was the ‘90s 10 years ago and it sort of freaks me out to think about everything that’s happened in the last 10 years. 2009 feels like a lifetime ago- yet it feels like just yesterday.
Today I’m linking up with Mind Joggle and Never Enough Novels to share my favorite books from the past decade. How does one choose their favorite books from an entire decade?? I have been keeping a list of the books I’ve read since 2009, so at least I had a starting off point. I decided not to analyze my picks too much and instead went for those books that made me go YES! I went by publication year and not by the year I read them and these are the ones that stuck with me. Disclaimer- I had horrible taste for many years. I didn’t know what kinds of books I liked to read and instead got free ones from Library Thing and read a lot of books from the True Blood series and other series that I can barely remember now. Not that there’s anything wrong with those books… but they definitely didn’t land on this list.
Here are the books I selected as my best books of the decade! Apologies to the year 2010; I told you I had a few bad reading years.
Best Books of the Decade!
2011
11/22/63 | Stephen King | The fact that 11/22/63 isn’t even my all time favorite King book yet still deserves a spot on this list tells you just how much I love this author. A man gets introduced to a portal that takes him back to the 1950s- where he’s been given the mission of trying to stop the Kennedy assassination. That’s the basic plot but there’s so much more- nostalgia, spying, politics, and ultimately, love. Thinking back to Sadie and Jake still gives me all the warm fuzzy feelings.
2012
Gone Girl | Gillian Flynn | The book that launched a thousand “read-alikes”! I really need to read this again to see if it still holds up, but something tells me that it will. Amy Dunne goes missing on her 5th wedding anniversary and her husband Nick becomes the prime suspect. The story is told from Amy’s POV- through her diary- and Nick. There’s a reason everything gets compared to the next Gone Girl- this one legitimately surprised the hell out of me.
The Fault in Our Stars | John Green | Look. Cheesy? Maybe. But this is one of the first reading experiences that I can remember that left me weeping on the train after I read it. Two teens meet in a support group for young cancer patients and learn about life and love from one another. This is also the source of one of my favorite quotes: “As he read, I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once.”
The Martian | Andy Weir | This has one of my all time favorite openings: “I’m pretty much fucked. That’s my considered opinion. Fucked.” Mark Watney became one of the first people on Mars, and after his crew is forced to leave him, he might also be the first to die there. For me, this had the perfect balance of humor and action and got me into science fiction.
2013
The Humans | Matt Haig | The set up sounds strange: a mathematician has solved a problem that will have major implications on the universe, so an alien is sent to inhabit his body and prevent the information from getting out. As he learns more about the humans, the alien begins to love his wife and son and has to choose between completing his mission and returning home or finding a new home on Earth. This was original, heartfelt, and very thought provoking. I picked it as one of my favorite back list books on episode 4 of Sarah’s Book Shelves Live.
2014
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption | Bryan Stevenson | My first non-fiction pick! This is about lawyer Bryan Stevenson and his career defending those who are in the most need of legal representation. He shares personal information about his early career and the founding of the Equal Justice Initiative and shares stories of people who were convicted based on incorrect evidence, because they were framed, because they didn’t have the money to fight the case, and because of outright racism. This is a moving, challenging, yet readable look at the U.S. criminal justice system.
You | Caroline Kepnes | Oh, do I love Joe Goldberg. This is the first thriller that I can remember that made me call the villain my favorite character. Joe Goldberg is many things: sarcastic, witty, intelligent, a bookseller, stalker, possible murderer, and absolutely unforgettable.
2015
A Little Life | Hanya Yanagihara | A Little Life is not a happy novel. Four very different friends move to New York to try and make a life there. There were sections that brought me great joy (specifically, the section The Happy Years), but overall this book was more heartbreaking and thought provoking than almost anything I’ve read. It's the kind of book that made me look at my life and relationships differently and made me happy to be a reader.
Between the World and Me | Ta-Nehisi Coates | A profound and timely book, Coates writes a series of letters to his son and reflects on what it means to be black in America. Though this is short, every word has a purpose, so I’d read this one with a pen in hand.
2016
Born a Crime | Trevor Noah | One of my favorite memoirs. This isn’t about the comedian’s rise to fame, it’s a personal look at the politics of South Africa and the disparity that still exists post-apartheid. Noah is a fantastic story teller. This book is a balance of truth, seriousness, and light and I find myself recommending it again and again.
Dark Matter | Blake Crouch | This book broke my brain. A physics professor gets kidnapped and all his kidnapper wants to know is if he’s happy with his life. It’s a story that weaves physics, philosophy, and psychology into a love story. This is a book had me looking inward to the choices I’ve made and freaked me out in the best way possible. I’d love to see this one on screen.
2017
The Heart’s Invisible Furies | Oh, Cyril Avrey!!! He’s one of my all time favorite characters. Cyril’s mother had him when she was a teenager, and because it was Ireland in the 1960s she was cast out from the church and her family. She moved to Dublin to work in the tearoom and gave her son up for adoption. We get to know Cyril- who is not a real Avery- and follow him throughout his life from a young boy through adulthood. This book made me angry, made me laugh, made me cry, and made me think. I think I recommend this more than any other.
2018
An American Marriage | Tayari Jones | A young black couple from Atlanta are on the come up until the husband gets thrown in jail for a crime he didn’t commit. Their plot is told told via alternating viewpoints and through letters, and I was angry, sad, and moved by each of the players at different times. Read this if you’d like to think about social issues via one couple's story.
Becoming | Michelle Obama | I was absolutely blown away by Michelle Obama's memoir. Of course I loved reading about her time in the White House and her thoughts politics, but I was even more interested in her life before being the First Lady. Her story was honest and inspiring. It made proud to be from Chicago and miss the Obama White House more.
The Great Believers | Rebecca Makkai | This is a look at the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s via the story of a Chicago group of friends. The story will stay with me and I called Fiona one of my all time favorite characters. This book is long but I loved getting to see the characters grow throughout their lives.
2019
The Nickel Boys | Colson Whitehead | What can I say about The Nickel Boys or Colson Whitehead that hasn’t already been said? I adored this. The Nickel Boys is based on a real-life reform school for boys located in Florida, where boys were sent under the guise of rehabilitation but were instead subjected to extreme psychological and physical abuse. I was so impressed with the level of depth Whitehead was able to pack in 224 pages. It really made the prose and structure stand out. The characters are memorable and this is a story that I'm not likely to forget.
The Only Plane in the Sky | Garrett M. Graff | This oral history of 9/11 really brings the stories from those that were there to life. This might be my all time favorite nonfiction book.
There we go! My favorite books from the last decade. What books would be on your list?
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