2019 Reading Choices & Ratings

Once again here for your consideration are my past year's reading choices, plus simple ratings to indicate broadly what I personally got from each book (rather than what others may have thought).

An (R) next to a title denotes a re-reading.

📖 📖 📖 📖 📖  Truly Special, exceptional.
📖 📖 📖 📖       Very Good and deeply rewarding.
📖 📖 📖             Middling to Good, competent and worthwhile but not special.
📖 📖                   Poor and disappointing.
📖                         Dreadful.
+                            Plus half a rating.

January

Everything Under - Daisy Johnson   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight - Simon Armitage & Clive Hicks-Jenkins   📖 📖 📖 📖
On the Marshes - Carol Donaldson   📖 📖 📖 + 

February

The Secret Agent - Joseph Conrad   📖 📖 📖 📖

Three Poems - Hannah Sullivan   📖 📖 📖 📖 
Battleship Yamato - Jan Morris   📖 📖 📖 +

March

Seven Gothic Tales - Isak Dinesen   📖 📖 📖 📖

Art Objects - Jeanette Winterson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

April

Orlando - Virginia Woolf (R)   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖

Lud-in-the-Mist - Hope Mirrlees   📖 📖 📖 +
Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom - Sylvia Plath   📖 📖 📖 +

May

Grayson Perry - Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Wendy Jones   📖 📖 📖 +

Conundrum - Jan Morris   📖 📖 📖 📖
Spring - Ali Smith   📖 📖 📖 📖
Among the Bohemians - Virginia Nicholson   📖 📖 📖 📖

June

All The Lives We Ever Lived - Katharine Smyth   📖 📖 📖 📖 +

Hour of the Star - Clarice Lispector   📖 📖 📖 📖
Underland - Robert Macfarlane   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖 

July

Hidden Nature - Alys Fowler   📖 📖 📖 📖+

Conversations With Friends - Sally Rooney   📖 📖 📖 +
Unsheltered - Barabara Kingsolver   📖 📖 📖 📖

August

Tokyo Ueno Station - Yu Miri   📖 📖 📖 📖

Horizon - Barry Lopez   📖 📖 📖 📖 📖  

September

To See Clearly, Why Ruskin Matters - Suzanne Fagence Cooper   📖 📖 📖 +

Light - M.John Harrison   📖 📖 📖 📖 + 
The Mother of All Questions - Rebecca Solnit   📖 📖 📖 +
Europa - Sean O'Brien  📖 📖 📖 📖 +

October

The Argonauts - Maggie Nelson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +

Tomorrow Will be Different - Sarah McBride   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
The Education of an Idealist - Samantha Power   📖 📖 📖 📖
Surfacing - Kathleen Jamie  📖 📖 📖 +

November

The Dispossessed - Ursula Le Guin   📖 📖 📖 📖

A Year Without A Name - Cyrus Grace Dunham  📖 📖 📖 📖 +
Where There's A Will - Emily Chappell   📖 📖 📖 📖
What Time Is It? - John Berger & Selcuk Demirel   📖 📖 📖 📖

December

Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang   📖 📖 📖 📖

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? - Jeanette Winterson   📖 📖 📖 📖 +
Four Quartets - T.S. Eliot   📖 📖 📖 📖 

Happy New Year's Reading

See also: 2018 Reading Choices & Ratings