Best of 2019 and the Year in Review
It’s once again that time of the year where I look back at the last twelve months and round up my favorite reads! As always, my methods are going to be rather haphazard, but as you know I read a TON of books and having to narrow it down to just “Top 10” or even “Top 20” is a difficult (if not impossible) task. That’s why I’ve opted not to do a traditional list, and instead I’m going to be breaking this post down into different genres/categories to highlight all the books that 1) were my favorites of the year, 2) I thought were most memorable, or 3) I think should be getting more love and attention. The one thing they have in common is that I loved them all.
You can see my reviews and more information about the books by clicking on the images and following the links.
Fantasy
Fantasy is usually the biggest genre category each year in my lists, so what happened? Well, reading too many good fantasy books in 2019 was precisely my predicament here; if I listed all the ones I loved we’d be here forever, so I’m only listing the cream of the crop, the best of the best, and these were the books that made my very demanding threshold: The Wolf in the Whale by Jordanna Max Brodsky, The Witch’s Kind by Louisa Morgan, The Philosopher’s War by Tom Miller, A Little Hatred by Joe Abercrombie, Holy Sister by Mark Lawrence, The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow
Science Fiction
2019 was also solid year for science fiction, with Recursion by Blake Crouch, Three Laws Lethal by David Walton, Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh, Aftershocks by Marko Kloos, Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky, and Tiamat’s Wrath by James S.A. Corey topping the list.
But wait, there’s more! This year The BiblioSanctum once again participated in the month-long Sci-Fi November event, so if you’re interested in seeing a more detailed list of all my favorite sci-fi reads this year, be sure to check out the Top Ten post I put together for the wrap up!
Horror
I had thought 2019 was a lighter year for horror, but in reality it appears I had enjoyed some very strong reads. It just wasn’t as obvious because most of these are genre mash-ups, and a couple of these aren’t even what we’d typically consider as horror but this is probably the most appropriate category for them anyway: The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell, The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell, Little Darlings by Melanie Golding, Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton, The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson
Urban Fantasy/Paranormal
Looks like I really need to up my Urban Fantasy game! I just didn’t read as much of the genre this year, though most of what I did read was amazing, including Wild Country by Anne Bishop, Titanshade by Dan Stout, and Storm of Locusts by Rebecca Roanhorse
Young Adult
A real good showing for YA fantasy, science fiction, and horror this year! Here’s some of what I really enjoyed: The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas, Starsight by Brandon Sanderson, Queen of Nothing by Holly Black, Crownbreaker by Sebastien de Castell, Soul of the Sword by Julie Kagawa, Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
What a fun year it was for thrillers! 2019 gave me a few new all-time favorites, including Wherever She Goes by Kelley Armstrong, My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing, and Murder Theory by Andrew Mayne
Overview: Books Read in 2019
We still have a few more days left in the year so these numbers aren’t going to be final, but the below charts and statistics taken from Goodreads should provide a good general overview of my 2019 in books. I doubt I’ll break 200 books like in previous years, since I started a new gig earlier this spring which ate into my reading time. Still, I think I managed some good numbers overall. Thank you, audiobooks!
Goodreads Ratings:
On My Shelves…
By a Male Author: 40.5%
By a Female Author: 58.5%
Unknown/Male & Female Co-Authored: 1.0%
Audiobooks: 31.0%
For Review: 95.2%
Genres (some crossover):
Fantasy: 37.9%
Science Fiction: 27.9%
Thriller/Suspense: 18.4%
Horror: 15.8%
Urban Fantasy and Paranormal: 10.5%
Children’s and Young Adult: 23.2%
More on The BiblioSanctum:
Mogsy: Best of 2014 and The Year in Review
Mogsy: Best of 2015 and The Year in Review
Mogsy: Best of 2016 and The Year in Review
Mogsy: Best of 2017 and The Year in Review
Mogsy: Best of 2018 and The Year in Review
The BiblioSanctum 
Oh I love seeing these stats!
I really need to read some of your faves, especially from the SFF categories! Most of those were already on my TBR though!
(www.evelynreads.com)
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Good to hear! 😀
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Your reading stats are always something else wow!
I’ve read only one book on your list: Storm of Locusts and I really enjoyed it even if I liked the first book better. I wanted more Kai and Maggie interaction haha.
I’m interested by several books on your list but the two that I really want to read asap are Do You Dream of Terra-Two by Temi Oh and Walking to Aldebaran by Adrian Tchaikovsky. 🙂
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Haha, they’re actually lower this year. I’ve broken 200 for the last few years, granted there’s still a week left in the year but I don’t think I can make it this time, haha!
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Great stats, I feel inspired! 😀
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Thanks! I love putting together posts like this, always fun to look back at my reading for the year.
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That’s an incredible amount of books to get through in one year! Nice work. I see things I’m interested in on this list.
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Thank you! And I hope you get to check out some of those books you’re interested in!
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Oh so many great things there and I loved the ones I tried too!
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It was a great year for books!
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I need to catch up with Holy Sister & Storm of Locusts, but Walking to Aldebaran was a fun read. And, as much as I don’t generally read YA, Sebastien de Castell is making it damned hard to resist. 🙂
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I know what you mean! I’m usually wary about YA, but I also love it when adult fantasy authors transition to the genre, they’re always interesting to read.
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Great list!
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😀
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We definitely have some books in common! I really struggled with YA this year and even though I have a very small list of favorites, none were over 4 stars, if I remember correctly. My list will be up tomorrow and I also had trouble with slotting books into certain genre categories. Which is ok, because I LOVE mash ups!
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YA is always a tough category, but surprisingly I read a lot of good ones this year!
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189 books… That’s a number worthy of the Guinness Record! 😀
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Haha, believe it or not, it’s probably my lowest number in years 😀
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I LOVE the way you have broken this down. How did you get that shot with the star ratings? I think I have way too many 5 stars, I’m a bit ridiculous lol. 🙂
“For Review: 95.2%” woah! I haven’t even counted that stat before (I might this year) but I think mine is probably below 20% still. I have learned that I have to be careful accepting review copies because wanting to get to them all stresses me out so much hah.
I still really need to get to The Wolf in the Whale! Hopefully early next year. Great wrap up~!
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If you go to your shelves in goodreads, look to the left side where you see your listing of shelve and near the bottom will be “stats” or some thing similar. If you click that it will take you to a page with these graphs showing your books read by year and sorted by rating! You can look at each year by clicking them, and you’ll see a graph like the above. All I did was just take a screenshot of what I have or 2019 for this post 🙂
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Oh sweet! Thanks so much!
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What a year Mogsy!!! And I so agree with you on Starsight, Queen of Nothing and Spin the dawn!
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All three of those were amazing!
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I am still hoping something will wow the pants off me in the next week lol
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Me too! I’m still reading, and I always hope 😉
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Man, every end of year time I get jealous of everyone who is on devilreads and has access to such easy stats and cool looking graphics.
I am so impressed with everyone I’ve seen who are putting out these end of year posts already. Unlike Ola, it makes me feel like I’m behind the 8 ball 🙂
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Yeah, I have my issues with Goodreads, but the one thing they do great is helping me organize and it also lets its users make their own shelves, allowing me to pull stats like this more easily.
And I usually leave my end of year posts to the very last day or two, but this year I figured I’d do it before Christmas just to beat the rush – even though I can probably squeeze a few more books into 2019 before it’s over 😀
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189 books is so awesome! I need to start putting together my best of list too. And breaking down by stats is a neat idea, I’ve never done tht but now I’m curious!! Anyway you have quite a few books on here I want to get to, and several that I loved as well, like Recursion! The Twisted One looks good too!
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Haha, I love making lists and crunching numbers for stats. This is why Goodreads shelve are so perfect for me, I love to sort things into my own categories 😀
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189 books!? That’s amazing, Mogsy! And a lot of fantastic looking books here!
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Thanks! Hopefully I can squeeze in a few more books before the end of the year!
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189 books? you are amazing!!! there has got to be a SuperHero name for that feat!
I am really looking forward to The Ten Thousand Doors of January.
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Haha, believe it or not, this number’s been the lowest in years – I usually break 200 😀 But well, life got busy this year and work had to come first, which is fine! 😀
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What a great year! I’m seeing some favorites (and some I still haven’t managed to pick up!) I’m currently listening to Walking to Aldebaran and loving it.
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Ooh! I’m so glad to hear you’re enjoying WtA – can’t wait to read your review of it!
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Wow, it’s been quite a year of reading! There are some great looking books in the list. I really enjoyed The Wolf in the Whale, it was a very different sort of book for me. And I really want to read The Ten Thousand Doors of January next year.
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Yeah I thought TWitW was different too, but very special in its own way. I read it waaaaay back at the beginning of the year and almost forgot about it – which is why I love putting together these kinds of books, it really helps to look back at my year of reading and remember 🙂
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I love seeing year end stats and best of lists. That’s a whole lot you got through.
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Awesome post!! I loved so many of these- especially soul of the sword, wolf in the whale and holy sister 😀 really want to read recursion and looking forward to starsight! Loved seeing your stats as well! I love how audiobooks give me more time to read as well 😀 And well done on reading so many books! 😀
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Wow that’s an incredible number of books to have read. Im hoping to read a fair number of these this year, some really soon I hope. The main one is Queen Of Nothing (I can’t believe I haven’t read it yet!). Then it’s Spin The Dawn and I’m also going to order the Doors Of January one into the library once I’ve got reading a bit again. I hope that you have another fantastic reading year in 2020
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You had a fantastic reading year – you may not have read 200 but there are some excellent books on here and it looks absolutely superb.
Happy 2020.
Lynn 😀
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