Well, this year has definitely been a year of books. I joined the Goodreads Challenge last January 1 with the goal of reading 80 books in 2019. I exceeded this goal, reading 94 books, much of those mystery novels in series forms as well as many Austenesque novels of varying sorts.
My favorite find of 2019 was the Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jacqueline Winspear, starting in Maisie's childhood as the daughter of a costermonger; her mother died when she was thirteen, and her father, unsure of how to raise a teenage daughter himself, sent her into service at the London home of Lord and Lady Compton, philanthropists and well-known in the social scene. Lady Rowan soon discovered Maisie's thirst for knowledge and offered her time to study under the tutelage of Dr. Maurice Blanche until Maisie was accepted at Girton College. The first book takes us through Maisie's experiences in the Great War, her recovery, her return to college, and her position as Dr. Blanche's assistant.
The second book sees Maisie take over Maurice's investigative business, and currently, I'm starting the most recent 15th book which takes place during the opening years of the Second World War, published earlier this year. I had hoped to read the entire series in 2019, but this last book brought forth a character from a previous case, so I wanted to re-read that book before starting this most recent. It's a brilliant series where less is more, where characters run deep and are fallible yet so, so real that I feel I would know Maisie on sight should I see her walking down the street (yes, even in modern clothing). I can't recommend this mystery series highly enough; there is so much to ponder over beside the mysterious cases Maisie takes on in each novel.
Some of my other favorite mystery series from 2019 are the Daisy Dalrymple series by Carola Dunn (23 books in series), the Sebastian St. Cyr series by C.S. Harris (14 books in series), and lately, the Lady Darby series by Anna Lee Huber (7 books in series).
So, Goodreads seems to have a glitch in their Reading Challenge set-up in which some books I've read are listed twice (despite my only reading them once), and the connection between my Kindle and Goodreads added several books as "read" although I only accidentally opened them when scrolling through my libraries. I've now severed the connection and will add my finished books to Goodreads by hand in 2020. So please know that despite the apparent 103 books Goodreads claimed I read in 2019, it's truly only 94. I checked twice. ;)
So here are my books in reverse order, starting with the ones read in December and working our way back to January 2019:
If you would like more information on the books I read in 2019, most of which include reviews I wrote for most of the books, you may also check out my Goodreads page by clicking on my Goodreads widget in the sidebar of this blog or by going to my page on Goodreads: Susanne Barrett's Goodreads.
So have you read any amazing books in 2019? I'd love to hear about them! Please share the Goodreading bookish goodness!!
Happy New Year, everyone!! I wish you all a healthy, joyous, and blessed 2020!!
Warmly,
