My 5-Star Reads from 2019
No time like the present, eh? I read 94* books last year — thanks to a long commute + it’s now part of my job — and have a goal to finish 100 in 2020.
If you’ve started (or abandoned!) a reading goal or are stuck on what to read next, here are the books I gave 5 stars to after reading them in 2019. It’s a pretty even split between new and old, fiction and nonfiction, plus various genres.
And while I’ll happily discuss books with anyone, anytime, I do not need to hear your thoughts on why a book “sucks.” We all have our preferences; if some (or all) of these aren’t your style, simply share your faves so I can try those out, too 🤓

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Pexels.com
Fiction
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Fredrik Backman
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
- The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
- The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
- All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
- The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Me Before You by Jojo Meyes
- Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Nonfiction
- Beautiful on the Outside by Adam Rippon
- Educated by Tara Westover
- We Should All Be Mirandas: Life Lessons from Sex and the City’s Most Underrated Character by Chelsea Fairless and Lauren Garroni
- American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century by Maureen Callahan
- We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed by Lori Gottlieb
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
- Karl the Fog: San Francisco’s Most Mysterious Resident by Karl the Fog…
- Becoming by Michelle Obama
- The Library Book by Susan Orlean
- Half Broke Horses by Jeannette Walls
- Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe
*I read 94 books from cover to cover. For the first time in a while, I allowed myself to abandon books I wasn’t enjoying. I listened to some in audiobook format, but did not make it through any from start to finish. </end disclaimer>
Witty Rewind: March 2019
I thought it’d be fun to capture each month’s activities and milestones in a series called Witty Rewind. It may not be for posterity’s sake, but I hope you’ll enjoy looking back at the previous month with me.
I told myself I’d try a “clean eating on weekdays” approach in March but I most certainly did not. Instead, I started on the 1st with a Mexican fiesta lunch, spent mid-March in San Diego (Mexican food capital of California) and ended the 31st with a wine-and-tacos apartment purge party. Noticing a theme? Ay dios mio. [🌮 eaten: ~20]
Despite having plenty of time to devote to reading on the shuttle and quick flights, I found myself not able to power through any reads the way I normally would. (For context, I can usually get through a book in 2-4 sittings, and a few days’ time.) That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy my March picks, but I do think I was considerably less motivated with my brain on overdrive in work summits and commitments. [📚 read: 3.5]
Some highlights from the madness that was this past month:
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- Bowling with dear friends who moved to New York last year
- Celebrating a housemate’s birthday with incredible Cajun cuisine
- Meeting lots of inspiring and empowering women through Junior League of SF
- Attending a newcomer summit for work + getting uplifting insight
- Looking for a new apartment with a current housemate
- Catching up with a longtime friend during her stay in SF before she moves back to NYC
- Checking out a crystal fair (really!) and somehow buying only jewelry
- Hosting my fave former writer for lunch at my new(ish) job
- Happy hour-ing with other former writers and getting the tea
- Helping another former writer with her portfolio
- Spending a week in San Diego with my family
- Experiencing DisneyLand for the first time and seeing my nieces go wild
- Attending a global summit for work + meeting tons of colleagues face-to-face
- Exploring the Exploratorium 😉 and its After Dark series for the first time
- Celebrating a handful of close friends’ birthdays with drinks, dinners, brunches galore
Six people looking at the camera = a Christmas miracle