The best non-romances I’ve read this year
It was bound to happen.
After ten years of primarily reading romance, in 2019, I found myself gravitating away from HEAs. According to Goodreads, thus far this year I’ve only read 50 romances and many of those were books published in earlier times. I’ve read 25 non-romances, all of them fiction. Of these 25, I adored seven, five of which were published in 2019.
Here are my fave non-romances I’ve read this year in no particular order:
Mrs. Everything by Jennifer Weiner (our DIK review is here)
This story of two white, well-educated sisters born in the late 40s–the story begins in 1952 when they are seven and four and takes them all the way to today–seemed written for me. I’ve always been obsessed with women’s stories and here Weiner covers the past seven decades of American womanhood effortlessly. At its very big heart, this novel sifts through the myriad ways women’s roles have changed as well as how they haven’t. I found it irresistible.
The Cruel Prince and The Wicked King by Holly Black (our DIK review is here)
Black’s The Folk of the Air trilogy–the third book comes out in two weeks–is the most sorry I’m reading do not talk to me unless you are dying series I’ve read since Bec McMasters’ London Steampunk stories. Seriously–don’t pick these up unless you are prepared to let Black’s audacious modern fantasy realm take over your life. Black’s always been a strong story-teller but here, she is at the top of her game.
Lady in the Lake by Laura Lippman (our DIK review is here)
This is one of the strongest literary mysteries I’ve recently read. The Lady in the Lake book tells the story of a woman–Maddie Schwartz–who, in a brilliantly, vividly realized 1960s Baltimore, is determined to be more than just a wife and mother. In her quest to become a writer, Maddie’s world becomes entangled with mystery of who killed the lady in the lake, a black woman named Cleo Sherwood. The mystery is first-rate as is Lippman’s prose–the story is told through many different voices. But even better is the evenhanded and incisive way Lippman showcases the hard choices, almost all defined by men, women in the second half of the 20th century made in their quests for personal and professional fulfilment.
The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt
This 2013 Pulitzer Prize winner has been on my TBR since it was published. But, as lauded as it was, I don’t love The Secret History and when I’d look at the (760 pages!) heft of The Goldfinch, I’d sigh and think tomorrow. But then the movie came out and I wanted to read the book before seeing it so I began and suddenly I was snared. The scope of the story is expansive–it’s a mystery, a meditation of the role of art, a hard-eyed look at a boy who lost his mother and became a man who’d have broken her heart, a portrait of New York and New Yorkers loving and wildly critical–but Tartt never loses her way. The last page is one of my favorites in modern literature and I think still about the characters in this book and wonder where they are now.
Conviction by Denise Mina
Denise Mina’s usual fare is dark, brilliant, and intensely Scottish. This book is brilliant, set in Scotland, hilarious, timely, and just a blast. I’m not a podcast listener but after reading this book in which Anna, running from a failed marriage, delves deep into a true crime podcast about an unsolved murder, I can see the appeal. Anna’s life isn’t working for her and, when it turns out she has a connection with the murder victim, she and a semi-famous musician–the man whose wife her husband is cheating on her with–go on the run, determined to solve the crime. I gulped this book down–it was my funnest read of the year.
The Secret Commonwealth by Philip Pullman
Were you to ask me what my favorite series of all time is, I’d reply His Dark Materials. When I heard that Pullman was writing a second trilogy around Lyra, the heroine of His Dark Materials, I was beyond thrilled. I enjoyed the first book in The Book of Dust–the second series–but it didn’t astound me. Book two, The Secret Commonwealth, did. Dense, profound, terrifyingly timely, and gorgeous–this is a book to gladden the hearts of all those who longed for more of Pullman’s worlds. I must caution you, however, if you’ve not read the first four books in this series, I think this book might be hard to appreciate. But, oh, those books are so worth it–if you love complex fantasy and haven’t read Pullman, you should.
How about you? What are the best non-romances you’ve read in 2019?
I’m another who has moved away from strictly reading romance; I’m reading a fair bit of science fiction and fantasy these days as well as the occasional work of non-fiction. Some of my favorite reads this year have actually been rereads. I strongly recommend the Linesman series by SK Dunstall; the lead character is someone from the slums who has his own way of communicating with the lines that are intrinsic to the operation of spaceships in his world. I have also reread The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison a good many times. This is a fantasy with a slight steampunk element; it features a young man who is genuinely good.
TBLoNH is about a Nina, an introvert that works in a book store and finds out she has many relatives (half brothers and sisters, cousins, etc.) when the father she never knew dies and leaves her an inheritance. ( I won’t reveal what she inherits:) The story is about how she adjusts to having new family members. She also loves trivia and plays on a trivia team. There is a love interest but it is not the focus of the story. The book made me smile.
The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman. I also liked Frankly in Love which from the title sounds like a romance but is really a coming of age book.
What is TBLoNH about?
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood. I’m a big fan of the series “The Handmaid’s Tale” and this is the perfect accompaniment to that.
So on my TBR.
– Queenie by Candice Carty-Williams
– The Scent Keeper by Erica Baurmeister
I enjoyed Ronan Farrow’s Catch and Kill a few weeks ago, and I also read John Douglas’s Mindhunter, which the Netflix series is based on. Both are excellent reads, if quite dark. Farrow’s book in particular was very depressing, showing the extreme lengths some men will go to in order to continue to victimize women. If you are at all interested in the stories around (and connection between) Harvey Weinstein and Matt Lauer, it is fascinating.
I read the new Simon Serrailer mystery by Susan Hill earlier this year, and liked it a lot. Hill does atmospheric murder like no one else! It’s a wonderful series.
And I discovered (and inhaled) Margaret Mizushima’s Timber Creek K-9 mysteries earlier this year. There is a back-burner romance in this series, but the book’s focus is on the female protag’s personal journey, her relationship with her dog, and the cases they work in the wilderness of Colorado. I love a good but not sappy animal story, and these fit the bill! And a new one out next week…!!
I’ve heard good things about both Farrow’s Catch and Kill and Douglas’s Mindhunter. Mindhunter is my current favorite TV show, though there is an agonizingly long wait between seasons.
Catch and Kill is one of the best non-fiction books I’ve ever read. This kind of story can get really convoluted and hard to follow, but Farrow makes it all crystal clear. IMO, NBC news has a lot to answer for in not reporting the story. Farrow has a long career ahead of him in investigative reporting.
I love the tv show too, and the book functions as an autobiographical piece for Douglas, as well as a treatise on how they figured out effective profiling. It is also very readable, and since I enjoy true crime, I found it fascinating. It’s also easy to follow and we’ll written.
I adored Eleanor Oliphant is Totally Fine by Gail Honeyman early this year. Eleanor is a wonderful character, a young woman struggling to both come out of her shell as well as keep her life together, and variously succeeding.
The rest of my non-romance favs have been non-fiction: Educated by Tara Westover and Girl Code: gaming, going viral and getting it done by Andrea Gonzales and Sophie Houser ( a fast, but inspirational read, for all girls – and maybe their brothers – and the people who care about them) are the books I’m still thinking about.
Mrs. Everything and When the Crawdads Sing are both on my TBR . . .
Educated would be on my list too except I read it in 2018. EOITF was not for me–I was unprepared for the horror of her backstory. But others in my book club loved it.
Several people in my book club DNF’d Educated for similar reasons. . . . I guess the book should come with/be reviewed with trigger warnings. I glossed over many of the graphic details (as I do with many books) but I found Westover’s journey into a very different kind of life fascinating.
Favorite literary book this year is probably Erin Craig’s House of Salt and Sorrows. It’s a creepy, dark, and Gothic retelling of the German fairy tale “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” full of curses, death, and mystery. When I”m not reading for classes and I’m not reading romances, I tend to go dark for some reason.
Like you, after years of reading primarily romance, I’ve also shifted away to other genres – primarily YA, Fantasy and SF.
Right now I am engrossed in Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series. I’m on book 5 and I am SPELLBOUND by the whole series. It’s just so damn good. The writing, the plot, the battles, the CHARACTERS, omg the characters…I haven’t loved a SF book in years, but these books are by far the best SF I’ve ever read. I’ll definitely have a book hangover after these.
I also loved The Cruel Prince (and I need to read the 2nd one, now that the 3rd one is almost out – the older I get, the less I like to wait between books, so I try to be patient and wait until an entire series is out before embarking on the whole journey.)
My other favorites:
Sarah J. Maas – Throne of Glass series and The Court of Frost and Starlight series. ToG is amazing, started out great and just gets better with each book, and COFAS is even better than ToG, I think. Many people say that the Cruel Prince books feel the same as the Court books, and while they do feel a bit similar in some ways, both stories a bit different (and worth reading).
Laini Taylor – her Daughter of Smoke and Bone series took my breath away, and her Strange The Dreamer series is simply magical, beautiful, heartbreaking and breathtaking, as well.
Leigh Bardugo – Shadow and Bone series and Six of Crows series…both are filled with interesting, flawed, wonderful characters and captivating stories. So good.
The Murder of Harriet Monckton by Elizabeth Haynes. Fictionalised account of a real 1860s murder in rural England that was never solved. Wonderful sense of time and place and clever ending. Even a doomed romance in it which is very poignant.
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived by British scientist and broadcaster Adam Rutherford. Nonfiction – all about genetics. Absolutely fascinating. I listened to the Audible version, which took some concentration given the subject matter, but Rutherford has one of the most gorgeous speaking voices I’ve ever heard, so it was a joy in that regard as well.
I have the Rutherford on my Kindle. I’m not a big non-fiction reader but this one calls to me.
I’ve been catching up on my long neglected SF&F TBR this year, which turned out to be mostly fantasy books. Among those I really liked:
–Madeline Miller’s Circe (which I liked better than Song of Achilles, but readers tend to vary in opinion on that).
–Lynn Flewelling’s Nightrunner series
–The first three books in Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom series on audio (read by Tim Curry). Love Mogget and the disreputable dog!
–Andrzej Sapkowski’s Witcher series. I’m not into video games, so I’ve never played the games.
But these books have always called to me when I’ve been in the bookstore. I finally broke down and bought all of them and became pretty obsessed over them. Can’t wait to see what Netflix does with this series. This is what I plan to watch over my xmas holiday!
Some other books I’ve enjoyed:
–Old Baggage by Lissa Evans on audio. I really liked the audio reader, Jane Copland, and didn’t realize until I had finished that it was a prequel to the equally great Crooked Heart by this author.
–Once a Midwife by Patricia Harman. I really like her midwife books and this continues the story of the couple featured in The Midwife of Hope River.
–The Murdstone Trilogy by Mal Peet on audio. This was, I think, the last book the author wrote before he died, which I think adds more bite to the dark humor and scathing satire of the publishing industry. It’s about a has-been author of angsty boys books who enters a Faustian bargain with a stranger when his agent persuades him to write fantasy. The bargain has unexpected consequences, as bargains, do, but is it real or is the author losing his mind?
Tamar by Mal Peet totally blew me away when I read it a few years ago. I’ve got Murdstone Trilogy on my TBR and will hopefully get to it someday soon.
OMG–my family adores the Nix books on audio. I’m always sad more people haven’t read The Old Kingdom books. His world with its bells is just fabulous.
My log has 232 books read so far this year (including rereads): 141 romance, 74 F&SF, 2 erotica, 1 mystery, 1 non-fiction, and 12 non-fiction audio or video. There are also 83 shorter items, mostly stories in anthologies or collections, but some stand-alone (much more common in ebooks than they were in printed books).
The standout non-romance is Special Education by David R. Palmer, the sequel to his 1980s book Threshold. (Note: Special in the title is spelled with a bar over the e to indicate a long e sound.) Except for spending a little too much time on a real-world problem, it is wonderful! Threshold centered on an OTT almost-superman. A lot of Special Education focuses on his female counterpart, who is only 8 years old, and her grandmother. If you enjoy F&SF, check these out.
“I’ve only read 50 romances” *Only* 50 romances, Ms. Grinnan? According to my MS Word list, I’ve only read 29 books this year PERIOD. But of those 29 books, here are the non-romances that stood out to me (in no particular order):
1) “The Shoemaker’s Wife” by Adriana Trigiani- This has a romance in it, but it is actually historical fiction. It takes place in the early 1900s and focuses on two characters from Northern Italy near the Alps, Ciro and Enza, who meet when they’re young, get separated, and meet again in America. (This is not a spoiler. It’s in the book description.) This one was a real page turner for me.
2) “The Seas of Distant Stars” by Francesca Varela- YA science fiction about a young woman who grows up among aliens and is then returned to Earth with false memories that are designed to make her forget that she was abducted at an early age. Beautifully written and intriguing coming of age story.
3) “Ghost of the Hardy Boys” by Leslie McFarlane- A memoir of the man who wrote more than twenty of the original “Hardy Boys” mysteries for kids. Really fascinating and humorous stuff. Just keep in mind that some of the racial stuff is a little iffy, given that Mr. McFarlane wrote a lot of his stories in the 1920s through 1940s.
4) “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo- does this really need a description? I actually read the book before watching the movie. While I agree with the critics who say it is a rare example where the movie is better than the book, I’m glad I read the book first for some background information and greater character development of some of the minor players.
5) “Midnight Cowboy” by James Leo Herlihy- Odd but interesting story about a young man determined to become a gigolo in New York circa 1969 who ends up working with a small time crook who has dreams of moving to Florida. You may have seen the movie with Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, but like “The Godfather,” I actually read the book before the movie. And again, like “The Godfather,” I think the movie version of “Midnight Cowboy” is actually better. Well, let me put it this way. Some parts of “Midnight Cowboy” the novel are better and some parts of “Midnight Cowboy” the movie are better- with my vote for the movie being slightly superior overall. More specifically, the movie has better pacing and streamlines a lot of the action that was a bit clunky in the novel. But the novel has some key scenes of character development that helped me understand certain parts of the movie.
Fun fact: Because of the controversial subject matter, the director had to make some compromises to the plot. Notably, Mr. Voight and Mr. Hoffman had to be shown sleeping in separate cots even though their characters shared a blanket on the floor in the novel. The studio didn’t want the slightest implication that there might be more than friendship going on between protagonists Joe Buck and Rico Rizzo!
6) “P.S. Your Cat is Dead” by James Kirkwood (the novel version, not the play)- Okay, this one was just campy, but it brought a smile to my face. Written by the creator of the musical “Chorus Line,” the story follows frustrated, largely unemployed actor and wannabe writer Jimmy Zoole on New Year’s Eve as he loses his girlfriend, gets burgled three times (including the theft of his novel manuscript!), and is being strung along by his wealthy aunt who expects to be catered to if he wants her precious inheritance. But things come to a head when he finally catches the burglar responsible, ties him to the kitchen table, and then tries to figure out what to do with him. It’s corny, at times stereotypical, and totally not politically correct, but if you’re in the right mindset, it’s good, silly fun.
As an honorable mention, I read the novelization of “Dog Day Afternoon” after watching the movie for the first time this year. Please just watch the movie, which is superior in every way to the tie-in novel.
Movies routinely used to be better than the books. That seems less true to me now. #OKBoomer
Now that you mention it, I think you’re right. Some of those well-made movies from the 1930s-1950s inspired me to read the original source material, only to realize the books they were based upon were a bit of a slog. Case in point, the book “Ben-Hur” is pretty much unreadable whereas the movie is a spectacle (although a bit on the long, boring side near the end). I don’t mean the book is a slog because of challenging vocabulary or anything like that. It’s the longwinded writing style (I should talk.) The best comparison I can give is that the book is a novel-length version of a Sir Bulwer Lytton competition winner. Ick!
And some stories are just better suited to the screen anyway, just as some books wouldn’t translate well on film. I’m sure we can all think of some examples.
I have a t-shirt that reads “never judge a book by its movie”. I think Bridget Jones Diary is the only “recent” book whose movie I genuinely enjoyed more. (I think it was the annoying and repetitive notes about cigarettes and weight? food? at the beginning of each chapter that really put me off the book.)
I read Unwind by Neil Shusterman. It’s considered Dystopian Fiction YA but it is nuanced and unpredictable. It’s a grown up Hunger Games for me. Also, the story arc is over a trilogy so I’m reading the next title.
I will put that on my list! Thanks!
I had a different experience with Tartt. The Secret History is a book I recommend all the time; I enjoyed it when I read it many years ago – as have most of the people to whom I’ve recommended it! I didn’t like The Little Friend (AT ALL), but on the strength of her first book I started The Goldfinch. And gave up. And started again. And gave up again. I think I’ve maybe read half? Maybe I should read the movie & then try to read the book if I like it?
I have several friends who feel as you do.
I think I am–as I crest towards 60–drawn to stories of how we make sense of family and the arc of our lives. This book has that in spades.
The two non-romances I’ve liked best this year (although I’m not sure if they were published this year, only that I read them this year) are Sue Burke’s SEMIOSIS (a first-contact sf which covers several generations of humans colonizing another planet and developing a symbiotic relationship with a sentient bamboo plant) and Diane Les Becquets’s THE LAST WOMAN IN THE FOREST (psychological suspense about a woman who begins to suspect her late fiancé was a serial killer). I think, if we’re avid readers, we all tend to read in cycles; although romance has been a constant of my fiction reading, I’ve gone through times when I was reading much more of another genre (murder-mysteries, psychological suspense, literary fiction, etc.), but I always cycle back to romance eventually. I don’t try to fight it—when I find my interest in a genre waning (I reached that point with psychological suspense a couple of years back—when I got to the end of Sarah Pinborough’s BEHIND HER EYES and said, “What the f*@# did I just read?”), I just move on until something grabs me and I find myself back reading that genre again.