The Books We Read in 2019 & The Books We Can’t Wait to Read in 2020
Our New Year’s resolution every single year? Read more books. We’re happy to report it was one resolution we actually made good on in 2019. (Giving up potato chips? Not so much.) In 2020, we’re hoping to double the number of pages we read last year. Below are the books we read in 2019, a mix of novels, memoirs, and motivational reads, and a few of the books we can’t wait to crack open in 2020.
THE BOOKS WE READ IN 2019
My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante
We loved the first book in Ferrante’s popular quartet of Neapolitan novels, which tells the coming-of-age story of lifelong friends Elena and Lila set in Naples, Italy beginning in the 1950s. The story is touching, beautiful, and raw, and ends with a shocking twist of events. HBO released a TV series based on Ferrante’s books last year, and we were captivated by the beautifully filmed episodes. We can’t wait to dive into the second book this year.
Becoming by Michelle Obama
We’re already proud card-holding members of the Michelle Obama fan club, but reading her memoir made us fall in love with her even more. Although our childhoods and backgrounds are different, we related so much to her experiences, struggles, and triumphs as a woman and eventually as First Lady. Obama is the kind of strong, smart, and inspiring woman and role model the world could use more of.
This Is Marketing by Seth Godin
As the godfather of modern marketing, Godin’s small but mighty book is jam-packed with his best insights, musings, and wisdom. As fans of Godin’s blog and daily newsletter, we pretty much dog-eared every single page—but it was a lot to digest. We recommend reading this book in small doses to really let it all soak in.
Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis
In this motivational book, Hollis outlines the many lies women tell themselves and why we need to stop believing those lies and start believing in ourselves. While we appreciate her enthusiasm and message of empowerment, we found this book to be a bit too preachy for our taste. Still, if you’re looking for a good cheerleader and could use a good pep talk, Hollis is your gal.
#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso
This New York Times bestseller had been on our reading list for years, and 2019 was the year we finally cracked it open. We enjoyed reading Amoruso’s honest account of how she grew her millionaire-dollar Nasty Gal empire from scratch, and the many lessons she learned along the way.
Educated by Tara Westover
This page-turning memoir follows Westover’s life as a young girl growing up in rural Idaho with her family of survivalists. She never attended school, but imagines a greater life for herself and eventually breaks free of her family. She goes on to attend to BYU, Harvard, and eventually earn a PhD from Cambridge University.
More Than Enough by Elaine Welteroth
We loved every page of this book by Welteroth, an award-winning journalist, Project Runway judge, and former Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief. The book has been described as, "part manifesto, part memoir," and explores what it means to come into your own—on your own terms. We highly recommend it.
Daring Greatly by Brené Brown
There’s so much to love about Brown, and this book—the follow-up to her groundbreaking book and TED Talk, The Power of Vulnerability—is proof of why the world adores and needs her. Brown outlines how “the courage to be vulnerable transforms the way we live, love, parent, and lead.”
The Moment of Lift by Melinda Gates
As the wife of billionaire Microsoft founder, Bill Gates, Melinda Gates is known for her philanthropic work and advocacy of women and young girls. In her book, Gates shares the stories of women she’s met across the globe who are making a difference, and the many issues and inequalities affecting women all over the world that need our attention more than ever. It’s informative, inspiring, and a gentle call to action for all of us.
The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
We greatly enjoyed this widely acclaimed best-seller about viral trends in business, marketing, and human behavior. “The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire.” We highly recommend picking up this book if you work in marketing or are a small business owner. But even if you’re not, it’s still a fascinating and thought-provoking read.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Every page of this beautifully written novel reads like deep-fried Southern poetry. We absolutely loved this coming-of-age tale, romance, and mystery about the “Marsh Girl” in a small coastal town in North Carolina. It’s touching, poignant, and the kind of book that stays with you long after the final page. Fingers crossed this story comes to the big screen one day (we’re looking at you, Reese Witherspoon!).
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
This best-selling novel is about motherhood, secrets, and identity. We were intrigued from the first chapter and couldn’t put the book down. We can’t wait to tune into the TV series adaption featuring Reese Witherspoon and Kerry Washington, coming to Hulu this March.
THE BOOKS WE CAN’T WAIT TO READ IN 2020
Cut to 2020: This year we have a goal of reading at least 20 books—which shakes out to be about 2 books per month. Seems doable, right? Here are a handful of the books we’re excited to dive into this year (we’ll update this post with more books as the year goes on!):
Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid
Perhaps one of the most anticipated books of 2020, this debut novel by Kiely Reid revolves around a young mother/social media influencer and her babysitter. Here’s a description from Amazon: "A striking and surprising debut novel from an exhilarating new voice, Such a Fun Age is a compelling and big-hearted story about race and privilege, set around a young black babysitter, her well-intentioned employer, and a surprising connection that threatens to undo them both." Reese Witherspoon and Vogue are already fans—here’s hoping we will be too.
Bunny: A Novel by Mona Awad
Our dear friend Britt Chudeigh recently gifted us this book, and it was love at first sight of the cover. (And if Lena Duham is a fan, chances are we will be too.) A quick excerpt from Amazon: “The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.” We can’t wait to dive in and tumble down the rabbit hole!
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Having recently watched (and fallen in love with) Greta Gerwig’s modern film adaption of Alcott’s classic novel, we thought it was high-time to return to this book. We haven’t read Little Women—one of our all-time favorite tales—since junior high, and as Gerwig herself has noting, reading it as an adult unearths a whole new appreciation for the beloved story of the March sisters—true feminists before their time.
How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right? Essays on Modern Life by Pandora Sykes
This book isn’t released until July 2020, but we’ve already pre-ordered our signed copy (happy early birthday to us!). Sykes is a British journalist and co-host of The High Low podcast, our favorite weekly listen. Aside from being one of our personal style icons and fashion muses (follow her on Instagram to see why), Sykes is smart, witty, and insightful, and we can’t wait to devour her book of essays.
Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
Alderton is Sykes’ right-hand gal and the other half of The High Low podcast. A fellow journalist and author (give her a follow on Instagram), her witty and heartfelt memoir chronicles her life in her 20s and the lessons she’s learned along the way, from parties to dates and friends to jobs and life to love. The book was released in 2018 and we’ve been dying to dive into it ever since.
I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman by Nora Ephron
We’re huge fans of Ephron’s many iconic films (You’ve Got Mail, When Harry Met Sally, and Julie & Julia, to name a few) but truth be told we’ve never actually read one of her books. This book about aging and being a woman is said to be hilarious, intimate, and thoughtful—just like Ephron herself. Bonus: The book has recently been re-released with a new forward by the aforementioned Dolly Alderton, often referred to as the Nora Ephron of the millennial generation.
Ordinary People by Diana Evans
We’ve heard amazing things about this novel, said to be “an intimate study of identity and parenthood, sex and grief, friendship and aging, and the fragile architecture of love,” according to Amazon. We’re already hooked.
The Story of a New Name by Elena Ferrante
Book two of Ferrante’s beloved Neapolitan novels, this book picks up where book one, My Brilliant Friend, left off (one of our 2019 reads). We can’t wait to see where the lives of Elena and Lila are headed next. Book three in the series, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, and book four, The Story of The Lost Child, are also on our 2020 reading list. HBO is set to continue this beautiful series, as well, which we also highly recommend.
The Lying Life of Adults by Elena Ferrante
There’s quite the buzz surrounding this new and highly anticipated book by Ferrante, her first to be published since 2014. The novel is set to be released in English in June and “will tell the story of a young woman named Giovanna growing up in Naples, and her struggle to come to terms with the end of her childhood,” according to Ferrante’s publisher, Europa. Sounds similar to the Neapolitan novels, but we’ll let the book speak for itself.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
It’s safe to say this is one of our all-time favorite novels and by far our favorite of Hemingway’s many beloved books. We read this story nearly every summer, and we love to pick it up when we’re preparing for a trip to Spain, where much of the novel takes place. We’re heading to Spain for a two-week trip this June, and you can bet this trusty paperback will be accompanying us on the journey.