Last year, I dedicated the whole month of February to reading just a little bit every single day in the hopes that it would help me rediscover the long-lost priority of reading. I didn’t place any time or length goals on this, I just wanted to read every day.

Spoiler alert, it worked. I ended the year with 14 books read. This was great because it gave me a benchmark of how much I would read without any goals in place. It was even more helpful because 2018 was incredibly busy, so I ended the year with a solid grasp on how many pages I could cover while juggling multiple jobs, time with friends and running lots of miles.

Enter 2019 and a whole slew of new goals, with reading 19 books in 2019 at the very top of the list! Last year, I learned having an active reading list made me much more likely to start a new book immediately. The list isn't meant to be rigid. If something not on the list sparks my interest, I read it. The list is there as a guide with a variety of genres so I can pick what I mentally (and emotionally) need at that particular moment.

Building the list this year proved more challenging than the year before. I had less recommendations on the ready, so I used this challenge list for inspiration. Since I’m reading 19 instead of 52, I cherry-picked the categories a bit.

Also this year, I’ll be using the techniques covered in a Happier podcast episode on how to get more reading done. If you’d like to listen, it’s so worth the 40 minutes of your time and you can do so here. The key takeaways I had were:

• It is okay to DNF (did not finish) a book. I’ve always prided myself on being someone who sees things through to the bitter end, though the older I get, the more I’ve begun to redirect my energy to what brings me joy…reading and otherwise.

• Read books you enjoy. This sounds like a duh, but I believe I read less last year because I was concerned about mixing in “smart” books. Obviously this meant I was spending months on certain books because I was seeing it through. (Oh hi again, previous bullet point).

• Always have something to read. PREACH! Why was I always going to my hair, doctor, dentist…whatever appointments empty-handed?! And all of my books are Kindle versions, so now I make sure it’s downloaded to my iPad AND my phone. Such a simple fix.

• Set aside time for the thinkers. I’ve always been a one book kinda gal. The podcast talks about scheduling time (like a Saturday afternoon) for books that are either emotionally or mentally involved, just like setting up time to study for a test. Then you can devote other time (like after work) to books that are an easier read. Brilliant!

So without further ado, here is the stack I’m entering 2019 with:

1. I Get To: How Using The Right Words Can Radically Transform Your Life, Relationships & Business — Alicia Dunams

Stats:
226 pages
Self-help

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Communications expert Alicia Dunams empowers readers and leaders in all ages and stages of their career and life to harness the power of intentional communication for transformational results. By reading this book, which includes 40+ conversation starters for effective communication.

Challenge category:
Book About a Difficult Topic

Why it made the list:
Remember how I said I narrated most of last year from a negative perspective? Seemed like it was meant to be!

2. Beautiful Exiles — Meg Waite Clayton

Stats:
366 pages
Historical fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship—forged over writing, talk, and family dinners—flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War.

Challenge category:
A Book You Own But Haven’t Read

Why it made the list:
Pretty sure this was an Amazon First Reads (aka FREE) in 2018, but I didn’t get to it last year. Also, Hemingway.

3. The Last Of The Savages — Jay McInerney

Stats:
271 pages
Fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Patrick Keane and Will Savage meet at prep school at the beginning of the explosive '60s. Over the next 30 years, they remain friends even as they pursue radically divergent destinies--and harbor secrets that defy rebellion and conformity.

Challenge category:
Book You Haven’t Read by Author You Love

Why it made the list:
My brother and I loved Bright Lights, Big City (also by McInerney) and he said this one was also a must.

4. Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear — Elizabeth Gilbert

Stats:
288 pages
Self-help

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: With profound empathy and radiant generosity, Gilbert offers potent insights into the mysterious nature of inspiration. She asks us to embrace our curiosity and let go of needless suffering. She shows us how to tackle what we most love, and how to face down what we most fear. She discusses the attitudes, approaches, and habits we need in order to live our most creative lives. 

Challenge category:
Nonfiction Bestseller

Why it made the list:
It’s the book behind my bestie’s second favorite podcast, and as a creative professional, it just makes sense. Bonus point, COLORS.

5. A Wild Sheep Chase — Haruki Murakami

Stats:
353 pages
Magical realism

Synopsis:
From Amazon: An advertising executive receives a postcard from a friend and casually appropriates the image for an advertisement. What he doesn’t realize is that included in the scene is a mutant sheep with a star on its back, and in using this photo he has unwittingly captured the attention of a man who offers a menacing ultimatum: find the sheep or face dire consequences. Thus begins a surreal and elaborate quest that takes readers from Tokyo to the remote mountains of northern Japan.

Challenge category:
Book Set in Another Country

Why it made the list:
The remote mountains of northern Japan—I lived there! I always read Murakami when I’m missing Japan…which is a lot.

6. Everything Is Awful: And Other Observations — Matt Bellassai

Stats:
247 pages
Autobiography

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: From the break-out star of BuzzFeed's Whine About It and the People’s Choice Award-winning comedian behind the web series To Be Honest comes a collection of hilariously anguished essays chronicling awful moments from Matt’s life so far, the humiliations of being an adult, and other little indignities.

Challenge category:
Autobiography or Memoir

Why it made the list:
If you’ve ever seen Whine About It, you know why this made the list.

7. Whiskey Sea — Ann Howard Creel

Stats:
300 pages
Historical fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Motherless and destitute, Frieda Hope is determined to make a better life for herself and her sister, Bea. Frieda quickly discovers that a mechanic’s wages won’t support them, and is lured into a money-making team of rumrunners supplying alcohol to New York City speakeasies. Speeding into dangerous waters to transport illegal liquor, Frieda gets swept up in the lucrative, risky work—and swept off her feet by a handsome Ivy Leaguer who’s in it just for fun.

Challenge category:
Historical Fiction From A Favorite Time Period

Why it made the list:
I basically find a speakeasy in every city I visit, so it seemed like this would pair nicely with the French 75 I’ll be sipping while I read.

8. The Devil in the White City — Erik Larson

Stats:
447 pages
True crime

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Two men, each handsome and unusually adept at his chosen work, embodied an element of the great dynamic that characterized America's rush toward the twentieth century. The architect was Daniel Hudson Burnham, the fair's brilliant director of works and the builder of many of the country's most important structures. The murderer was Henry H. Holmes, a young doctor who, in a malign parody of the White City, built his "World's Fair Hotel" just west of the fairgrounds.

Challenge category:
A Book from the Rory Gilmore Challenge

Why it made the list:
Honestly, it hit multiple categories on the challenge list. Plus, it sounded deliciously dark.

9. An American Marriage — Tayari Jones

Stats:
308 pages
Contemporary fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined.

Challenge category:
Celebrity Book Club Pick

Why it made the list:
Gotta have at least one Oprah book on the list.

10. Eleanor & Park — Rainbow Rowell

Stats:
328 pages
YA fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Eleanor... Red hair, wrong clothes. Park... He knows she'll love a song before he plays it for her. Set over the course of one school year, this is the story of two star-crossed sixteen-year-olds—smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.

Challenge category:
Set in Your Home State (Bonus point, also set in my hometown)

Why it made the list:
My cold, black heart is already ugly crying.

11. Circe — Madeline Miller

Stats:
393 pages
Fantasy

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

Challenge category:
With a One Word Title

Why it made the list:
Despite what my college transcript shows, I do find mythology fascinating.

12. Are You Sleeping — Kathleen Barber

Stats:
326 pages
Mystery

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Josie Buhrman has spent the last ten years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father's murder thirteen years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult and her twin sister Lanie, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past—starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel.

Challenge category:
True Crime

Why it made the list:
I can’t believe I made it this far down the list before I had one with psychological thriller in the description.

13. Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think — Hans Rosling, Ola Rosling, Anna Rosling Rönnlund

Stats:
342 pages
Science nonfiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Professor of International Health and global TED phenomenon Hans Rosling, together with his two long-time collaborators, Anna and Ola, reveal the ten instincts that distort our perspective—from our tendency to divide the world into two camps to the way we consume media to how we perceive progress. It turns out that the world, for all its imperfections, is in a much better state than we might think. That doesn’t mean there aren’t real concerns. But when we worry about everything all the time instead of embracing a worldview based on facts, we can lose our ability to focus on the things that threaten us most.

Challenge category:
Nonfiction Book about Science

Why it made the list:
Because I read the news.

14. Sharp Objects — Gillian Flynn

Stats:
272 pages
Mystery

Synopsis:
From Amazon: Fresh from a brief stay at a psych hospital, reporter Camille Preaker faces a troubling assignment: she must return to her tiny hometown to cover the murders of two preteen girls. For years, Camille has hardly spoken to her neurotic, hypochondriac mother or to the half-sister she barely knows: a beautiful thirteen-year-old with an eerie grip on the town. Now, installed in her old bedroom in her family's Victorian mansion, Camille finds herself identifying with the young victims—a bit too strongly. 

Challenge category:
Book You Didn’t Read Last Year

Why it made the list:
Still holds true that I need more Flynn after Gone Girl.

15. The Visible Filth — Nathan Ballingrud

Stats:
68 pages
Horror Fiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: When Will discovers a cell phone after a violent brawl his life descends into a nightmare. Affable, charismatic and a little shallow, he’s been skating across the surface of life in a state of carefully maintained contentment. He decides to keep the cell phone just until the owner returns and everything changes. Then the messages begin. Will’s discovered something unspeakable and it’s crawling slowly into the light.

Challenge category:
Book Becoming Movie in 2019

Why it made the list:
Starring Armie Hammer (swoon)!

16. The Universe Has Your Back: Transform Fear to Faith —
Gabrielle Bernstein

Stats:
200 pages
Self help

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Each story and lesson in the book guides readers to release the blocks to what they most long for: happiness, security and clear direction. The lessons help readers relinquish the need to control so they can relax into a sense of certainty and freedom. Readers will learn to stop chasing life and truly live.

Challenge category:
Recommended by a Friend

Why it made the list:
Looking at this list, I’m starting to fear my mental state…damn…

17. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire — J.K. Rowling

Stats:
734 pages
YA Fantasy

Synopsis:
Is this even necessary? It’s the fourth book, folks.

Challenge category:
You Once Started But Never Finished

Why it made the list:
It was wayyyyyy too many pages for my N’SYNC-obsessed, Limited Too-wearing self to handle in 2000 and late. I think I’m ready now, fam.

18. Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen — Christopher McDougall

Stats:
287 pages
Nonfiction

Synopsis:
From Goodreads: Isolated by the most savage terrain in North America, the reclusive Tarahumara Indians of Mexico’s deadly Copper Canyons are custodians of a lost art. For centuries they have practiced techniques that allow them to run hundreds of miles without rest and chase down anything from a deer to an Olympic marathoner while enjoying every mile of it. Their superhuman talent is matched by uncanny health and serenity, leaving the Tarahumara immune to the diseases and strife that plague modern existence.

Challenge category:
A Genre You Don’t Usually Read

Why it made the list:
I read The Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer (a great read for anyone who thinks they can’t run, by the way) to prep for the Houston Marathon. My brother read this.

19. The Giver — Lois Lowry

Stats:
208 pages
Classic

Synopsis:
Probably unnecessary, but just in case… from Goodreads: Twelve-year-old Jonas lives in a seemingly ideal world. Not until he is given his life assignment as the Receiver does he begin to understand the dark secrets behind this fragile community.

Challenge category:
Popular Book You’ve Never Read

Why it made the list:
Despite its forever prominent placement in the school library, I never scribbled my name in the book pocket (yeah, I’m that old). I was too busy reading books on how to care for puppies because I swore I was getting one for Christmas…every year.

That’s it! I am so excited for my reading list and have already started a few. What are you reading in 2019? Is there a book you love that I absolutely need to add? Please let me know, I would love to share a book chat with you!