Each year, the Books Editorial team at Amazon releases an annual list of the Top 100 books of the year, including 20 category lists, like mystery and thriller, children’s and young adults, and biography. Released in mid-November, the best books of 2019 list comes at the perfect time for holiday reading and gift-giving. You can view the full list of 100 books on Amazon here.
Here are the top 10 books of 2019, according to Amazon.
The Testaments by Margaret Atwood
Billed as the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, the latest from Margaret Atwood tells a tale of the unraveling of the totalitarian Republic of Gilead. Told through the stories of three women, The Testaments works both as a standalone read and as a continuation of the earlier work.
What Amazon editors say: “Praise be! After almost 35 years, Margaret Atwood released the sequel to her pioneering work of speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale, and it is well worth the wait.”
The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead
This new novel by Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad, is a harrowing exploration of race and inequality. Colson sets the novel in 1960s Florida, at a real-life reform school that abused children for nearly a century before being closed down in 2011.
What Amazon editors say: “Set during the 1960s Jim Crow era, the story follows Elwood and Turner who, despite different backgrounds and world views, learn to lean on one another to survive.”
Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me by Adrienne Brodeur
This memoir tells the story of a daughter who becomes an accomplice to her mother’s affair with her husband’s best friend. From beginning to end, the real-life ramifications of desire and betrayal are on stark display.
What Amazon editors say: “This is an engaging and at times breathless memoir that builds with anticipation and continues to unfold with observations and revelations.”
Quichotte by Salman Rushdie
Billed as a Don Quixote for the modern age, this satire from Salman Rushdie sweeps up the reader in a story within a story that bears more than a passing resemblance to our current times.
What Amazon editors say: “An antidote to fear, bursting with intelligence and wit—Quichotte is exactly what so many of us need right now.”
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
In The Starless Sea, a graduate student discovers a mysterious book that tells a story from his own childhood. Driven to understand the secret of the book, he follows a series of clues into another version of the world.
What Amazon editors say: “Almost ten years after she wrote The Night Circus, Morgenstern offers readers a shape-shifting, time-bending, otherworldly adventure of storytelling, where pirates lurk and doors lead forward and backward in time, where crowded ballrooms collapse into oceans, and where a young man must piece together the clues to uncover and protect his own life’s story. This magnificent tribute to tales of the imagination is absolutely magical.”
Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber by Mike Isaac
Get an inside look at the wild ride of the rideshare company, Uber, as told by a New York Times technology correspondent. Featuring interviews from current and past employees as well as unpublished documents, it’s an inside look at the rise and what-some-consider fall of the Silicon Valley startup.
What Amazon editors say: “Perfect for readers who were captivated by Bad Blood, Mike Isaac’s Super Pumped provides an insider’s view of the stunning highs and catastrophic lows of the company that changed the way we use transportation.”
City of Girls by Elizabeth Gilbert
Set in the theater scene of 1940s New York City, City of Girls is told from the perspective of a woman reflecting on her past.
What Amazon editors say: “The latest novel by the author of Eat, Pray, Love is bawdy, bighearted, and wise.”
They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker
This graphic novel was written by Star Trek actor George Takei and is a gripping firsthand account of his childhood in Japanese relocation centers in the U.S. in the 1940s.
What Amazon editors say: “Even as the memories depicted range from unsettling to infuriating, They Called Us Enemy inspires readers to insist that our country treats fellow human beings with fairness and dignity.”
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
An instant number-one New York Times bestseller is The Silent Patient. The suspenseful thriller is sure to keep you on the edge of your (airplane) seat.
What Amazon editors say: “In this psychological thriller, a couple seems to have it all until the wife is convicted of shooting her husband in the face.”
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb
A personal account from a therapist, who also sees a therapist, allows readers to connect with both the patients and professionals in this autobiography.
What Amazon editors say: “What happens when a celebrated psychotherapist finds herself on the other side of the couch? Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is an entertaining, relatable, moving homage to therapy—and just being human.”
Follow our Amazon lists for all of our recommended travel reads.
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Editors’ note: Ashley Rossi and Christine Sarkis contributed to this article.
We hand-pick everything we recommend and select items through testing and reviews. Some products are sent to us free of charge with no incentive to offer a favorable review. We offer our unbiased opinions and do not accept compensation to review products. All items are in stock and prices are accurate at the time of publication. If you buy something through our links, we may earn a commission.
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