Feb 212 min read

A Ways Back List to 2019: otherwise known as The Before Times

2019 feels like a hundred years ago, but when I think about something that happened seven or eight years ago, I think of 2008. Time just doesn't mean anything anymore.

When I've made these lists in the past, seeing the list of titles has reminded me of past walks through bookstores with their new book displays or seeing the covers in magazine book reviews. With this one, I don't get any of that. Maybe because by 2019, I was buying books for a library, and it was my second public library job, so I was spending more time seeing and reading about and thinking about new books. I enjoyed making this list, and I've added the middle section to my TBR, but I don't feel nostalgic. I guess that going to a book store and seeing the new displays in 2019 wasn't as big a deal since I'd read a review for nearly every one of the books and didn't see any surprising.

Maybe doing a list for five years ago just wasn't far back enough. Maybe with more distance, I'd get that nostalgic feeling. When I did a Gen-X list, seeing all those book covers was like a time warp. But 2019 was a big year for me personally, and of course, the Year Before, so I was curious, and here's my list...

What I've read:

Bardugo, Leigh- Ninth House

Chbosky, Stephen- Imaginary Friend

El-Mohtar, Amal & Gladstone, Max- This is How You Lose the Time War

Conklin, Tara- The Last Romantics

Patchett, Ann- The Dutch House

Reid, Taylor Jenkins- Daisy Jones & The Six

Ware, Ruth- The Turn of the Key

Going on my TBR:

Awad, Mona- Bunny

Brodesser-Akner, Taffy- Fleishman Is in Trouble

Kantor, Jodi & Twohey, Megan- She Said