Top Reads of 2019

I read 73 books in 2019, a total of 22095 pages. The oldest book I read was published in 1974 (The Summer of the Great-Grandmother) and the newest was a beta version of a book that will be published in 2020 (Boundless Ambition). I rate 26 a 5/5, I gave six a 3/5, and the remainder scored 4/5.

Here are the top 5. Only one of these books was from an author I had previously read. I have already read more books by Cavanaugh and have more Ruth Ware books on my list for 2020. On to the books.

In a Dark Dark Wood by Ruth Ware (2015)

A female crime writer is invited to a hen party (bacholerette party) in a cabin in a dark wood. But she hasn’t seen this friend in a decade and their parting was on bad terms. Why was she invited? This English psychological thriller alternates between Nora in the present, who cannot recall what happened although she was found covered in blood and taken to the hospital, the recent past in the wood, and the distant past. Some have called this the next Gone Gone, it is an atmospheric gothic crime thriller that kept me reading.

The Andromeda Evolution by Daniel Wilson (2019)

For 50 years Fairchild Air Force Base, Project Eternal Vigilance has been watching for the Andromeda strain without even a single incident. And then a drone shows the presence of the alien substance deep in the Amazon in Brazil. This sets into motion a story that finds a small team, that spans both earth and space, in a literal race against time to save humanity form extinction. It is necessary to have read Michael Crichton’s original 50 year-old book (The Andromeda Strain) to understand some of the nuances of this book. But unlike other readers, who found this book disappointing, after I read both I really enjoyed this one, much more than its predecessor.

The Institute by Stephen King (2019)

In the middle of the night, a sinister team kills a boy’s parents in Minneapolis and kidnaps him. Luke Ellis wakes in the institute, a place that houses children with supernatural talents. What are the doctors and staff trying to get out of these children? Billed as horror, this is more of a thriller. The latest book from King starts quite slow with a section about an ex-cop traveling slowly up the eastern coast that seems to have no relation to the story. I almost gave up, but persevered and am glad I did. King ties it all together in the final third.

The Defense by Steve Cavanaugh (2016)
Who ever heard of a con man becoming a defense lawyer? Hello Eddie Flynn, the hero in the first of a series of legal thrillers. But Flynn has given up on his law career at the start of this book. That is, until he meets the head of the mob in New York City. The crime lord tells Flynn he has kidnapped his daughter and forces him to be his defense attorney in his trial for murder. The catch is that Flynn to wear a bomb to court to blow up the courtroom and kill the main prosecutor witness. Although you have to suspend disbelief a little, this is a crackling story that literally explodes off the page. This is one of my new favorite legal thriller authors.

The One Minute To Do List by Michael Linenberger (2015)

Obviously not a thriller or fiction of any kind, this  radically changed my approach to managing my tasks at work. I read Linenberger’s 100 page book in a couple of hours and decided to give his approach a try. I liked it so much, I bought his 500 page book (Total Workday Control) to use his advanced tools (Manage Your Now) for MS Outlook. It has allowed me to get my tasks under control and manage them in 15 minutes each day. 1MTD is a great starting point, and better yet the pdf version is available for free from his website (https://www.michaellinenberger.com/TheOneMinuteTo-DoList-Ed2-Free-Edition.pdf).