Welcome to my first post of 2020! I’m ready to start a brand new year of reading. I had a marathon reading session at the end of 2019 to meet my reading goal, so this year I’m cutting my reading goal back by a few books for a total of 60.

Hidden Staircase Top Ten Reads of 2019

As a book worm, it’s always fun to look back at what I read last year as I start thinking about my anticipated 2020 reads. It’s usually hard for me to narrow it down to 10, but this year my Top Ten was pretty easy. All 10 of these books stand out as favorite reads. And while I read a lot of mysteries (and true crime) last year, I did branch out and discovered excellent reads across many genres.

I laughed. I cried. Some are lighter reads, others are a little heavy, some a mix of both. Some stayed with me for days after I finished reading them. Some were by favorite authors, but many were authors I had never read before. Their connection? I loved them all.

Books listed in the order I read them:

Double Agent by Gretchen Archer
The Dinner List by Rebecca Serle
Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
Ripe for Vengeance by Wendy Tyson
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
Stay Sexy & Don’t Get Murdered by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark
Becoming by Michelle Obama
Daisy Jones & the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid
Some Choose Darkness by Charles Donlea

And while I (once again) did not finish the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge, I was pleasantly surprised to find I think I got 30/40. This is pretty good since I didn’t consult the list once while I was selecting books. I have my list on paper, I never got it up to my blog last year. I’ll type it up when I add the PopSugar 2020 Reading Challenge.

One of my favorite things about using Goodreads is setting a book goal and seeing my reading stats for the end of the year. I set a goal for 65 books last year. It came down to the wire, but I made it. Whew!