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Top Ten Read Books from RGC 2019

Our 2019 survey results are in! And along with our readers’ favorite books of the year, we have a list of the top ten most-read books specifically from Reading Group Choices 2019.

Has your group read all of these terrific books yet?


1. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah

The Great Alone is one of the most read books for 2019

 

““There are many great things about this book…It will thrill her fans with its combination of Greek tragedy, Romeo and Juliet-like coming of age story and domestic potboiler. She recreates in magical detail the lives of Alaska’s homesteaders…and is just as specific and authentic in her depiction of the spiritual wounds of post-Vietnam America. A tour de force.”—Kirkus (starred review)

 

 

 

 


2. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

Hillbilly Elegy is one of the most read books for 2019

 

A passionate and personal analysis of a culture in crisis—that of white working-class Americans. The disintegration of this group, a process that has been slowly occurring now for more than forty years, has been reported with growing frequency and alarm, but has never before been written about as searingly from the inside. J. D. Vance tells the true story of what a social, regional, and class decline feels like when you were born with it hung around your neck.

 

 

 


3. The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris

The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris is is one of the most read books for 2019

 

“As many interviews as I did with Holocaust survivors for the Shoah Foundation and as many devastating testimonies as I heard, I could not stop reading The Tattooist of Auschwitz—an extraordinary story of love so fierce it sustained people enduring the unimaginable. Read it, share it, remember it.” —Jenna Blum, New York Times bestselling author of Those Who Save Us

 

 

 

 


4. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead is one of the most read books of 2019

 

Cora is a young slave on a cotton plantation in Georgia. An outcast even among her fellow Africans, she is on the cusp of womanhood—where greater pain awaits. And so when Caesar, a slave who has recently arrived from Virginia, urges her to join him on the Underground Railroad, she seizes the opportunity and escapes with him. This is the gripping tale of one woman’s will to escape the horrors of bondage—and a powerful meditation on the history we all share.

 

 

 


5. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

Killers of The Flower Moon by David Grann is one of the most read books of 2019

 

At the end of the 19th century, the Osage Indians were driven onto a presumed worthless expanse of land in northeastern Oklahoma. But their territory turned out to be atop one of the largest oil deposits in the United States; by the 1920s, the members of Osage Nation had become the wealthiest people per capita in the world. And then the Osage began to die under mysterious circumstances.

 

 

 

 


6. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones

An American Marriage by Tayari Jones is one of the most read books of 2019

 

“Tayari Jones is a bard of the modern South, a writer whose skill at weaving stories is matched only by her compassion for her characters. While An American Marriage confronts thorny issues around race and the criminal justice system it is, at heart, a love story. It’s also a meditation on the creation of art, the meaning of family and the conflict between duty and desire.”—The Los Angeles Times

 

 

 

 


7. Radium Girls by Kate Moore

The Radium Girls by Kate Moore is one of the most read books of 2019

 

The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive – until they begin to fall mysteriously ill.

 

 

 


8. The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve

The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve is one of the most read books of 2019

 

From the New York Times best-selling author of The Weight of Water and The Pilot’s Wife: an exquisitely suspenseful new novel about an extraordinary young woman tested by a catastrophic event–based on the true story of the largest fire in Maine’s history.

 

 

 

 

 


9. Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris

Sold On A Monday by Kristina McMorris is one of the most read books of 2019

 

2 CHILDREN FOR SALE

The sign is a last resort. It sits on a farmhouse porch in 1931, but could be found anywhere in an era of breadlines, bank runs, and broken dreams. For struggling reporter Ellis Reed, the gut-wrenching scene evokes memories of his family’s dark past. He snaps a photograph of the children, not meant for publication. But when it leads to his big break, the consequences are more devastating than he ever imagined.

 

 


10. Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict is one of the most read books of 2019

 

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She’s not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh’s grandest households. Serving as a lady’s maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills she doesn’t have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for. And that may be more valuable to her than all the Carnegies’ money.

 

 

 


Curious about what fiction, nonfiction, and YA books were most-read this past year too?

Check out our lists below to see the most-read books in each genre!

 

Most-Read Fiction of 2019

1. The Great Alone

2. The Tattooist of Auschwitz

3. The Underground Railroad

4. An American Marriage

5. The Stars Are Fire

6. Sold on a Monday

7. Carnegie’s Maid

8. Saints for All Occasions

9. Miss Kopp Just Won’t Quit

10. If the Creek Don’t Rise

The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah is one of our book group favorites for 2019 The Tattooist of Auschwitz is one of our book group favorites for 2019The Underground Railroad is one of our book group favorites for 2019An American Marriage is one of our book group favorites for 2019Stars Are Fire is one of our book group favorites for 2019Sold on a Monday is one of our book group favorites for 2019Carnegie's Maid is one of our book group favorites for 2019Saints for All Occasions is one of our book group favorites for 2019Miss Kopp Just Won't Quit is one of our book group favorites for 2019If the Creek Don't Rise is one of our book group favorites for 2019

 

 

 

Most-Read Nonfiction of 2019

1. Hillbilly Elegy

2. Killers of the Flower Moon

3. The Radium Girls

4. Fly Girls

5. The Stranger in the Woods

6. Women Rowing North

7. Prairie Fires

8. The Best of Us

9. I Found My Tribe

10. Everything Is Horrible and Wonderful

Hillbilly Elegy is one of the most read books of 2019Killers of the Flower Moon is one of the most read books of 2019Radium Girls is one of the most read books of 2019Fly Girls is one of the most read books of 2019The Stranger in the Woods is one of the most read books of 2019Women Rowing North is one of the most read books of 2019Prairie Fires is one of the most read books of 2019The Best Of Us is one of the most read books of 2019I Found My Tribe is one of the most read books of 2019Everything is Horrible and Wonderful is one of the most read books of 2019

 

 

 

Most-Read Young Adult of 2019

1. The Poet X

2. I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and Dear Evan Hansen [TIE]

3. Ghost Boys

4. Love, Hate, and Other Filters

5. The Astonishing Color of After

6. Geekerella

7. Like Vanessa

8. The War Outside

9. Grand Theft Horse and The Wonderling [TIE]

10. Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World

The Poet X is one of the most read books of 2019I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter is one of the most read books of 2019Dear Evan Hansen is one of the most read books of 2019Ghost Boys is one of the favorite books of 2019Love, Hate and Other Filters is one of the most read books of 2019The Astonishing Color of After is one of the most read books of 2019

 

 

 

Geekerella is one of the most read books of 2019Like Vanessa is one of the most read books of 2019The War Outside is one of the most read books of 2019Grand Theft Horse is one of the most read books of 2019The Wonderling is one of the most read books of 2019Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World is one of the most read books of 2019