As I look back on the past year, it is curious to me why certain books become so salient in my mind while others quickly fade from my memory. Selecting the best fiction book I read this year was unusually easy. Neil Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a surreal masterpiece, and I'll say more about it later. The Haunting of Hill House was another captivating work of fiction I enjoyed this year. Unfortunately, I was disappointed for the first time by Willa Cather with her The Song of the Lark. Overly long and meandering, it just wasn't at the same level of simple profundity her other books confidently reach. In addition, Stranger in a Strange Land was a work of fiction I loathed in a way unique to only a few books. (I will say, however, that Heinlein's dopey book does have one of the funniest and most insightful characters I have ever read; Jubal Harshaw is a character of rare genius).
When it came to the non-fiction I read this year, the best came at the beginning. I finished Saints, Vol. 1 in January, but it will be a book of rare importance for many, many years. There certainly were other works of non-fiction worth remembering, such as Mountains Beyond Mountains, Flow, and The Problem of Pain. I do want to give a special mention and recommendation for Ed Catmull's Creativity, Inc. Although it has some structural issues, I learned a lot from the book, especially about leadership. Going into 2020 I have a longer list of non-fiction books I'm hoping to read, but I'm always on the look-out for great fiction.
But as I look backward, here are my favorite books from 2019.
As a Latter-day Saint I have an expected interest in a work like Saints, but I could not anticipate how much I enjoyed reading about the early days of the Restoration. In addition, I did not anticipate how appreciably the book would affect me. I frequently paused in my reading to reflect and to ponder. I shared stories from the book with others. Almost from the first page I was enthralled in a history I had been taught but in an unfinished way.
As I mentioned in my reflection on the book, Saints feels more like a collective journal than it does a work of scripture. Very raw human emotions are on conspicuous display. The heroes of the Restoration, especially Joseph Smith, are as dynamic and complex as you would expect any human being to be. The restorative process is a messy affair, and Saints allows the reader to see this "spilled poetry" in all its startling beauty. (I am extremely excited to read Vol. 2 which is due to be released in book form in 2020).
Fiction: The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
From time to time a book comes along that so thoroughly entertains and enlightens I can't help but tell friends and family to stop what they're doing and read it immediately. The Ocean at the End of the Lane is a perfect book for me. I love the surrealistic realism of this book and others like it. (Ray Bradbury comes quickly to mind). But beyond being a personal preference, this book is as layered in themes and motifs as it is brief. It's an amazing achievement that Gaiman could tell such a bold and brilliant story with so few words.The Ocean at the End of the Lane is the type of book I point to when the value of fiction is challenged. No non-fiction book that I know of could possibly approach its emotional and even spiritual conclusions. This book allows the reader to shed the cold and unrelenting realities of every day life and see something more, something greater. It reminded me that sometimes a pond can be an ocean, and that I as a simple human being can touch the face of deity and perhaps one day become it.
Note: Due to life and living, I didn't write a Best Books blog post for the books I read in 2018. For those who are interested, my favorite fiction book from 2018 was Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, and my favorite non-fiction book was The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester.
Other Topics of Interest:
Best Books of 2016
Best Books of 2017
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