Best Books of the Year
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Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year 2019

Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year 2019 names 10 books. 9 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

  1. American Spy by Lauren Wilkinsonsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Ducks, Newburyport by Lucy Ellmannsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Go Ahead in the Rain: Notes to A Tribe Called Quest by Hanif Abdurraqibsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Good Talk: A Memoir in Conversations by Mira Jacobsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Growing Things by Paul Tremblaysource (opens in a new tab)
  6. How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahrsource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luisellisource (opens in a new tab)
  8. Say Nothing: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefesource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawasource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Yellow House by Sarah M. Broomsource (opens in a new tab)

About the Chicago Tribune Best Books of the Year

The Tribune's main year-end best-books list, stored as one "Best Books" list per year. 2018-2025 are Christopher Borrelli's 10 best books (12 in 2023, where he counts three novels as one pick). 2010 is Julia Keller's ranked top 10, the only ranked year. 2012-2016 are Printers Row Journal picks: 2012 is staff and contributor favorites (25 picks), 2013 and 2015 are top 10s, 2014 is 11 picks (Stephen King's "Mr. Mercedes and Revival" is one pick, stored as two books), 2016 is five fiction and five nonfiction. 2006 is the top 10 that opens the holiday "Best books of the year" package; the themed gift-guide sections after it are left out. Honorable mentions are left out (2013 Noteworthy, 2015 More great reading, 2019 almost top-10s, 2022 notable books). Missing years: 2007 ran only a themed holiday gift-guide list with no top tier; no 2008 list was found in the Tribune archive; the 2009 favorites lived on a Printers Row blog and the 2011 list ran as a photo gallery, and neither could be read. Genre, poetry, cookbook, children's and Chicago-author lists are left out. Pages were read from chicagotribune.com. Secondary sources: 2017 (photo gallery, now offline) comes from yearendlists.com; yearendlists.com also supplied subtitles for 2017-2025, checked against the Tribune pages for 2018-2025.

Organization: Chicago Tribune. Official site (opens in a new tab)

The most recommended books of 2019