Best Books We Read in 2019

We love stories of all shapes and sizes. Here are the books the Augur team’s favourite book-sized reads of 2019!

This Is How You Lose the Time War

by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

I don’t often read books in one sitting anymore, but this one refused to be put down. How wonderful that a book about huge spans of time should take me no time to read. This gorgeous epistolary novella is a romance, a romp, and a rampage all in one. It demands to be re-read and re-savoured. It’s utterly entrancing and I wish I could go back and read it for the first time once more, but I also know it will be a joy to revisit immediately, and then again once I’ve forgotten the details.

— Mado

I second that! This Is How You Lose the Time War was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. At times witty, poetic and heartfelt, this novella was so much fun to read! A feel-good sci-fi read with a surprisingly rich world and endearing characters. A must-read for all. Can’t wait to see what’s next from these two.

— Anna

Once Upon a River

by Diane Setterfield

I’m a sucker for a good Victorian Gothic, the more labyrinthine and
Dickensian, the better. Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon a River
delivers.

A young child is pulled from the river, presumably dead. But just a few hours later, she lives again. Is it magic? A miracle? Or just a case of human error? After her rebirth, the child’s life follows a journey as twisting as the Thames that runs through the heart of the story. On her way she touches and transforms the lives of a vast cast of characters, including the storytelling family who owns the inn where she’s brought after being pulled from the river, a lonely lady doctor, a traveling photographer, a wealthy young family which has recently lost a child of their own, and a pair of frighteningly modern villains. Though she remains mute, her identity a mystery that is never fully solved, the characters’ reactions to her raise timely and relevant questions: Whom do we presume innocent, and whom guilty?

Whose stories do we believe? And what is more powerful: The truth, or a good story?

— Jordan

The Hidden City

by Michelle West

I had a strong craving for high fantasy this year, and Michelle West’s The Hidden City left me more than satisfied. It has what most readers tend to expect from the genre: wizards, demons, scheming noble houses, etc. But what captured me was the compelling and emotional character relationships. The complex mentor-student relationship West weaves between Rath, a self-exiled nobleman turned master thief, and Jay, a homeless street child with a rare magical talent, surprised me with its honesty. Beginning their relationship with selfish desire, and finding out how it evolves through mutual trust and understanding into actual familial love was one of the most satisfying developments I’ve read in a long time.

When I was done the book, I was irritated by how little attention West’s work has gotten from fantasy readers, and overjoyed that I’d found an entire world to explore with characters that had so easily stepped off the page and became a part of my life.

— Lawrence

Something for Everyone

by Lisa Moore

The world needs much, much more weird Newfoundland fiction. I love Lisa Moore’s writing already, but this book might be my favourite book of hers from the ones I’ve read so far. It felt like a homecoming — I’ve been living in St. John’s for the past couple of years now, and reading these stories felt even more welcoming at times than stories set in my hometown of Toronto. But it also felt like a boundary was set: a gentle reminder to come-from-aways like myself that this island is weirder and more wonderful than we should be allowed to see from an outsider’s perspective. At least while we are still outsiders.

This book folds the reader into itself as this island does newcomers. It says: I want you to come in. It says: you won’t be ready until after you come in. 

— Mado

The Water Cure

by Sophie Mackintosh

The Water Cure pulled me in from the very start and held my head underwater the entire way. Two words: Dreamy. Wasteland. A chilling atmosphere is created through the descriptions of decaying wildlife and corrosive water, and what is even more sinister is the story told from shifting narratives: Lia, Grace, and Sky are three sisters who live on an island, isolated from the rest of the seemingly post-apocalyptic world. The girls live with their mother and father, who indoctrinate their daughters with methods (taking the form of physical and psychological “therapies”) of cleansing themselves from the toxins that exist in the world outside of the island. When their father disappears and three male strangers show up on the island, the women must navigate the threat of impurity as it closes in on them.

Sophie Mackintosh writes sparingly, muddling illusion with reality. This is a book for any fans of dystopias, feminist literature, and ominous cautionary tales.

— Celina

Revolutionary Girl Utena

by Chiho Saitō,

Honestly, I had an extremely hard year and spent very little time reading. When I did read, it wasn’t anything that would take too much of my energy, because I had so little left. While I read more than 60 books in 2018, I didn’t even make it to 20 in 2019. But one of the brightest lights in my year was finally reading Revolutionary Girl Utena. A classic magical girl manga series with strong (for manga) queer themes, Utena is the gender-questioning, queer adventure I needed.

Utena Tenjou goes looking for her prince at a fancy high school, only to get caught up in a secret society that duels to own the heart of the Rose Bride. In the end, she realizes she’s her own Prince. Which is the best possible ending, and will absolutely never become a cliché. I’ve waited for fifteen years to read these books because they were never quite on top of my pile…and honestly, it came to me at the point I needed it. And made me realize how much more content like this I wish was out there.

— Kerrie

The Book of M

by Peng Shepherd

The Book of M captured my attention because it occupies that tenuous space between literary fiction, sci-fi and fantasy. Sometime in the near future, a man’s shadow disappears…and then another, until millions of people around the world become shadowless. And with their shadows disappear their memories. The story follows Ory and Max, a couple who are navigating the post-apocalyptic world while one of them is forgetting. There are cults, heartbreak, books and a hint of magic. The ending is a bittersweet one, but the journey there is fascinating. The best word I can describe this book with is “haunting” — I have been thinking about this book on and off for a few months now.

— Anna

Tell us what you read this year!