And now for my five favorite books, I read in 2019. It’s got some good ones, you guys!
#5: Refugee by Alan Gratz
“If no one saw them, no one could help them. And maybe the world needed to see what was really happening here.”
Refugee is three stories in one. They are all connected, but you don’t find out how until near the end.
The first is about Josef, a Jewish boy in the 1930s, whose family is traveling on a ship to Cuba to escape the concentration camps.
The second story is about a young Cuban girl, Isabel, who is escaping the protests and riots of 1944.
The third is Mahmoud’s story. He and his family are escaping the Syrian War of 2015.
Read my full review here or view Refugee on Goodreads here
#4: Jefferson’s Sons by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
“Can a person be great and still participate in evil?”
Jefferson’s Sons is about Thomas Jefferson’s secret children and their life at Monticello. It is told from the point of view of two of the sons, as well as another slave at the plantation.
Read my full review here or view Jefferson’s Sons on Goodreads here
#3: The Book Theif by Markus Zusak
“I have hated words and I have loved them, and I hope I have made them right.”
The Book Theif is a beautifully written story about a community in Nazi Germany. It’s about a girl, her beloved words, her friends and enemies, and the presence of Death in her life.
Read my full review here or view The Book Theif on Goodreads here
#2: Kisses from Katie by Katie Davis
“And if one person sees the love of Christ in me, it is worth every minute, in fact, it is worth spending my life for.”
An eighteen-year-old girl leaves her hometown in Nashville, Tennessee to teach in an orphanage in Uganda. While there, she fell in love with the country and the people she met there. Her life was turned inside out by a passion that could not be contained.
She stayed in Uganda, against everyone’s wishes and became a missionary in a small poverty-stricken town. She brought medical aid, education, work and most importantly, love. She adopted fourteen girls and brought many more children into her home on various occasions.
Read my full review here or view Kisses from Katie on Goodreads here
#1: Fawkes by Nadine Brandes
“Your skin and plague don’t define you.”
A plague is spreading through seventeenth-century England. According to the Igniters, the Keepers, and their containment of the White Light caused the plague. Only the execution of Keepers will end it. The Keepers claim the opposite: the Igniter’s use of the White Light caused the plague. If a Keeper king is put on the throne, though, order will be restored and the plague will end.
In an age of execution, disease, and war, Thomas Fawkes comes to London, plagued and maskless, in search of his Father. Soon, he joins him in a plot to blow up the king and 300 parliament members.
The only problem: his secret lover is the ward of one of the parliament members. If he reveals the plot, though, he’ll risk endangering the plotters. Thomas will have to choose which family to keep and which to lose.
Read my full review here or view Fawkes on Goodreads here
What did you read this year?
Rachel says
I love Kisses From Katie! It’s such a good book!
ElizabethAnne Andrews says
Yes, it is!