Choosing the best book of the seventy-five read during 2019 is a daunting task. Around mid-December I reflected back and the top nine were the ones I established as the 'best of 2019' for me. I was enamored with each of these stories for different reasons. There was plot-driven, there was character-driven, there was memoir and slow burns. There was something in each of them that cracked me open in a way I didn't expect. And then I finished reading for the month of December. During December I finished both This Tender Land and Olive, Again. They were wonderful. And as I thought through the ones I'd previously selected I realized there was so much more to my reading life than the original nine. There was heartache and espionage, there was seeing into the future, there was fantasy and miracles. How could I leave these nine out of my summary. I just couldn't. So my top nine because top 18. And so it was. The reads for this year filled m