#MustReadIn2019 December Update

Carrie Gelson at There's a Book for That, hosts #MustRead. I have been joining in for the past couple of years. If you have a "want to read" list on Goodreads (or somewhere else) that goes on forever, then you might be interested in joining. All you have to do is choose any number of specific books on that list, and do your best to read them all.
A few times a year Carrie reminds us that it's time to be accountable and post an update of how we are doing. You can see the list of participants on Carrie's Blog here.

Last year I had big goals for my reading life. I created a number of different reading goals from my never ending and always expanding want to read list on Goodreads. My goals were to read at least a specific number of books from different lists including some general fiction, some nonfiction, some from Canadian Indigenous authors, and finally, to read Canadian. You can see my original goals here.
I almost managed to achieve it all. Sometimes I even went over my goal. Today I'm sharing what I've finished since September and highlighted the best of what I read from this years goals.  
Clicking on the title will take you to the Goodreads page of the collection. 

MUST READ FICTION

Since the fall update I finished another five titles from my fiction list, reaching a total of 25. Hurrah!

This is a curated list so almost all of them were exceptional. I thought these were the best of them:

Girl in Pieces by Kathleen Glasgow
Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Where You'll Find Me by Natasha Friend
Wundersmith: The Calling of Morrigan Crow (Nevermoor, #2) by Jessica Townsend

MUST READ NONFICTION

I only really 'finished' one from my nonfiction list since September. I read through the creation parts of The Dinner Party, but didn't read the mini biographies of the women Judy Chicago referenced. I'm considering it done anyway and a reference book I can browse.

Of the 12 books on this list, I gave 5 stars to seven of them. Those I haven't mentioned elsewhere in this post include:

Colville by Andrew Hunter
The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry by David L. Carlson
Love and Laughter in the Time of Chemotherapy by Manjusha Pawagi
March: Book Two (March, #2) by John Lewis

MUST READ INDIGENOUS AUTHORS

I managed to finish up another eight books by Indigenous authors bringing the total to 26/25 books!

Of all those books I read this year, I highly recommend:

The Girl and the Wolf by Katherena Vermette
The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America by Thomas King
Mamaskatch: A Cree Coming of Age by Darrel J. McLeod
The Red Power Murders Hartley GoodWeather (Thomas King)
Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation by Moniqueh Gray Smith
Strangers (The Reckoner, #1) by David Robertson
Surviving the City (The Debwe Series) by Tasha Spillett
What the Eagle Sees by Eldon Yellowhorn

MUST READ CANADIAN AUTHORS

According to Goodreads, I read 83 Canadian books this year, more than three times my goal of 25! I think it was more than that, but it's not important anyway. My goal was to just be mindful of how much Canadian content I read. Next year my goal will be 100! I finished these 32 since the September update.

I enjoyed most of these books. My favourite novels include:

Don't Tell The Enemy by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch
Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan
Haunted Hills and Hanging Valleys: Selected Poems 1969-2004 by Peter Trower
Life Long Distance: Dialogue Poems by Robert Heidbreder
Love From A to Z by S.K. Ali
Now You're Logging! by Bus Griffiths
Wicked Nix by Lena Coakley

There were a lot of stellar picture books on that list too!

Birdsong by Julie Flett
Mary, Who Wrote Frankenstein by Linda Bailey
Mustafa by Marie-Louise Gay
Otto and Pio by Marianne Dubuc
Proud as a Peacock, Brave as a Lion by Jane Barclay
Seb and the Sun by Jami Gigot
You Are Never Alone by Elin Kelsey