1. 51 Favorite Books of 2019. “Who are we to declare certain books ‘the best’? Instead, we offer here, in no particular order, some of our most-loved titles of the year.”


2. Sally Shivnan’s review of The Murmur of Bees by Sofía Segovia (Amazon Crossing). “A magical-realism romp from Mexico, Sofía Segovia’s The Murmur of Bees — her first novel translated into English — offers a dizzying swirl of history, family lore, tragedy, redemption, and, of course, magic. It’s the kind of magic that Latin American authors have developed to a high and subtle art, and it infuses every page of this saga.”


3. “Exit the Dragon” by E.A. Aymar. “The crime fiction community, like seemingly all literary communities, has been in upheaval. I’ve written about this before, how this new wave of under-represented voices, particularly women and writers of color, has been met with resistance. This resistance has taken the form of tasteless humor or, in sharper rebuke, bookstores refusing to stock authors’ novels…and that only represents what’s happened in the public eye. But those writers are still stepping forward, still marching, and they’re not alone. They have allies, and those numbers are growing. Dragons hear that approach. And nervously curl around their treasure.”


4. “In the Beginning” by Lupita Aquino. “I can think back to a specific moment when my mother discovered my love for reading and nourished it the best way she could; thank you to National Geographic and the people whose houses she cleaned for discarded them. While that moment was vital to my life as a book lover, I cannot call it my origin story. In fact, what I now see when reflecting on my life is that it’s impossible to define one particular moment when I first knew I’d be a lifelong reader.”


5. The 2020 Washington Writers Conference. The announcement that Louis Bayard, Angie Kim, Rion Amilcar Scott, and now Elliot Ackerman will be speaking at our annual event drew plenty of readers to check out the specifics. (Oh, and the rumors are true: the Super-Early-Bird rate ends 12/31, so you better register now!)

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