The Best Books of 2019: Reprints!

A good gauge of any book culture is the health of what it remembers about itself, and every year an encouraging variety of reprint volumes appears to speak a little optimism about the 21st century. The breadth and variety could always be better, but in 2019 they were very encouraging - even this list of the year’s best could have been twice as long.

10 The Longest Day & A Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan (Library of America) - Despite being born in Ireland, Ryan entered the premiere US reprint line this year for his two bestselling and hugely enjoyable works of Second World War history. 

9 This Trifling Distinction & You Should Have Started Earlier by John Gould (Down East) - Surely the year’s most surprising reprints were these two wonderful volumes from Down East, presenting some of the choice work of Christian Science Monitor columnist John Gould. Purely delightful that this wise, witty author has another audience to find.

8 My Seditious Heart by Arundhati Roy (Haymarket) - In the years between writing her two great novels, Arundhati Roy wrote a large amount of serious, questing deadline nonfiction, most of it collected here in this pleasingly fat volume. 

7 Where the Light Falls by Nancy Hale (LOA) - This lovely Library of America volume reprinting the stories of great Bostonian novelist and short story writer Nancy Hale is likewise a cause for joy, bringing this author’s wonderful wry precision to a new audience. 

6 The Collected Novels of Charles Wright (Harper) - It’s always a cause for celebration when Charles Wright’s three wise, hilarious novels get a new reading life; this Harper paperback presents them in all their raucous unpredictability for readers who may never have encountered them before.

5 Japanese Ghost Stories by Lafcadio Hearn (Penguin Classics) - Of all the Penguin Classic volumes to appear in 2019, this one featuring Lafcadio Hearn’s great Japanese supernatural narratives was the most welcome, full of the wonder and variety Hearn’s enchantment with his adopted home.

4 Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler, translated by Philip Boehm (Scribner) - It’s of course tempting to point out that this fully-restored and newly-translated edition of Koestler’s masterpiece has added relevance in the modern era, with totalitarian and totalitarian-friendly political movements seemingly sweeping the world. But really Koestler needs no such help - his book is plenty arresting on its own.

3 The Collected Stories of Eudora Welty (Mariner) - Three cheers to Mariner Books for this gorgeous redesign of Eudora Welty’s great stories, an attractive paperback full of Welty’s greatest work. 

2 The Stories of Alice Adams (Vintage) - This sedate reprint of the sharp, bristling stories of Alice Adams was timed to coincide with Carol Sklenicka’s wonderful new biography of this unjustly forgotten great 20th century American writer, and in many ways it’s appearance is even more important, since these stories retain every bit of their power to amaze.

1 American Science Fiction: Eight Classic Novels of the 1960s (Library of America) - It’s been almost a decade since Library of America brought out its box set of nine science fiction novels from the 1950s. That set included novels ranging from the gimmicky and insipid to the first-rate, and that mixture created the set’s fascinating charm - and it’s duplicated here, with a set of eight novels from the 1960s, including Joanna Russ’ Picnic on Paradise and Samuel Delany’s Nova. A joy for science fiction fans, this, the best reprint set of 2019.