The 10 best books of 2019
The most important book of 2019 was available to Americans for free (in fact, they had already paid for it). Its cover was indistinguishable from the starkest of corporate reports, large chunks throughout were redacted, and the prose that was readable carried all the warmth of an Apple licensing agreement. It was a 400-something page epic that somehow played smaller and less satisfying than the year's other 400-something page bombshell: "The Testaments," Margaret Atwood's hit sequel to "The Handmaid's Tale."
Still, of everything published this year, it's hard to think of more compelling lines than these, early in "The Mueller Report": "The president slumped back in his chair and said 'Oh my God. This is terrible. This is the end of my Presidency. I'm f_.'" It kind of sucks you in, right? The author himself takes on a role in its meta-plot, and the stakes are so inflated - the fate of a nation - that any writing workshop would squirm at the ambition.
"The Mueller Report," as
