“The Testaments:” by Margaret Atwood. (Amazon Image)

If you’re still riveted by the all-too-believable and creepy nature of “The Handmaid’s Tale” on streaming television, you should know there’s more where that came from — and it was a big hit with Amazon’s book editors this year.

“The Testaments,” Margaret Atwood’s 34-years-in the-making sequel to her dystopian masterpiece, was named Best Book of 2019 as Amazon’s team of editors released their annual lists across various categories on Tuesday.

The selection features the top 100 books of the year plus top 20 lists for everything from literary fiction to mystery and thriller, biography, children’s and young adult.

“The Books Editorial team reads thousands of new releases every year, all with the goal of recommending the very best to our customers,” Sarah Gelman, editorial director, Amazon Books, said in a news release. “As soon as we read it, it was clear that Margaret Atwood’s ‘The Testaments’ was the book of the year. The sequel to the modern classic ‘The Handmaid’s Tale’ enraptured our editorial team and readers across the globe with a dramatic continuation of goings-on in the dystopian Republic of Gilead. It’s so exciting to witness literary history being made, and Atwood has done just that with this deeply moving book.”

Past Book of the Year selections include “Educated” by Tara Westwood; “Killers of the Flower Moon” by David Grann; “Underground Railroad” by Colson Whitehead; “The Goldfinch” by Donna Tartt; and “Everything I Never Told You” by Celeste Ng.

“I’m Canadian, where modesty is a requirement. So I’m mildly embarrassed, though absolutely delighted, to hear that the Amazon editorial team has chosen ‘The Testaments’ as their book of the year,” Atoowd said. “While I’m no prophet, we seem doomed to live in stressful times. A tale of hope and courage narrated by three strong female voices appears to have connected to this crucial 2019 moment.”

Here are the top 10 picks of 2019 as described by the Amazon editorial team:

  1. “The Testaments” by Margaret Atwood: Praise be! After almost 35 years, Margaret Atwood released the sequel to her pioneering work of speculative fiction, The Handmaid’s Tale, and it is well worth the wait. While “The Handmaid’s Tale” explored how totalitarian regimes come to power, “The Testaments” delves into how they begin to fracture. At 80 years young, Atwood is at the top of her game.
  2. “The Nickel Boys: A Novel” by Colson Whitehead: Having earned a Pulitzer and a National Book Award with his last novel, “The Underground Railroad,” Colson Whitehead follows up with a story about two young black men sent to the infamous Nickel Academy in Florida. Set during the 1960s Jim Crow era, the story follows Elwood and Turner who, despite different backgrounds and world views, learn to lean on one another to survive.
  3. “Wild Game” by Adrienne Brodeur: The subtitle seems to say it all: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me. And yet there is so much more to the story. Adrienne Brodeur was 14 when her mother started secretly dating Ben Souther. What developed after that was a strange, uncomfortable, impossible-to-look-away-from triangle in which young Adrienne became cover for the trysts between her mother and Ben. This is an engaging and at times breathless memoir that builds with anticipation and continues to unfold with observations and revelations.
  4. “Quichotte: A Novel” by Salman Rushdie: An exquisite satire on the world we live in, Rushdie’s latest novel pays Cervantes a great, clever compliment with this deliciously funny “Don Quixote” for modern times. An unusual romantic quest kicks off a road trip across America in an age that would be utterly surreal if we weren’t actually living it. An antidote to fear, bursting with intelligence and wit — “Quichotte” is exactly what so many of us need right now.
  5. “The Starless Sea” by Erin Morgenstern: Almost 10 years after she wrote “The Night Circus,” Morgenstern offers readers a shape-shifting, time-bending, otherworldly adventure of storytelling, where pirates lurk and doors lead forward and backward in time, where crowded ballrooms collapse into oceans, and where a young man must piece together the clues to uncover and protect his own life’s story. This magnificent tribute to tales of the imagination is absolutely magical.
  6. “Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber” by Mike Isaac: “Super Pumped” is a masterful and highly entertaining work of investigative journalism into the evolution of Uber and its maverick founder Travis Kalanick. Perfect for readers who were captivated by “Bad Blood,” Mike Isaac’s “Super Pumped” provides an insider’s view of the stunning highs and catastrophic lows of the company that changed the way we use transportation.
  7. “City of Girls: A Novel” by Elizabeth Gilbert: It’s the 1940s, and the frivolous and fun-loving Vivian Morris arrives in New York with the goal of “becoming someone interesting” — and in short order she is, but for all the wrong reasons. The latest novel by the author of “Eat, Pray, Love” is bawdy, bighearted, and wise.
  8. “They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott, and Harmony Becker: George Takei’s vivid graphic memoir reveals the story of his family’s incarceration during the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, beginning when Takei was only five years old. Even as the memories depicted range from unsettling to infuriating, “They Called Us Enemy” inspires readers to insist that our country treats fellow human beings with fairness and dignity.
  9. “The Silent Patient” by Alex Michaelides: In this psychological thriller, a couple seems to have it all until the wife is convicted of shooting her husband in the face. But she will say nothing about the crime — or anything else, for that matter. After a criminal psychologist obsessed with the case comes on the scene, dark twists and delightful turns follow, secrets (and a diary) are revealed, and you will likely find yourself racing to the end of this year’s must-read thriller.
  10. “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” by Lori Gottlieb: What happens when a celebrated psychotherapist finds herself on the other side of the couch? “Maybe You Should Talk to Someone” is an entertaining, relatable, moving homage to therapy — and just being human.
Like what you're reading? Subscribe to GeekWire's free newsletters to catch every headline

Job Listings on GeekWork

Find more jobs on GeekWork. Employers, post a job here.