BURN PILE: Here's to a new day! Burn Pile coming back at you in 2019 with books, lists, and a few resolutions.

It’s the start of the new year, and fingers crossed it’s better than 2018. Yesterday over 100 women were sworn into Congress for the first time in history, which is a great start. For our part, we’re kicking off the new year with a return to Burn Pile’s aggregation of interesting links for your reading pleasure. 

First, McSweeney’s calls for a moment of silence to mourn the passing of 2018. R.I.P. and good riddance. 

Then Electric Lit recommends eight books to shed some light on exactly how we’ve ended up here. 

After reading that, you might want to consult this list of books for keeping perspective while the world is burning.

But let’s look for the silver lining. A lot of great stuff came out last year. Here is LitHub’s list of best books of 2018 to catch up on in 2019.

And four books that the New Yorker feels deserved more attention in 2018.

And now, onward and forward. Here’s LitHub’s list to end all lists of the most anticipated books coming out in 2019, broken down by month and extending through September (including Maid by the University of Montana’s own Stephanie Land).

January 3rd brought more desperately needed diversity to Congress. Let’s bring it to our bookshelves too. Here are 48 books by women and nonbinary people of color for 2019.

Of course, there’s plenty of ways to bring change in the new year. If you need any help coming up with resolutions, McSweeney’s has a list of a Jane Austen heroine’s goals. Three cheers for the smart girl.

Bringing it in a bit closer to home, Tommy Schnurmacher at LitHub has an idea that will keep you pressing pen to paper in 2019.

Here’s to a new start, a new Congress, a new year. Happy writing.