2018 on Goodreads
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I was in a good mood earlier, preparing this list and remembering the great reads from 2018 ... but something kept nagging at me. What am I forgetting? There's something not right here. And it dawned on me that my review of Emily Wilson's Odyssey had been conveniently expunged.
I'll save most of my breath to cool my porridge, because no doubt this review will disappear just like the other one did if I delve too deeply -- I probably strayed off topic -- or displeased the Goodreads Gods -- when I left a less than glowing review of Wilson's translation. It was a good review -- completely on topic, in my opinion, for once in my life ... but when there's a darling to be courted, there can't be too many dissenting voices, I'm assuming. So, show more ... obladee, I suppose.
While Wilson's translation of the Odyssey was one of my weakest reads of 2018, Alice Oswald's Iliad poem, on the other hand, was the supernova of the year. I haven't read a better interpretation and her ability to channel the gods-that-were still rings loud and clear in my head and heart.
I spent a great deal of readerly time on poetry this past year, overdosing on Neruda's odes at one point. I may not be able to look at odes at all, for quite some time, but the rest of the poetry was soothing to the soul.
Here's the list, that I offer up, with only a quarter of my heart.
I may return to fill this out, some day, when I'm not feeling so downhearted about the whole goodreads experience.
REPRISE
So, let's try this again. Now that I've slept on it, and cursed goodreads ghosts and ghouls out of my system, I can say what I meant to say yesterday ... that it was a very good reading year. Not that there weren't some real howling dogs in the bunch; in fact, there were probably more dogs than prize winners overall, but the handful of ones that were good were so good, that the other ones just fell away like dust in my hands. They didn't matter at all.
The best read this year, without a doubt, was Alice Oswald's version of Homer's Iliad -- a collection of poems that seems to channel the very essence of Homer. It is a book I've returned to many times and which didn't even have a chance to get dog eared because every page was its own living bookmark.
Alice Oswald's Iliad went in direct competition with Wilfred Owen's Collected Poems, bringing full circle the atrocities of war: from Homer's Iliad, to the First World War, nothing ever changes: the people still bleed and die, rained upon by those spewing venom and hatred; and those left behind still writhe in the same agonies of loss.
When will they ever learn?
A surprise contender for most memorable read was Hawthorne's marble faun -- a novel which continues to send its ghostly tentacles into my mind. Combining fable, myth, legend, religious allegory -- with a darn good splash of good-old-fashioned American Gothic -- Hawthorne wrestles with his own howling demons: the fall of man, Good vs Evil, Old World vs New. With such a mish mash of themes running through it, one would think the very worst: and one would be completely wrong, and eminently rewarded. (On top of it all, one could use it as a veritable tour guide through Victorian Italy: the art, the culture, the street scenes: it's all there in one spectacular tapestry!)
Other memorable, heart-stopping moments occurred in Richard Wagamese's One Native Life; in Mauricio Segura's Eucalyptus; in Castellanos-Moya's Dream of My Return -- all stories of indigenous writers ripped from the heart of their cultures, either through revolution, war, cultural genocide.
When will we ever learn?
If there was fun to be had in the experience this year, it lay in the joy of poetry. Not exactly a light read, you might say, with the likes of Neruda, Lowell, Owen as each explores the tortured self, the ego, the world -- but it was light in the sense of playing against the darkness. As long as we have our wordsmiths, our believers in truth, we can't be benighted forever. Light, as in hope.
I did make myself a bit sick, admittedly, with Neruda's Odes. That particular box of chocolates was much too big for me, and too heavy to be eaten all in one sitting. A bit green around the gills, I emerged from it, cursing the appealing box of sweets that was offered, and vowing that lesson was learned forevermore, as I fumbled to open the Gravol bottle. I still don't understand what happened there.
A few more nausea attacks were brought on in Zola's ventre de Paris -- and by Zola, generally. I've decided I'm not a fan of the Rougon Macquart series -- 'though god help me, I have the entire series at hand, in shiny new Oxford paperbacks, and I will probably read more, either as punishment or a show of perseverance. Being a Recovering Catholic, it will no doubt serve my inner martyr very well.
Another fellow who surprised me this year was Henry James. There's Something About Harry.
I love the old fellow still, but I'm not quite as enamoured as I once was, because he's more than a bit of an old wind bag, I've decided. A lovable, colourful windbag, like one of those hot air balloons of many colours that hover in the low atmosphere: an exhilarating flight, but over too soon, and overall forgettable because it didn't take you high enough. Virginia Woolf nailed it to the wall, in her review of James's Golden Bowl, his last novel:
Mr. James is like an artist who, with sure knowledge of anatomy, paints every bone and muscle in the human frame; the portrait would be greater as a work of art if he were content to say less and suggest more . . . Many overburdened sentences could be quoted as proof of his curious sense of duty.
My feelings exactly, Virginia. James's "curious sense of duty". It is both why I admire, and detest James, all in one breath: that dogged, persistent obsession for describing the minutiae of a thing which is ultimately inconsequential.
BUT -- like old Harry himself, my own sense of duty to the literary gods will no doubt prevail, and I will continue to keep Harry on my shelf, for dipping into occasionally when I need a good dose of righteous melodrama -- never to be underestimated!
Year's Best
Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad by Alice Oswald
The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché
Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair
Under The Visible Life by Kim Echlin
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Eucalyptus by Mauricio Segura
The Dream of My Return by Horacio Castellanos Moya
Through The Window: 17 Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes
Beatrix Potter by Linda Lear
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Nothing by Henry Green
Blindness by Henry Green
Inside The Victorian Home by Judith Flanders
Harry's Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith
Honourable Mention
The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes
Far Eastern Tales by W. Somerset Maugham
The Glimpses of The Moon by Edith Wharton
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Old Christmas by Washington Irving
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Gentlemen and Players Joanne Harris
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks
Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Alive, oh Alive Diana Athill
Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
The Female Malady Elaine Showalter
Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Odyssey Translated by Emily Wilson
Poetry
Trouble in Mind by Lucie Brock-Broido
Falling Awake by Alice Oswald
The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen
Collected Poems of Robert Lowell
100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda
All The Poems by Stevie Smith
Collected Poems of Ted Hughes
All The Odes by Pablo Neruda
The Poetry of Robert Frost
Coming Into Eighty by May Sarton
Canadian Writers
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
For Joshua by Richard Wagamese
Keeper 'N Me by Richard Wagamese
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
A Quality of Light by Richard Wagamese
Not Worth The Time Spent On Them
Moonlight Downs by Adrian Hyland
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
From The Land of The Moon by Milena Agus
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
The Memory of Love by Aminata Forna
Dissolution by C J Sansom
Pioneer Girl by Maryanne Caswell
Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
The 6:41 To Paris by Jean Philippe Blondel
The Best Women's Travel Writing, Volume 11
Banished From Our Home by Sharon Stewart
O Pioneers by Willa Cather
Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso
Ariel's Gift by Erica Wagner
Algonquin Elegy by Neil J. Lahto
The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson by Gregory Klages
Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
Henry James
The Diary of A Man of Fifty
Daisy Miller
Confidence
The Europeans
The American
Roderick Hudson
Emile Zola
The Sin of Abbé Mouret
La Curée
The Conquest of Plassans
Le Ventre de Paris show less
I'll save most of my breath to cool my porridge, because no doubt this review will disappear just like the other one did if I delve too deeply -- I probably strayed off topic -- or displeased the Goodreads Gods -- when I left a less than glowing review of Wilson's translation. It was a good review -- completely on topic, in my opinion, for once in my life ... but when there's a darling to be courted, there can't be too many dissenting voices, I'm assuming. So, show more ... obladee, I suppose.
While Wilson's translation of the Odyssey was one of my weakest reads of 2018, Alice Oswald's Iliad poem, on the other hand, was the supernova of the year. I haven't read a better interpretation and her ability to channel the gods-that-were still rings loud and clear in my head and heart.
I spent a great deal of readerly time on poetry this past year, overdosing on Neruda's odes at one point. I may not be able to look at odes at all, for quite some time, but the rest of the poetry was soothing to the soul.
Here's the list, that I offer up, with only a quarter of my heart.
I may return to fill this out, some day, when I'm not feeling so downhearted about the whole goodreads experience.
REPRISE
So, let's try this again. Now that I've slept on it, and cursed goodreads ghosts and ghouls out of my system, I can say what I meant to say yesterday ... that it was a very good reading year. Not that there weren't some real howling dogs in the bunch; in fact, there were probably more dogs than prize winners overall, but the handful of ones that were good were so good, that the other ones just fell away like dust in my hands. They didn't matter at all.
The best read this year, without a doubt, was Alice Oswald's version of Homer's Iliad -- a collection of poems that seems to channel the very essence of Homer. It is a book I've returned to many times and which didn't even have a chance to get dog eared because every page was its own living bookmark.
Alice Oswald's Iliad went in direct competition with Wilfred Owen's Collected Poems, bringing full circle the atrocities of war: from Homer's Iliad, to the First World War, nothing ever changes: the people still bleed and die, rained upon by those spewing venom and hatred; and those left behind still writhe in the same agonies of loss.
When will they ever learn?
A surprise contender for most memorable read was Hawthorne's marble faun -- a novel which continues to send its ghostly tentacles into my mind. Combining fable, myth, legend, religious allegory -- with a darn good splash of good-old-fashioned American Gothic -- Hawthorne wrestles with his own howling demons: the fall of man, Good vs Evil, Old World vs New. With such a mish mash of themes running through it, one would think the very worst: and one would be completely wrong, and eminently rewarded. (On top of it all, one could use it as a veritable tour guide through Victorian Italy: the art, the culture, the street scenes: it's all there in one spectacular tapestry!)
Other memorable, heart-stopping moments occurred in Richard Wagamese's One Native Life; in Mauricio Segura's Eucalyptus; in Castellanos-Moya's Dream of My Return -- all stories of indigenous writers ripped from the heart of their cultures, either through revolution, war, cultural genocide.
When will we ever learn?
If there was fun to be had in the experience this year, it lay in the joy of poetry. Not exactly a light read, you might say, with the likes of Neruda, Lowell, Owen as each explores the tortured self, the ego, the world -- but it was light in the sense of playing against the darkness. As long as we have our wordsmiths, our believers in truth, we can't be benighted forever. Light, as in hope.
I did make myself a bit sick, admittedly, with Neruda's Odes. That particular box of chocolates was much too big for me, and too heavy to be eaten all in one sitting. A bit green around the gills, I emerged from it, cursing the appealing box of sweets that was offered, and vowing that lesson was learned forevermore, as I fumbled to open the Gravol bottle. I still don't understand what happened there.
A few more nausea attacks were brought on in Zola's ventre de Paris -- and by Zola, generally. I've decided I'm not a fan of the Rougon Macquart series -- 'though god help me, I have the entire series at hand, in shiny new Oxford paperbacks, and I will probably read more, either as punishment or a show of perseverance. Being a Recovering Catholic, it will no doubt serve my inner martyr very well.
Another fellow who surprised me this year was Henry James. There's Something About Harry.
I love the old fellow still, but I'm not quite as enamoured as I once was, because he's more than a bit of an old wind bag, I've decided. A lovable, colourful windbag, like one of those hot air balloons of many colours that hover in the low atmosphere: an exhilarating flight, but over too soon, and overall forgettable because it didn't take you high enough. Virginia Woolf nailed it to the wall, in her review of James's Golden Bowl, his last novel:
Mr. James is like an artist who, with sure knowledge of anatomy, paints every bone and muscle in the human frame; the portrait would be greater as a work of art if he were content to say less and suggest more . . . Many overburdened sentences could be quoted as proof of his curious sense of duty.
My feelings exactly, Virginia. James's "curious sense of duty". It is both why I admire, and detest James, all in one breath: that dogged, persistent obsession for describing the minutiae of a thing which is ultimately inconsequential.
BUT -- like old Harry himself, my own sense of duty to the literary gods will no doubt prevail, and I will continue to keep Harry on my shelf, for dipping into occasionally when I need a good dose of righteous melodrama -- never to be underestimated!
Year's Best
Memorial: A Version of Homer's Iliad by Alice Oswald
The Country Between Us by Carolyn Forché
Life and Death of Harriet Frean by May Sinclair
Under The Visible Life by Kim Echlin
The Marble Faun by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
Sacred Hunger by Barry Unsworth
Eucalyptus by Mauricio Segura
The Dream of My Return by Horacio Castellanos Moya
Through The Window: 17 Essays and a Short Story by Julian Barnes
Beatrix Potter by Linda Lear
The Story of Ferdinand by Munro Leaf
Nothing by Henry Green
Blindness by Henry Green
Inside The Victorian Home by Judith Flanders
Harry's Last Stand by Harry Leslie Smith
Honourable Mention
The Lemon Table by Julian Barnes
Far Eastern Tales by W. Somerset Maugham
The Glimpses of The Moon by Edith Wharton
A Higher Loyalty by James Comey
84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Old Christmas by Washington Irving
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
Gentlemen and Players Joanne Harris
Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks
Letters To A Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke
Alive, oh Alive Diana Athill
Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal
The Female Malady Elaine Showalter
Mosses From An Old Manse by Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Odyssey Translated by Emily Wilson
Poetry
Trouble in Mind by Lucie Brock-Broido
Falling Awake by Alice Oswald
The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen
Collected Poems of Robert Lowell
100 Love Sonnets by Pablo Neruda
All The Poems by Stevie Smith
Collected Poems of Ted Hughes
All The Odes by Pablo Neruda
The Poetry of Robert Frost
Coming Into Eighty by May Sarton
Canadian Writers
Through Black Spruce by Joseph Boyden
One Native Life by Richard Wagamese
For Joshua by Richard Wagamese
Keeper 'N Me by Richard Wagamese
Medicine Walk by Richard Wagamese
A Quality of Light by Richard Wagamese
Not Worth The Time Spent On Them
Moonlight Downs by Adrian Hyland
Heat and Dust by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala
From The Land of The Moon by Milena Agus
The Shape of Water by Andrea Camilleri
The Memory of Love by Aminata Forna
Dissolution by C J Sansom
Pioneer Girl by Maryanne Caswell
Perfume River by Robert Olen Butler
The 6:41 To Paris by Jean Philippe Blondel
The Best Women's Travel Writing, Volume 11
Banished From Our Home by Sharon Stewart
O Pioneers by Willa Cather
Wild Geese by Martha Ostenso
Ariel's Gift by Erica Wagner
Algonquin Elegy by Neil J. Lahto
The Many Deaths of Tom Thomson by Gregory Klages
Til We Have Faces by C. S. Lewis
Folks, This Ain't Normal by Joel Salatin
Henry James
The Diary of A Man of Fifty
Daisy Miller
Confidence
The Europeans
The American
Roderick Hudson
Emile Zola
The Sin of Abbé Mouret
La Curée
The Conquest of Plassans
Le Ventre de Paris show less
As a friend mentioned, I'm getting better at picking reads I'm likely to enjoy, partly due to GR friends. This year, I also worked at getting my To Be Read list whittled down, with only mild success. I found carol from other years sometimes had weird ideas of what would be readable.
For daily reads, familiar authors proved satisfying (Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant, Robert Crais) but sometimes, they still had stinkers (Charlie Huston's Sleepless) . Robert Jackson Bennett (Foundryside-meh, YA) and Ben Aaronovitch (the comic novels-meh, graphics) win for having books in both categories.
I read a couple of poetry collections this year and both were awesome (Alphabet Conspiracy, helium). I also went through a show more run of kindle-unlimited style trashy apocalypse books, but found a couple were very satisfying, worth of recommending (Darkness Begins, Surviving the Evacuation: London). I found, as usual, that many of the hyped books that I tried didn't work out for me, particularly anything with hippos. And for once, I read a Seanan McGuire book that knocked it out of the park (Into the Drowning Deep), along with the usual set of stinkers from her.
I'm finding that I'm grooving to books that bring something different to the table (Meddling Kids, City of Bones), and as always, I prefer something that pays attention to writing and contains some emotional depth. Keigo Higashino's mysteries were especially satisfying, particularly The Devotion of Suspect X. Most mind-blowing was definitely I Contain Multitudes. I talked about it to everyone in medicine who would listen and plan to continue. Now that's a good read. Three of the four came courtesy of GR friends.
Favs and eventual re-reads:
Touch (supernatural) by Claire North
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham (mystery)
Starfish by Peter Watts (sci-fi, horror)
The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran (mystery)
helium by rudy francisco (poetry)
I Contain Multitudes (non-fiction)
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (mystery)
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (sci-fi)
The Last by Hanna Jameson (sci-fi/mystery/apocalypse)
There's been so many good reads in my life that I haven't had nearly as much time to re-read as I would like. I'd like to make more time for that in 2019, although I will also continue to whittle at the to-be-reads, either by reading or by throwing the books out. If you all could just read a bunch of crappy books--preferably off my TBR--and write reviews on how horrible they are, that'd be super-helpful. show less
For daily reads, familiar authors proved satisfying (Craig Schaefer's Daniel Faust, Ben Aaronovitch's Peter Grant, Robert Crais) but sometimes, they still had stinkers (Charlie Huston's Sleepless) . Robert Jackson Bennett (Foundryside-meh, YA) and Ben Aaronovitch (the comic novels-meh, graphics) win for having books in both categories.
I read a couple of poetry collections this year and both were awesome (Alphabet Conspiracy, helium). I also went through a show more run of kindle-unlimited style trashy apocalypse books, but found a couple were very satisfying, worth of recommending (Darkness Begins, Surviving the Evacuation: London). I found, as usual, that many of the hyped books that I tried didn't work out for me, particularly anything with hippos. And for once, I read a Seanan McGuire book that knocked it out of the park (Into the Drowning Deep), along with the usual set of stinkers from her.
I'm finding that I'm grooving to books that bring something different to the table (Meddling Kids, City of Bones), and as always, I prefer something that pays attention to writing and contains some emotional depth. Keigo Higashino's mysteries were especially satisfying, particularly The Devotion of Suspect X. Most mind-blowing was definitely I Contain Multitudes. I talked about it to everyone in medicine who would listen and plan to continue. Now that's a good read. Three of the four came courtesy of GR friends.
Favs and eventual re-reads:
Touch (supernatural) by Claire North
Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Letham (mystery)
Starfish by Peter Watts (sci-fi, horror)
The Infinite Blacktop by Sara Gran (mystery)
helium by rudy francisco (poetry)
I Contain Multitudes (non-fiction)
The Last Good Kiss by James Crumley (mystery)
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (sci-fi)
The Last by Hanna Jameson (sci-fi/mystery/apocalypse)
There's been so many good reads in my life that I haven't had nearly as much time to re-read as I would like. I'd like to make more time for that in 2019, although I will also continue to whittle at the to-be-reads, either by reading or by throwing the books out. If you all could just read a bunch of crappy books--preferably off my TBR--and write reviews on how horrible they are, that'd be super-helpful. show less
Longest hiatus without reading since I started at age 4: November 26, 2017 - January 14, 2018. It seems I was falling in love or something.
Favorite book of the year: I'm sorry if this is a copout, but it's a three-way tie: Fruit of the Drunken Tree (my sentimental favorite for the coming of age plot with its literal forbidden fruit, grounded in its South American sociopolitical context), The Summer Book (probably the best book "objectively", with its deceptively simple stories full of low-key wisdom and dry humor about a girl and her grandmother on an island in the Gulf of Finland), and Ask Baba Yaga (the long-awaited collection from the best advice columnist ever). Honorable mention to The Mars Room.
Best book I didn't finish: Theft by show more Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris, started in September and still in progress on New Year's Day. I could easily have devoured this whole thing in a couple of three sittings, but it would have been like eating an entire box of really high-end candy. I wouldn't have savored it as much and then there wouldn't have been any left for later. It's also an easy book to dip into in between other reads.
Best nonfiction: The Future is History, Masha Gessen's brilliant indictment of Russia's post-Soviet return to totalitarianism. The format, which follows five individuals and their families through the transition, shows both the big picture and the toll on individual lives.
Best audiobook: Hunger, read by the author herself, was the strongest of a few good ones. Worst audiobook was You Don't Have to Say You Love Me—I felt bad disliking Sherman Alexie's heartfelt memoir of his difficult mother, but I'm sorry, mixed snippets of poetry and different prose formats don't lend themselves to audio. This one was a chore.
Goal for 2019: Same as it is every year, put down the phone and read more. show less
Favorite book of the year: I'm sorry if this is a copout, but it's a three-way tie: Fruit of the Drunken Tree (my sentimental favorite for the coming of age plot with its literal forbidden fruit, grounded in its South American sociopolitical context), The Summer Book (probably the best book "objectively", with its deceptively simple stories full of low-key wisdom and dry humor about a girl and her grandmother on an island in the Gulf of Finland), and Ask Baba Yaga (the long-awaited collection from the best advice columnist ever). Honorable mention to The Mars Room.
Best book I didn't finish: Theft by show more Finding: Diaries 1977-2002 by David Sedaris, started in September and still in progress on New Year's Day. I could easily have devoured this whole thing in a couple of three sittings, but it would have been like eating an entire box of really high-end candy. I wouldn't have savored it as much and then there wouldn't have been any left for later. It's also an easy book to dip into in between other reads.
Best nonfiction: The Future is History, Masha Gessen's brilliant indictment of Russia's post-Soviet return to totalitarianism. The format, which follows five individuals and their families through the transition, shows both the big picture and the toll on individual lives.
Best audiobook: Hunger, read by the author herself, was the strongest of a few good ones. Worst audiobook was You Don't Have to Say You Love Me—I felt bad disliking Sherman Alexie's heartfelt memoir of his difficult mother, but I'm sorry, mixed snippets of poetry and different prose formats don't lend themselves to audio. This one was a chore.
Goal for 2019: Same as it is every year, put down the phone and read more. show less
I could have sworn I already started this at the beginning of the year. Maybe my reading outlook for 2018 was not up to GR standards of optimism, so it was deleted. Whatever......
Anyway, my reading resolution for 2018 was threefold:
1. Not start reading a book to find out that it has an empty plot, devoid characters and a social justice message designed to BLOW ME AWAY with concepts of human decency that I embraced long, long ago.
2. Not be burdened with Mary Sue Badass characters for the empty show of having "strong females" in the plot. Newsflash: Bitches like myself don't find it necessary to carry weapons ......we ARE weapons, and don't need to be handed any egregious bullshit.
3. Avoid participating in group reads/challenges that do show more not include my tbr books. Having people to discuss bad books with is no consolation for reading the bad book in the first place.
So, seven months in, how is that working? Fabulous, thank you!
After the abysmal reading year of 2017 I have pretty much eliminated making any of the same mistakes this year. I am limiting my reading to tbr books published before 2000 and this seems to be working beautifully. I haven't had to dnf or rate any one star books this year......yay!!!!
I haven't had much time to read, there has been so much going on and I've been busy with lots of projects. When I have had time to sit down and read I've been enjoying Robin Hobb and Grrrrm and short story collections. With this sort of success I think I will continue down this path. Don't despair, dear authors of the twenty first century; I'm not ruling you out, there are plenty of new books on my tbr. If you've written something I would want to read, I will find it.
More to come, if this review remains in situ and doesn't 'disappear' like the last one.
9/14/18 Update
I'm back to report more success! Turns out I love Robin Hobb and I'm going to start Guy Gavriel Kay next.
One strange incident to report; a YA Week debacle. YA Week was annoying as fuck and I was repeatedly shamed and bullied by adult fans of YA literature for not giving the new books a chance. So I did; I read one of the highest rated and recommended YA fantasy books, [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses|16096824|A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1546406962s/16096824.jpg|21905102]. I hated it; proving my point........It's Not For Me!!!. Hopefully, after giving one of their Holy Texts a scathing one star review, they will leave me the hell alone to read what I want. It's on them to deal with the fact that not everyone has the same tastes. More to come!
Update 10/12/18
Having just finished Horror Week I am doing a re-read of the horror classics. I can't find anything new in the genre, but I still keep looking, and hoping. I hear that the trends are going back to more supernatural influences, but haven't seen any actual evidence of this. It's still all the same psycho stalkers, hillbilly cannibals, and killer clowns; all with the same teenage slasher movie mentality. How.......not frightening......still. Do I ever hear a strange noise late at night and think, "Oh, no; I'm afraid to look......there could be a steaming gut pile out there!" Yeah, never, because steaming gut piles aren't scary, just kinda gross. Lotsa people still confusing nausea with dread and unease.
I have, however, noticed more of my GR friends who are self-professed fans of horror reading more dark fantasy. I'm not the only one after all!
Update 10/30/2018
So now the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards has started. Unfortunately, I haven't read anything published this year, so I'm going to skip the voting. Likely I won't pay any attention to it after that, because what would be the point?
The good news is that I have an inspiration for NaNoWriMo, which starts the day after tomorrow. I've always wanted to read about a quirky, gothic, Edward Gorey inspired small town, so it looks like I'm writing myself a new book. A standalone this time. I've already got a couple of maps drawn, some characters created and some gothic elements for the storyline. This is going to be fun!
Update 1/2/2019
In full twelve month retrospect, 2018 was one of the best reading years I've had since joining GR in 2012. I must have finally figured out how to use this site to my own advantage; at any rate I've learned how to negotiate the pitfalls show less
Anyway, my reading resolution for 2018 was threefold:
1. Not start reading a book to find out that it has an empty plot, devoid characters and a social justice message designed to BLOW ME AWAY with concepts of human decency that I embraced long, long ago.
2. Not be burdened with Mary Sue Badass characters for the empty show of having "strong females" in the plot. Newsflash: Bitches like myself don't find it necessary to carry weapons ......we ARE weapons, and don't need to be handed any egregious bullshit.
3. Avoid participating in group reads/challenges that do show more not include my tbr books. Having people to discuss bad books with is no consolation for reading the bad book in the first place.
So, seven months in, how is that working? Fabulous, thank you!
After the abysmal reading year of 2017 I have pretty much eliminated making any of the same mistakes this year. I am limiting my reading to tbr books published before 2000 and this seems to be working beautifully. I haven't had to dnf or rate any one star books this year......yay!!!!
I haven't had much time to read, there has been so much going on and I've been busy with lots of projects. When I have had time to sit down and read I've been enjoying Robin Hobb and Grrrrm and short story collections. With this sort of success I think I will continue down this path. Don't despair, dear authors of the twenty first century; I'm not ruling you out, there are plenty of new books on my tbr. If you've written something I would want to read, I will find it.
More to come, if this review remains in situ and doesn't 'disappear' like the last one.
9/14/18 Update
I'm back to report more success! Turns out I love Robin Hobb and I'm going to start Guy Gavriel Kay next.
One strange incident to report; a YA Week debacle. YA Week was annoying as fuck and I was repeatedly shamed and bullied by adult fans of YA literature for not giving the new books a chance. So I did; I read one of the highest rated and recommended YA fantasy books, [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses|16096824|A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1546406962s/16096824.jpg|21905102]. I hated it; proving my point........It's Not For Me!!!. Hopefully, after giving one of their Holy Texts a scathing one star review, they will leave me the hell alone to read what I want. It's on them to deal with the fact that not everyone has the same tastes. More to come!
Update 10/12/18
Having just finished Horror Week I am doing a re-read of the horror classics. I can't find anything new in the genre, but I still keep looking, and hoping. I hear that the trends are going back to more supernatural influences, but haven't seen any actual evidence of this. It's still all the same psycho stalkers, hillbilly cannibals, and killer clowns; all with the same teenage slasher movie mentality. How.......not frightening......still. Do I ever hear a strange noise late at night and think, "Oh, no; I'm afraid to look......there could be a steaming gut pile out there!" Yeah, never, because steaming gut piles aren't scary, just kinda gross. Lotsa people still confusing nausea with dread and unease.
I have, however, noticed more of my GR friends who are self-professed fans of horror reading more dark fantasy. I'm not the only one after all!
Update 10/30/2018
So now the opening round of the Goodreads Choice Awards has started. Unfortunately, I haven't read anything published this year, so I'm going to skip the voting. Likely I won't pay any attention to it after that, because what would be the point?
The good news is that I have an inspiration for NaNoWriMo, which starts the day after tomorrow. I've always wanted to read about a quirky, gothic, Edward Gorey inspired small town, so it looks like I'm writing myself a new book. A standalone this time. I've already got a couple of maps drawn, some characters created and some gothic elements for the storyline. This is going to be fun!
Update 1/2/2019
In full twelve month retrospect, 2018 was one of the best reading years I've had since joining GR in 2012. I must have finally figured out how to use this site to my own advantage; at any rate I've learned how to negotiate the pitfalls show less
I wasn't sure I was going to pen this, the significance of many postures appear debatable to me at present. I don't believe I am depressed but only just. The culture of my work all too often is that of a treadmill. This is hardly a novel development but I likely worked more this year than any of my life.
The year began with an emphasis on poetry and plays: the later had been neglected somewhat. Brecht and Shaw featured heavily in this period. William Carlos Williams became more controversial in my estimation.
Along the way were a few cultural histories Grand Hotel Abyss and Destruction Was My Beatrice. Then India After Gandhi and Danube, both which affected me greatly.
Then unfolded a period of thinking about Nixon, poetry and the show more African-American Experience. My successes are all likely negligible at best. Approaching high summer and my birthday, I felt a touch of disappointment with efforts by Vollmann and Powers. Then easing into September I wound up spending a month with Karl Ove Knausgård. Despite my qualms about editing and literary value this was an important project and I read all six volumes in a month.
The final quarter was noteworthy in not only did it yield wonderful criticism from Edmund Wilson, Hugh Kenner and Guy Davenport it also rapped on the door of some interesting French authors: Pierre Senges and Antoine Volodine.
I wanted to thank especially those whom I have written over the last year. Your kind patience is most appreciated. We passed around resolutions at work earlier and I thought that-- 1) attending more classical performances and 2)make another attempt at fishing-- are both sound. Happy New Year everyone. show less
The year began with an emphasis on poetry and plays: the later had been neglected somewhat. Brecht and Shaw featured heavily in this period. William Carlos Williams became more controversial in my estimation.
Along the way were a few cultural histories Grand Hotel Abyss and Destruction Was My Beatrice. Then India After Gandhi and Danube, both which affected me greatly.
Then unfolded a period of thinking about Nixon, poetry and the show more African-American Experience. My successes are all likely negligible at best. Approaching high summer and my birthday, I felt a touch of disappointment with efforts by Vollmann and Powers. Then easing into September I wound up spending a month with Karl Ove Knausgård. Despite my qualms about editing and literary value this was an important project and I read all six volumes in a month.
The final quarter was noteworthy in not only did it yield wonderful criticism from Edmund Wilson, Hugh Kenner and Guy Davenport it also rapped on the door of some interesting French authors: Pierre Senges and Antoine Volodine.
I wanted to thank especially those whom I have written over the last year. Your kind patience is most appreciated. We passed around resolutions at work earlier and I thought that-- 1) attending more classical performances and 2)make another attempt at fishing-- are both sound. Happy New Year everyone. show less
In 2018 I read 61,542 pages of 193 books, a new record since I started keeping track in 2012. The months ranged from 21 books in May to 11 in October. I ascribe this to: a) establishing a completely internet-free day a week (usually Sunday) and, b) spending four months commuting weekly between London and Scotland, which added nine solid hours of weekly reading time. Reviewing each book, except graphic novels and textbooks I read for work, is now so habitual that it would be hard to stop.
Top Six (technically seven) Novels I Read in 2018
[b:Perfidious Albion|37564159|Perfidious Albion|Sam Byers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528633924s/37564159.jpg|59177083] by Sam Byers is the best social commentary on Brexit I’ve yet read. It show more evokes the current febrile, toxic, confused, and hostile state of English politics impeccably. This may not sound like a pleasant prospect, but it’s at least reassuring to find the situation described incisively and with dark wit. I found this novel more enlightening than months of Brexit news articles, as well as mordantly entertaining. My full review.
[b:Circe|35959740|Circe|Madeline Miller|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508879575s/35959740.jpg|53043399] by Madeline Miller is a totally beguiling retelling of Greek myth. I adored the story of Circe’s development from timid nymph to powerful witch and it was told so beautifully. The pace and characterisation were particularly exceptional. My full review.
[b:Country|40378225|Country|Michael Hughes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1544636237s/40378225.jpg|62670795] by Michael Hughes is another classical retelling, as 2018 was an exceptional year for them. This one brilliantly transposes the Iliad to the Irish border during the 1990s. The author captures Homer’s rhythm and spirit uncannily well. The stunning prose demands to be declaimed. I’ve read quite a few Iliad retellings and this is hands down the best I've found to date. My full review.
[b:The 7th Function of Language|35610817|The 7th Function of Language|Laurent Binet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1515115679s/35610817.jpg|46079991] by Laurent Binet is the funniest book I read this year. It single-handedly got me interested in semiotics, via a farcical murder mystery plot stuffed with French intellectuals. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant and hilarious scene succeeds hilarious scene. A total joy from start to finish! My full review.
[b:The Dark Forest|23168817|The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1412064931s/23168817.jpg|42713958] & [b:Death's End|25451264|Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430330507s/25451264.jpg|18520265] by Cixin Liu are this year’s clear sci-fi highlights. The two latter volumes of the [b:Remembrance of Earth's Past|42507063|Remembrance of Earth's Past (3 Books)|Liu Cixin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|66219540] trilogy grapple with incredible philosophical, ethical, and scientific dilemmas, somehow skillfully balancing an intergalactic scale with a limited human cast. They are truly awe-inspiring epics that take a genuinely intelligent and nuanced approach to the interaction between technology and society. The whole trilogy is dense with ideas, yet thrilling and utterly compelling. My full reviews: The Dark Forest & Death’s End.
[b:The Word for Woman is Wilderness|36279988|The Word for Woman is Wilderness|Abi Andrews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517823602s/36279988.jpg|57940191] by Abi Andrews is perhaps not quite as extraordinarily brilliant as the other novels on this list, yet merits its place because for me it was the most glorious wish fulfillment. If you too are a woman who fantasises about becoming a hermit in the woods but is far too practical to actually do it, you may find it similarly delightful. On top of the central concept’s intense appeal, the execution is thoughtful, funny, and very involving. My full review.
Top Six Non-fiction Books I Read in 2018
[b:Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire|36352480|Natives Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire|Akala|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507123074s/36352480.jpg|58034799] by Akala is a passionately written, fascinating autobiographical account of racism and class inequality in the UK. The writing is erudite and involving, raising important questions about British society, politics, and historiography. I learned a lot from it and now want to read more about the brutal history of the British Empire. My full review.
[b:Wilding|38891828|Wilding|Isabella Tree|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1521964296s/38891828.jpg|60437379] by Isabella Tree is the most hopeful book I read in 2018. It tells the story of a re-wilded farm, demonstrating how much of the damage caused by industrial agriculture can be reversed. It’s such a delight to read about the return of so many species to the farm: insects, birds, plants, fungi, animals. An inspiring project, recounted with skill. My full review.
[b:The Queer Art of Failure|11161565|The Queer Art of Failure|J. Jack Halberstam|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1304517676s/11161565.jpg|16085542] by J. Jack Halberstam is just the thing to read if, like me, you’ve accidentally ended up in an academic job that you dislike and aren’t good at. It’s an incitement to pointless over-analysis of stupid films, rather than writing boring journal papers. There’s a delightful mixture of incisive commentary and complete absurdity, which overall made me feel slightly better about working life. My full review.
[b:An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork|105614|An Interrupted Life The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork|Etty Hillesum|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312061713s/105614.jpg|3953335] by Etty Hillesum is a collection of wartime writing by a Dutch Jewish woman who was murdered in the Holocaust. She was a truly extraordinary writer and this book contains some of the most memorable lines I read in 2018. In the midst of a horrific crime against humanity, Hillesum wrote incredibly empathetic and hopeful words that have every bit as much power 75 years later.My full review.
[b:Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation|29938403|Anxiety for Beginners A Personal Investigation|Eleanor Morgan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465002259s/29938403.jpg|50329109] by Eleanor Morgan is an uncomfortable book for me to recommend, as it comes closer to describing my own experience of anxiety than anything else I’ve read. The balance of autobiographical and socio-medical analysis is excellent. If you also suffer from anxiety, don’t make my mistake and read it on a train. My full review.
[b:Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future|29675406|Chernobyl Prayer A Chronicle of the Future|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459250416s/29675406.jpg|1103107] by Svetlana Alexievich is existentially terrifying. I also read the fantastic [b:Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets|30200112|Secondhand Time The Last of the Soviets|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463438551s/30200112.jpg|27225929] in 2018, but this one haunts me. Alexievich assembles a wide variety of voices to ask fundamental questions about what the Chernobyl disasters means. It is an intense and frightening experience, so break it up with gentler reading, but a deeply rewarding one. My full review.
My innovation this year was to read sci-fi and fantasy series in a more systematic way, such as [b:The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky|38496769|The Broken Earth Trilogy The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky|N.K. Jemisin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1530531199s/38496769.jpg|60137524] and [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians #1)|Lev Grossman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] trilogy. This was largely for the purposes of escapism. I didn’t tackle anything hugely difficult. [b:Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First|25242168|Empire of Things How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First|Frank Trentmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442609156s/25242168.jpg|46113293], Foucault's [b:The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction|1875|The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 An Introduction|Michel Foucault|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486236798s/1875.jpg|5991], and [b:Midnight's Children|14836|Midnight's Children|Salman Rushdie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1371063511s/14836.jpg|1024288] were probably the most challenging.
I totally failed to complete my 2018 reading aims, which were to finish two books I’ve had in progress for years and read Piketty’s [b:Capital in the Twenty-First Century|18736925|Capital in the Twenty-First Century|Thomas Piketty|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390111547s/18736925.jpg|26224121]. Given that, I won’t bother to make any reading resolutions for 2019 and just continue to read whatever I feel like. That seems to be working just fine. Happy new year! show less
Top Six (technically seven) Novels I Read in 2018
[b:Perfidious Albion|37564159|Perfidious Albion|Sam Byers|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1528633924s/37564159.jpg|59177083] by Sam Byers is the best social commentary on Brexit I’ve yet read. It show more evokes the current febrile, toxic, confused, and hostile state of English politics impeccably. This may not sound like a pleasant prospect, but it’s at least reassuring to find the situation described incisively and with dark wit. I found this novel more enlightening than months of Brexit news articles, as well as mordantly entertaining. My full review.
[b:Circe|35959740|Circe|Madeline Miller|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1508879575s/35959740.jpg|53043399] by Madeline Miller is a totally beguiling retelling of Greek myth. I adored the story of Circe’s development from timid nymph to powerful witch and it was told so beautifully. The pace and characterisation were particularly exceptional. My full review.
[b:Country|40378225|Country|Michael Hughes|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1544636237s/40378225.jpg|62670795] by Michael Hughes is another classical retelling, as 2018 was an exceptional year for them. This one brilliantly transposes the Iliad to the Irish border during the 1990s. The author captures Homer’s rhythm and spirit uncannily well. The stunning prose demands to be declaimed. I’ve read quite a few Iliad retellings and this is hands down the best I've found to date. My full review.
[b:The 7th Function of Language|35610817|The 7th Function of Language|Laurent Binet|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1515115679s/35610817.jpg|46079991] by Laurent Binet is the funniest book I read this year. It single-handedly got me interested in semiotics, via a farcical murder mystery plot stuffed with French intellectuals. The dialogue is absolutely brilliant and hilarious scene succeeds hilarious scene. A total joy from start to finish! My full review.
[b:The Dark Forest|23168817|The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1412064931s/23168817.jpg|42713958] & [b:Death's End|25451264|Death's End (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #3)|Liu Cixin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1430330507s/25451264.jpg|18520265] by Cixin Liu are this year’s clear sci-fi highlights. The two latter volumes of the [b:Remembrance of Earth's Past|42507063|Remembrance of Earth's Past (3 Books)|Liu Cixin|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/book/50x75-a91bf249278a81aabab721ef782c4a74.png|66219540] trilogy grapple with incredible philosophical, ethical, and scientific dilemmas, somehow skillfully balancing an intergalactic scale with a limited human cast. They are truly awe-inspiring epics that take a genuinely intelligent and nuanced approach to the interaction between technology and society. The whole trilogy is dense with ideas, yet thrilling and utterly compelling. My full reviews: The Dark Forest & Death’s End.
[b:The Word for Woman is Wilderness|36279988|The Word for Woman is Wilderness|Abi Andrews|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517823602s/36279988.jpg|57940191] by Abi Andrews is perhaps not quite as extraordinarily brilliant as the other novels on this list, yet merits its place because for me it was the most glorious wish fulfillment. If you too are a woman who fantasises about becoming a hermit in the woods but is far too practical to actually do it, you may find it similarly delightful. On top of the central concept’s intense appeal, the execution is thoughtful, funny, and very involving. My full review.
Top Six Non-fiction Books I Read in 2018
[b:Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire|36352480|Natives Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire|Akala|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1507123074s/36352480.jpg|58034799] by Akala is a passionately written, fascinating autobiographical account of racism and class inequality in the UK. The writing is erudite and involving, raising important questions about British society, politics, and historiography. I learned a lot from it and now want to read more about the brutal history of the British Empire. My full review.
[b:Wilding|38891828|Wilding|Isabella Tree|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1521964296s/38891828.jpg|60437379] by Isabella Tree is the most hopeful book I read in 2018. It tells the story of a re-wilded farm, demonstrating how much of the damage caused by industrial agriculture can be reversed. It’s such a delight to read about the return of so many species to the farm: insects, birds, plants, fungi, animals. An inspiring project, recounted with skill. My full review.
[b:The Queer Art of Failure|11161565|The Queer Art of Failure|J. Jack Halberstam|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1304517676s/11161565.jpg|16085542] by J. Jack Halberstam is just the thing to read if, like me, you’ve accidentally ended up in an academic job that you dislike and aren’t good at. It’s an incitement to pointless over-analysis of stupid films, rather than writing boring journal papers. There’s a delightful mixture of incisive commentary and complete absurdity, which overall made me feel slightly better about working life. My full review.
[b:An Interrupted Life: The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork|105614|An Interrupted Life The Diaries, 1941-1943; and Letters from Westerbork|Etty Hillesum|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312061713s/105614.jpg|3953335] by Etty Hillesum is a collection of wartime writing by a Dutch Jewish woman who was murdered in the Holocaust. She was a truly extraordinary writer and this book contains some of the most memorable lines I read in 2018. In the midst of a horrific crime against humanity, Hillesum wrote incredibly empathetic and hopeful words that have every bit as much power 75 years later.My full review.
[b:Anxiety for Beginners: A Personal Investigation|29938403|Anxiety for Beginners A Personal Investigation|Eleanor Morgan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1465002259s/29938403.jpg|50329109] by Eleanor Morgan is an uncomfortable book for me to recommend, as it comes closer to describing my own experience of anxiety than anything else I’ve read. The balance of autobiographical and socio-medical analysis is excellent. If you also suffer from anxiety, don’t make my mistake and read it on a train. My full review.
[b:Chernobyl Prayer: A Chronicle of the Future|29675406|Chernobyl Prayer A Chronicle of the Future|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1459250416s/29675406.jpg|1103107] by Svetlana Alexievich is existentially terrifying. I also read the fantastic [b:Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets|30200112|Secondhand Time The Last of the Soviets|Svetlana Alexievich|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1463438551s/30200112.jpg|27225929] in 2018, but this one haunts me. Alexievich assembles a wide variety of voices to ask fundamental questions about what the Chernobyl disasters means. It is an intense and frightening experience, so break it up with gentler reading, but a deeply rewarding one. My full review.
My innovation this year was to read sci-fi and fantasy series in a more systematic way, such as [b:The Broken Earth Trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky|38496769|The Broken Earth Trilogy The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, The Stone Sky|N.K. Jemisin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1530531199s/38496769.jpg|60137524] and [b:The Magicians|6101718|The Magicians (The Magicians #1)|Lev Grossman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1313772941s/6101718.jpg|6278977] trilogy. This was largely for the purposes of escapism. I didn’t tackle anything hugely difficult. [b:Empire of Things: How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First|25242168|Empire of Things How We Became a World of Consumers, from the Fifteenth Century to the Twenty-First|Frank Trentmann|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1442609156s/25242168.jpg|46113293], Foucault's [b:The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: An Introduction|1875|The History of Sexuality, Volume 1 An Introduction|Michel Foucault|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1486236798s/1875.jpg|5991], and [b:Midnight's Children|14836|Midnight's Children|Salman Rushdie|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1371063511s/14836.jpg|1024288] were probably the most challenging.
I totally failed to complete my 2018 reading aims, which were to finish two books I’ve had in progress for years and read Piketty’s [b:Capital in the Twenty-First Century|18736925|Capital in the Twenty-First Century|Thomas Piketty|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1390111547s/18736925.jpg|26224121]. Given that, I won’t bother to make any reading resolutions for 2019 and just continue to read whatever I feel like. That seems to be working just fine. Happy new year! show less
I had such a good reading year in 2018. According to GR I read 235 books and 71,700 pages and my average rating was 4/5 stars.
I had a hard time trying to narrow down the list of my best picks so this is the best I could do :)
Best stand-alone novels:
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. This is such a short book but the plot is so powerful. I liked the way the dynamics of this dysfunctional family are slowly revealed. It was chilling to watch them get so caught up in the historic experiment they were performing; the last part of this book was so hard to read for that reason. It was amazing.
When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy. The author portrays a scarily realistic escalation of an abusive relationship. She also showed how psychological abuse and show more isolation plays a big part in keeping a victim afraid and silent as much actual violence. It felt so brutally real at times that I forgot I was reading a work of fiction.
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. I already reviewed this when I finished it so I won’t repeat myself here :)
Nutshell by Ian McEwan. I think Nutshell has become my favourite McEwan novel. He just writes these amazing stories and I don’t think anyone other than him could’ve possibly re-written Hamlet from the perspective of an unborn baby and actually made it work.
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. This was written in a very dark , Gothic, Victorian style and I found it unputdownable. I’d love to see this made into a film one day.
Best works of non-fiction:
Books that inspired or informed me this year that I plan to re-read in the future.
Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac
The Wine Lover’s Daughter by Anne Fadiman
My Posse don’t do Homework by LouAnne Johnson
Denial by Deborah E. Lipstadt
Best continuation or end of a series:
Tricks for Free by Seanan McGuire
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire
Undead and Done by MaryJanice Davidson
Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
Leverage in Death by JD Robb
Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
New-to-me series that I really loved this year:
Chronicles of the One by Nora Roberts
Menagerie by Rachel Vincent
Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire
The Great Library by Rachel Caine
Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine
Rockton by Kelley Armstrong
Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews
Best re-reads:
Favourites in fiction and non-fiction that I re-read in 2018 and will probably re-read again.
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
The Neighbour by Lisa Gardner
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Spartacus and Me by Vashti Whitfield
Ex-Libris by Anne Fadiman
Disappointments of the 2018:
I had high expectations for each of these books and they all turned out to be disappointing. With a few of them, I feel that the fault was mine – I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read a particular book at a particular time – and I plan to re-read those ones.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany Bad fan fiction.
The Bachelors by Muriel Spark Boring.
Derby Day by DJ Taylor I’m on the fence about re-reading this. I thought I’d like the pseudo Victorian style considering the other success I’ve had with this style of novel in 2018 but I struggled with this one.
The Fandom by Anna Day Kill it with fire.
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow Will re-read. I didn’t finish this book. I feel as though I was just in the wrong frame of mind to read it at the time but I’d probably enjoy it if I read it again.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Couldn’t get into this one at all.
Thermopylae by Paul Carteledge Didn’t enjoy. DNF. show less
I had a hard time trying to narrow down the list of my best picks so this is the best I could do :)
Best stand-alone novels:
Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. This is such a short book but the plot is so powerful. I liked the way the dynamics of this dysfunctional family are slowly revealed. It was chilling to watch them get so caught up in the historic experiment they were performing; the last part of this book was so hard to read for that reason. It was amazing.
When I Hit You by Meena Kandasamy. The author portrays a scarily realistic escalation of an abusive relationship. She also showed how psychological abuse and show more isolation plays a big part in keeping a victim afraid and silent as much actual violence. It felt so brutally real at times that I forgot I was reading a work of fiction.
His Bloody Project by Graeme Macrae Burnet. I already reviewed this when I finished it so I won’t repeat myself here :)
Nutshell by Ian McEwan. I think Nutshell has become my favourite McEwan novel. He just writes these amazing stories and I don’t think anyone other than him could’ve possibly re-written Hamlet from the perspective of an unborn baby and actually made it work.
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry. This was written in a very dark , Gothic, Victorian style and I found it unputdownable. I’d love to see this made into a film one day.
Best works of non-fiction:
Books that inspired or informed me this year that I plan to re-read in the future.
Sapiens: A brief history of humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
The Whistleblower by Kathryn Bolkovac
The Wine Lover’s Daughter by Anne Fadiman
My Posse don’t do Homework by LouAnne Johnson
Denial by Deborah E. Lipstadt
Best continuation or end of a series:
Tricks for Free by Seanan McGuire
The Girl in the Green Silk Gown by Seanan McGuire
Undead and Done by MaryJanice Davidson
Y is for Yesterday by Sue Grafton
Leverage in Death by JD Robb
Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs
Sweep of the Blade by Ilona Andrews
New-to-me series that I really loved this year:
Chronicles of the One by Nora Roberts
Menagerie by Rachel Vincent
Wayward Children by Seanan McGuire
The Great Library by Rachel Caine
Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine
Rockton by Kelley Armstrong
Hidden Legacy by Ilona Andrews
Best re-reads:
Favourites in fiction and non-fiction that I re-read in 2018 and will probably re-read again.
Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
The Neighbour by Lisa Gardner
Wild by Cheryl Strayed
Spartacus and Me by Vashti Whitfield
Ex-Libris by Anne Fadiman
Disappointments of the 2018:
I had high expectations for each of these books and they all turned out to be disappointing. With a few of them, I feel that the fault was mine – I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to read a particular book at a particular time – and I plan to re-read those ones.
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by John Tiffany Bad fan fiction.
The Bachelors by Muriel Spark Boring.
Derby Day by DJ Taylor I’m on the fence about re-reading this. I thought I’d like the pseudo Victorian style considering the other success I’ve had with this style of novel in 2018 but I struggled with this one.
The Fandom by Anna Day Kill it with fire.
Humboldt’s Gift by Saul Bellow Will re-read. I didn’t finish this book. I feel as though I was just in the wrong frame of mind to read it at the time but I’d probably enjoy it if I read it again.
A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving Couldn’t get into this one at all.
Thermopylae by Paul Carteledge Didn’t enjoy. DNF. show less
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