2018: The Year in Reading

2018 was a good year for reading. 

In 365 days, I read 79 books in total — almost tying my own record — and enjoyed a variety of authors and subjects. Though some books were modest — How a Mouse Saved the Royal Cat was a mere 14 pages — books in total averaged 241 pages.

I wandered my local library and combed the shelves of used bookstores. I read some books recommended by trusted critics, and learned who shared my taste. I perused my own library and shuffled my hefty Kindle selection for some delights, and a few clunkers.

I read general fiction, children's books, cookbooks, how-tos, and travelogues. I was intrigued by the art of tattoos. I marveled at libraries around the country, grand and modest. I was shocked and horrified by violence and sexism in classic literature, and shocked and horrified that it took me this long to notice it.

I read books narrated by immigrants, gay men, time travelers, people living with autism, journalists, people living with mental and physical illnesses, political dissidents, psychics, and crazy rich people. Whether it was fact or fiction, there was something new to encounter in every book.

I fell unabashedly in love with "young adult fiction." My favorite YA novels this year were Far From the Tree, Marcelo in the Real World, and The Sun is Also a Star. As soon as I finished the latter, I started it again to savor an unexpected delicious character. 

My favorite books of 2018 were: 

• A Gentleman in Moscow — Alexander Rostov, the titular gentleman, is as memorable and noble as (dare I say it?) Atticus Finch. 
• A Man Called Ove — I approached Ove much like he approached everyone else: cautiously, and expecting only disaster. In the end, he won me over, too, and even now my heart swells and my eyes tear up as I think of a character who felt (and still feels) so real.
• The Useful Book — Truth be told, I was a little relieved that I was doing more than a few things correctly, lo these many years after middle school home economics classes. Cooking, cleaning, sewing, and minor repair are less scary, and more possible, by my hands now.
• The Sun is Also a Star — Two strangers spend the single most important day of their lives together, with chapters that alternate between their perspectives and an occasional revelation by an omnipotent narrator.
• Far from the Tree — What is family? Three siblings who grew up in different families through foster care and adoption discover just what love is between themselves and the history they try to uncover together.  
• Spinning Silver — In her second modern fairy tale, Naomi Novik introduces us to strong women in 19th century Russia. Myriem is a Russian Jewish moneylender  who can spin silver into gold, and when she catches the eye of the wrong person, her life changes — as do the lives of everyone whom she has touched.

My least favorite reads were few, but powerful:

• Basic Witches — Oh, you mean "witch" in the generic sense! Wait, what?
• Murder on the Orient Express — I don't remember Agatha Christie being so boring, and I didn't even remember the ending!
• The Plant Paradox — I feel about this much like I did about The Case Against Sugar: it would have been a good magazine article. After reading more than half the book, I was numb and confused. 
• How to Relax — This author's books are tedious and pithy to the point of absurdity.

Here is a list of books I read in 2018, and the format in which I consumed theme: print (📖), audiobook (🎧), or e-book (📲):

1. The Mortal Word 📲
2. Frugal Living for Dummies 📖
3. Look Alive Twenty-Five 📲
4. Spinning Silver 📲🎧
5. 5 Ingredients or Less Slow Cooker Cookbook 📲
6. Pygmalion and My Fair Lady 📖
7. Llamas 📖
8. Harold and the Poopy Little Puppy 📲
9. Everything, Everything 📲
10. A Simple Favor 📲
11. Welcome to Night Vale 🎧
    
12. Rich People Problems 📖
13. I Met a Traveler in an Antique Land 📲
14. A Wrinkle in Time 📲
15. The Little Stranger 📲
16. G’morning, G’night 🎧
17. Lobster is the Best Medicine 📖
18. Fire Watch 📲
19. The Public Library 📖
20. The Useful Book 📲
21. The Book With No Pictures 📖
22. China Rich Girlfriend 📖
23. Standard Deviation 📲
24. The Plant Paradox 📲
25. How a Mouse Saved the Royal Cat 📲
26. Robert Kennedy Jr.’s American Heroes: Robert Smalls, the Boat Thief 📖
27. Seven Miles to Freedom 📖
28. The Princess Bride 📲
29. Thunderstorm 📖
30. An American Marriage 📖
31. A Man Called Ove 📖
32. Dear First Lady 📖
33. What if Everybody Said That? 📲
34. Quilt of States: Piecing Together America 📖
35. Crazy Rich Asians 📖
36. Frogs Are Funny! 📖
37. The Lost City of the Monkey Gods
38. Thrall 📖
39. Dear Evan Hansen 🎧 📲
40. The Devil’s Arithmetic  📲
41. The Sun is Also a Star  📲
42. Cat Haiku 📖
43. Basic Witches 📖
44. Less  📲
45. Differently Morphus 🎧
46. The Ideals Guide to Literary Places in the US 📖
47. The Emerald Circus 📖
48. The Fall of the House of Cabal 📲
49. Pen & Ink Tattoos & the stories behind them 📖
50. How to Relax  📲
51. Marcelo in the Real World  📲
52. They All Saw a Cat  📲
53. Dog Songs: Deluxe Edition  📲
54. How to Stop Time 📲
55. Hero Cat 📲
56. Texts from Jane Eyre 📲
57. The Magician King 📲
58. The Immortalists 📖
59. A Beautiful Bowl of Soup 📲
60. Unbelievable  📲
61. The Choice 📲
62. The First  📲
63. The Returned 📲
64. The Lost Plot 📲
65. Night of the Living Deed 📲
66. Murder on the Orient Express  📲
67. I am (Not) Scared 📲
68. World War I in Cartoons 📖
69. Living Simple, Free, and Happy 📖
70. KNACK Organizing Your Home 📖
71. Love the Home You Have 📖
72. Crosstalk 📲📖
73. Hardcore Twenty-Four 📖
74. Far From the Tree 📲
75. Little Dorrit 📲 🎧📖
76. A Gentleman in Moscow 📲
77. All My Friends Are Dead 📲
78. Her Right Foot 📲
79. The Dire King: A Jackaby Novel

I started this year's reading with two well-known British women, Mary Poppins and Queen Elizabeth II; they're both delightful, and nothing at all as I expected. More as the stories develop.

How about you: How was your reading year? What did you read that you would recommend? Better yet, what did you read that you would not recommend? Do tell!

7 Favorite Books of 2016: The Year in Review

2016 was a great year for reading. I consumed 80 books in three different formats, a personal best this century. 

To be fair, a handful were children's books, but Goodreads assures me the average length of books on my "read" shelf in 2016 was 298 pages, so I rest easy with my total (thanks, Joe Hill!).  

My Exceptional Reading Year included an inordinate (for me) number of re-reads: six books. For the most part, I credit this to catching up on original or first books before launching any sequel or companion books. However, Good Omens was re-read via Audible just for fun — and it remains one of the funniest books I have read.

Audiobooks changed my reading habits: one-fifth of the books I read this year were audiobooks, and three of those were re-reads. This format gives me an opportunity to read while I run or work out in the gym. I listened to Caitlin Moran read her immensely funny memoir, and I discovered Juliet Stevenson reading Sense and Sensibility. Audiobooks are not always the best format; I kept getting lost during The God of Small Things, and David Sedaris' essays waxed a bit too long for a listen. 

Additionally, I was surprised to discover that nearly one quarter of the books I read were on my Kindle. I own most of those in print, but I found the Kindle version more convenient; my bedside lighting is not stellar, and I have limited nightstand space. 

(Full disclosure: I recently purchased new furniture in part due to the nightstand size; however, my cats aren't keen on sharing their nightstand space with each other, let alone books that can be oh so fun to rearrange. As a result, I read my books on Kindle — and occasionally on audio — for the convenience of my cats. Do not judge my indulgences, and I shall afford you the same courtesy.)

Here are seven of my favorite books I read this year, in no particular order.

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe — I began this book because of the narrator and finished it because it was a beautiful read. I have never been in the mind of a teenage boy, and Benjamin Alire Sáenz was a wonderful guide. There is no Big Reveal at the end of the book, but the truth still feels large, and it was gorgeously wrought.
• The Year of Yes — Shonda Rimes is an amazing person, and very wise. She hit her stride after the commencement speech and never slowed down. Would I call it a memoir, a self-help book, a feminist book, a humor read? Yes.
• The Cure for Dreaming — Cat Winters writes good books, so I recommend them all. However, this one I read in late October, and its examination of early 20th century suffrage was revolutionary.  
• The Underground Railroad — Imagine... no, don't imagine the world Colson Whitehead brought to life in his novel. Read it. It will change your perception of antebellum America. 
• Life After Life and A God in Ruins — Must be read in this order. I reviewed the first book a few years ago. Together, they command readers to re-think what life is, their own and others.
• The Invisible Library — I am a sucker for library and librarian stories, and this is a good one. I recently reviewed this book, which is the first of a trilogy. I can't wait to start the second volume. (The third book will be released in the U.S. on January 20.) Find out more about this trilogy on the author's website.

What books did I read in 2016 I would I not recommend?

• The Museum of Extraordinary Things — Weird, disappointing, and hard to follow.
• The Bookseller — The premise was intriguing, but the resolution was unsatisfying. Read my review here.
• Everything We Keep — The story stretched out so long before the second act that the resolution was singularly unsatisfying. The story coda, which attempted to bring the story full-circle, was awful.
• Big Magic — A self-help book that did not provide any new or interesting information. (Full disclosure: I avoided reading the author's chart-topping memoir, and I really disliked the movie.)

Thankfully, most of the less-than-stellar books were library loans.

Here is the complete list of books read in 2016. Most of them are good reads, so I hope you find a few to add to your nightstand (or e-reader, or listening device). I have indicated the format of each book (e-book 📲 , print book 📖 , or audio 🎧 ) and whether they were borrowed from the library (via nerd face 🤓 ).

1. Passage 📲 🤓
2. Bear Counts 📲
3. Ish 📲
4. The Roll-Away Pumpkin 📲
5. The Deep and Snowy Wood 📲
6. Plum Spooky 📖 🤓
7. Octopuppy 📲
8. Between the Plums 📲 🤓
9. 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People 📲 🤓
10. The Year of Yes 🎧 🤓
11. Thirteen Chairs 📲
12. Commonwealth 📖
13. The Invisible Library 📲
14. Good Omens 🎧
15. Thin Mint Memories 📲
16. The Forgetting Time (½) 📲 🤓
17. Lamb 🎧
18. The Cure for Dreaming 📖 🤓
19. A Mew to a Kill 📲
20. Sense and Sensibility 🎧 🤓
21. Fates and Furies 📲 🤓
22. Summer House With Pool 📲
23. Between the World and Me 🎧 🤓
24. Ghostly Echoes 📲
25. Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls 🎧 🤓
26. The Underground Railroad 📖
27. The Uninvited 📲
28. Who Goes There? (The Thing) 📲
29. Big Magic 📖 🤓
30. Dorothy Parker Drank Here 📖
31. A Spirited Tail 📲
32. The Goodbyes 📖
33. Secondhand Souls 🎧 🤓
34. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 🎧 🤓
35. Everything We Keep 📲
36. If Books Could Kill 📖 🤓
37. The Bookseller 📲
38. Unlikely Friendships 📲 🤓
39. Homicide in Hardcover 📖 🤓
40. Ghostly Paws 📲
41. The Sleeper and the Spindle 📖 🤓
42. The Body Reader 📲
43. Blackout 📖 🤓
44. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 📲 🤓
45. Vacations From Hell 📖 🤓
46. 168 Hours 📖
47. Farewell, Dorothy Parker 📖
48. When Breath Becomes Air 📖
49. In the Heights 📖
50. Crenshaw 📲
51. How Do You Sleep 📲
52. In the Shadow of Blackbirds 📲 🤓
53. NOS4A2 🎧 🤓
54. The Humans (play) 📖
55. Random Harvest 📲
56. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? 📲
57. Vader’s Little Princess 📲
58. Darth Vader and Son 📲
59. Darth Vader and Friends 📲
60. Good Night, Darth Vader 📲
61. Americanah 📲 🤓
62. Winter of the World  🎧 🤓
63. A God in Ruins 📲 🤓
64. Rip Van Winkle 🎧 🤓
65. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 🎧 🤓
66. The Fall of Giants 🎧 🤓
67. Life After Life 📲 🤓
68. How to be a Woman 🎧
69. Twenty Yawns 📲
70. True Grit 🎧 🤓
71. It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs 📲 🤓
72. The Museum of Extraordinary Things  📲 🤓
73. The Luckiest Girl Alive 📖
74. Grandma Drove the Snowplow 📲
75. The Map 📲
76. Beastly Bones 📲
77. Impossible Things 📖
78. Girl Waits With Gun 📲
79. Library of Souls 📖
80. Emerald Green 📲

What did you read in 2016? Anything you can recommend? Do tell!