Wednesday, January 02, 2019

TOP 25 BOOKS READ IN 2018




My Bookshelves


I had a great reading year. I surpassed my overall goal to read 144 books. I completed a self-created challenge to read a book a month from the last 12 years of my TBR lists. I also read a book a month from my Nervous Breakdown Book Club subscription. I fell short in terms of reading as much as I had planned from my ongoing, unending challenge known as My Big Fat Reading Project.

As far as these favorite 25 books go, I made my decisions based on not only how much I loved the books but on how much they challenged me to learn new things, to understand myself and others more completely, and to savor the many ways that stories can be told.
 
My new 2019 challenge is to read a book a month set in another country by an author who lives there and writes in their own language. For me that means the book has to be translated into English. I have made a tentative list, subject to change as the year unfolds.

I will put the stats at the bottom of the list. Stats are fun and enlightening but can also be boring. Feel free to skip them.

All the books on the list have been reviewed here on the blog.

All My Puny Sorrows, Miriam Toews
Appassionata, Eva Hoffman
The Bear and the Nightingale, Katherine Arden
Becoming, Michelle Obama
The Book of Joan, Lidia Yuknavitch
Call Me Zebra, Azareen Van de Vliet Oloomi
Circe, Madeline Miller
Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich
Gold Dust Woman, Stephen Davis
The Golden State, Lydia Kiesling
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
How To Be Both, Ali Smith
The Ice Palace, Tarjei Vesaas
Lake Success, Gary Shteyngart
The Map of Salt and Stars, Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
The Mars Room, Rachel Kushner
Miss Burma, Charmaine Craig
The Overstory, Richard Powers
The Power, Naomi Alderman
The Resurrection of Joan Ashby, Cherise Wolas
The Secret River, Kate Grenville
Silver Sparrow, Tayari Jones
Spinning Silver, Naomi Novik
Unsheltered, Barbara Kingsolver
The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish


Stats: 146 books read. 135 fiction (not counting poetry and plays). 86 by women. 11 nonfiction including history, biographies and memoirs. 50 for My Big Fat Reading Project. 11 translated. 

Were any of the books on my list also favorites of yours?

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for visiting my blog and most especially for leaving comments. I maintain this blog as a labor of love. The best reward is your comments.


23 comments:

  1. This is a very impressive list. On it I have only read The Power. I was very impressed with it. I want to read most of everything else. Hopefully I will at least get to Circe soon.

    Happy reading in 2019!

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    1. Thank you Brian! First responder!! Circe is a wonder of a book. Happy reading in 2019 to you.

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  2. I also loved All My Puny Sorrows but, other than being in the middle of listening to Becoming, I haven't read any of these books. Unsheltered and The Overstory are on my 2019 reading list.

    Thanks for a year of great posts!

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    1. You are welcome Debbie! And you have two great reads coming up.

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  3. Looks like you had a wonderful year of reading in 2018. Way to go!!

    Looks like you have another year of great reading goals for 2019. I look forward to discovering which books you read in 2019 and reading your reviews.

    I haven't read any of the books you read last year. However, I do have both Becoming by Michelle Obama and The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch in my 'to be read' pile. I haven't made a list of books to read this year yet, but am hoping to read both of these books this year.

    My goal is to read 87 books in 2019. If I read more than that, then great! I also have a goal this year of not buying any books (famous last words!!) and focusing instead on reading the plethora of unread books in my already overflowing personal collection. I'll be able to easily pull my 87 reads from my current collection.

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    1. Gosh, do I know about unread books I already own. Those bookshelves in the photo are books I have already read but I have another set of shelves-:) I like your idea of keeping a few read books in the car to exchange at Little Free Libraries. I am going to start practicing that.

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    2. Have fun exchanging books at Little Free Libraries!! I enjoy finding Little Free Libraries so much as you've already discovered on my blog. Promoting literacy is a wonderful thing.

      P. S. Meant to write that I hadn't read any of the books that made it on your list of top 25 favorites list last year instead of writing 'I haven't read any of the books you read last year'.

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    3. I knew what you meant but thanks for clarifying.

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  4. sometimes, our tastes do differ. Of your list, I have only read Unsheltered, and I shelved it as my biggest disappointment of the year. The only book by this author I didn't find that good.
    Congrats on all your reading achievements

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    1. Differences can be good. Let's just keep going!

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  5. That's a great list. I loved The Bear and the Nightingale and Circe too. I would like to read Spinning Silver and The Weight of Ink. Your new challenge sounds interesting - good luck with it!

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    1. Those are both good choices! I will probably need that good luck. Foreign translated lit can be tough sometimes. Then again, reading IS my super power.

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  6. Thank you Judy for all your great reviews & Congrats for your record breaking reading numbers. I think your new challenge sounds excellent. We both loved The Power and I think I'll like Becoming as well.

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  7. That's an impressive list. It's really hard to pare it down, isn't it? I see we do have several in common this year and The Book of Joan actually made my "best of" list for 2017.

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    1. We were intrepid readers last year Dorothy, that is for sure.

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  8. We only have Circe in common. I would like to read Spinning Silver, The Bear and..., and The Weight of Ink. I have The Overstory on my TBR. I also have several Kingsolver novels, but I confess Unsheltered didn't pique my curiosity.

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    1. Happy to share Circe with you! You have a lot of good reading ahead of you. If you have not read Kingsolver before, I don't think Unsheltered is the best one to start with, though I am puzzled as to why some of her fans did not go for it.

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    2. We are living in politically dividing times and she didn't exactly take the middle road, did she?

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    3. Then again, she never has!

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  9. The only one I've read is The Hate U Give but I keep meaning to read a lot of the ones you listed!

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    1. That was a great story I thought. I hope you get to some of the others.

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