I don’t keep lists or rate things in Goodreads (I know, I know, I should, but it seems like writing work and I try to save my creativity for my own stuff). The only reason I know roughly how many books I read this year is because much of my reading comes via the Toronto Public Library (the largest neighbourhood-based library system in the world – yay us!) and they kindly maintain a history attached to your account.
I borrowed 137 books in 2018. Throw in another 10 to 15 physical books I read and that puts me at over 140 books.
In reviewing the list, what surprised me is how much non-fiction I read (one of my goals) and how many of my favorite books of the year fall into that category. My reading was triggered by reviews, by Twitter (check out the historians on Twitter and you’ll never lack for things to read), by Lapham’s Quarterly and the related World in Time podcast, by the Ken Burns documentary on The Vietnam War, by conversations with friends, and by the craziness in the political world to the south.
Non-Fiction I read and blathered on to other people about in 2018
Praire Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser
Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
Clothes Clothes Clothes Music Music Music Boys Boys Boys by Viv Albertine
To Throw Away Unopened by Viv Albertine
Bedsit Disco Queen by Tracy Thorn
Beautiful Scars by Tom Wilson
My Own Devices by Dessa
(Note: more information on the five music-related titles above can be found in earlier posts)
The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam
The Things they Carried by Tim O’Brien
Dopesick by Beth Macy
Blood at the Root by Patrick Phillips
In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi
One Nation under God by Kevin Kruse
The Unwomanly Art of War by Svetlana Alexievich
The Silk Roads by Peter Frankopan
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
On the fiction front, I read a lot, enjoyed much of it, only bailed completely on one book but found it much harder to select things that truly left an impact.
Fiction I read and found memorable in 2018
The Bone Mother by David Demchuk
The Machineries of Empire series by Yoon Ha Lee
The Amateurs by Liz Harmer
The Cabin at the End of the World and Disappearance at Devil’s Rock by Paul Tremblay
The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford
Bannerless by Carrie Vaughan
The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series by Theodora Goss
Dreadful Young Ladies and other stories by Kelly Barnhill
The Only Harmless Great Thing by Bo Bolander
Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Jane, Unlimited by Kristin Cashore
All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage
Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
The Obelisk Gate and The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin
There you go. And yes, I do know that I did not provide links for these.
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