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Best Books 2018
Dec. 17th, 2018 03:11 pmThis year I've struggled to read as much as I had for the past several years, and also I haven't had as many intense emotional reactions to books. I want to grab onto this end of the year moment to revisit books I've really enjoyed and whip up some of those feelings, and hopefully give them as recs to you few and stalwart as well.
Side note: I've read a couple books by friends this year but their absence from this list doesn't mean anything, as I just prefer not to offer public opinions of books whose authors I know personally.
2018 FAVORITES, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF READING.
Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig
At the end of 2017 I read Matt Haig's novel How to Stop Time, which is a gently emotional book about a 400-year-old man searching for his daughter. I liked it so much that I sought out his earlier memoir of suicidal anxiety/depression. It's the best book I've ever read about mental illness, and while I don't share all his experiences, this book is more in line with my experiences and opinions than anything else I've read. He's a beautiful writer, and good on Twitter, too. Note to self: you should probably have reread this book at some point during the summer when things were very bad. Be more resourceful.
Contact - Carl Sagan
I think I was the only person in book club (which I've since left, but not because of their opinions) who really adored this book. It's one of Wyn's favorites of all time, and I loved it so so so much. It made my heart bigger and my mind broader. The primary difference between my reading and Wyn's is that I think there's an answer to "Where is God?" in the conclusion, and Wyn does not. I felt absolutely breathless for hundreds of pages. I would love to reread this book a thousand times.
The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
When it got the National Book Award I howled with joy. I've heard her twice in person performing poems from this book (a YA novel in verse) and it's one of the most captivating things I've ever experienced. Poet X has an incredibly well drawn protagonist, struggling to find her self and her place and often coming into sharp conflict with her very traditional mother. It's Acevedo's first book but you can see her years of slam experience on the page. If you can listen on audiobook, she reads it herself and it's breathtakingly good. Just phenomenal.
Blood Water Paint - Joy McCullough
Two YA novels in verse in a row--and usually I only like about one per year! This is historical fiction, about the painter Artemisia Gentileschi and the rape that prompted a number of her most famous paintings, including Judith and Holophernes. This book is ferocious and delicate and heartstopping and incredible. It's a killer to try and handsell at the store but I want it to sell so much because it's just pitch perfect--so much of it isn't about the rapist at all but about the stories her mother told her, and the strength of women. Reading it felt like being given a gift, or a blessing from a saint.
The Oracle Year - Charles Soule
This book is so silly, you guys, it is about a man who wakes up knowing a bunch of specific things that will happen in the future and then he and his best pal try to decide what to do about that. Telling people that he can do this (even anonymously) turns out to be a horrible idea, but he didn't see that coming. Things obviously get messy, but this is a gentlehearted book and the stakes being potentially high doesn't make the book brutal. All I want in this world are for the protagonist, his best friend, and his best friend's wife to be in a loving poly triad. Isn't that what I want out of everything? You can definitely feel the comics background of Soule in every single page.
Front Desk - Kelly Yang
One of two realistic middle grade books I read this year that I have absolutely no complaints about at all. This wonderful book is based on the author's own experiences, and follows a Chinese-American girl and her immigrant parents as they take on the job of caretakers for a hotel. They're in a tough spot and the experience is NOT the kind of idyllic, adorable rosy-cheeked adventure that little white children in a 1950s kids' book would have. It's about finding community and safety when people don't want you to have that. It's charming and clear-eyed and very well written. I can't wait to read her next book.
Merci Suarez Changes Gears - Meg Medina
The other perfect middle grade I read this year! Merci is the most complicated MG character I've read in years, allowed to have more than one interest and more than one problem. From her grandpa's worsening memory to her expensive school (she has a scholarship) to her family's house painting business to her love of sports and bicycles, Merci is a complete person, and Medina doesn't drop a single thread. This is a perfect book for readers who crave something their teeth will sink into, and I think I'll finally read Medina's more alarming YA novel BURN BABY BURN just because I loved this so much.
How to Be a Good Creature - Sy Montgomery
I've always thought I wasn't a nonfiction reader but I think I am, as long as I'm reading easy-consumption science OR NATURE MEMOIRS. I haven't read any of Sy Montgomery's books before this one but I certainly will now. These thirteen vignettes on various animals she's encountered utterly lulled me, and the book went straight on my shelf of similarly themed works, to bolster me on future bad days. The illustrations are pretty, too. Special note: I met Sy at a conference and we learned that Patti--the daughter of one half of the couple that have lived in the family Vermont house for 25 years--is a mutual friend, and that each of has, on her property, carried baby possums on our heads.
These were good books. May there be many more in 2019.
Side note: I've read a couple books by friends this year but their absence from this list doesn't mean anything, as I just prefer not to offer public opinions of books whose authors I know personally.
2018 FAVORITES, IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER OF READING.
Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig
At the end of 2017 I read Matt Haig's novel How to Stop Time, which is a gently emotional book about a 400-year-old man searching for his daughter. I liked it so much that I sought out his earlier memoir of suicidal anxiety/depression. It's the best book I've ever read about mental illness, and while I don't share all his experiences, this book is more in line with my experiences and opinions than anything else I've read. He's a beautiful writer, and good on Twitter, too. Note to self: you should probably have reread this book at some point during the summer when things were very bad. Be more resourceful.
Contact - Carl Sagan
I think I was the only person in book club (which I've since left, but not because of their opinions) who really adored this book. It's one of Wyn's favorites of all time, and I loved it so so so much. It made my heart bigger and my mind broader. The primary difference between my reading and Wyn's is that I think there's an answer to "Where is God?" in the conclusion, and Wyn does not. I felt absolutely breathless for hundreds of pages. I would love to reread this book a thousand times.
The Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
When it got the National Book Award I howled with joy. I've heard her twice in person performing poems from this book (a YA novel in verse) and it's one of the most captivating things I've ever experienced. Poet X has an incredibly well drawn protagonist, struggling to find her self and her place and often coming into sharp conflict with her very traditional mother. It's Acevedo's first book but you can see her years of slam experience on the page. If you can listen on audiobook, she reads it herself and it's breathtakingly good. Just phenomenal.
Blood Water Paint - Joy McCullough
Two YA novels in verse in a row--and usually I only like about one per year! This is historical fiction, about the painter Artemisia Gentileschi and the rape that prompted a number of her most famous paintings, including Judith and Holophernes. This book is ferocious and delicate and heartstopping and incredible. It's a killer to try and handsell at the store but I want it to sell so much because it's just pitch perfect--so much of it isn't about the rapist at all but about the stories her mother told her, and the strength of women. Reading it felt like being given a gift, or a blessing from a saint.
The Oracle Year - Charles Soule
This book is so silly, you guys, it is about a man who wakes up knowing a bunch of specific things that will happen in the future and then he and his best pal try to decide what to do about that. Telling people that he can do this (even anonymously) turns out to be a horrible idea, but he didn't see that coming. Things obviously get messy, but this is a gentlehearted book and the stakes being potentially high doesn't make the book brutal. All I want in this world are for the protagonist, his best friend, and his best friend's wife to be in a loving poly triad. Isn't that what I want out of everything? You can definitely feel the comics background of Soule in every single page.
Front Desk - Kelly Yang
One of two realistic middle grade books I read this year that I have absolutely no complaints about at all. This wonderful book is based on the author's own experiences, and follows a Chinese-American girl and her immigrant parents as they take on the job of caretakers for a hotel. They're in a tough spot and the experience is NOT the kind of idyllic, adorable rosy-cheeked adventure that little white children in a 1950s kids' book would have. It's about finding community and safety when people don't want you to have that. It's charming and clear-eyed and very well written. I can't wait to read her next book.
Merci Suarez Changes Gears - Meg Medina
The other perfect middle grade I read this year! Merci is the most complicated MG character I've read in years, allowed to have more than one interest and more than one problem. From her grandpa's worsening memory to her expensive school (she has a scholarship) to her family's house painting business to her love of sports and bicycles, Merci is a complete person, and Medina doesn't drop a single thread. This is a perfect book for readers who crave something their teeth will sink into, and I think I'll finally read Medina's more alarming YA novel BURN BABY BURN just because I loved this so much.
How to Be a Good Creature - Sy Montgomery
I've always thought I wasn't a nonfiction reader but I think I am, as long as I'm reading easy-consumption science OR NATURE MEMOIRS. I haven't read any of Sy Montgomery's books before this one but I certainly will now. These thirteen vignettes on various animals she's encountered utterly lulled me, and the book went straight on my shelf of similarly themed works, to bolster me on future bad days. The illustrations are pretty, too. Special note: I met Sy at a conference and we learned that Patti--the daughter of one half of the couple that have lived in the family Vermont house for 25 years--is a mutual friend, and that each of has, on her property, carried baby possums on our heads.
These were good books. May there be many more in 2019.
