Reading 2018: A Retrospective

 For 2018, I set myself a reading goal, tracked by Goodreads to keep me accountable: 65 books.
 
Maybe I aimed too low, or maybe I listened to a whole lot of audiobooks on my commute or while I was weeding in the backyard or during the four weeks I spent with my leg elevated and in a giant brace from my crotch to my ankle, but my grand total for 2018 is 103 books.
 
Not saying this is some kind of record—I follow people on Goodreads who seem to read a book or two a day, and THIS IS THE LIFE I ASPIRE TO, but it was a lot for me.
 
(Also, I set myself a goal to read more non-fiction, and there are 23 non-fiction books on this list—not bad. I put an asterisk next to those titles.)
 
So what did I read in 2018? Fortunately, due to the magic of the internets, I have a complete list (presented here  in reverse chronological order with annotations).

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Currently reading: Lab Girl by Hope Jahren and The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne
 
103. Picnic at Hanging Rock by Joan Lindsey
102. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah (My second read, after The Nightingale, by KH and I’m convinced she’s just a darn good storyteller.)
101. Then She Was Gone by Lisa Jewell (I’ll read anything she writes.)
100. Visitation Street by Ivy Pochada
99. The Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
98. The Twelve-Mile Straight by Eleanor Henderson
97. The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine
96. Cut and Run by Mary Burton
95. In-Between Days by Andrew Porter
94. November Road by Lou Berney (I have a writer crush on Lou Berney. Shhh.)

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92. The Sixth Extinction* by Elizabeth Kolbert
91. The Good Goodbye by Carla Buckley (Gripping—a surprise for me.)
90. Simon vs. the Homosapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
89. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward (A family on the brink of Katrina. Heartbreaking.)
88. A Death in the Small Hours by Charles Finch
87. True Crime Addict* by James Renne (File under: A cautionary tale.)
86. Maybe in Another Life by Taylor Jenkins Reid
85. Half Moon Bay by Alice LaPlante
84. A Well-Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler (Historical fiction from the author of one of my favorite historical fictions ever, Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.)
83. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

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82. Blind Your Ponies by Stanley Gordon West (Please immediately buy this for all the sports-loving or small-town loving—or both—people in your life. Thank you.)
81. The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily J. Danforth (Recommended by a friend who grew up in Miles City. Such a good story.)
80. The Girl Who Wrote in Silk by Kelli Estes
79. Her Secret Son by Hannah Mary McKinnon (Coming soon! Don’t miss this one.)
78. The Alice Network by Kate Quinn (I somehow don’t read a lot of historical fiction, but this had me captivated from the first page.)
77. A Little Bird Told Me by Marianne Holmes
76. What I Was by Meg Rosoff (Brief but devastating coming of age book.)
75. Trust Me by Hank Philippi Ryan
74. The Third Wife by Lisa Jewell
73. Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier (And now I know why that’s a classic.)
72. Less by Andrew Sean Greer (Omg. Loved it.)
71. Clock Without Hands by Carson McCullers (One of my all-time favorite books is The Heart is a Lonely Hunter by CM.)

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70. Bring Me Back by B.A. Paris
69. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal (A surprise hit for me. Charming.)
68. Providence by Caroline Kepnes (Love Lovecraft? This is for you.)
67. Black Water by Louise Doughty
66. Love and Ruin by Paula McLain (What if we didn’t think of Hemingway’s wives as Hemingway’s wives, but recognized them for their own accomplishments? Martha Gelhorn was an amazing woman.)
65. Bluebird, Bluebird by Attica Locke
64. Everything that Follows by Meg Little Reilly
63. Sin & Syntax* by Constance Hale (If you love a good grammar joke, this is for you.)
62. Three Days Missing by Kimberly Belle (Intense thriller, well-developed characters.)
61. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Powerful in every way.)
60. An Excess Male by Maggie Shen King (Gets the originality award, for sure. In a China where the one-child policy has created a nation of excess males, women take on multiple husbands.)

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59. Educated* by Tara Westover (Like the rest of the world, I recommend this one.)
58. After the Eclipse: A Mother’s Murder, a Daughter’s Search* by Sarah Perry
57. Killers of the Flower Moon* by David Grann (Just… wow. Revealed a segment of American history of which I have been completely ignorant, and I thought I was aware of how horribly we treated native people.)
56. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
55. Tracks* by Robyn Davidson
54. The Search for the Green River Killer* by Carlton Smith
53. The Murder Stone by Louise Penny (Depending on who you ask, I either stole this book from a charming hotel in Wales or I traded one of my husband’s books for it. Ultimately unimportant. Another winner from Louise Penny!)
52. Snow Blind by Ragnar Jonasson (I bought this at a little shop in Reykjavik. Made me glad I wasn’t visiting in the winter.)
51. This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel (Just do yourself a favor and read it.)
50. Ohio by Stephen Markley (Fantastic characterization, somewhat depressing. As an Ohio native, I had to tune in.)

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49. Evicted* by Matthew Desmond (I ended up respecting the heck of out of this book and the research that went into it, and I’m teaching it this semester, too.)
48. Idaho by Emily Ruskovich
47. Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent (Love a messed-up family and things buried in the backyard? This is your story!)
46. A Burial at Sea by Charles Finch (I remember that I listened to this whilst painting my hallway. It’s a lovely shade of gray.)
45. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
44. My Brilliant Friend by Elena Ferrante (Late to the party on this one, but I enjoyed it.)
43. The Hemingses of Monticello* by Annette Gordon-Reed (It literally took me months to read this book, especially because I kept going to the footnotes and then to lesser scholarly sources like Wikipedia to get more.)
42. The Rules Do Not Apply* by Ariel Levy
41. A Stranger in Mayfair by Charles Finch
40. Not that I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser
39. Every Note Played by Lisa Genova (Powerful look at living with/caring for a person with ALS.)
38. Dispatches from Pluto* by Richard Grant (There was a moment in this book when the author and his girlfriend are spending their first night in their new/old house miles from anything on the Mississippi delta where this was a legit nightmare.)
37. Birds of Wonder by Cynthia Robinson
36. The Brightest Sun by Adrienne Benson
35. Tangerine by Christina Mangan (Worth the hype? I say yes.)

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34. The Ice House by Laura Lee Smith (I’m calling this the most surprising book on my list, because I actually picked it up and abandoned it for some time before giving it another go, and oh. That characterization. It’s so good.)
33. The Fleet Street Murders by Charles Finch
32. Men We Reaped* by Jesmyn Ward (Holy heartbreak. What in the world are we doing to our young black men?)
31. Beautifully Cruel* by M. Williams Phelps
30. My Name is Venus Black by Heather Lloyd
29. I Liked My Life by Abby Fabiaschi (I was mad at the narrator for the first 85% of the book, and then thought the whole thing was genius.)
28. Gods of Howl Mountain by Taylor Brown. (Just a damn good story. Brown did an amazing job with the setting here, and at the end, I felt like I knew this place like the back of my hand.)
27. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark* by Michelle McNamara (Hands down the most anticipated book of the year for me, and one that sent me down an online rabbit hole to find everything I could about the East Area Rapist who by the way was caught shortly after this book’s release.)
26. Nomadland* by Jessica Bruder (Fascinating and horrifying. Note to self: start putting more money toward retirement. Also: Don’t get sick. Don’t lose home. Don’t work for Amazon.)

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25. A Beautiful Blue Death by Charles Finch
24. The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian (So good. Bohjalian’s morally compromised narrator had me cringing at times, but in a good way. Not sure how that makes sense… so just go ahead and read the book.)
23. The Queen of Hearts by Kimmery Martin (I like my medical dramas with smart and successful women, and if you do, too, here’s your book.)
22. Girl at the End of the World* by Elizabeth Esther
21. The Partly Cloudy Patriot* by Sarah Vowell
20. The Woman in the Water by Charles Finch
19. Rust & Stardust by T. Greenwood (Did you know Lolita was based on a true story? Wowza.)
18. The Michigan Murders* by Edward Keyes (The cover of this book is the most ridiculous thing ever, and for an unknown reason the author changed the name of real people including the murderer, which can clearly be googled… but I was still hooked on the story.)
17. The September Society by Charles Finch (Love affair with Charles Finch/Charles Lennox, MP and detective, began in 2018 and will continue in 2019.)
16. Far From the Tree by Robin Benway (Young adult! I loved it.)

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15. Six Stories by Matt Wesolowski
14. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones (So good.)
13. Man’s Search for Meaning* by Viktor E. Frankel
12. Force of Nature by Jane Harper (A disappointment for me after The Dry, but rooting for #3.)
11. Just Mercy* by Bryan Stevenson (Want to get really mad? Read this book. Have a friend who thinks racism is dead? Buy her this book.)
10. Elmet by Fiona Mozley
9. Dare Me by Megan Abbott (Wowza.)
8. Population 485* by Michael Perry (A couple friends of mine have recommended Perry for years, and I’m a slug for not getting to him sooner. Small town but universal, quirky and big-hearted.)
7. Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates (Disturbing. Good.)
6. Why Be Happy When You Could be Normal?* by Jeannette Winterson
5. The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir* by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich (This book was everything. Is it weird that it reminded me of a true crime podcast? Or that I hold true crime podcasts to the standard of TFOAB?)
4. Anatomy of a Scandal by Sarah Vaughan
3. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid
2. The Dry by Jane Harper. (OMG. Loved this. Lent it to Mom & sis immediately afterwards.)
1. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (This was the first time I’d read anything by TJR, and boy did I fall hard. I read another later in 2018, and have an ARC of Daisy Jones and the Six in the hopper.)

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