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Monday, January 7, 2019

A Book A Week: 2018 Books in Review

According to my Goodreads account, I read 52 books in 2018.  I keep up with all the books I read (and  listen to) on this platform as a way to keep track and occasionally share my thoughts. I love reading and talking about books so Goodreads is a consistent way to keep track because otherwise I would never remember all the books I've read. And I like lists. 

Since I like lists, I will do as I did this time last year and share my four-star and three-star books of the previous year. The four-star books really stood out as outstanding in their genre - mainly fiction with one nonfiction and several memoirs. The three-star books were really good books that I would recommend to a friend. So with no further ado, here are my four-star, or top favorite books read in 2018, beginning back last January:
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
The Floating World by C. Morgan Babst
News of the World by Paulette Jiles
Etta and Otto and Russell and James by Emma Hooper
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Still Writing:The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life by Dani Shapiro
When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice by Terry Tempst Williams
Priestdaddy: A Memoir by Patricia Lockwood
Warlight by Michael Ondaatje
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Transcription by Kate Atkinson
Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver
Becoming by Michelle Obama

Now for my three-star books read in 2018:
Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown
Notorious RBG: The Life and Time of Ruth Bade Ginsberg by Irin Carmon
The Children's Crusade by Ann Packer
Still Me by Jojo Moyes
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman
White Houses by Amy Bloom
Love and Ruin by Paula McLain
How to Walk Away by Katherine Center
Slow Motion by Dani Shapiro
Devotion: A Memoir by Dani Shapiro
Everything Happens for a Reason: And Other Lies I've Been Told by Kate Bowler
Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen by Jose Antonio Vargas
The Strays by Emily Bitto
Relativity by Antonio Hayes
Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
Educated by Tara Westover
The Unwitting by Ellen Feldman
Life Reimagined: The Science, Art, and Opportunity of Midlife by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
The Futilitarians: Our Year of Thinking, Drinking, Grieving and Reading by Anne Gisleson
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
A Three Dog Life by Abigail Thomas
Safekeeping: Some True Stories From a Life by Abigail Thomas

You can see I got on a memoir kick this year and have at least seven (or eight if you count Life Reimagined as memoir) on my three-star list and three on my four-star list. I just finished yet another memoir - Ordinary Light by Tracy K. Smith - but that will be on my 2019 list. I enjoy reading about real lives but I still love fiction best. Good novels transport me to places I've never been. And I do love travel. 

I've added links to my four-star books, but not the tree-stars. I wish I could write reviews of all my favorites, but that would take days. But if you follow my Goodreads account, you can see my quick thoughts on most of the books I read last year, including the ones I didn't list here because I ranked them below three stars. I try to write my thoughts just after finishing and rating a book. Don't worry I will continue to share my thoughts on books here at words + ideas. And you be sure to let me know what you are reading and enjoying. Happy new reading year!