Fiction Review: The Rent Collector

My neighborhood book group met this month to discuss a novel I'd never heard of before, The Rent Collector by Camron Wright. This fictional story about a real-life family in Cambodia garnered one of our highest ratings ever, and everyone in the group enjoyed it.

Ki Lim and his wife, Sang Ly, live at Stung Meachey, the largest garbage dump in Cambodia, located in the city of Phnom Penh. Their sixteen-month old baby, Nisay, is very ill, with chronic diarrhea and a poor appetite, making him lethargic and unable to keep food down. They have taken him to some of the clinics run by Western doctors nearby, and their medicine seems to work, but when he finishes it, his symptoms return. Ki Lim makes his living by sorting through trash and selling whatever is recyclable or using whatever is salvageable. It sounds like a tough existence, and it is, but Sang Ly has a positive attitude:

"I don't intend to portray the place  as miserable or entirely without joy. On the contrary - in spite of its hardships, there are slivers of time when life at the dump feels normal, almost beautiful. Pigs forage in the dirt lanes, children pick teams and play soccer, mothers and fathers banter about their day, babies are born, life presses on."

The rent collector at the dump is named Sopeap Sin, though most people just call her The Rent Collector or, behind her back, The Cow. She's an angry and bitter woman, but Sang Ly discovers an unexpected side to her. When she finds a children's picture book in the dump and brings it home for Nisay, Sopeap spots it when she comes for the rent, and her whole countenance changes. Sang Ly can see that Sopeap knows how to read - a rarity in Cambodia - and she tells her she can have the book if she will teach her how to read. Thus begins a series of lessons, first in literacy and then in literature, that change the lives of all involved.

The real-life backstory of this novel is just as fascinating as the fiction. Ki Lim, Sang Ly, and Nisay are a real family who really did live at Stung Meachey, and the details of their life there are true. The author's son made a documentary called River of Victory about the dump and its residents, and through that, the author came to know of the family. In fact, there are even real-life photos of them and the dump and its other residents at the back of the book (read the print book so you can see the full-color photos). I also learned a lot about Cambodia's history from this novel. The story of Sang Ly learning to read is the fictional story that Camron Wright built around the bones of facts. The passages about Sang Ly's reading lessons include literary excerpts from around the world and discussions between her and Sopeap about stories and their meaning, which any book lover will enjoy. Here, they talk about a Cinderella-like story from Cambodia, and its replication in every culture on earth:

"Sang Ly, the desire to believe, to look forward to better days, to want them, to expect them - it seems to be ingrained in our being. Whether we like it or not, hope is written so deeply into our hearts that we just can't help ourselves, no matter how hard we try otherwise."

The novel is filled with beautiful passages like that, and I tabbed many pages to transfer to my Quote Journal. Along the way, as they explore literature, Sopeap's story comes out, with plenty of unexpected twists and turns. This novel is a beautiful, moving story about life, hope, and the power of books, and I highly recommend it.

See this website for a video trailer of the documentary, River of Victory, plus photos and more information.

288 pages, Shadow Mountain

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

You can purchase the DVD of the documentary, River of Victory (which also includes a follow-up film, Finding Sang Ly, which follows the main character afterward) at Amazon - I just bought it for myself!



Listen to a sample of the audiobook of The Rent Collector.

You can purchase The Rent Collector from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

Or you can order The Rent Collector from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

TV Tuesday: The Rookie

We don't watch a lot of police dramas, but when we saw that Nathan Fillion was going to be in a new one called The Rookie this fall, we gave it a try. We loved Fillion in Castle - and of course, also in Firefly - and we weren't disappointed in his latest role. The Rookie is a cop show, yes, but with plenty of drama and humor as well as action.

Fillion plays John Nolan, a rookie cop who is 40 years old. His life recently fell apart when he and his longtime wife divorced after their son went to college, and John decided to do something completely different from the construction work he'd done all his career. He moved to LA, graduated from the Police Academy, and is now an official rookie (or "boot" as the experienced cops call them) with the LAPD. His fellow rookies are Lucy Chen, played by Melissa O'Neil (whom we enjoyed in Dark Matter), and Jackson West, played by Titus Makin, Jr, whose father is in charge of Internal Affairs. In each episode, each rookie is teamed up with an experienced officer, and the two of them go out on patrol and encounter a wide variety of situations, from motor vehicle violations to domestic situations to gun-filled drug deals. Sergeant Wade Grey, played by Richard T. Jones, oversees the patrol officers, and Captain Zoe Anderson, played by Mercedes Mason, is in charge of the whole department. No one else knows it (yet), but John and Lucy have been seeing each other.

This is not your typical gritty police drama. Though the officers often run into challenging situations and danger, there is a lightness and sense of humor that runs throughout the show and makes it a whole lot of fun. That's not to say it doesn't sometimes delve into serious issues - like one officer's wife who used to be in Vice and is now a drug addict on the streets or when John is involved in the shooting of a civilian - but it always tackles these difficult topics with warmth and humanity. If you've seen Fillion in anything else, you know he plays the goofy, wise-cracking guy often (and well), and you see some of that here, too, though with a serious desire to become a good cop and a layer of sensitivity underneath, especially when it comes to Lucy or his son. There are plenty of jokes about the 40-year old rookie, but it's not a one-joke show - there is gentle humor woven throughout. The combination of police action, interpersonal drama, and humor is just right, and we have been loving the show since its premier in the fall. In fact, our 24-year old son was home sick last week and looking for something to watch, so I suggested The Rookie, and he binged all of the episodes!

The Rookie is currently airing on ABC at 10 pm Eastern time, and I know that all 11 of its episodes so far, back to episode 1 (#12 airs tonight) are available On Demand because my son just watched them all last week! They are all also available for free on the ABC website. You can also purchase The Rookie on Amazon for $1.99 an episode or $34.99 for the first season (looks like it will be 20 episodes total).

It's Monday 1/28! What Are You Reading?

Super busy week last week! My husband was still away on a business trip to Germany, my older son moved back to his girlfriend's for spring semester mid-week, and I worked WAY too late each evening! When my husband is home, he and I have a relaxing evening routine that we both enjoy. I close the laptop by 7:30 pm and lie on the couch. He and I watch two TV shows together and have some herbal tea and a bit of dark chocolate. We turn the TV off at 9:30 and go up to bed, where we read for an hour before turning the light off at 10:30. This works out just right and helps me to unwind in the evening and get enough sleep. But without him here, I tend to keep working until 8 pm or later, then I'm exhausted (due to my chronic illness) and my mind is still "on" and I end up staying up too late reading, so I'm even more worn out the next day. It's a vicious cycle! So, it's nice to have him back now and be settling into our routine once more. Though I'm still staying up too late reading...

Here's what we've all been enjoying reading this past week:

• I am still reading True Enough by Stephen McCauley - because I needed something warm, fun, and funny after the excellent but difficult Being Mortal, and I knew Stephen would deliver! Last year, I read and loved his latest novel, My Ex-Life, and also got to interview him for Shelf Awareness and then meet him in person at Booktopia. He has a real talent for writing insightful but humorous stories about real life. Just what I needed! This novel is about a 40-year old wife, mother, and TV producer who is feeling dissatisfied with her life and a gay man who is feeling similarly unsettled and is working with her on a project. I'm enjoying it.
• On audio, I am listening to All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, a favorite author of mine. It's....very different. Someone on Facebook described it as surreal, and that says it all. I'm not even sure how to describe it! It's about a Mexican-American family who live in the Colorado desert in 1962 and can perform miracles. Pilgrims visit them in search of miracles, but there are very odd side effects. I'm not a huge fan of magical realism, and this is definitely that, but Stiefvater's writing talents are keeping me listening.
• My husband, Ken, is reading a paperback I gave him for Christmas: Edge by Jeffrey Deaver. Though we both love Deaver's Lincoln Rhymes series, this is a stand-alone novel, so we were intrigued by it. He did take it on his trip but didn't read much and was exhausted when he tried to read, so he started over at the beginning Saturday!
• Our son, Jamie, 24, is now reading the FINAL book 14 of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I was wrong when I said he finished the series with book 13 - there is one more, weighing in at a hefty 1168 pages! He loves this series and has been looking forward to the conclusion. He says this last book is wonderful and action-packed right from the first chapters.

Blog posts last week:

Favorite Movies Watched in 2018 - my annual roundup of my favorites & list of everything I watched, with reviews.

Nonfiction Review: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - a powerful, important book about illness, end of life, and dying.

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?

Nonfiction Review: Being Mortal

I was happy to hear that one of my book groups chose Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande as our January selection because it's a book I've been meaning to read since its release in 2014. This thoughtful book written by a surgeon about aging, serious illness, and dying is sometimes difficult to read but also very, very important. I learned a lot from it, and it opened my eyes about several topics related to end-of-life issues.

The author weaves together a variety of threads, all about mortality: what is taught to doctors in medical school (almost nothing); stories of his own or other doctor's sick, elderly, and dying patients; interviews and time spent with experts; and his own very painful and personal story of his father's long illness and death. He discusses in detail the way that the medical community today deals with serious illness, aging, and approaching death; for the most part, they seek to prolong life for as long as possible, even if that is not in the patient's best interests. Technology has perhaps outpaced humanity in this realm - just because we can artificially prolong life doesn't always mean we should - and the patient's wishes are often not taken into account. Gawande also delves into the subject of assisted living and nursing home care, which is an eye-opening discussion. Through visits, interviews, and research, he describes the current - mostly deplorable - state of these institutions. As depressing as some of those passages are, the author also searches for and finds many people and organizations who are working hard to change that status and highlights some of the most innovative and exciting developments in the field. Caregivers are not overlooked here; the challenges and difficulties facing close family members are explored as well. And, yes, he examines the difficult topic of death itself, with input from patients, doctors, and hospice workers on what happens currently and what should happen ideally. Woven throughout the narrative is his own story of his father's journey, from terminal diagnosis through increasing symptoms, the need for greater care, hospice, and finally, death.

This is often a difficult book to read, in part because, as seen in the huge turnout for my book group and extensive discussion we had, every reader has his or her own personal story: of a loved one's illness or aging, serious illness in oneself, and/or the difficult and prolonged death of someone close. For me, much of this book brought back painful memories of my dad's death from melanoma a few years ago. Though he was fortunate to stay in his home until his last week, and we were fortunate to have a full  - mostly good - year with him after his diagnosis, that last week in hospital hospice (which is nothing like the wonderful at-home hospice described in the book) was difficult and painful for all of us. In addition, I related to some passages about serious illness because, though I am not dying of cancer or some other degenerative disease, I am living with chronic illness, which has some similarities. Finally, my 93-year old father-in-law is currently in an independent living apartment but having more and more trouble moving around and approaching the day when he will need more care than we can provide. Our discussion in book group was interesting, engaging, and in-depth, and it seemed that everyone had their own story to tell. While some aspects of the book were depressing, to consider the poor state of institutions today and how patients' best interests are not always the first consideration, it was also hopeful to hear about some of the people trying to make things better and the innovations in nursing home care and hospice. All in all, though it is sometimes a difficult read, this is a powerful, thought-provoking, and important book that everyone should read, so that we can all help to make the world a better place for the sick, elderly, and dying - a group that every one of us will join one day.

263 pages, Metropolitan Books (Henry Holt & Co)

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Purchases from these links provide a small commission to me (pennies per purchase), to help offset the time I spend writing for this blog, at no extra cost to you.

Listen to a sample of the audio book.

You can purchase Being Mortal from an independent bookstore, either locally or online, here:

 

Or you can order Being Mortal from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.

Favorite Movies Watched in 2018

And....drumroll! Time for my annual recap of all the movies I watched this year, plus my picks for favorites. Note that not all of these movies were released in 2018; these are just the ones I watched last year.

I reviewed 22 movies last year, compared to 25 movies in 2017 (though I didn't have time to review every movie I saw). You can see the full list and genres below, with my favorites marked with *, but I only review movies that I like, so all of the movies listed below are worth watching. The only genre I didn't cover was documentaries, and I'd like to change that this year. I think 6 of the 22 movies were book adaptations. This was the Year of the Musical, with 3 excellent musicals (all of which I saw on the big screen!). In fact, I saw a lot more movies in theaters this year, so more of these are 2018 releases than usual for me.

You can see my full list of movie reviews, covering several years at the Movie Reviews tab.

And now, for my top picks - do I have to choose? Some of these are touch choices, so I'm going to make up some categories.

Best Suspense\Thriller

 A Quiet Place

We saw several excellent thrillers and suspense movies, but this one takes the prize for originality, acting, and searing tension - never has chewing popcorn sounded so loud!

Best Drama

 Lady Bird

Easy choice, with this original film that was tender, real, and funny with an outstanding cast.

Best Comedy 
Hello, My Name is Doris

Tough choice in this category, but Sally Fields is outstanding in this quirky, warm comedy about an older woman who gets a crush on a younger man - my friends and I all loved it.

Best Sci Fi/Fantasy
Ready Player One

My son, husband, and I all LOVED the book, and it was wonderful to see this unique, fun story come to life on screen - a visual treat!

Best Musical
Bohemian Rhapsody

 An almost-too-close-to-call tie with A Star Is Born, but I had a grin on my face the entire time I watched this one (except when I was crying and singing) - it helps that I am a huge Queen fan. Both movies are outstanding.

Best Family Movie
Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them

This is the original, not the sequel that came out this year, and my son, husband, and I really enjoyed the colorful, entertaining Harry Potter-related fantasy.

Best Thriller Comedies - a tie!
A Simple Favor

 Game Night

These two genre-bending movies combined plenty of suspense and thrills with lots of humor and were among my favorite movies watched in 2018, so I made up a new category for them!

What were your favorite movies watched in 2018?

All Movies Watched in 2018:
My favorites are marked with *, but I only review movies I enjoy, so all of these are worth a try:

Suspense/Thriller
How It Ends - suspenseful, action-packed, thoughtful apocalypse movie  
Ocean's 8 - all-female crew caper film
* A Quiet Place - captivating family drama plus super suspense and 100% quiet
Red Sparrow - twisty Russian spy thriller starring Jennifer Lawrence
* A Simple Favor - fun, twisty thriller with a great sense of humor
* Taking Lives - dark, twisty thriller about killer who takes on victims' identities


Drama
Every Day - unique teen love story
* Lady Bird - tender, realistic, funny coming-of-age story
Ricki and the Flash - fun, warm, musical, funny family drama


Comedy
* The Big Sick - warm, funny romcom based on a true story
* Game Night - unique thriller comedy with suspense and lots of laughs
* Hello, My Name is Doris - warm, funny movie starring Sally Fields
Trainwreck - light, funny, raunchy romcom
 
Sci Fi/Fantasy
Blade Runner - dark, classic sci fi thriller set in the future world of 2019!
* Extinction - sci fi action-packed thriller with family drama
Jurassic World - Jurassic Park sequel from 2015 - action, suspense, and thrills
* Ready Player One - exciting, fast-paced virtual adventure with loads of 80's pop culture


Musical 
* Bohemian Rhapsody - moving, powerful, joyful story of Queen
The Greatest Showman - entertaining musical about P.T. Barnum
* A Star Is Born - powerful musical with emotional depth & outstanding performances


Family 
* Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them (1st movie) -  unique, fun, creative fantasy

The Incredibles 2 - clever, funny, action-packed, and lots of fun



Documentary
none

It's Monday 1/21! What Are You Reading?

Wow, super busy week! I normally don't go out much in the evening because of my chronic illness - I am usually horizontal on the couch by 7:30 pm. But last week, I went out four times in the evenings!! Crazy, huh? My two book groups were back-to-back on Wed and Thur, and I met my son for dinner with our cousin who was visiting on Monday, to celebrate my son's birthday and then my son and I took my father-in-law out for dinner Friday night. My husband is out of town for a couple of weeks, so I haven't been cooking much! In spite of such a busy week, I still figured dinner out would be less taxing than cooking dinner for just the three of us on Friday night! During the days, I got groceries, ran errands, got a haircut, and made one more visit to the Genius Bar at Apple - so my laptop is all good now!

Despite all that running around, I managed to squeeze in some books - I tend to stay up way too late when my husband is away! Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

• I finished reading The Rent Collector by Camron Wright, a novel set in Cambodia, for my first book group. It's based on a true story about a husband, wife, and baby son who live at the largest garbage dump in Phnom Penh (with many other people). The author took this real-life family and imagined what might happen if the wife learned to read (in a country with a very high rate of illiteracy), and how that might affect them and the people around them. My entire book group agreed it's a wonderful book (and we rarely all agree!), filled with both sorrow and joy and the light of literature. It got one of our highest average ratings ever.
• Next, for my second book group, I read Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, which I just finished last night. It's a nonfiction book about aging, serious illness, death, and dying. Sounds like a cheery one, right? It was tough to read at times and brought back a lot of memories of my dad's death from cancer a few years ago, but it is also a very powerful, thought-provoking, and important book that everyone should read. The author, who is a surgeon, looks deeply into the state of care for the elderly, sick, and dying. Some of it is pretty depressing, but he also discusses some exciting changes happening in the realms of assisted living, nursing homes, and hospice. I feel much better-informed, which is important since my father-in-law is 93 and slowing down every day. We had an excellent discussion, with a huge turn-out in our book group.
• Today, I am going to start reading True Enough by Stephen McCauley - because I need something warm, fun, and funny after that last book, and I know Stephen will deliver! Last year, I read and loved his latest novel, My Ex-Life, and also got to interview him for Shelf Awareness and then meet him in person at Booktopia. He has a real talent for writing insightful but humorous stories about real life. Just what I need!
• I finished listening to a YA novel on audio, The Beautiful Lost by Luanne Rice. It's about a teen girl who's suffered from depression since her mother left and how she connects with a boy in her class who also lost his mother. The two of them go on a road trip from CT to Canada. In some ways, it's a teen romance (and road trip novel), but it also digs deeply into important issues like depression, suicide, abandonment, foster care, and more. I enjoyed it.
• Now, I have moved onto another YA novel on audio, All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater, a favorite author of mine. It's....very different so far. Someone on Facebook described it as surreal, and that fits. I'm not even sure how to describe it! It's about a Mexican-American family who live in the Colorado desert in 1962 and can perform miracles. Pilgrims visit them in search of miracles. I'm still at the beginning, so characters and plot are still developing.
• While he's away, my husband, Ken, is reading a long but lightweight paperback I gave him: Edge by Jeffrey Deaver. Though we both love Deaver's Lincoln Rhymes series, this is a stand-alone novel, so we were intrigued by it. I suspect he hasn't had a lot of time to read on this trip, though!
•  Our son, Jamie, 24, is now reading the FINAL book 14 of The Wheel of Time series, A Memory of Light by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson. I was wrong when I said he finished the series with book 13 - there is one more, weighing in at a hefty 1168 pages! He loves this series and has been looking forward to the conclusion.

Last week's blog posts:

Favorite TV Shows Reviewed in 2018 - my annual round-up, with LOTS of great shows to try!

Best Books Read in 2018 - and my annual round-up of books read and top picks

Saturday Snapshot: January Snow - pics from my neighborhood last week

Best Movies of 2018 to come this week, and my 2019 reading challenges...and then I REALLY need to get back to writing reviews - books I've read this month are piling up!

What Are You Reading Monday is hosted by Kathryn at Book Date, so head over and check out her blog and join the Monday fun! You can also participate in a kid/teen/YA version hosted by Unleashing Readers.

You can follow me on Twitter at @SueBookByBook or on Facebook on my blog's page.   

What are you and your family reading this week?  

Dinner out with my son and cousin

 

Saturday Snapshot: January Snow

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Melinda at A Web of Stories (same host as always but with a new blog - check it out!).

Since I've been feeling better, I have resumed my walks whenever the weather allows, so I have been taking some outdoor photos, too. We got a few inches of snow last week (unfortunately for me, just after my husband left on a 2-week business trip!), so it was very pretty, though a challenge for me to take care of. Now this huge storm is bearing down on us, but it looks like we will be getting mostly rain (which will freeze Sunday night when the temperatures drop below 10 degrees F!).

So, here are some photos of the fleeting winter beauty:

Woke to snow last Sunday

I love how the snow coats the tree branches

How'd that get in here? Go, Saints!

Sunshine and shadows on the snow

Pretty patterns from snow melting on the bushes

Fox tracks through our yard in the snow

Glowing morning light

Our house after the snow

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Best Books Read in 2018

I've been working on this post since last week because it turns out I read a LOT of books in 2018, and many of them were outstanding! I had to make some tough choices here to choose favorites. First, some stats and fun facts, then my top picks, and then lists of my Top 10 (or whatever) in each category. You can see a complete list, with links to review, of all the books I've red in recent years on my Book Reviews page.

Stats and Facts:

The numbers in ( ) are my 2017 stats.

Total Books Read in 2018 = 88 (84)

Fiction – 45 (43)

Nonfiction – 17 (12)

Graphic Novel/memoir – 11 (8)

Poetry – 1 (plus parts of 3)

Teen/YA – 15 (12)

Middle-Grade – 10 (17)

Audiobooks – 28 (26)

Note that some categories overlap. 

So, I read fewer middle-grade novels in 2018 but more of everything else! I was pretty surprised to see that I read 88 total - that number has steadily gone up in recent years, thanks in part to audio books and graphic novels/memoirs.

Of those 88 books:

Here, the number is the number of books and in the ( ) is the percent of total books.

Women Authors – 44 (50%) - 61% in 2017

Diverse books – 22 (25%) - 29% in 2017

From my own shelves – 33 (38%) - 33% in 2017

These kind of surprised me - I thought I'd read more diverse books, I think because the ones I read had such an emotional impact on me.

Best of the Best:
These were difficult (sometimes impossible!) choices to make, with so many excellent books to choose from, so be sure to check out my Top lists below.

Best Novel

The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell 

Best Nonfiction
Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley

 

Best Poetry

Celebrations by Maya Angelou

(granted, it was the ONLY poetry book I read in full! The others were complete collected works that I dipped in and out of, but Angelou is my favorite, nonetheless)

 

Best Graphic Novel/Memoir/Nonfiction

  Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees by Olivier Kugler 

Best Teen/YA

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

Best Middle-Grade

Refugee by Alan Gratz

Best Audio Book

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Top Ten (or Top Whatever) Lists:

(each list is in no particular order and some books appear on more than one list)

Top 10 Adult Fiction  

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owen
The Reason You're Alive by Matthew Quick 
An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
America's First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie 
American War by Omar El Akkad  

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

Only Child by Rhiannon Navin

She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper

Top 10 Nonfiction

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann
Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman and David Polonsky (illustrator)

Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees by Olivier Kugler

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

Gift From the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

On Two Feet and Wings by Abbas Kazerooni

Happiness Is a Choice You Make by John Leland

Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley 

The Lost Girls: Three Friends. Four Continents. One Unconventional Detour Around the World, by Jennifer Baggett, Holly C. Corbett, and Amanda Pressner 

The Light Years by Chris Rush

Top 5 Graphic Novels/Memoirs

Swing It, Sunny! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm

Anne Frank's Diary: The Graphic Adaptation by Ari Folman and David Polonsky (illustrator)

The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo by Drew Weing

Escaping Wars and Waves: Encounters with Syrian Refugees by Olivier Kugler
Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka 

Top 5 Teen/YA

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera
Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
  Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett Krosoczka 

Top 4 Middle-Grade

Swing It, Sunny! by Jennifer L. Holm & Matthew Holm
Refugee by Alan Gratz

City of Ghosts by Victoria Schwab

The Creepy Case Files of Margo Maloo by Drew Weing 

Top 10 Audio Books

A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy
She Rides Shotgun by Jordan Harper
Refugee by Alan Gratz

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
The Reason You're Alive by Matthew Quick
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens

Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

On Two Feet and Wings by Abbas Kazerooni
Look Alive Out There by Sloane Crosley

Wow, it was an outstanding reading year! What were YOUR favorite books read in 2018? Tell me in the comments below and/or leave a link to your own 2018 summary.