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.

Favorite TV Shows Reviewed in 2018

It was another AMAZING year for TV shows! There is just SO much available now, between streaming services, cable channels, and networks, that it's impossible to keep up with all the amazing shows - but we gave it our best! In fact, our movie viewing has fallen off in recent years because we are watching so much more TV.

The full list of TV reviews I wrote this year (22 in all) is included below, and these have all been added to my TV Reviews tab (along with the ones previously reviewed). They are sorted by genre. Making this list reminded me of some great shows that I had forgotten about!

As usual, we watched a mix of genres and on a wide variety of platforms. We still watch most of our shows On Demand through our cable service (though all are available elsewhere), but many of them are continued from previous seasons (so you can find their reviews in the TV Reviews tab).

Here are a few superlatives from my 2018 reviews to whet your appetite (click the links to see the reviews) - these were painful choices to make in some cases because there were so many excellent shows (so I sometimes cheated a bit and declared a tie). Just to be clear, I only write reviews of shows that I enjoy, so everything on the list at the end is worth trying!

Best Comedy

The Letdown (N) - Netflix

(a hilarious Australian show about being a new parent)

Best Drama

For the People (A, C, I, H?) - ABC

(a new legal drama by Shonda Rhimes)

Best Dramedy

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (A) - Amazon Original

(tough call but it has everything & even my husband is watching it now)

Best Crime/Mystery/Thriller  

 American Gothic (A, CBS) - CBS (thriller with dark humor)

Killing Eve (A, C, I) - BBC America (straight-up thriller - outstanding)

 

 Best Sci Fi

 11/22/63 (A, H) - Hulu 

(it's also a Drama & Historical, so also Best Sci Fi for those who don't watch sci fi)

 

 

All TV Shows Reviewed in 2018
 
In addition to the reviews listed below, also check out my post, When Good Shows Get Cancelled, a round-up of One-Season Wonders still worth watching!

KEY: Available on:

A = Amazon

C = Cable and/or Cable On Demand

CBS = CBS All Access 

H = Hulu

I = On network’s own website

N = Netflix

Note that Amazon Prime original shows are available free only to Amazon Prime members (just like Netflix or Hulu), but some shows are available on Amazon (A) to anyone for a fee.

Most TV shows are also available on DVD (to buy or borrow from your library), which works well if you want to see a show in a streaming service that you don't subscribe to. That's how we watched 11/22/63.

Comedy
The Letdown (N) - Netflix
Splitting Up Together (C, I) - ABC


Drama
Alias Grace (N) - Netflix
Breaking Bad (N) - AMC
For the People (A, C, I, H?) - ABC
The Resident (A, C, I) - FOX
Rise (A, C, I) - NBC



Dramedy (both Comedy & Drama)
Forever (A) - Amazon Original
Glow (N) - Netflix
Good Girls (A, C, I) - NBC
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (A) - Amazon Original


Crime/Mystery/Thriller
The Alienist (A, C, I) - TNT
American Gothic (A, CBS) - CBS
Goliath (A) - Amazon Original
Instinct (A, C, I) - CBS (also Dramedy)
Jack Ryan (A) - Amazon Original
Killing Eve (A, C, I) - BBC America
Safe (N) - Netflix
You (A, C, I) - Lifetime



Sci Fi
11/22/63 (A, H) - Hulu (also Drama & Historical)
The Crossing (A, C, I) - ABC
The X-Files (A, C, I) - FOX

     

It's Monday 1/14! What Are You Reading?

Oh, wow, when I wrote here a week ago that I had a few problems setting up my new laptop, I never imagined that would grow to take over my entire week!! First, though my data transferred to the new MacBook Pro, a bunch of my Mailboxes (folders) in Mail disappeared. Then, I could no longer send any e-mail, and then I kept losing my internet connection (even with my husband and son right next to me having no problems). I spent 3+ hours online with Apple Help (no help), countless hours on my own researching online (when I could get online!) and trying to fix things myself, and finally 90 minutes at the Genius Bar Friday evening. Those guys really earn their moniker of Genius! They kept restoring my Mailboxes and then we'd restart the laptop and they'd be gone again, but they never get frustrated or give up - they love the challenge. Saturday morning, I was totally exhausted, but I had a (mostly) working laptop again - I did discover my Sent folder is now missing from Mail, so I am headed back to the Genius Bar again this week. My younger son went to St. Louis this weekend for a leadership conference for his business fraternity...and turned 21! And my husband headed to Germany for a 2-week business trip. Meanwhile, our older son moved back home for a few weeks while his girlfriend is at her parents' house for winter break. So, it's been a revolving door here!

(P.S. All that computer stuff meant I had neither the access nor the time to visit blogs last week - sorry! Hope to get around to visit this week.)

Of course, through all of this, we love our books, and reading provides a welcome respite from all the craziness. Here's what we've all been reading this past week:

• I finished reading - and absolutely loved! - Finding Dorothy by Elizabeth Letts. It's based on the true story of how Maud, the wife of the late L. Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, got involved as a consultant (she basically forced her way in!) on the famous movie adaptation in 1939. There are all kinds of entertaining details about the actors and the production, and especially about 15-year old Judy Garland in the lead role, but the novel also goes back to Maud's own childhood in New York State (where I grew up) and recounts her experiences with a strong, suffragette mother (she called Susan B. Anthony "Auntie Susan"), how she met Frank, and her own experiences as a mother. It's a delightful, fascinating book that was great fun to review (it comes out February 12).
• Next, more than a little behind, I started the first of two books for two different book group meetings this week! First up is The Rent Collector by Camron Wright, a novel set in Cambodia. 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, and how that might affect them and the people around them. It's wonderful so far, filled with both sorrow and joy and the light of literature.
• On audio, I finished listening to a middle-grade book, The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson. It's the story of a young girl named Candice in South Carolina whose recently deceased Grandma leaves behind a puzzle for her to solve that could lead to a fortune. Candice befriends the boy across the street who loves to read as much as she does, and the two of them learn about the town's history while following the clues. It's a wonderful mix of mystery and history, and I enjoyed it very much.
• Now, I am 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. I didn't realize it was a road trip novel when I started it, so I am enjoying it!
• My husband, Ken, finished one of his Christmas gifts from our son, Past Tense by Lee Child, the latest Jack Reacher novel. This is his favorite series and his favorite author, so he loved it and easily finished it before his trip.
• Now, while he's away, Ken is reading a long but lightweight paperback I put in his stocking, 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 won't have 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.

Blog posts from last week - not much time for blogging, though I am working on my 2018 Best of posts - 

Fiction Review: Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich - a beautiful, warm novel with a bleak dystopian/apocalyptic setting

My Summary of Books Read in December - a good end to a great reading year!

2018 Reading Challenges Wrap-Up - see how I did on my 2018 challenges

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?  

Go, Saints! I think with last night's win, we are headed for the Superbowl!