Monday, December 31, 2018

Favorite books read in 2018


The feature of my reading habits this year seems to be re-reading.   Even though there are a thousand books on my “to read” list, re-reading is great.


The best fiction I read (for the first time) in 2018
Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures, text by Kate DiCamillo; illustrations by K.G. Campbell.  © 2013. 

A Christmas Memory, by Truman Capote. © 1956. Actually three short memoirs. 

On The River (Bassville Stories Book 2) by Melissa Westemeier © 2018.

This is How it Always Is, by Laurie Frankel © 2017. 

A Hatful of Sky, by Terry Pratchett. © 2004. Young Adult novel. 



The best non-fiction I read (for the first time) in 2018
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, by Bryan Stevenson.  © 2014.

Letter from a Birmingham Jail, by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., 16 April 1963.  This is a 13-page letter, not a book.

The Future Is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia, by Masha Gessen. © 2017.

Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela
by Nelson Mandela.  © 1994. 



Books I re-read in 2018
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte © 1847 under the pen name Currer Bell.

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.

The President’s Hat, by Antoine Laurain.  © 2013

Far from the Madding Crowd, by Thomas Hardy.  1874.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling.  © 1997 (or 1998 in US). 

Joel (The Bible).  © 9th to 5th Century BCE.  Features many locusts.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, by J.K. Rowling, published in the UK on 2 July 1998 and in the US on 2 June 1999.



Least favorite
Usually if a book falls in this category I am unlikely to finish it, so it never goes on my list of First Lines.  In this case, there were two that I finished, although I did not enjoy reading them.

Skipping Christmas: A Novel, by John Grisham. Quite annoying.   I have no reason for why I actually finished reading it.

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles. © 2016.  I know, I know.   Everyone else in the world enjoyed this book.  I just couldn’t get into it.  It was exciting at the end, though.  I read it for book club.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

First, thank you for including me on that list!
Second, I read The President's Hat a couple years ago and I did enjoy it so much. I wonder if he wrote another book. I'd read it in a heartbeat.
Third, have you read Children of Blood and Bone? It's YA fantasy genre, like Black Panther meets Harry Potter. Pretty marvelous.

Bibliomama said...

I started allowing myself to reread a few years ago after many years of feeling so driven to forge ahead with my endless reading list (which I realize everyone has) that I couldn't bear to take the time. I loved All the Light We Cannot See, but I haven't read many of these - will check them out. Happy new year!

Aileen said...

One the River is on my list, but I haven't read it yet. Looking forward to it though!