2018 was an incredible reading year for me!
I am a firm believer in the saying that reading begets reading. That is a saying, right??
For the last several years I’ve set a reading goal and participated in the Goodreads’ Reading Challenge. Each year I’ve read more than the year before.
This year I set a goal to read 40 books and I surpassed it by reading a total of 63 books this year!! I am so pleased with that success and overall very happy with my reading life right now.
For the past couple of years I’ve posted a list of all the books I read in that year, but since that list is pretty long this year, I’m going to list my top ten books for you. If you want to see all the books that I’m reading, you can follow me on Goodreads.
Here are the top ten books that I read in 2018 (in no particular order):
I Was Anastasia by Ariel Lawhon
In an enthralling new feat of historical suspense, Ariel Lawhon unravels the extraordinary twists and turns in Anna Anderson’s 50-year battle to be recognized as Anastasia Romanov. Is she the Russian Grand Duchess, a beloved daughter and revered icon, or is she an imposter, the thief of another woman’s legacy?
Countless others have rendered their verdict. Now it is your turn.
Educated by Tara Westover
Goodreads Summary:
An unforgettable memoir in the tradition of The Glass Castle about a young girl
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
Goodreads Summary:
In this unforgettable portrait of human frailty and resilience, Kristin Hannah reveals the indomitable character of the modern American pioneer and the spirit of a vanishing Alaska?a place of incomparable beauty and danger. The Great Alone is a daring, beautiful, stay-up-all-night story about love and loss, the fight for survival, and the wildness that lives in both man and nature.
Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
Goodreads Summary:
For years, rumors of the “Marsh Girl” have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark, the so-called Marsh Girl. But Kya is not what they say. Sensitive and intelligent, she has survived for years alone in the marsh that she calls home, finding friends in the gulls and lessons in the sand. Then the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. When two young men from town become intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new life–until the unthinkable happens.
A Well Behaved Woman by Therese Anne Fowler
Goodreads Summary: The riveting novel of iron-willed Alva Vanderbilt and her illustrious family in as they rule Gilded-Age New York, from the New York Times bestselling author of Z: A Novel of Zelda Fitzgerald.
Love and Ruin by Paula McClain
Goodreads Summary: The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century.
The Girl Who Smiled Beads by Clementine Wamariya
Goodreads Summary: Raw, urgent, and bracingly original, The Girl Who Smiled Beads captures the true costs and aftershocks of war: what is forever destroyed; what can be repaired; the fragility of memory; the disorientation that comes of other people seeing you only as broken–thinking you need, and want, to be saved. But it is about more than the brutality of war. It is about owning your experiences, about the life we create: intricately detailed, painful, beautiful, a work in progress.
An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
Goodreads Summary:
Newlyweds Celestial and Roy are the embodiment of both the American Dream and the New South. He is a young executive, and she is an artist on the brink of an exciting career. But as they settle into the routine of their life together, they are ripped apart by circumstances neither could have imagined. In this deft exploration of love, loyalty, race, justice, and both Black masculinity and Black womanhood in 21st century America, Jones achieves that most-elusive of all literary goals: the Great American Novel.
As Bright as Heaven by Susan Messiner
Goodreads Summary: From the acclaimed author of Secrets of a Charmed Life and A Bridge Across the Ocean comes a new novel set in Philadelphia during the Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which tells the story of a family reborn through loss and love.
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris
Goodreads Summary:
A vivid, harrowing, and ultimately hopeful re-creation of Lale Sokolov’s experiences as the man who tattooed the arms of thousands of prisoners with what would become one of the most potent symbols of the Holocaust, The Tattooist of Auschwitz is also a testament to the endurance of love and humanity under the darkest possible conditions.
Here’s a little more about my reading life in 2018:
With the 63 books I read, there was a total of 21,472 pages. The average book length was 340 pages.
The shortest book I read was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle and the longest was The Mermaid and Mrs. Hancock by Imogen Hermes Gowar.
I am looking forward to seeing where reading takes me in the new year! I’m thinking I will set my goal at 50 books for this year. I plan to continue monthly reading wrap-ups here and hope to post more reviews of books as I read them.