Good grief. It seems as though I never published my 2018 book review…you know the one I kept saying I was going to name my favorite book of the year? I went looking for it to link to my January 2019 book review and couldn’t find it. I couldn’t find it because it was still in drafts! UGH! #bloggerfail. Anyway, it’s February bu here it is in case you are still interested 😉
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This is it guys! The final review of 2018 AND the one where I name my top pics from this year as well as my NUMBER ONE book I’ll tell you which ones you should totally avoid too. Grab a cup of coffee and sit down, this may take a while! LOL!
what I read this year
I’m grateful to Goodreads for creating these lovely graphics of all the books I read (up through December 10th) this year. Take a look…
Is it just me or are all of those book covers just super pretty when they’re all put together??
wait…I actually don’t remember reading these…
Looking over all of the book covers I see so many books I loved…but there are a few that I can’t even remember. Now I’m not saying that those were the worst books of the year, in fact, I typically really remember the books I hated. But they must have been just ho-hum books with plots that just didn’t capture my attention long term. Which ones you ask? These:
- The Red Hunter
- I Am Watching You
- If You Knew Her
- Silent Child
Good Reads Annual Challenge
As of this posting I’ve actually completed a couple more, so make that 79 out 100 books read. It was an ambitious goal to say the least. If I’d stuck with beachy reads and/or thrillers I likely would have met my goal. But the meatier books I was reading from roughly June on took more time to get through. I think I can be pleased with 79 though.
Number one non-fiction
This wasn’t hard to choose. I mean, I didn’t read very much non-fiction this year so the choices were limited. But the winner is….
worst non-fiction
I know, I know, everyone all over the internet LOVED this book. I just found it boring and repetitive.
Also don’t bother with…
- The Good Twin
- Believe Me (such a disappointment as her first book was amazing)
- City of Friends
- More Than it Hurts You
- Manhattan Lockdown (stupid!)
- The Dry (I don’t get the 4 and 5 star reviews for this one AT ALL)
- Dead on Arrival (ohhhh…another perfect title)
Number one WORST fiction of 2018…
I’m going to put my GoodReads review here for you:
“Good Grief! This book is a train wreck! Never, NEVER have I hated a character in a book as much as the mom in this story. Ok, actually I detested the a-hole father too. I don’t want to add any spoilers but I’ll just leave this with a big fat DON’T.READ.THIS.BOOK unless you are a fan of raising your blood pressure and/or throwing books across the room”
See? I hated it so, so much.
Here are my faves (in counting down order) for 2018!
- The Impossible Fortress
- Little Fires Everywhere
- Defending Jacob (the ending is truly shocking)
- The Book of Essie
- Spark of Light
- Lilli de Jong
- The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane
- Nineteen minutes
- Where the Crawdads Sing (I was SURE this was going to be number one for the year but I was wrong! It finishes in a super strong 2nd place)
and my number one favorite book of 2018 is….
The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah. I loved this book so much and was so sad when I finished it. It’s a fantastic storyline, with rich characters and beautiful descriptions of Alaska. It has everything you want in a book….relatable yet flawed characters, suspense, vivid locations, a sweet/awkward love story and even some humor thrown in for good measure. The Great Alone has it all. The books description had me yawning…truly…but boy am I glad I gave it a chance. It grabbed me right from the first page and had me staying up late at night to finish. This will be a hard book to top.
