Year-End Book Wrapup '18

My goal this year was to read 50 books and to complete the Read Harder Challenge. (On last year’s post I said my goal was to read 70 books, but then I realized I wanted to prioritize my own writing goal and downshifted to 50. It doesn’t matter because I beat the goal either way and kicked ass on my own writing goal too. Yay me.)

You can see all my Challenge books here on last year’s wrapup. This year, I read 78 books: 47 by women, 30 by men, and one co-authored by both. I recently got a Los Angeles County library card to help feed my insatiable addiction to Kindle books from the library.  I now have four libraries to choose from!

Top five books of the year:

1. My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Still bitter this isn’t on the Tournament of Books shortlist. I adored this book. Maybe it was this year’s Version Control — a book where its quirkiness spoke directly to me and others didn’t love it as much. But I loved this. The author particularly nailed the ending, which isn’t always the case with litfic, I find. And it’s utterly absorbing and unique.

2. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine

Another book I adored; the main character is so prickly and unlikeable and yet you fall in love with her and root for her and are so moved by her. I am planning to re-read this one in 2019 just to have the experience of reading it again.

3. Homegoing

I put a plus sign next to a book on my list if it was particularly good; Homegoing got three plus signs. It was also the fourth book I read this year. Some of the books with one or two plus signs, I had to go back and look up to remember what I liked about them; Homegoing is indelible. An amazing novel.

4. My Sister the Serial Killer

I’ve brought this up every time I read a Tournament book because this was my Zombie vote and so far I don’t regret it. I’m a sucker for the unreliable narrator and the black comedy of this book. I also love its portrayal of modern-day Nigeria, although the characters and story feel universal.

5. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

I had a lot of wonderful and very literary novels duking it out for the fifth place on the list but ultimately I had to give it to the one that I was so charmed by, I’ve already read it twice and watched the movie. I read quite a few great YA novels this year (including Jordi Perez, Foolish Hearts, and Emergency Contact) but this one was my favorite. Even though one of my friends is gonna be real mad at me if she sees this. Sorry, Jen!

Runners up: The Vegetarian, White Tears, Florence Gordon, The Bright Hour, So Much Blue, Goodbye Vitamin, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, Eat Pray Love, Catherine Called Birdy, Stronger Faster and More Beautiful

Bottom five books:

1. Chaos Monkeys

Just on principle, I’m putting the one by the douchey tech bro at number one.

2. Inkheart

Ugh this one was boring and lacked stakes. Forced myself to the end because it was a category for the Read Harder Challenge, but I do not recommend.

3. The End of Eddy

A Tournament of Books novel I disliked. (This year I’m setting aside the ones I can't get into; so far I’ve given up on Call Me Zebra, and The Dictionary of Animal Languages might be next.) Just a world and a story I did not enjoy.

4. The Idiot

Boring. Elif Batuman is a super genius and a great writer but I needed a plot.

5. Love Warrior

A memoir that ultimately came across as insincere.

Next year my goal is to read 70 books (apparently it doesn’t cut into my writing time so this seems doable) and complete the Read Harder Challenge. As usual, I’ll be updating this post as I get through the challenge and use a label on my posts so you can follow along.

Here are the categories:

Total: 24/24

[X]  An epistolary novel or collection of letters: Frances and Bernard
[X]  An alternate history novel: Golden State
[X]  A book by a woman and/or AOC (Author of Color) that won a literary award in 2018: There, There
[X]  A humor book: We Are Never Meeting in Real Life
[X]  A book by a journalist or about journalism: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
[X]  A book by an AOC set in or about space: Binti
[X]  An #ownvoices book set in Mexico or Central America House of Broken Angels*
[X]  An #ownvoices book set in Oceania: Whale Rider
[X]  A book published prior to January 1, 2019, with fewer than 100 reviews on Goodreads: The Xenofeminist Manifesto
[X]  A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman: Convenience Store Woman
[X]  A book of manga: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
[X]  A book in which an animal or inanimate object is a point-of-view character: The Bees
[X]  A book by or about someone that identifies as neurodiverse: The Kiss Quotient
[X]  A cozy mystery: Strong Poison
[X]  A book of mythology or folklore: Circe
[X]  An historical romance by an AOC: An Extraordinary Union
[X]  A business book: Bad Blood
[X]  A novel by a trans or nonbinary author: George
[X]  A book of nonviolent true crime: A Disposition to Be Rich
[X]  A book written in prison: Cherry
[X]  A comic by an LGBTQIA creator: My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness
[X]  A children’s or middle grade book (not YA) that has won a diversity award since 2009: George
[X]  A self-published book: True Porn Clerk Stories
[X]  A collection of poetry published since 2014: When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities

I really like this year’s challenges! I love epistolary novels and cozy mysteries, and many of the other categories are intriguing.

I’m so excited for more booky, library goodness in 2019 — thanks so much for reading!

*I wasn't planning to count this because it's largely set in San Diego, but it's the first rec on the challenge page so I guess it counts.