I read 177 books this year, and 31 of them I marked 5 stars! My top pick for 2018 is:
Frances Hardinge is one of my favorite authors, so it’s no surprise that this book was amazing. It’s set in an underground city where talented craftsmen can make wine that erases memories and perfume that makes you trust the wearer even while they’re stabbing you. There’s Medici-style politics, class warfare, and a heroine who isn’t taking any shit. I love it.
The rest:
Nonfiction
This narrowly avoided being my top pick for the year! It was so good! A history of the 14th century that reads as easily as a novel.
This book was a great nostalgia trip, and also hilarious.
I’ve read a lot of history of language books, but I still learned somethings from this one about where how the “rules” for our language developed.
This autobiography was written around 974 in feudal Japan, and the author is so extra I LOVE HER. Most written communication happens through poetry, and girl attaches a mean poem to A DEAD FLOWER to send to her neglectful lover. Plus once she moves without telling him.
I feel like I highlighted this entire book.
This book was a really interesting look at what we know and don’t know about the earliest people to live in the Americas. The author travels to different archaeological sites and talks about how the land would have looked different back then.
This book was depressing as fuck, but important and well-researched.
This horse is more badass than most humans.
Fiction
I finally read this, the last Discworld book, this year after rereading the entire series. I was scared it wouldn’t be a fitting end to my favorite series, because Raising Steam really kind of sucked? But, no, it was perfect.
This book was like the lovechild of Isabel Allende and Umberto Eco, and I am here for that.
A teen ghost fighting agency!!!
Hard to read, but amazing.
Another third wave girl power book which I really wish had been around when I was in high school.
Epistolary novels are my jam
A CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE REGENCY ROMANCE NOVEL! RUN! DON’T FUCKING WALK!
This book was about Haiti, and is the first Allende novel I’ve read that I think rivals House of the Spirits.
A collection of Terry Pratchett short fiction I read for the first time during my giant Discworld reread.
I had to read a book over 1000 pages, and I’m really glad I picked this one. It reminded me of Edward Rutherford, but on a much smaller scale.
Graphic Novels and Comics
The sequel to The Nameless City, about the friendship between a street urchin girl and a boy from the ruling caste foiling an assassination attempt, politics get even more murky here. The art style is beautiful too!
I’m slowly building up my Kate Beaton collection.
This was a pretty funny D&D parody universe.
A retelling of the Pied Piper folk tale, following a deaf girl who lives in the town and is therefore the only one immune to the piper’s powers. The art style is beautiful.
A super-villain and his shapeshifting sidekick!
Fairy tale characters trying to make it in the modern world
Delilah Dirk is my idol
Delilah Dirk gets revenge and tea continues to be a plot point
Delilah Dirk goes full Indiana Jones
Hockey! Romance! Baking!
Other
Beautifully done, another Discworld reread addition
A poetry collection that pulls no punches. “Burn anyone who tries to burn you”
Next: 2018: The Bad
Previously: 2017: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly (and the Pretty)
These all sound fantastic!