Reading Roundup: 2018
I read 107 books in 2018, which is only two less than the previous year (2017's post is here). I completed a book challenge from a local bookstore that got me reading things I might not have otherwise read. I also read some of the Whitney Award finalists this year, although I was not able to read everything that I would have liked since I simply ran out of time.
I only read 20 nonfiction books and 87 fiction books. This has been a trend for the last few years; I tend to gravitate towards fiction, and reading Whitney finalists skews the ratio as well. It felt like I had read more nonfiction since I remember most of them. I enjoyed a much higher percentage of the nonfiction books I read and thought most were well-written. Each year I think I'm going to read more nonfiction and it doesn't happen, but I have a new reading challenge for 2019 and it should help.
I also usually like to see what my ratio of female to male authors is. This year, I read 78 books by women and 29 books by men. This is also right on track with what the trend has been in the past, and also skewed by the Whitney Awards finalists since most of them are authored by women.
Instead of setting reading goals this year, I am going to work on completing a reading challenge from a local bookstore again. It has 44 books on it, so that should take care of most of this year's reading. I will, however, keep in my mind some of my biases while choosing books to complete the challenge.
In no particular order, my favorite books from 2018 are:
Fiction
The War that Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
A Man Called Ove and Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
The Duke of Bannerman Prep by Katie Nelson
Summerlost by Ally Condie
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
American Fork by George Handley
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Witch Elm by Tana French
Nonfiction
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
That We Might be One by Tom Christofferson
Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour
Educated by Tara Westover
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Movies
I wrote down 50 movies that I watched, although I know that total includes a few limited TV series and a few multi-part miniseries. I think there are some other shows I didn't write down because I'm still figuring out if I want to keep track of TV, especially series that are somewhat limited. I also sometimes didn't note movies I watched with the kids that we'd already seen a bunch of times before. With all that said, here are my favorite movies that I watched in 2018:
Coco
Phantom Thread
Jackie
Lady Bird
Ali's Wedding
Your Name
A Star is Born
The Last Jedi
Alias Grace
Incredibles 2
Roma
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Leave No Trace
I only read 20 nonfiction books and 87 fiction books. This has been a trend for the last few years; I tend to gravitate towards fiction, and reading Whitney finalists skews the ratio as well. It felt like I had read more nonfiction since I remember most of them. I enjoyed a much higher percentage of the nonfiction books I read and thought most were well-written. Each year I think I'm going to read more nonfiction and it doesn't happen, but I have a new reading challenge for 2019 and it should help.
I also usually like to see what my ratio of female to male authors is. This year, I read 78 books by women and 29 books by men. This is also right on track with what the trend has been in the past, and also skewed by the Whitney Awards finalists since most of them are authored by women.
Instead of setting reading goals this year, I am going to work on completing a reading challenge from a local bookstore again. It has 44 books on it, so that should take care of most of this year's reading. I will, however, keep in my mind some of my biases while choosing books to complete the challenge.
In no particular order, my favorite books from 2018 are:
Fiction
The War that Saved My Life and The War I Finally Won by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
The Sojourn by Andrew Krivak
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Reservoir 13 by Jon McGregor
A Man Called Ove and Us Against You by Fredrik Backman
The Duke of Bannerman Prep by Katie Nelson
Summerlost by Ally Condie
We Were the Lucky Ones by Georgia Hunter
American Fork by George Handley
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
The Witch Elm by Tana French
Nonfiction
Dreams From My Father by Barack Obama
Ghosts of the Tsunami by Richard Lloyd Parry
That We Might be One by Tom Christofferson
Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood by Lisa Damour
Educated by Tara Westover
Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou
The Library Book by Susan Orlean
Movies
I wrote down 50 movies that I watched, although I know that total includes a few limited TV series and a few multi-part miniseries. I think there are some other shows I didn't write down because I'm still figuring out if I want to keep track of TV, especially series that are somewhat limited. I also sometimes didn't note movies I watched with the kids that we'd already seen a bunch of times before. With all that said, here are my favorite movies that I watched in 2018:
Coco
Phantom Thread
Jackie
Lady Bird
Ali's Wedding
Your Name
A Star is Born
The Last Jedi
Alias Grace
Incredibles 2
Roma
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Leave No Trace
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