Top 18 Books in 2018

Where did this grief-laden, health-declining, miserable year go? As per tradition, here’s my “best of” list which, as you’ll note, features a few dystopian books that match my mood but some fun and fantastic books that pull me out of it.

Note: these are not necessarily in order and not necessarily published this year, just read this year. By me. And possibly you. Compiling my favorites is always a difficult task but my usual means of deciding which ones make the cut is asking myself “would I actually purchase a second copy and/or re-read this book and/or foist this book on others?” The winners among many fine entries are:

1. American Like Me: Reflections on Life Between Cultures by America Ferrera and many phenomenal others
2. Let’s Go (So We Can Get Back): A Memoir of Recording and Discording with Wilco, Etc. by Jeff Tweedy
3. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
4. The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
5. Double feature: Darktown and Lightning Men (Darktown, #2)by Thomas Mullen
6. We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
7. Double feature: Malice of Crows (The Shadow, #3) and Treason of Hawks (The Shadow, #4) by Lila Bowen
8. The Man Who Came Uptown by George Pelecanos
9. Someone Like Me by M.R. Carey
10. Moth Smoke by Mohsin Hamid
11. Lexicon by Max Barry
12. Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik
13. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
14. Triple feature (I know I’m so cheating!): Shadow and Bone (The Grisha, #1) and Siege and Storm (Grisha Verse, #2) and Ruin and Rising (Grisha Verse, #3) by Leigh Bardugo and, well, if I’m rule-breaking already, might as well add Wonder Woman: Warbringer(DC Icons, #1) by her too
15. The Widows of Malabar Hill(Perveen Mistry, #1) by Sujata Massey
16. Neverwhere by Niel Gaiman
17. Nine Perfect Strangers by Liane Moriarty
18. Transcription by Kate Atkinson

What! 18 already? Sorry, Lab Girl, Spider-Man/Deadpool, Vol. 2: Side Pieces, Fox 8, Pachinko, The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, The Beautiful Things That Heaven Bears. Better luck next time. At least you aren’t keeping company with the WORST of 2018: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life, Uncommon Type: Some Stories (my love for Mr. Tom “David S. Pumpkins” Hanks was not enough to get me through this book), and Death: A Life; with the lowest two books vying for “THE worst book of the year” title: Summer House with Swimming Pool and My Absolute Darling which were actually exquisitely written but utterly toxic and soul-staining.

2018 BBC Big Read

The BBC issued “The Big Read” compiling the titles of the top 100 must-read novels in 2003.  I played along until I got annoyed (i.e. five lines down) and so I decided to make my own BBC* Big Read in 2010 and again in 2012.  I was recently asked to recommend “life changing perspective” books which is a tall and nebulous order. Instead, I decided to update this list again and replace some classics and some kid books with stuff I really would read multiple times. Enjoy.

*baji’s book compilation

1. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
2. Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
3. The Princess Bride by William Goldman
4. Wake of Vultures series by Lila Bowen
5. The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver
6. The Fry Chronicles by Stephen Fry
7. Lexicon by Max Barry
8. Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
9. Game of Thrones series by George R. R. Martin
10. The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein
11. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
12. Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
13. The Martian by Andy Weir
14. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
15. Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman
16. The Mezzanine by Nicholson Baker
17. The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
18. Watchmen by Alan Moore
19. We Are Never Meeting In Real Life by Samantha Irby
20. Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson
21. American on Purpose by Craig Ferguson
22. Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
23. Uprooted by Naomi Novik
24. Kitchen Confidential by Anthony Bourdain
25. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
26. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
27. The Stand by Stephen King
28. Dresden Files series by Jim Butcher
29. Into Thin Air by Jon Karkauer
30. The Thursday Next series by Jasper Fforde
31. Bossypants by Tina Fey
32. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (and sequel) by Mindy Kaling
33. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
34. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
35. Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman
36. The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark by William Shakespeare
37. Habibi by Craig Thompson
38. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
39. Wool Omnibus by Hugh Howey
40. The Gun Seller by Hugh Laurie
41. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
42. Blowing My Cover: My Life as a CIA Spy by Lindsay Moran
43. The Road by Cormac McCarthy
44. The Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
45. Batman: The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller
46. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
47. Middlesex by Jeffery Eugenides
48. The Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss
49. Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh
50. What If? by Randall Munroe
51. The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
52. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby
53. If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller by Italo Calvino
54. Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon
55. Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield
56. Intern by Sandeep Jauhar
57. Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk
58. 97 Orchard: An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
59. Heads in Beds by Jacob Tomsky
60. The Richard Jury series by Martha Grimes
61. The Greatest of Marlys by Lynda Barry
62. The Far Side Gallery (1, 2, 3, and pre-history) by Gary Larson
63. Persepolis (I and II) by Marjane Satrapi
64. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay by Michael Chabon
65. The Passage (and its sequels) by Justin Cronin
66. The Last Black Unicorn by Tiffany Haddish
67. Brunch is Hell by Brendan Newman
68. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
69. Right as Rain by George Pelecanos
70. Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willett
71. Murder Hurts (extra credit for the full Fiddler and Fiona series) by A.E. Maxwell
72. Timeshadow Rider by Ann Maxwell
73. Love Song for a Raven by Elizabeth Lowell
74. The Raider by Jude Devereaux
75. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
76. Mr. Impossible by Loretta Chase
77. His at Night by Sherry Thomas
78. The In Death series by J.D. Robb
79. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
80. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
81. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
82. The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs
83. The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis
84. The Portable Dorothy Parker by Dorothy Parker
85. Stitches by David Small
86. Trust No Aunty by Maria Qamar
87. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
88. Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
89. Pure Drivel by Steve Martin
90. The Fitz and Fool series by Robin Hobb
91. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah
92. Black Box by Jennifer Egan
93. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
94. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
95. The Sharing Knife Trilogy by Lois McMaster Bujold
96. The Internet is a Playground by David Thorne
97. The Felix Castor series by Mike Carey
98. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes by Arthur Conan Doyle
99. Word Freak by Stefan Fatsis
100. Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg

Top 17 Books in 2017

Where did this excruciating, soul-sucking, mind-bending, reality-defying year go? As per tradition, here’s my “best of” list which, as you’ll note, mainly consists of distractions and fantasy and anything to give my battered brain a break.

Note*: these are not necessarily in order and not necessarily published this year, just read this year. By me. And possibly you. This is always a difficult task but my usual means of deciding which ones make the cut is asking myself “would I actually purchase a second copy and/or re-read this book and/or foist this book on others?” The winners among many fine entries are:

1. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
2. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood  by Trevor Noah
3. Assassin’s Fate (The Fitz and the Fool, #3) by Robin Hobb
4. The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway
5. Magpie Murders  by Anthony Horowitz
6. The Library at Mount Char  by Scott Hawkins
7. Parable of the Sower  by Octavia Butler
8. Brunch Is Hell: How to Save the World by Throwing a Dinner Party by Brendan Francis Newnam, Rico Gagliano
9. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
10. The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis
11. Trust No Aunty by Maria Qamar
12. Canada by Mike Myers
13. An Age of License: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley
14. American Gods by Neil Gaiman
15. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War  by Mary Roach
16. Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI  by David Grann
17. The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

*Other note: the year isn’t over!  I still have a few more books on my reading shelf so this may be updated so watch this space!

 

Top 16 Books of 2016

Man, this was a sucky year. One saving grace is that there were still books in it. Oh, looks like Goodreads has already done the work for me. If you don’t have access to the link, here’s a shorter, simpler annual best-of list. Note: these are not necessarily in order and not necessarily published this year, just read this year. By me. And possibly you. This is always a difficult task but my usual means of deciding which ones make the cut is asking myself “would I actually purchase a second copy and/or re-read this book and/or foist this book on others?” The winners are:

1. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda (bonus for the accompanying earworm, mindworm, soulworm)
2. The Devil You Know (Felix Castor, #1) by Mike Carey (first in an enjoyable series) but also Fellside by the same author
3. Wake of Vultures (The Shadow, #1) by Lila Bowen (first in an enjoyable series)
4. Nerd Do Well by Simon Pegg (side-splittingly funny)
5. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates
6. Displacement: A Travelogue by Lucy Knisley
7. Beguilement (The Sharing Knife, #1) by Lois McMaster Bujold
8. The Bolds by Julian Clary (kids book but delightful for adults too)
9. The City of Mirrors (The Passage, #3) by Justin Cronin (satisfying conclusion)
10. The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (despite the fear and trembling I experienced whilst reading this potentially prescient tale)
11. Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl by Carrie Brownstein
12. What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (xkcd)
13. Bone Gap by Laura Ruby
14. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer
15. 11/22/63 by Stephen King
16. You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day

Top 15 Books 2015

Until I have the time and energy to devote to reshaping my Top 100 list, I’ll take baby steps with the books I’ve read this year. Note: these are not necessarily in order and not necessarily published this year, just read this year. By me. And possibly you. This is always a difficult task but my usual means of deciding which ones make the cut is asking myself “would I actually purchase a second copy and/or re-read this book and/or foist this book on others?” The winners are:

1. Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
2. The Martian by Andy Weir
3. Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
4. Nimona by Noelle Stevenson
5. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
6. The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #1 (The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, #1) by Ryan North
7. Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson
8. Fool’s Quest (The Fitz and The Fool, #2) by Robin Hobb
9. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling
10. The Butterfly Mosque: A Young American Woman’s Journey to Love and Islam by G. Willow Wilson
11. Changes (The Dresden Files, #12) by Jim Butcher
12. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
13. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
14. Not My Father’s Son: A Memoir by Alan Cumming
15. Back Story (Paperback) by David Mitchell

Top Ten Books 2014

Until I have the time and energy to devote to reshaping my Top 100 list, I’ll take baby steps with the books I’ve read this year. Note: these are not necessarily in order and not necessarily published this year, just read this year. By me. And possibly you. This is always a difficult task but my usual means of deciding which ones make the cut is asking myself “would I actually purchase a second copy and/or re-read this book and/or foist this book on others?” The winners are:

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption

Hillenbrand, Laura

Ms. Marvel, #1: Meta Morphosis

Wilson, G. Willow

The Divorce Papers

Rieger, Susan

Wool	Howey, Hugh

The Girl with All the Gifts

Carey, M.R.

Habibi

Thompson, Craig

The Slow Regard of Silent Things

Rothfuss, Patrick

The Honest Toddler: A Child’s Guide to Parenting

Laditan, Bunmi

Longbourn

Baker, Jo

The Paying Guests

Waters, Sarah

Be advised: the only reason David Mitchell’s Back Story didn’t make it on this year’s list is because I haven’t finished it yet. I’m savoring it. I love it. Note to self: make this #1 on next year’s list.

Back Story

Mitchell, David

Superb Blurb: Death Masks (The Dresden Files #5)

Death Masks (The Dresden Files #5) by Jim Butcher

Noir meets slapstick meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Still enjoying Harry’s deadpan humor, charming self-deprecation, and non-stop adventures, but most of all I love how he actually or nearly throws up in every book. I also enjoy reading his recipes for his potions: straight outta America’s Test Kitchen complete with a “we wanted to” style intro:

In this case, I wanted something that would offset the venomous saliva of the Red Court vampires, a narcotic that rendered those exposed to it passively euphoric. I needed a potion that would ruin the pleasurable sensations of the poison. I used stale coffee as my base ingredient. To that I added hairs from a skunk, for scent. A small square of sandpaper for touch. I tossed in a small photo of Meat Loaf, cut from a magazine, for sight. A rooster’s crow I’d stored in a small quartz crystal went in for hearing, and a powdered aspirin for taste. I cut the surgeon general’s warning label from a pack of cigarettes and chopped it fine to add in for the mind, and then lit a stick of the incense I sometimes used while meditating and wafted some of the smoke into the two bottles for the spirit. Once the potions were bubbling over a burner, I drew in my wearied will and released power into the mixes, suffusing them with energy. They fizzed and frothed with gratifying enthusiasm. I let them simmer for a while, then took them from the fire and emptied them into a pair of small sports- drink bottles. After that, I slumped on a stool and waited for Bob to come home.

Superb Blurb: Longbourn

Longbourn by Jo Baker

The “Downstairs” side of “Pride and Prejudice”. Beneath the lye, chilblains, and hogshit (and other kinds), lies a sweet and genteel little story. In addition to the delightful blurb “it was unnatural, the way he went at his work; this was not the begrudging half-arsery they were used to from the local labourers,” I liked this:

When she was a girl, and still growing, ravenous, whenever there had been a cake – a spongy cake, dusted with sugar, which Mrs. Hall had conjured up out of eggs and flour and creamy butter – Sarah would never even let herself look at it, because she knew that it was not for her. Instead, she would carry it upstairs to be rendered into crumbs, and the crumbs lifted from the plate by a moistened Bennet finger, and the empty smeared plate carried back again. So Sarah would stare instead at the carpet underneath her feet, or at the painting of a horse with a strangely small head that hung at the end of the hall, or the rippled yellow  curtains in the parlour, and would do her best not to breath, not to inhale the scent of vanilla or lemon or almonds; even to glance at the cake was an impossible agony. And for months, she realized, James had hardly looked at her at all.

Top Ten Books That Make Me Hungry

1. Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
2. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl
3. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
4. Relish by Lucy Knisley
5. 97 Orchard : An Edible History of Five Immigrant Families in One New York Tenement by Jane Ziegelman
6. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
7. Bake Sale by Sara Varon
8. A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin crazy, right? but the man does know how to describe food.
9. Mr. Greedy by Roger Hargreaves
10. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Top Ten Books I Can Read More Than Once … And Have

Good go-to books to travel with:

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
2. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
3. The Stand by Stephen King
4. Outlander by Diana Gabaldon
5. The Princess Bride by William Goldman [also Marathon Man but if I had to pick one per author, this is it]
6. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
7. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
8. Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger
9. Not Quite a Husband by Sherry Thomas
10. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen