2018 was a different kind of reading experience for me. I decided to try out many different genres and ended up reading books I probably would have never thought too. I read several short story collections; many centered around magical realism, I also read several complete series (one being The Lord of the Rings), and I re-read two favorites: Strange the Dreamer and The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
The one reading goal I had in 2018 was to study different illustrators and therefore I discovered so many beautiful picture books! I think I’ll create another posts just talking about those and leave this one about the novels/series!
My goal was to read 100 books this year and I ended up reading a total of 103! Within all 103 I’ve picked out 10 favorites with 3 honorable mentions (so a total of 13).
So without further ado here are my favorite stories I read in 2018:
”Our Homesick Songs” by Emma Hooper
Even though I knocked off half a point in the overall rating of this book, I still had to mention it, because I still think about this beautiful and unique story.
In 2015, I had the pleasure of reading a little gem called, “Etta and Otto and Russell and James“, and now musician Emma Hooper with the same lyrical and child-like style brings readers another beautifully crafted story.
Set in Newfoundland, Canada we follow the Conner family; Aidan and Martha and their two children Cora and Finn. We see a glimpse of how Aidan and Martha met as kids, but the main story focuses on Cora and Finn. This story is odd and magical, but overall a very beautiful one!!
When fish start disappearing completely in this fishermen populated town, families start disappearing too, because there is no work left. For Martha and Aidan they decide to switch off parenting every few months where one stays home and the other travels for work. The school has closed and so the kids are left to their own devices. Cora is creative and smart and decides she is going to decorate the abandoned houses resembling different countries and Finn decides he is going to sail in his small boat to a neighboring town where an elderly lady lives, named Mrs. Callaghan to learn the accordion and listen to her stories. Maybe through listening and playing Finn can find a way to bring the fish back and save his beloved home.
If you are not familiar with Emma Hooper’s writing style; it is very unique. It has a certain formula that suits song lyrics or poems, making it seem in parts like a child wrote it. I like this element to a point, but I’ll be honest sometimes this did get on my nerves, because I could see such a beautiful story forming and then the line would repeat itself.
But overall, I really really loved this! It’s a treat to finish this book and see the story as a whole.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 stars!
“Muse of Nightmares” by: Laini Taylor
“It’s the mind. It’s the most complex and astonishing thing there is, that there’s a world inside each of us that no one else can ever know or see or visit.”
It's no new revelation that Laini Taylor is a master at stringing words together to form the most beautiful sentences; and she does this effortlessly! In 2017, when "Strange the Dreamer", first came out, I immediately decided to read it even with so much hype surrounding it (and it did not disappoint!). I loved it so much I decided to re-read it at the end of the summer in 2018. So you can imagine my excitement when I finally found time to pick up the sequel!
"Muse of Nightmares", is just as gorgeous as the first. Without going too far into the plot, because it is a continuation of the story, I will just mention that what Taylor does with the story is surprising, heartbreaking and magical! I love how she takes a group of characters who are technically at war together, but she doesn't just show only one side of good vs. evil she shows how they all have dark pasts and how people can come together (enemy or friend) and help each other heal. Example being the character of Nova. She was such a big part of this book and using Nova pulled at my heartstrings!
There were a few moments of where I wasn't sure where Taylor was going with the plot. Unlike, "Strange the Dreamer", where I was in this trance of absolute, unique gorgeous writing and setting; "Muse of Nightmares", had it's slight ups and downs for me. Still gorgeous and unique, but the love story was more "eye roll" worthy in parts. I will say I do appreciate though how she writes from an emotion stand point of romance than a physical one.
Overall though, this was an incredible book! The magic. The creativity. The writing. It's just unlike anything else and that's why I love these books so much!
“There comes a certain point with a hope or a dream, when you either give it up or give up everything else. And if you choose the dream, if you keep on going, then you can never quit, because it's all you are.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 stars!
“The Winter Sea” by: Susanna Kearsley
Again, I did knock off a quarter of a point for this book, but I had to mention it!
I had first discovered Ms. Kearsley several years ago by reading, ”The Rose Garden”, though I can’t remember every detail as to why; I did like it. Her name and books have been around for awhile receiving high praise and gorgeous covers! I knew that eventually I would pick her up again.
“The Winter Sea“, deserves the glowing reviews. Aside from the thick Scottish dialect that sometimes was hard to read (for this all American girl), I found this story to be all-consuming, atmospheric, and full of wonderful characters. Yes, this was a great example of a book that has it all!
Kearsley has written two amazing female leads: Carrie and Sophia. Two women, very similar, but from different times. I loved Carrie a lot and Sophia definitely grew on me as the story progressed.
“...the fields might fall to fallow and the birds might stop their song awhile; the growing things might die and lie in silence under snow, while through it all the cold sea wore its face of storms and death and sunken hopes...and yet unseen beneath the waves a warmer current ran that, in its time, would bring the spring.”
Atmosphere. This more times than not is what makes or breaks a story for me. I love to feel, see, and almost breathe the same air as the characters on the page. For this story, Kearsley plot that she had planned was this exactly to a T. I mean when you set your story in Scotland, in a castle, located on a cliff with the highest tower being right above the rushing sea...the story was already halfway to perfection!
This one is honestly a love letter to storytelling. It’s about writers and the process of enhancing creative minds. I could tell how researched the language and history was and the characters were flushed out so well I could visually see how each looked. These are the things readers count on.
“Watching, I could feel again the stirrings of my characters—the faint, as yet inaudible, suggestion of their voices, and their movements close around me, in the way someone can sense another’s presence in a darkened room. I didn’t need to shut my eyes. They were already fixed, not truly seeing, on the window glass, in that strange writer’s trance that stole upon me when my characters began to speak, and I tried hard to listen.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5 stars!
“Beyond the Laughing Sky” by: Michelle Cuevas
Sometimes as an avid reader you just need to take a break from all the intense and longer books to be read and settle in on something more basic. It’s funny because I end up almost every time getting more out of children’s stories than most adult ones.
“Beyond the Laughing Sky”, is such a sweet and moving middle grade story. We follow Nashville, a ten year old boy who like a lot of children feels like he doesn’t fit in: with his family, in his town, or even in the world. He has a good reason for this, because he is part human but also part bird. It doesn’t matter how old you are, sadly the world will always judge by appearance first. This story is about accepting who you are and finding a way to love yourself, it’s about showing kindness and also what makes a family...a family.
With so many charming elements and lovable characters, children and adults will cherish this story. You will root for Nashville just like so many great characters in timeless fables.
“He saw the kind of beauty yellow flowers have growing over a carpet of dead leaves. The beauty of cracks forming a mosaic in a dry riverbed, of emerald-green algae at the base of a seawall, of a broken shard from a blue bottle. The beauty of a window smudged with tiny prints. The beauty of wild weeds.”
Nashville saw beauty where others saw ugliness or flaws.
This book was beautiful!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
“By Light We Knew Our Names” by: Anne Valente
Like I said above, 2018 was the year of short story collections for me (focusing on magical realism). This was my favorite collection I read throughout the year and ironically it was the first collection I picked up.
Whenever reading a collection, I’ve now learned that each story will probably be a hit or a miss, but I found way more hits with this one than misses.
The two stories I want to focus on are:
1. Not Ghosts or Daffodils: after a mother leaves her family behind for a new life, the father tries to move his daughter through her recovery. She makes friends with an invisible ghost, and finds connection in a lost albino dolphin that washes up on a beach near her school.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
2. Mollusk, Membrane, Human Heart: a scientist is pulled in different directions when his employer begins conducting cruel experiments on a family of baby octopi.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
Overall, this collection was gorgeous, but these two stories were so profound and uniquely beautiful, that I could have seen these both as short Oscar winning films. I can’t rave enough when it comes to the heartbreaking genius Valente inspired. Please read them!
“East/West“ by: Edith Pattou
“I knelt by the design. Yes, there was the sun rising. But the white form I had always thought to be a cloud was a bear. I could see it now, upside down. White bear, isbjorn, stood for north. Father had not been able to help himself. The truth was there, too. Truth and lie, side by side.”
“East“ and “West”, a magical duology is a retelling of the tale, “East of the sun, West of the moon”, which sadly I hadn’t heard of before. These books also gave me, “Beauty and the Beast” vibes!
The main character Rose, has always felt out of place in her family, a wanderer in a bunch of homebodies. So when an enormous white bear mysteriously shows up and asks her to come away with him, in exchange for health and prosperity for her ailing family, she readily agrees. The bear takes Rose to a distant castle, where each night she is confronted with a mystery. In solving that mystery, she loses her heart, discovers her purpose, and realizes her travels have only just begun.
It’s been a very long time since I’ve read a fantasy that has captured my heart like this one did. I’m not even ashamed to say that this has become one of my absolute favorite books! It was so wonderful in every way. The characters, the settings, the adventures took my imagination and made me feel like a child again. It’s story may seem geared toward children, but the pacing and the amount of detail was something really only adults can appreciate.
East: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
West: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 stars!
“The Golden Compass” by: Philip Pullman
I actually read the entire trilogy this year (yes for the first time 😲) and probably should include the other two in this post (because all were fantastic), but I think the initial beginning to the epic journey will suffice!
“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.”
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world. Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors?
It’s been several years that I’ve had my eye on reading this trilogy and I finally did it! Not to be dramatic, but this really is a masterpiece! It’s a story fully formed out of imagination and one unlike anything else. Lyra is such a great lead (also Pan!) and I loved the magic and beauty of the northern lights. I feel though that some parts just aren’t for children to fully understand and I’m actually glad I waited to read this as an adult. Yes, there is friendship and adventure, but as I kept reading, I just thought so many things would have gone over my head as a kid.
P.S. The audiobooks to these are wonderful!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
“Scythe“ and “Thunderhead” by: Neal Shusterman
I think the saying, “don’t judge a book by its cover“ applies to these. Yeah..not a big fan of how these books look, but man oh man do they pack a punch!
“My greatest wish for humanity is not for peace or comfort or joy. It is that we all still die a little inside every time we witness the death of another. For only the pain of empathy will keep us human.”
These two books in the (Arc of a Sycthe series) is an incredibly thought provoking, fast-paced, and are a bit heartwarming reads. I was shocked by how much I loved them! Dystopian books have kind of phased out of my TBR pile and I was a little leery about starting this series even with the good ratings. I’m glad I did because this world building was so interesting and scary at the same time!
In this very futuristic world, sickness, war, and death have been extinguished and the only way people can die is if a scythe “gleans” you which in blunt terms means murders you. To become a Scythe you are randomly chosen (so any one can be a Scythe) and have to go under apprenticeship/training of another Scythe. You are trained to be a killer and overtime learn how to feel no remorse. As a Scythe you are required to keep daily journal entries and before each chapter break we get to see the inner thoughts of these “killers”.
I have always been interested in psychology (in the criminal sense) and what makes a person become who they are. I love detective shows and ones focused on the human mind. Neal Shusterman has created characters you feel for and in the end makes you see a world that is very realistic and heartbreaking.
Would you want to live in a world where death was extinguished?
These characters soon realize that because of this, each day doesn’t seem like a gift and life doesn’t feel precious as it once was.
Scythe: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
Thunderhead: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
“Peter and Alice” by: John Logan
This play was so beautiful and very sad!
“Peter Pan“, is one of those stories that I think as adults we will always cherish. The story of a child who stayed a child is a beautiful idea, but maybe that’s because no one has ever just stayed a child unless of unfortunate death. ”Alice in Wonderland”, in all its oddities is obviously beloved as well and the adventure of finding a place down a rabbit hole has captured childhood in vibrant colors and memorable characters.
So what happens when the two people who were the inspiration of Peter Pan and Alice in wonderland meet in real life as adults? Brilliant conversations about growing up and growing old, experiencing loss and heartache, and revisiting the two children who made them who they are.
It’s 1932, the real Peter Llewellyn Davies age 30 and Alice Hargreaves age 80 meet. This play is so brilliant, because it shows the audience/reader how Peter Pan and Alice came to be and how even though both stories are about keeping innocence and staying young forever; these people lost pieces of their childhood because of it. I loved how the book characters were in this play. Almost like they climbed out of Davies and Hargreaves skin and started having conversations with them.
I was fairly familiar already with Peter Davies childhood story from watching one of (if not) my all time favorite movie, “Finding Neverland”. One of the things that really stuck out to me in this play was the conversation about Peter and Michael. I won’t spoil it, but that moment to me just made me love this even more. ❤️
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
“I Was Anastasia“ by: Ariel Lawhon
“If history were taught in the form of stories, it would never be forgotten.”
-Rudyard Kipling, The Collected Works
The only way to read this book is with PATIENCE! But trust me it will be so worth it!
This was...
So compelling, fascinating, enchanting, deeply moving, and with an ending that will catch your breath; you will be so torn apart and think what the heck just happened?!!
Russia, July 17, 1918: Under direct orders from the secret police force Anastasia Romanov, along with the entire imperial family are commanded into a damp basement in Siberia where they face a merciless firing squad. None survive. At least that is what the executioners have always claimed.
Germany, February 17, 1920: A young woman bearing an uncanny resemblance to Anastasia Romanov is pulled shivering and senseless from a canal in Berlin. Refusing to explain her presence in the freezing water, she’s taken to the hospital, where an examination reveals that her body is riddled with countless horrific scars. When she finally does speak, this frightened, mysterious woman claims to be the Russian grand duchess, Anastasia.
Told back and forth throughout time: Anastasia is told in linear format (1917-1918) and Anna is told backwards from (1970-1918).
This is the only way to write this story, because it allowed for such an element of suspense; I couldn’t read this fast enough! Lawhon did this story so beautifully. She is an absolute genius, who is well researched and a rich storyteller. Please give this book a chance, once you have reached the end you will be in awe!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
”Drums of Autumn“ (Outlander #4) by Diana Gabalodon
I mean it can’t be a favorites list without an Outlander book on it. Every year I read the next book in the series and every year I fall more in love with this series!
Review may contain *spoilers* so if interested please read the first book, “Outlander“, and become a fanatic with the best of us!
It began at an ancient Scottish Stone Circle. There, a doorway, open to a select few, leads into the past or the grave. Dr. Claire Randall survived the extraordinary passage, not once but twice. First trip swept her into the arms of Jamie Fraser, an 18th century Scot whose love for her became a legend, a tale of tragic passion that ended with her return to the present to bear his child. Her second journey, two decades later, brought them together again in the American colonies. But Claire has left someone behind in the 20th century, their daughter, Brianna…
In this next, gorgeously written book in the Outlander series, Brianna has made a disturbing discovery that sends her to the circle of stones and a terrifying leap into the unknown. In search of her mother and the father she has never met, she is risking her own future to try to change history… and to save their lives. But as Brianna branches into an uncharted wilderness, a heartbreaking encounter may strand her forever in the past… or root her in the place she should be, where her heart and soul belong.
I keep trying to pinpoint what exactly it is about these books that makes me love them so much! Gabaldon is the definition of a master storyteller and her richness of words to paper, well it may sound cheesy, but it’s breathtaking! But putting her gift for details and “puzzle” storytelling aside, I truly believe it’s these characters. They are unforgettable.
Claire and Jamie. They continue to lead this vast story across the world and I again get completely swept away. But despite their greatness, there are so many other great characters; many who were introduced in this book and also old ones that just make me smile!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
“The Great Alone” by: Kristin Hannah
“Wild. That’s how I describe it all. My love. My life. Alaska. Truthfully, it’s all the same to me. Alaska doesn’t attract many; most are to tame to handle life up here. But when she gets her hooks in you, she digs deep and hold’s on, and you become hers. Wild. A lover of cruel beauty and splendid isolation. And God help you, you can’t live anywhere else.”
“The Great Alone”, is Kristin Hannah’s newest novel, about a former POW, Ernt Allbright, who comes home from the Vietnam War a changed and volatile man. When he loses yet another job, he makes an impulsive decision: He will move his family north, to Alaska, where they will live off the grid in America’s last true frontier. His thirteen year old daughter Leni, dares to hope that a new land will lead to a better future for her family. She is desperate to belong and her mother, Cora, will do anything and go anywhere for the man she loves, even if it means following him into the unknown. Admittedly, the story took about 100 pages to really get going, but once it did it completely stole my heart, just like so many of Hannah’s other novels have. There were even elements of suspense, which is a new experience when reading one of her books.
I love how Hannah can take characters and have them be one dimensional then once you turn the last page you feel a sense of kinship and by just being the reader you feel a part of the background; in this case the background being Alaska in a desolate pioneer town. All I know is, it is a gift and a treat to be a fan of hers.
Alaska. Boy oh boy did I feel like I was there! Such a beautiful and scary character all in itself. A fairytale place, that seemed to mirror the main characters lives undeniably and the theme of survival or what it means to be a survivor was woven within.
“...like all fairy tales, theirs was filled with thickets and dark places and broken dreams, and runaway girls.”
This story will sweep you off and for just a little while it will make you see a broken family that you may or hopefully may not relate too. It will show you a time when womens rights were in need of so much improvement and mental health was misunderstood. Also the blurred lines of love and what that word truly means; between mothers and daughters, teenagers, and fathers. Ultimately though, this story is about forgiveness and the strength it means to take the initiative to move on and live.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
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Okay! We have reached MY #1 FAVORITE BOOK OF THE YEAR!
It goes too...
“Before We Were Yours” by: Lisa Wingate
“But the love of sisters needs no words. It does not depend on memories, or mementos, or proof. It runs as deep as a heartbeat. It is as ever present as a pulse.”
I knew going into this that I would at least come out of it knowing I would find another book to love and recommend. Though that is very true, I for sure didn’t know how impactful and to be honest how life changing this story is. Each character feels so real. Their journeys are shaped by family, friends, neighbors, and all manners of acquaintances. The Foss family will capture your heart and take you down the Mississippi River on a gypsy soul adventure. This unbelievable story that’s based on true events will break your heart, but will also make you rejoice in knowing that only love truly does make a family a family.
This book is like a jigsaw puzzle. Each chapter asking more and more questions about how each character connects. It’s a mind bending mystery and will keep you wanting to read more and more until all is solved. Its a good kind of frustrating, because you just want all the answers, but it’s worth waiting because the plot twist is genius!
Georgia Tann our antagonist of the story is based on the real Georgia Tann whose pure evilness cost so many children’s innocent childhoods. Her life’s work is appalling and though the Foss family are fictional they are mirror examples of actual victims.
This story will stay with you long after you finish!
“What the mind don’t ’member, the heart still know. Love, the strongest thang of all. Stronger than all the rest.”
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 stars!
Thank you for taking the time to read this! I hope you find time to read some of these in the near future!
Happy New Year! 🎉
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