Jana Says

Another year of reading in the books (HAHAHAHA). According to Goodreads, I finished 81 books (well, 82 but it counted one book twice for some odd reason) and 24,407 pages (less when you subtract the one it counted twice). The shortest book I read was The Body by Stephen King and the longest was Ohio by Stephen Markley. Weird coincidence that Stephens bookended by books.

I need to stop with these book puns. I’m annoying myself.

Anyway.

I did some additional counting and discovered that I read:

• 60 fiction books
• 21 nonfiction books
• 57 written by women
• 24 written by men
• 2 DNF and like 3 more I should have DNF (looking at you, The Cuban Affair)
• 16 ARCs from NetGalley
• TWO set in Delaware (The Book of Unknown Americans and Sunburn)

That last statistic was a bit mindboggling because it’s hard to find a book set in Delaware yet I read two. IN ONE YEAR. I think I need to add “books taking place in Delaware that aren’t Fight Club” to my posts I need to write list.

I also participated in the 24in48 readathon and plan to do it again at the end of January. You should join me! It’ll be fun. All the cool kids like me and Audrey and Rebecca Jo are doing it. You know you want to, too.

But you’re not here for the peer pressure. You’re here to find out what my favorite books of the year were. Oh, an admin note. I was going to put a collage of the covers in this post but during our earlier SUYB, someone (I’m sorry, I forgot who) commented that she appreciates that I don’t put the book covers in my posts since it helps keep her focused on my reviews and opinions rather than judging the book by its cover. I like that, and I’m going to stick with it.

One more admin note. When I say favorites, I don’t necessarily mean my highest star rating. My favorites are picked based on the ones that stick with me, the ones that I’m most likely to recommend to others, the ones I might read again, and the ones that I just enjoyed. Some books are outstanding but they don’t meet the rest of my criteria.

Okay. Now, having said that, here are my favorites of 2018.

Fiction (in no particular order)

1. Ohio by Stephen Markley
2. An American Marriage by Tayari Jones
3. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
4. Daisy Jones and the Six by TJR
5. Sadie by Courtney Summers
6. Puddin’ by Julie Murphy
7. Bluebird Bluebird by Attica Locke
8. The Golden State by Lydia Kiesling
9. The Book of Essie by Meghan Maclean Weir
10. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

Honorable mention: Five Minutes Alone by Paul Cleave, Vox by Christina Dalcher, The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn, The Dry by Jane Harper

Nonfiction (in no particular order)

1. Heartland by Sarah Smarsh
2. Educated by Tara Westover
3. Reasons to Stay Alive by Matt Haig
4. I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
5. Palaces for the People by Eric Klinenberg
6. Nomadland by Jessica Bruder
7. Squeezed by Alissa Quart

Now that you know what books I loved the most this year, tell me what your favorites were! Don’t forget to check out Steph’s favorites, as well as some of the favorites from our reader crew. And, if you’re interested, you can join us on January 8, 2019 for our regularly scheduled Show Us Your Books!

Inlinkz Link Party

I think one of my goals for 2019 should be to start writing again. I miss it, and I feel terrible that I only check in here when it’s time for Show Us Your Books. I mean, it could be worse. Like, there’s no SUYB at all and then I never write or talk about books or catch up with all the awesome people who participate. That would be awful. I don’t want to think about that. So I won’t.

What I do want to think about is books. Because that’s why we’re all here today. Books. I read 7 of them since the last SUYB, with 2 put on my “let’s try this again later because it’s too much for me right now” list. Most of the books I read were enjoyable enough. Some I really, really liked but didn’t necessarily give high star ratings to (if you pay attention to that sort of thing) for whatever reason. I genuinely have no idea why I rated some a 3.5 when they should have been higher. Anyway. It’s arbitrary and doesn’t really matter.

Here’s what I actually thought about them. Some of the reviews are copied from Litsy while others are pulled from my memory because I just can’t do another social media right now.

…And then You Die of Dysentery: Lessons in Adulting from the Oregon Trail by Lauren Reeves. If you know me, you know my obsession with the Oregon Trail. I found this very short, very entertaining book that I read in 20 minutes at Barnes and Noble where I parked my ass in a chair and read it from start to finish. Guys, this book is freaking hysterical and I can’t recommend enough that you somehow find a way to read it. It actually would make a great stocking stuffer gift.

Daisy Jones and the Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me this book because holy fucking shit was it good. I think I liked it better than Evelyn, and if any of her books is made into a movie, it needs to be this one and the fact that SHE WROTE SONGS…WHAT?! She’s amazing. I don’t want to say too much but the narrative of this book is creative and incredibly well-written, and the little twist at the end (well, one of the two. I kind of figured out one) I did not see coming. Also, if you’ve read it, did you completely picture Daisy as a Stevie Nicks-type person? OH! If you have Spotify, you can find the playlist that inspired the book, too.

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren. This book is everything I hate in a book but yet, I found myself reading it in one day. Despite this book’s many, many flaws, it was exactly what I needed to read at the moment I read it and didn’t not hate it at all. It is light and fun and stupidly annoying and I don’t know that I want to ever read it or anything like it again but here we are, with me actually enjoying a rom-com book. Someone send help.

Heartland by Sarah Smarsh. Another NetGalley book for me but this one was nonfiction, and one I’d been meaning to get around to for a couple of months before I did. Like Hillbilly Elegy, this should be read as a memoir rather than a representation of Appalachia or those who voted for that guy. Unlike Hillbilly Elegy, she is upfront about that and also, the writing is excellent. Her story of escaping poverty and teenage pregnancy is definitely the bootstrap-type story we embrace but it’s so much more than that. It’s her family’s history and its impact on her and her choices. It did leave me with some questions, and the fact that that it’s written as a letter to the baby she never had (she’s consciously never been pregnant) was weird at times, but if you liked Educated, I actually think this was marginally better.

Sadie by Courtney Summers. A disturbing, chilling, violent YA thriller. It’s also terribly sad. It happened to be an excellent book if you like that sort of thing. There’s also a podcast element to it, both as transcripts in the book to help tell the story, and as an actual podcast you can listen to (the transcripts are what the actual podcast is based on). Probably one of my favorite books of the year.

Presidio by Randy Kennedy. Meh. It’s an okay book that underdelivered on plot and overdelivered on writing. I feel like I was kind of mislead about the point of the book, which is fine, but it left me feeling empty and pissed at the end. He’s a great writer, and descriptions are his strength, but developing a plot is not. I wanted more telling instead of showing, and I wanted more of the letters to the police written by the main character than I did some of the other stuff. I do love the cover, though.

Limetown by Cote Smith. If you like the podcast, or plan to listen to the podcast, this book is a must-read. It is outstanding in that context and both explains and sets up so much. I actually plan to listen to the whole thing from the beginning, knowing what I know now. The only thing that kept it from being a 5-star review for me was I couldn’t keep everyone and everything straight. It made me dizzy at times. However, as a stand-alone book, this book makes almost no sense. It’s still a fascinating story and well written but it’s just better with the podcast (which came first. Sort of like what they did with Welcome to Night Vale and Alice Isn’t Dead and Homecoming).

Unsheltered by Barbara Kingsolver and Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak were the two that I started but had to stop because they are just too much for me right now. I’m not calling them DNF because I will read them at some point.

Currently reading The Punch by Noah Hawley and The Garden of Small Beginnings by Abbi Waxman.

TL; DR: All the books I read this month were excellent, except for Presidio. If you need to prioritize, go with Sadie and Daisy Jones. 

A couple of housekeeping things: Don’t forget to visit my co-host, Steph, and some other participating bloggers. Also, we’re having a bonus linkup on December 26 where we discuss our favorite books of the year so make sure to join us then. And finally, now it’s your turn! Link up and show us your books!