Books I Read in 2018

It's the beginning of the new year and time to look back at last year's accomplishments.

My reading goal this past year was 100 books, and I beat it!  I read either 108 or 105 books, depending on how you want to count The Spiderwick Chronicles since they are technically four separate, but very short, books.  I'll admit I got irritated by a few books, and so quit reading them before I got all the way through, but I finished almost all of them.

So here's an overview of my reading adventures this year, plus some recommendations - both books to read and books to avoid.

I had a thing for books about World War II this year, and I didn't get stuck with any dogs.  The Chilbury Ladies' Choir, The Baker's Secret, Dear Mrs. Bird, The True Story of Hansel and Gretel, and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society are all books I'd recommend.  All.  Of.  Them.  I think Dear Mrs. Bird was the best, though, closely followed by The Baker's Secret.

Memoirs were a big part of my reading this past year - seventeen books!  Hiding in the Light, As You Wish, Belles on Their Toes, I'd Like to Apologize to Every Teacher I Ever Had, and Reasons to Stay Alive are at the top of my recommendations.  Hiding in the Light (Rivqa Bary) is about a Muslim girl who converted to Christianity and her escape from her family - in the United States.  As You Wish (Cary Elwes) is about filming The Princess Bride - inconceivable!!!  I'd Like to Apologize (Tony Danza - yes, THAT Tony Danza) is about the year he spent as a history teacher in an inner-city high school - excellent!  Reasons to Stay Alive (Matt Haig) chronicles his struggles with mental illness and how he has been able to deal with it.

Religion included Hiding in the Light (TWO categories!), Seeking Allah, Finding Jesus, Answering Jihad, and three more.  The Cost of Discipleship (Dietrich Bonhoeffer) is not only long, but dense and repetitive.  I just couldn't get through it.  I admit I gave up.  Probably something to do with the translation from German.  And German theologians.  Whew!

Lots of cozy mysteries.  I found a new author to follow - Sophie Kelly's Magical Cats series is just plain fun.  And I found a couple of authors to avoid - Miranda James and Maddie Day.  Miranda James's main character is boring.  That's the only way I can describe him.  Ugh.  And I thought I'd enjoy Maddie Day's books because they're set in southern Indiana.  The plots aren't bad, but the reader is beaten to death by the heavy-handed way she gives clues.  Again, ugh.

Several self-help type things.  Top of the list is The ONE Thing (Gary Keller) - WOW.  The Art of Thinking Clearly (Rolf Dobelli), not so much.  In fact, the bottom.  He can't get past his own biases, saying that anyone who believes in God or practices a religion can't think clearly.  The Art of X-Ray Reading (Roy Peter Clark) is an excellent look at how to read great books in order to improve your own writing.

A few books for kids.  I enjoyed Nim's Island (Wendy Orr), and I re-read Henry Huggins (Beverly Cleary) - WOW.  I'd forgotten just how great this book is.  I plan to work my way through her books this year.  I can hardly wait!

Another book I re-read is Christy (Catherine Marshall) - another great book I'd kind of forgotten about.  It's the story of the author's mother, who went into Appalachia as a young, single, female missionary (unheard of!) in the early 1900s.

In non-fiction/history I read Ashley's War (Gayle Tzemach Lemmon) and The Devil in the White City (Erik Larson), both really good.  Ashley's War is about women in the Cultural Support Teams who follow army Special Ops forces in Afghanistan.  The Devil in the White City is about a serial killer and the Chicago World's Fair.  He actually brought some of his last victims to Indianapolis to kill.  Wow.  Super creepy.  But also a revelation of the people and times.  Fascinating.  I also read The Underground Girls of Kabul (Jenny Nordberg) which was really interesting.  It's about girls who are raised as boys in Muslim families with no sons (which is more common than the author expected), and how the experience affects them, both positively and negatively.  Again, fascinating!  It's kind of repetitive, but that's because the author kept finding young girls living as boys and women who used to when they were girls.

There were some surprises, too, both good and bad.  First, the bad.  Nicholas Sparks is a super popular author, and when my sister and I planned a trip to the Outer Banks, I saw in some of the area information that the house used in the movie Nights in Rodanthe was located there, so I decided to read the book and watch the movie (thank you, NetFlix!) before we went.  Well, we didn't make it because of hurricane Florence.  But I did watch the movie and read the book, and I'm going to say something I can't remember ever saying before - the movie was WAY better than the book.  The movie had suspense, conflict, tension, character development.  The book was, well, a disappointment.  Uninspired and uninspiring.  Flat.  Ugh.

Now for the good.  I read several books by Dorothea Benton Frank, all good Southern relationship novels.  The biggest surprise was Starship Troopers (Robert A. Heinlein), a "controversial" sci-fi novel.  The movie is action packed but doesn't even attempt to plumb the book's depths.  Lots to think about in this one.

Lastly, there's Uncommon Type: Some Stories (Tom Hanks - again, yes, THAT Tom Hanks).  This is a collection of short stories.  Some relate to each other, but most do not.  However, each story either features or only mentions a typewriter.  I enjoyed them all!

I didn't want to go into too much detail on these books because there were so many and I'd rather bore you as little as possible!

If you want to see the complete list of the books I read this year, click here.