I’m a big fan of the Goodreads Reading Challenge, which helps me keep track of every book I read.
My stated goal this year was 48 books. I sandbagged a little. I actually strive for a book a week. And I made it – plus two.
My 2018 list includes some favorite authors (Kate Atkinson, Harry Dolan, Michael Connelly, Elizabeth George) and some new discoveries (Beatriz Williams, Attica Locke).
I read memoirs from Sarah Smarsh and Sharon Harrigan that really spoke to me. Ijeoma Oluo made me smarter. (I hope). Madeline Miller reminded me (again) why I loved eighth-grade Latin class so much.
Here’s my year in books:
The Ex, Alafair Burke
Home Fire, Kamila Shamsie
Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, Michael Wolff
Two Kinds of Truth, Michael Connelly
The Short Drop, Matthew FitzSimmons
Grant, Ron Chernow
The Man in the Crooked Hat, Harry Dolan
The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott
How to be Safe, Tom McAllister
I‘ll Be Gone in the Dark, Michelle McNamara
Let Me Lie, Clare Mackintosh
So You Want to Talk about Race, Ijeoma Oluo
The Punishment She Deserves, Elizabeth George
Playing with Dynamite: A Memoir, Sharon Harrigan
Limelight, Amy Poeppel
Too Close to Breathe, Olivia Kiernan
Bluebird, Bluebird, Attica Locke
Paper Ghosts, Julia Heaberlin
Under the Harrow, Flynn Berry
Beneath a Ruthless Sun: A True Story of Violence, Race and Justice Lost and Found, Gilbert King
The Shadow Killer, Arnaldur Indridason
Circe, Madeline Miller
Not a Sound, Heather Gudenkauf
The Removes, Tatjana Soli
Something in the Water, Catherine Steadman
The Woman in the Window, A.J. Finn
Waking Lions, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
Borderlands, Brian McGilloway
A Boy in Winter, Rachel Seiffert
The Coroner’s Daughter, Andrew Hughes
Ordinary Grace, William Kent Krueger
A Rising Man, Abir Mukherjee
A Terrible Glory: Custer and the Little Bighorn, James Donovan
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Joanna Cannon
Two Girls Down, Louisa Luna
By the Time You Read This, Giles Blunt
The Book of Speculation, Erika Swyler
The Map of Salt and Stars, Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar
On Turpentine Lane, Elinor Lipman
Social Creature, Tara Isabella Burton
Jar of Hearts, Jennifer Hillier
The Girls at 17 Swann Street, Yada Zgheib
Transcription, Kate Atkinson
IQ, Joe Ide
The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery, Bill James
The Witch Elm, Tana French
The Outpost: An Untold Story of American Valor, Jake Tapper
City of the Lost, Kelley Armstrong
Heartland: A Memoir of Working Hard and Being Broke in the Richest Country on Earth, Sarah Smarsh
A Darkness Absolute, Kelley Armstrong
Past Tense, Lee Child
Dark Sacred Night, Michael Connelly
Liars’ Paradox, Taylor Stevens
The Summer Wives, Beatriz Williams