2018 Year in Review!

I wanted to give myself a little bit of time to think about all of the books that I read last year before I wrote up this post. I read a lot of books last year, 473 to be exact! I love keeping track of all the books that I read and I generally use Goodreads for that purpose. Because I read so many books there were quiet a few that stood out over the year. However, I’m going to be limiting this post to the top twenty five books that I read over all genres. I could easily do a top one hundred books post but then this would be a mile long! These books are not in any particular order either, they are just the books that I connected with the most and really had a great time reading. Off we go!

• Seconds by Bryan Lee O’Malley
  • This was a fantastic book about doubt and how that can eat away at you. The artwork was also really simple and clean which was a nice change from a lot of the graphic novels that I’ve read.
• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
  • I have a feeling that this book will be on a lot of people’s top list of last year. This is an amazing book and I highly, highly recommend it.
• Saga by Brian K. Vaughan
  • This is a fantastic and beautifully drawn comic book series. It is not for everyone and that is perfectly fine. I’m in love with it and cannot wait for the next volume to come out!
• Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel
  • This book was a great read but also an emotional one too. This was one of the first graphic novels that I read that was more about emotions and not so much about heroes and villains.
• Orange: the Complete Collection by Ichigo Takano
  • Do you want to read a manga that will murder your heart? Then this is for you! This book is about a group of friends that are trying to prevent something tragic from happening by writing letters (I don’t want to give away the plot so it sounds a little strange).
• Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur
  • The best volume of poetry that I have ever read.
• The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow
  • One of my favorite YA books that I read this year. The children of royalty are held hostage with the permission of their families to prevent wars from breaking out. Fascinating book and the writing was superb!
• One of Us is Lying by Karen McManus
  • Five students walk into detention, only four come out. Can you figure out who did it?
• The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
  • This was a adorable book about tea dragons, making friends, and love in all forms. A really great children’s book. I need all the tea dragons!!
• My Brother’s Husband, Volume 1 by Gengoroh Tagame
  • This book is heartbreaking but also very beautiful. It deals with death and coming to terms with who someone was, even after their death. If you like to cry this one’s for you!
• Beautiful Darkness by Fabien Vehlmann
  • This was the freakiest children’s book I read last year.
• Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake
  • This was a very interesting YA book. I loved the story and it was something that I think is really relevant to what is going on in this day and age (unfortunately).
• Mammoth by Jill Baguchinsky
  • I did receive a copy of this as an ARC but I’m not obligated to give it a good review because of that. I am a big fan of dinosaurs so this one was awesome! It was a cute YA book and I highly recommend it to fans of YA.
• The Witch Boy by Molly Ostertag
  • This was a great book about gender rolls and expectations that are placed on us, especially as children. I loved the art in this book as well, it was beautiful!
• The Handsome Girl and Her Beautiful Boy by B.T. Gottfred
  • This book reminds me so much of being a confused ass teenager and having no idea who I liked or what I liked or how to express my feelings. I really related to it hard but I know it’s not something that everyone liked.
• Dear Fahrenheit 451: Love and Heartbreak in the Stacks by Annie Spence
  • If you love books like me then you will love this book too! It’s all about a librarian named Annie, writing letters to the books in the stacks. Through this book I found a few more books to add to my TBR (like it needs to be longer) and one of them is even on this list (Big Stone Gap)! I didn’t want this book to end. I wanted to be friends with Annie and talk with her about books for hours.
• The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian
  • This was one of the few thrillers that I read last year and boy was it a RIDE. I had never read anything by Bohjalian but I will definitely be reading more after this one! I didn’t figure out the ending of this book which is always a good sign for a thriller. I loved how deeply, flawed the MC, Cassandra, was throughout the book. Her inner monologue was fascinating to read. Highly recommend to any fans of thrillers or mysteries.
• The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang
  • This was such a cute book. I loved the story and the fact that the MC has Aspberger’s. I had never read a book with even a character having Aspberger’s much less a main character. The love story was sooooo good and it just made me want to speed read through it. But also not because then it would be over!
• I’ve Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella
  • More romance! This was another really cute romance novel that my co-worker at the library recommended to me. I was hooked from the first chapter. I seriously loved the characters and how they get to know each other. I could really see myself in parts of Poppy (not the losing your engagement ring part though, that is securely on my finger). I loved how Poppy grew throughout the book and eventually started to value herself more.
• Big Stone Gap by Adriana Trigiani
  • I really wasn’t sure that I was going to like this book but I’m so glad that I gave it a chance! And it’s a series yay! This book really is about finding out who you are and dealing with grief. I’m really excited to read the next book in the series (I have it checked out from the library, hopefully you’ll see a review for that soon!)
• The Adventure Zone: Here There Be Gerblins By Clint McElroy
  • If you are a fan of table top gaming (specifically DnD or something similar) you will really like this book. This is a book about a cast of characters going on an adventure guided by their trusty Dungeon Master! I really loved this and I’m hoping there will be more of it to come.
• My Oxford Year by Julia Whelan
  • This was a fantastic romance novel. I looooved it so much. It was set in Oxford (obviously) and I just love the descriptions of the places in the book. Highly recommend this book to any fans of romance books. It’s got all the things! A foreign country, a hot TA, the English countryside, romance! All of the things that you need to have a great romance book.
• Stitches by David Small
  • Do you think that your parents are mean to you? This guys dad gave him cancer! Once it was discovered his parents lied to him about the cancer AND the surgery that he had to remove it! This book blew my mind. I still cannot believe that everything in it was all true.
• Jerusalem: Chronicles from the Holy City by Guy Delisle
  • This was a fascinating look into living in Jerusalem for a year. The art style was different from most graphic novels that I normally read, which was a nice departure. This book was a great read and I learned a lot about Jerusalem and the history of that place.
• Maus I: A Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History by Art Speigelman
  • This was one of the last books that I read last year and it really stuck with me. The story was really amazing and just plain hard to read at times. Because of the topic that it deals with (which I hadn’t read much about) it was, at times, something that I had to put down and think about. It’s a small book but it took me over a week to finish it.

That wraps up my 2018 year in review! I would love to hear what you thought about the books that I put on my list! What books did you love in 2018? Come let me know on Twitter or leave a comment here!