What are the BEST BOOKS you've read in 2018?

[hermetic]

Last edited Fri Oct 5, 2018, 09:16 AM - Edit history (1)

This is a traditional thread for you to use to list the most outstanding books you read during the year of 2018. They don't have to be books that were published in 2018, just whatever books you've read in 2018 that strike you as particularly noteworthy - the kind of book that will stick in your mind for a long time to come.

Have a piece of cake while you peruse.

(Yes, that is actually a cake. Found at http://cakewrecks.squarespace.com/)

[AlexSFCA]

1. the only book that matters is F&F

[iamateacher]

2. Lincoln in the Bardo

Great book by George Saunders

[mahina]

3. Paul Theroux's Deep South and Franken's Giant of the Senate.

Franken's book because I miss him and it feels good to read his voice.

Theroux's is a better read if I had to pick one.

Did you mean 2017?

[hermetic]

5. No

The thread for 2017's books is further downpage. Every year we keep a thread pinned at the top of the page for people to list their favorite books of the current year.

Thanks for posting. I will look for Deep South.

[shenmue]

4. Reading "Fire and Fury" on audiobook

It is soooooo good.

[hermetic]

6. Hag-Seed

"Margaret Atwood’s novel take on Shakespeare’s play of enchantment, retribution, and second chances leads us on an interactive, illusion-ridden journey filled with new surprises and wonders of its own."

I loved this retelling of The Tempest so much. Quite unique. Even the Acknowledgments chapter was fascinating.

Is extreme goodness always weak? Can a person be good only in the absence of power? The Tempest asks us those questions.

[lounge_jam]

17. Atwood

I love her works, although I'm yet to check this one out. I recently listened to AJ Homes' reading of Atwood's "Stone Mattress" (which was first published as a short story in the New Yorker), and it was bone-chilling. Perhaps it helped that I had read the story before, but listening to it being read out was entirely rewarding.

[hermetic]

18. That sounds great

Will for sure try to find it. I recently acquired The Heart Goes Last so I will be reading that one ere long.

[CrispyQ]

25. They did a series of Shakespeare "re-writes" by current authors.

http://hogarthshakespeare.com

I've only read "Hag-seed" because the others weren't out at the time. Thanks for the reminder about this!

[peggysue2]

7. Just finished . . .

Hi. Newbie to the group discussion though I've been a DU member for 2 years.

Good books I've read recently:

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah, a story where place--Alaska--is in fact a character in the narrative. It's a family story about lost dreams, abuse and survival. Very good read.

Also recently read American War by Omar El Akkad, a dystopian tale after the US has fractured along North/South borders and political sentiments. Scary, maybe a little too relevant at the moment.

I'm now about two-thirds through The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch. This was a difficult start, really wasn't sure I'd stick with it. But I did and found the narrative worthwhile, a very loose adaptation of Joan of Arc's story in a dystopian world where the Earth is dying. And so are we as a species. Grim but a work that underscores the endpoint of rampant consumerism and consumption in a world where a single woman embodies a connection to the Earth that's eternal, transcendent. Terrific writing, too if you're into that sort of thing--strong, visceral, take-no-prisoners writing style.

Next book up is Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Taking that one on vacation and really looking forward to the read. Love Saunders!

[hermetic]

8. Hi to you

Always happy to have a newbie in the group. We chat about books every week here in the top-pinned post. Your books all sound really good. I, too, am really looking forward to reading Lincoln in the Bardo someday soon. I have heard some parts of it read and it sounds marvelous.

[peggysue2]

9. Thanks, hermetic!

For the welcome. Do you have a particular day per week when discussions get started? Or do people just jump in after a topic is proposed?

Should be fun. I love talking books and writing. I'm primarily a fiction fan though I do read nonfiction.

Btw, the topic header on literary fiction = more empathic readers/people. I think the conclusions are absolutely true for character-driven fiction. The ability to slide behind the eyes and into the mind of an 'other' is where empathy starts. In fact, I would suggest all political types be required to read at least 3 literary novels a year to increase their empathy quotient.

We might see a difference in governing

[hermetic]

10. Every Sunday

See above where it says "What are you reading this week of March 4, 2018?" People come in at different times to add their latest. Most happens on Sundays but sometimes it stays pretty lively all week long.

This group is supposed to be for Fiction but occasionally someone will want to mention a non-fiction and that's okay. Just happy to see people reading books, or Kindles, or listening to audio books. All are welcome.

[peggysue2]

11. Good to know

Thanks again.

[peggysue2]

12. Lincoln in the Bardo

I took Saunders’ recent fiction on vacation—needed reading material for the four-hour flight to Arizona. I fully expected to fall in love with this novel. It had all the right things: right author, right subject material (Lincoln is always a worthy subject) and a quirky frame, a narrative about the living and the dead.

Yet the story did not fully fly for me.

The most evocative character was not Lincoln or young Willie but Lizzie Wright, a young, attractive mulatto woman steeped in silence after a life of physical and sexual abuse. Her story is painful to read but the narrative is effective, wenching and all too human, dead or alive. I wish the rest of the book was equally so. The other quirky, sad-sack characters, denizens of the Oak Hill Cemetery, didn’t move me much although there are moments of pathos and irony that are masterful. I wanted more of Lincoln; his characterization was just getting started by the book’s end. And Willie? He remained a pale ghost.

The elements are all there but I think Saunders got caught up in the whimsical styling of the text, which I found somewhat distracting, even annoying. I’m a big fan of fragments but not every other line. For me, the overall impact paled in comparison to say Thornton Wilder’s Our Town or the free-verse epitaph collection of Edgar Lee Masters, The Spoon River Anthology.

In fact, the experimental stye of the novel reminds me a lot of a flash fiction treatment, a form that I’ve read and written in the past—the quick pacing, the intermingling and parallel structure of elements (the fiction vs historical citations), the intense, compacted nature of the inner dialogues, the rich language use, etc. All of that had a familiar, flash fiction feel.

I just don’t think it works in a novel form.

That being said the book has received nothing but praise, readers, writers and critics alike. I think I read Saunders took the Man Booker Prize for this one. I’m rarely a contrarian on literary matters, so not liking the book really surprised me. However, Saunders is a very good short story writer in the way Flannery O’Connor excelled at the form. Yet the first novel O’Connor wrote (Wise Blood) was IMHO positively dreadful.

Being able to jump from short form to novel is a real challenge for a lot of writers. Others have done it, of course, but not all do it well. I’ll be interested in catching Saunder’s second novel if he chooses to write one.

But for the present? I’ll stick with his short stories.

[sueh]

13. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

The story kept me guessing the whole way.

[mainstreetonce]

14. The Guest Room

Bojalian

[The King of Prussia]

15. So far "Stickleback" by Mark Connors

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29389269-stickleback

Not the sort of thing I normally go for - but it's fantastic. The central character is brilliantly drawn - he has very few redeeming features, but you end up rooting for him nonetheless.

(I should declare an interest here - this was a set book at our local book group, and after we had read it we had the opportunity to discuss it with the author - who enjoyed the meeting so much that he has joined the group.)

"Alan Siddall" is a character that will live inside your head - if you give him the chance.

[hermetic]

20. Sounds good

I might just do that: give him the chance.

[lounge_jam]

16. My best of 2018

Hi, all! I'm new here, and I love threads like this. I see someone has mentioned Margaret Atwood here. I'm so glad about that. I really admire her works.

I'm currently trying to finish my proposal for post doctoral funding, and I intend to work on the Sociology of Marketing/Management. It is exciting and disillusioning at the same time. I mention my proposal because I have been reading a lot of published theses and have been assigned mandatory reading lists, too. Nonetheless, I managed to read some fiction this year. The best so far has been Hanif Kureishi's Intimacy, a chilling account of desertion and abandonment. It was written shortly after Kureishi walked out on his then wife, and it is unabashedly autobiographical. Insights and unsettling statements aplenty. Most importantly, my girlfriend said she'd like a break from our relationship after reading this. The book enabled us to have a very honest, if not always civil, conversation. On the other hand, I feel obligated to mention the long list of Finance-related readings I have been assigned by my post doc adivsors. I do not like the readings one bit; they do not interest me, and I find them extremely dry, but they have enabled me to come up with a chapter for my proposal called "Workplace Ethnograpy as Infiltration." And the chapter is a hit with my instructors. So, I shall suck it up!

[hermetic]

19. Hi!!

Welcome to DU and to our little book group. Nice to have you here.

Best of luck with your studies. I know that takes a lot of dedication and hard work.

Intimacy certainly sounds intriguing. While reading your link to The New Yorker I was thinking it sure sounded familiar. The review, not the book. Guess maybe I should try to find it.

[lounge_jam]

21. Thank you!

Thank you for the warm welcome. And I hope you have a very rewarding time reading Intimacy.

[Ohiya]

22. My top three...

Warlight by Michael Ondaatje

Transcription by Kate Atkinson

Ohio by Steven Markley

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

23. Prairie Fires, The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder.

by Caroline Fraser. It won the Pulitzer Prize.

It may be the best book I have ever read. I am 70 years old and read at least 100 books every year. This one was totally amazing.

[hermetic]

24. It was fun

looking back over these posts today. I managed to read of few of those myself. On to start a new year now.

[Ohiogal]

26. My two favorites from last year's reading were

"A Gentleman in Moscow" by Amor Towles

"Watership Down" by Richard Adams

[redstatebluegirl]

27. Becoming by Michele Obama.

No doubt!

[Tanuki]

28. The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund DeWaal

https://www.amazon.com/Hare-Amber-Eyes-Hidden-Inheritance/dp/0312569378

[Nevermypresident]

29. House of Trump House of Putin by Craig Unger

unbelievable read. Extremely well sourced.