I meant to read fifty books this year but I only made it to forty-six whole ones. I don’t finish books I don’t enjoy, and except for one by a dead author that I had to read for work, I enjoyed every single one on this list in varying degrees enough to not throw across the room. (Just kidding I would never throw a book except that I have thrown a book and I will throw a book again if one makes me mad enough.)

Back to my 2018 reading, listed here in the order in which I read them. Check out all the cool memoirs. Spent, I’m Just Happy to Be Here, The Year of Yes, The Thorn Necklace, and One Bright Morning I’ll Fly Away are particularly worthwhile.

Survivor Cafe by Elizabeth Rosner is an important piece of in-depth scholarship about the legacy of trauma that is mixed with heart-wrenching memoir and you should read it if you haven’t.

Short story collections The New Order, Florida and You May See a Stranger are especially rewarding.

Erika Mailman is always fantastic for historical fiction.

David Joy, Gabino Iglesias, Sarah Nicole Lemon, and Claudia Dey are authors I will be following forever with great anticipation.

I’m already rereading Heartbreaker by Claudia Dey, trying to figure out how she did that.

There is mostly a lot of disturbing horror/thriller action on my 2018 book list so watch out if you are perusing my list for recommendations. Child Finder, White Tears, Hex, My Absolute Darling, The Visitors, Any Man and Coyote Songs will mess you up if you aren’t used to that kind of thing. Ellen Datlow’s annual round up of the best horror shorts of the year will also send you straight to the nervous hospital unless you know what you’re getting into.

(If you haven’t read Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward yet and you live in the United States of America, it’s time to read Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward.)

I mean to read fifty books in 2019. I have two tips that I followed in 2018 that I will continue to practice in order to reach my goal in the new year.

Tip #1: I will only read what I feel like reading.

Tip #2:  Monday, also known as Reading Monday, is for reading only. If Reading Monday stretches into Reading Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then that’s the way it oughta be don’t @ me.

My 2018 reading:

Survivor Café by Elizabeth Rosner

One Bright Morning, I’ll Fly Away by Alice Anderson

The Visitors by Catherine Burns

History of Wolves by Emily Fredlund

The Child Finder by Rene Denfeld

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

Thunderstruck by Elizabeth McCracken

The Perfect Nanny by Leilani Silmani

Piecing Me Together by Renee Watson

Spent by Antonia Crane

My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tenant

I’m Just Happy to Be Here: A Memoir of Renegade Mothering by Janelle Hanchett

We Are Called to Rise by Laura McBride

Winter’s Bone by Daniel Worded

Faithful by Alice Hoffman

A Thorn Necklace by Francesca Lia Block

Arcadia by Lauren Groff

The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin

Dirt Done Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon

White Tears by Hari Kunzru

Witch’s Trinity by Erika Mailman

Round Midnight by Laura McBride

Pioneer Girl by Bich Minh Nguyen

The Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes

Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan

A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

The New Testament by Jericho Brown

Any Man by Amber Tamblyn

Dark Sparkler by Amber Tamblyn

Florida by Lauren Groff

Best Horror Stories of the Year Vol. 8 edited by Ellen Datlow

True Stories from an Unreliable Eyewitness by Christine Lahti

How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater by Kurt Vonnegut

Zero Saints by Gabino Iglesias

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Line that Held Us by David Joy

Hearbreaker by Claudia Rey

The Murderer’s Maid by Erika Mailman

You May See a Stranger by Paula Whyman

The Seas by Samantha Hunt

Coyote Songs by Gabino Iglesias

Don’t Skip Out On Me by Willy Vlautin

The New Order by Karen Bender