The best books I read in 2018

I read 64 books in 2018, which means I read more than my goal of one book a week. Only six of them were books I re-read, which is my lowest re-read percentage in years.

Top 5 fiction books I read for the first time in 2018

Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust - Queer YA fairy tale retelling. It's a really well built story, there's queer identity discovery that's organically built into the larger story, and the solution of the ending was everything I wanted.

Far From the Tree by Robin Benway - If you like crying over feelings about families, adoption, and learning to let people in, this excellent YA novel is for you.

The Passion of Dolssa by Julie Berry - Historical YA about a female mystic and the people trying to protect her from the Inquisition in 13th century southern France. Totally engrossing, and heavy on strong female friendship.

The Good House by Tananarive Due - Small town supernatural/horror that I couldn't put down. I've thought about the ending off and on since I read it in September. Content notes for all kinds of supernatural, physical, and sexual violence.

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge - Really excellent Victorian era science-related YA murder mystery with a potentially supernatural element and feminist themes.

Top 2 non-fiction books I read in 2018

Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood - This memoir made me laugh out loud, cry, and marvel at her use of language.

The Prodigal Tongue: The Love-Hate Relationship Between American and British English by Lynne Murphy - Hilarious, informative, and well-sourced. I also highly recommend her blog, which I've been reading for over a decade.

Top 5 books I read and then thought about a lot in 2018

The Girl in the Road by Monica Byrne - I finished this book and thought, "Huh, weird." It was very well-written and engrossing, and it had some really interesting ideas in it that I keep thinking about. Content notes for murder and sexual violence.

The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos - One of the alternating viewpoint characters is a naive teenage girl being groomed for abuse by a predatory teacher, which is obvious to the reader but not the character and very uncomfortable to read. The book, like her others, is very well-written, and I did keep thinking about it.

The Leavers by Lisa Ko - I thought it was really well written, and I liked the ending, but I didn't enjoy reading it. It was very unsentimental and pretty grim in parts. I have thought about it a lot since I read it.

The Last Hundred Years Trilogy (Some Luck, Early Warning, and Golden Age) by Jane Smiley - I read this entire trilogy, which follows a family through a century, in a week. I read the first one for my general interest, not sci fi, book club, and I was not expecting the last book to include a realistic, grim climate change apocalypse theme. I've thought about that aspect, as well as the various family member's stories, especially Henry's, off and on since I read it.

A Gift Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren - This is an older post-apocalyptic novel, which means the apocalypse is nuclear warfare instead of climate change. I'm not sure I quite bought the unquestioning nature of the premise of the story, but I did think about it a lot and we had an interesting book club discussion about it.

2018 Year in Review - Goals

Big Goals/Intentions

Writing. I dove into a new fandom and ended up writing some for that. A lot of that has been really fun to write, so I think that's getting to what I was looking for with this.

Connection. This year I had three tabs to my goals tracking worksheet. I put strengthen connections on the weekly one and strengthen local connections on the monthly one. Those rows are so full! One book club met every month and the other almost every month. We had family dinners every month my parents were in town. I went to protests and Costco and dance performances with my mom. I hung out with people from both my book clubs outside of book club at dinners and lunches and movies and parties. I emailed with friends every week. I visited with friends who came to town. I had dinner with my yoga class a handful of times. All of this made me really happy.

God. I'm still not sure how to really incorporate this into my life in a consistent, ongoing way. I was enjoying the monthly contemplative service until the rabbi started reading a book about the divine feminine and bringing ideas about the divine feminine and the divine masculine and the "divine marriage" of the two into the service (as a lesbian who believes in the full humanity of trans and nonbinary people, I'm opposed to the unnecessary binary gendering of the divine). There is imagery from one of her guided meditations from last year that I've found helpful to keep in mind. I also started doing the visualization from Danielle LaPorte's Light Scanning Contemplation semi-regularly (sometimes just thinking my way through it, sometimes listening to it). I find it's a helpful way to get the filled up with light feeling I was looking for with this goal, and I frequently write a bunch easily after I've done it.

Singing/Chanting. I felt much less self-conscious about singing around the house this year, which is good! I also make an effort to find things to sing along to in the car on the way to work as a good start to my day. (I am that person singing and dancing in my car at stop lights.)


Practical Things To Take Care Of

I kept up with weekly check-ins, and took at least a few days off each quarter. I did get to leave my town for one quick overnight to the Bay Area with my mom to see the San Francisco Ballet, which was awesome. I did not get the gum grafts done, but I've eaten a few things this month that made my teeth hurt, so this has to be a for sure thing to do next year.


Stop Doing

I did a pretty good job of not doing these things. Success!


Bonus Accomplishment

During the smoke from the Carr Fire in the summer, I figured out using the treadmill for my morning walk (including triumphing over the weight/dieting culture aspect of the displays as much as possible). It's not as good as going outside for various reasons, but it gives me an option when it's smoky, raining, or cold outside.