2018 Year in Review

Sorry for the brief and unannounced hiatus. Long story short: my computer charger broke and I needed to get a new one, but I kept putting it off. So here I am three weeks later and pushing it a little too close with an end of the year wrap up.

2018 was a big year for me coming into adulthood. I moved out, got an apartment with my boyfriend and have been struggling to be financially independent ever since.

As far as reading goes, 2018 was the year of the library. I got to loads of new releases this year, most of them I absolutely adored and some I really didn’t care for. We’ll get into the books in just a second but before we do that I wanted to take a look at my 2018 Goodreads Reading Challenge. This year I read a total of 10 out of 12 books. I’m pretty happy with these results, especially considering that I got a late start to my reading year. I didn’t read a lot in the first months of 2018 until the beginning of summer. June was about the time I started using my library and it was about the same time that I fell back in love with reading. Looking forward to 2019, I expect I can surpass this reading goal by a pretty big margin, if I can start the year off right.

But this post isn’t about 2019, we’re looking at the books I read in 2018, what I thought of them and how they impacted me. This list will be organized in chronological order starting with February 2018.

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde

★★★★

I remember reading this and understanding the merit of it and even appreciating it for what it was but I also remember that I didn’t really like this book nor did I enjoy reading it. Why I gave this book ⅘ stars is beyond me, I think the reasonable explanation for this screw up is that I felt obligated to love this book and I just didn’t. I think we need to consider giving this one a second chance.

Borderlands/La Frontera: The New Mestiza by Gloria Anzaldua

★★★★★

Technically I read this for school. Technically I’ve been meaning to read this for years. So here it is. This is such a fundamental and foundational text about the culture and history of women in Latinx communities. This book holds a special place in my heart, for teaching me about my heritage and the iconic female characters that shaped it. For any and all Chicanx women this is a must read.

The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

★★★★★

You had to see this one coming. This book has to be one of my absolute favorites this year. I read some good books, but this one takes the cake. I read this one back in June, and it was the book that got me out of my reading slump. It smacked me right across the face. For such a small book it has a lot to offer. It influenced the way I write and think about identity and performance. Needless to say I will be rereading this one again in 2019.

Awayland by Ramona Ausubel

★★★

This short story collection was a huge disappointment to me but I couldn’t give it a lower rating because I thoroughly enjoy Ausubel’s writing and I loved some of the stories in this collection. All and all, I still think A Guide to Being Born is one of her better works and in desperate need of a reread in 2019. If you like your short stories to be more realist then I absolutely think you’ll love Awayland more than I seemed to.

Three Things About Elsie by Joanna Cannon

★★★★

I loved this book and I can’t imagine why I didn’t give it 5/5 stars. This was one of my first reviews on here and in it I talk about some of the fundamental problems with the ending of this novel. But looking back that didn’t change how I felt about the rest of the novel. Three Things About Elsie is a very sweet story about an old lady named Frances and her best friend Elsie. This book reminded me of my best friend and our friendship but mostly it reminded me of my grandma her stubbornness and her spunk. What I expected to be a very difficult, too close to home kind of read from this novel was more tender hearted and gentle than I could ever have imagined.

West by Carys Davies

★★

We’re not going to spend a lot of time talking about this one. Undoubtedly it was the worst books I read this year. I’ve talked in detail about my issues with this book in a review which you can read here. All you need to know is that West left a funny taste in my mouth. Whether it was the sexual fantasy and violence of a minor or the portrayal of Native Americans it was all done in bad taste. None of which was necessary? I seriously wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

There There by Tommy Orange

★★★★★

This debut blew me away, it’s pretty great. Not perfect but some of its flaws weren’t worth me knocking it down a peg or two. It’s a great debut and those are hard to come by. I for one loved the way this book was written in vignettes and I loved getting to read so many different and diverse perspectives and see how they related to one another. Tommy Orange tackles so many difficult topics like substance abuse, sexual violence, violence against women and children, physical and emotional abuse, racism, sexuality, and disability. It’s a pretty amazing feat to discuss all these issues so respectfully and honestly and I think that’s what makes this book so good.

Red Clocks by Leni Zumas

★★★

Ugh this book, I’ve given up on trying to defend this book, because while I think there’s more to it I don’t want to be disappointed when I learn there’s not. This book was just disappointing and I didn’t understand the praise it was getting? It just felt like another white feminist dystopian novel, it was regressive and stale. I know that’s harsh but I’m kind of over it?

Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot

★★★★★

I’ll admit here, that I did not like this book at first and I don’t have a very good reason for that, I just didn’t. Eventually, I started to appreciate Mailhot’s story and the way she told it with unapologetic honesty. I think this book to some time for me to settle into, because I saw myself in her writings to her husband and that was very frustrating for me. It made so that I didn’t Mailhot the attention she deserved. This book showed me a lot in the way I read memoirs and how maybe, I should approach them differently.

A Winter’s Promise by Christelle Dabos

★★★★

Last one everybody! This book was a great one to end the year on. It’s an easy read for anyone looking for something cozy for the winter months. If you’re ever in the mood for fantasy than I recommend you give this one a go. I’m not going to spout on and on about how I didn’t love this book for yada-yada, because it’s just a fantasy novel and a really good one at that. It is surprisingly fresh and plays off a lot of annoying and problematic tropes in YA and YA fantasy specifically.