10 Buzzy Books to Read in 2018!
I have a thing for trying to guess which fiction books are going to be on the "best of the year" lists and I want to read them in the year they were published. In 2016 I loved All the Ugly and Wonderful Things and in 2017 my favorite was The Hearts' Invisible Furies (both picked for the BOTM favorite books of the year, too). So far for 2018- my favorite book of the year slot is wide open (although, An American Marriage is up there...) So I'm sharing a list of 10 fiction books I want to read by the end of the year so I can make sure I've gotten to most of the contenders for the 'best'. The criteria for making this list aren't definite, but in general, I'm looking for something that's buzzy, that has won awards, that's culturally significant, and/or is of the time.
Here's what's on my list! (And let me know in the comments if I've missed anything!)
Less | Andrew Sean Greer | Early on, this has won all of the awards. This made my list because I'm always interested in reading stories from underrepresented perspectives and from men and women who are of a certain age who are not pursuing the 'traditional' path of having a family.
A Place For Us | Fatima Farheen Mirza | The first book in SJP's imprint! And a debut #ownvoices novel that paints a picture about what its like to be an American family today. An Indian American Muslim family celebrates the wedding of their eldest daughter, the youngest brother reuniting with his family after not having been around for three years. And the Goodreads rating is up there- 4.26 average!
The Book of Essie | Meghan MacLain Weir | I'm a sucker for reality TV. An evangelist version of the Kardashians finds their youngest daughter, Essie, pregnant, and calamity ensures. Everybody is in on the conversation about how Essie should handle the pregnancy except Essie herself. The cover makes it look like this will be a dense read, but I was hooked from the very first sentence.
The Death of Mrs Westaway | Ruth Ware | Thrillers are my favorite genre but, unless they're very unique, they tend not to stick with me. That said, I've been hearing amazing things about Ruth Ware's latest- and some people are calling this their favorite of hers- so I can't wait to grab it.
There There | Tommy Orange | When Liberty Hardy tells you that this is " the most important American novel of 2018", you listen.
The Astonishing Color of After | Emily X. R. Pan | Leigh Chen Sanders is certain of two things- that the night she kissed her best friend Axel, her mother died from depression/suicide, and that her mother has now come back as a bird. I won't lie. This is totally outside of my comfort zone- YA, grief fiction with a bit of magical realism. But again, I can't ignore the high rating and recommendations from some of my favorite readers so I want to give it a go.
The Great Believers | Set in Chicago and in the vein of The Hearts Invisible Furies. Yup.
The Great Alone | Kristin Hannah | This might be one that I'll DNF, but if I'm really trying to pick out the best books of 2018 it would be wrong to leave this one off the list. A former POW from the Vietnam war makes an impulsive decision to move his family to Alaska and live off the grid. I have yet to read a Kristin Hannah book, but she's so well respected I feel like I have to try.
Vox | Christina Dalcher | Oh, this is a book that's going to make you think. In this dystopian future, women are limited to 100 words a day. Going over that gets you severely shocked- 'if you only had 100 words a day, what would you do to be heard?'
Childen of Blood and Bone | Tomi Adeyeme | Children of Blood and Bone has been chosen as the first book in the Tonight Show Summer Reads series. It's got magic, a diverse cast of characters, and an uprising led by a female protagonist with ambition to topple the abusive patriarchy with the help of rogue princess.
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