an enthusiastic reader | Best Reads of 2018 @anenthusiasticreader | Uploaded January 2019 | Updated October 2024, 12 hours ago.
Jennifer, Insert Literary Pun Here, talks in part about Prairie Fires youtube.com/watch?v=RWWvZosHGlY
Kendra Winchester, Prairie Fires youtube.com/watch?v=XVsRyZCdcx4&t=2s
New York Times essay about reading Iris Murdoch
nytimes.com/2019/01/03/books/in-praise-of-iris-murdoch.html
#bestof2018 #booktube
My writeup about reading in 2018:
Favorite New Novels
How to Be Safe, Tom McAllister
America’s fetishization of violence weighs on a community rocked by a school shooting. It’s not for everyone, but for readers who are okay exploring a dark and cynical view, it is relevant and biting.
That Kind of Mother, Rumaan Alam
This is a novel about trans-racial adoption, class, and a mother’s good intentions, which do not always work out.
Transit, Rachel Cusk
The second in a trilogy of sparse and spare novels about a writer’s life, with children, after divorce. Nothing happens in these novels, but I’m left with a lot to think about. I like that.
Red Clocks, Leni Zumas
In a near-future dystopia, women have no say about their reproductive or gynecological care. Four characters explore the natural consequences of new draconian laws.
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
Modern Tokyo, a woman who cannot conform to the social norms of her family and peers finds herself fitting in perfectly to corporate culture, then is challenged.
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday
A young woman has an affair with a Phillip Roth-type writer in one section. Then, an Iraqi-American grapples with confinement in a London airport. It sounds weird, but it’s about love, the creative process, and the choices that shape futures.
Circe, Madeline Miller
I like myth retellings, so this adaptation of The Odyssey from the point of view of an exiled daughter of a god brings new life to an old story. Female rage!
Who is Rich?, Matthew Klam
A writer’s marriage is teetering on collapse along with his finances, so he welcomes a teaching gig at a writer’s conference, away from the family. The core of this novel is about morality in various forms.
Improvement, Joan Silber
It’s a novel made up of stories from several points of view. One woman’s decision has repercussions for all of them. Silber understands her characters and human nature.
Favorite Re-reads
The Age of Grief, Jane Smiley
Old Filth, Jane Gardam
Howards End, EM Forster
Memoirs
Old in Art School, Nell Irvin Painter
Becoming, Michelle Obama
In Pieces, Sally Field
Educated, Tara Westover
Calypso, David Sedaris
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, Maggie O'Farrell
Nonfiction about Literature
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, Anne Boyd Rioux
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Fraser
Old Novels, New to Me
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Julia Strachey
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami
The Saga of Gosta Berling, Selma Lagerlof
Wildfire at Midnight, Mary Stewart
At Mrs Lippincote's, Elizabeth Taylor
Half a Lifelong Romance, Eileen Chang
Troubles, JG Farrell
A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
The Bell, Iris Murdoch
Jennifer, Insert Literary Pun Here, talks in part about Prairie Fires youtube.com/watch?v=RWWvZosHGlY
Kendra Winchester, Prairie Fires youtube.com/watch?v=XVsRyZCdcx4&t=2s
New York Times essay about reading Iris Murdoch
nytimes.com/2019/01/03/books/in-praise-of-iris-murdoch.html
#bestof2018 #booktube
My writeup about reading in 2018:
Favorite New Novels
How to Be Safe, Tom McAllister
America’s fetishization of violence weighs on a community rocked by a school shooting. It’s not for everyone, but for readers who are okay exploring a dark and cynical view, it is relevant and biting.
That Kind of Mother, Rumaan Alam
This is a novel about trans-racial adoption, class, and a mother’s good intentions, which do not always work out.
Transit, Rachel Cusk
The second in a trilogy of sparse and spare novels about a writer’s life, with children, after divorce. Nothing happens in these novels, but I’m left with a lot to think about. I like that.
Red Clocks, Leni Zumas
In a near-future dystopia, women have no say about their reproductive or gynecological care. Four characters explore the natural consequences of new draconian laws.
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata
Modern Tokyo, a woman who cannot conform to the social norms of her family and peers finds herself fitting in perfectly to corporate culture, then is challenged.
Asymmetry, Lisa Halliday
A young woman has an affair with a Phillip Roth-type writer in one section. Then, an Iraqi-American grapples with confinement in a London airport. It sounds weird, but it’s about love, the creative process, and the choices that shape futures.
Circe, Madeline Miller
I like myth retellings, so this adaptation of The Odyssey from the point of view of an exiled daughter of a god brings new life to an old story. Female rage!
Who is Rich?, Matthew Klam
A writer’s marriage is teetering on collapse along with his finances, so he welcomes a teaching gig at a writer’s conference, away from the family. The core of this novel is about morality in various forms.
Improvement, Joan Silber
It’s a novel made up of stories from several points of view. One woman’s decision has repercussions for all of them. Silber understands her characters and human nature.
Favorite Re-reads
The Age of Grief, Jane Smiley
Old Filth, Jane Gardam
Howards End, EM Forster
Memoirs
Old in Art School, Nell Irvin Painter
Becoming, Michelle Obama
In Pieces, Sally Field
Educated, Tara Westover
Calypso, David Sedaris
I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death, Maggie O'Farrell
Nonfiction about Literature
Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy: The Story of Little Women and Why It Still Matters, Anne Boyd Rioux
Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, Caroline Fraser
Old Novels, New to Me
Cheerful Weather for the Wedding, Julia Strachey
Wives and Daughters, Elizabeth Gaskell
Strange Weather in Tokyo, Hiromi Kawakami
The Saga of Gosta Berling, Selma Lagerlof
Wildfire at Midnight, Mary Stewart
At Mrs Lippincote's, Elizabeth Taylor
Half a Lifelong Romance, Eileen Chang
Troubles, JG Farrell
A God in Ruins, Kate Atkinson
The Bell, Iris Murdoch
