Monday, February 4, 2019

2018 in Books

Here are the books I read (in order) in 2018 and my thoughts on them.

the light we lost book by jill santopolo



I think this was the most memorable read for me in 2018, a lot of it can be attributed to the situation / timing that I read it. I read it in one sitting (well technically two because it wasn't a direct flight) on a plane ride to Ohio. I read it at the recommendation of one my favorite friends which made me enjoy it even more. This was the first whole book I completed in a while and it made me feel v alive. This read a little like YA to me but I still enjoyed it immensely.



I don't really remember this one too well.. I remember that I liked it, I probably would've benefited from reading it over less time. The main character is a writer and I enjoyed the complexity of him and the writing stuff.

the sterile cuckoo by john nichols


I still need to watch the movie with Liza Minnelli. This was a simple yet still surprising story that made me nostalgic just for being younger at times. Like it reminded me of free time & warm days in college. The main character, Pookie was kind of annoying and very quirky.


I need to pay attention more. I've heard Lindy West on This American Life, I think multiple times and didn't put it together that she was the same person who wrote this book. I've never read a book that talked about being fat before so that was cool / new. I think of how Lindy described being on an airplane regularly when I fly now. There were parts that made me laugh and one part that made me tear up. Recommend as a beneficial read.


I had high hopes for this book because I kept seeing it online and heard that people liked it. I found Greer extremely unlikeable, like my least favorite female main character in any book I've ever read. The book felt too YA and was really predictable. Greer seemed really bratty / rude to her friends and barely interacted with the Faith person. The biggest feminist in the book to me was the boyfriend and his actions / feelings made me feel like he was a genuinely good person and ultimately grew.



I don't think I've read many books by an old person so that perspective was cool. Le Guin was funny but also seemed like she was on the defensive a lot. Normally with books like this, and this is not a negative thing, I can't help but love the author. Anytime a writer shares their inner thoughts on aspects of human life i can't help but feel empathy and love them but this was not the case with this author but that was also kinda cool that maybe she didn't feel the need to have to become likeable? Recently I saw a thing online on Le Guin's writing routine

ursula le guin's writing  routine
ursula le guin's writing routine. not sure if it's true





This book was a great slow read. It was nice to just read carefully and enjoy the words with a glass of wine. It was very appealing to all senses. I listened to part of this on an car ride and highly recommend that too because you can listen to all the words better. My mom read this before me and really loved it too.

educated by tara westover



I got sooo into this. I think I finished this over a weekend. Really bizarre childhood's & upbringings are extremely interesting to me so this did not disappoint. I stalked some of the authors family members on facebook after reading this. I was also slightly skeptical of the narrator, I forget what made me feel that way. 


I picked this up immediately after Educated. I thought the parents in Educated were much "worse" than the parents in this book. There were a few very tender moments with the parents in this book and I loved how much the kids liked reading etc. The parents were also pretty funny characters. I started watching the movie but didn't finish it. Highly recommend this and Educated.


The family in this moves to Alaska. The dad really sucks and is kind of just annoying the whole time and makes you stressed out like "ugh what is he going to do next". The book was pretty "meh" to me, like the characters weren't too interesting and I wasn't that engaged in the story but something at the very end made me get way more into it. Like it kind of seemed annoying how all these bad things kept happening like tooo extreme / not believable but at the end I started caring about the main people and it ended on a good note for me.

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