Books Read in 2018
This year, I read more than 60 books, which is a new high for me since I’ve been keeping track starting in 2009. On a Word document on my computer, I keep a chronological list of what I’ve read, and I find it fascinating to see how I move from one book to another, remembering why I finished, say, Margaret Atwood and then next picked up Edith Wharton. Sometimes there is a logic to it, and sometimes not. Sometimes I have to remind myself why I read a particular book.
And I write that as I’ve gotten much better at giving up on a book I don’t like. I give a book about 75 pages and if I’m actively thinking “This is terrible” I leap ahead, skim the last three chapters, and put it away. I haven’t included the books I gave up on, but there were more than a few.
In addition to these books, of course, there are all the submissions I read for Boulevard and Story. And the New York Times and Columbus Dispatch on the weekends, the New Yorker, and all the online reading I do, particularly Vox and The Athletic. That’s a lot of reading! Anyway, here’s what I read in alphabetical order (probably) with some additional thoughts at the end.
2018
All the Pieces Matter: Inside The Wire by Jonathan Abrams
Afterglow by Eileen Myles
All That Is by James Salter
Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
And It Begins Like This by LaTanya McQueen
Asymmetry by Lisa Halliday
Atypical Cells of Undetermined Significance by Brenna Womer
Basketball: A Love Story by Jackie MacMullan, Rafe Bartholomew, and Dan Klores
Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson
The Bed Moved: Stories by Rebecca Schiff
Blue Stars by Emily Gray Tedrowe
Bright Lights, Big City by Jay McInerney
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Chicago by Brian Doyle
Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine
Crapalachia by Scott McClanahan
Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in A Distracted World by Cal Newport
The Destiny Thief: Essays by Richard Russo
The Devoted by Blair Hurley
Dynastic, Bombastic, Fantastic: Reggie, Rollie, Catfish, and Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s by Jason Turbow
Edinburgh by Alexander Chee
Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi
Flood by Melissa Scholes Young
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Future is History: How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia by Masha Gessen
The German Army, 1933-1945, Volume 1 by Matthew Cooper
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
Golden Days: West’s Lakers, Steph’s Warriors, and the California Dreamers Who Reinvented Basketball by Jack McCallum
Good Bones by Maggie Smith
Glass House: The 1% Economy and the Shattering of the All-American Town by Brian Alexander
Grant by Ron Chernow
A Green Line Between Green Fields by Steve Abbott
Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami
How to be Safe by Tom McAllister
How to Survive a Summer by Nick White
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
Hunger by Roxane Gay
Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese
Kudos by Rachel Cusk
The Last Place You Look by Kristen Lepionka
The Last Shift: Poems by Philip Levine
The Last Republicans: Inside the Extraordinary Relationship Between George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush by Mark K. Updegrove
Late to the Ball by Gerald Marzoratti
Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
A Lucky Man: Stories by Jamel Brinkley
The Monopolists: Obsession, Fury, and the Scandal Behind the World’s Favorite Board Game by Mary Pilon
My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
No One is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts
O, Democracy! by Kathleen Rooney
Outline by Rachel Cusk
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Personal Days by Ed Park
Pinball, 1973 by Haruki Murakami
The Revenant by Michael Punke
The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt
Sharp: The Women Who Made an Art of Having an Opinion by Michelle Dean
Soon The Light Will Be Perfect by Dave Patterson
Soy Sauce for Beginners by Kirsten Chen
Sweet and Low: Stories by Nick White
Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now by Jaron Lanier
Tracks by Louise Erdrich
Transit by Rachel Cusk
Tripwire by Lee Child
The Unraveling of Mercy Lewis by Keija Parssinen
The Weight of Him by Ethel Rohan
—–
The best book I read this year was Giovanni’s Room, which I read in one day while on vacation on Lake Michigan this past July. Baldwin has had a renaissance in the last few years, including a fantastic documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, that I cannot recommend highly enough. Point is, you should add some Baldwin to your reading list. If nothing else, read his majestic short story “Sonny’s Blues” which I think is one of the very best American short stories ever written (yes, really)
The book that I’ve most recommended to people is Pachinko. I love big, ambitious, pageturners (The Goldfinch, Cloud Atlas, A Little Life) of a literary bent, and this one definitely fits that aesthetic.
Second would be The Devoted. I met Blair for the first time when I was back in St. Louis for a book festival, and we swapped books. I have to admit, a story of a young woman having an affair with her Zen master didn’t immediately rope me in, but by the end of chapter one, I was hooked. It’s a fascinating exploration of devotion, obsession, and forgiveness, with powerful and memorable characters and real thematic resonance.
In a recent email/text exchange, I discussed with a friend of mine how many of the most hyped books of 2018 weren’t just disappointing, but flat out bad books. No, I am not calling them out (don’t be such a gossip, people!) but hype and quality did not go hand-in-hand this year. Except for this really great debut in February. That one was pretty good.
Follow Michael on Twitter: @mpnye