So… I just realized that I never got around to writing a blog post about my favorite books from 2018. Oops. Here’s the post from 2017, in case you are interested.
Also, I realized something about myself - I tend to be an all or nothing type of gal when it comes to reading. I’ll either read 5-10 books a month or none. If I get on a role I can crank through an audiobook in very little time. But then there will be a month or two in which I barely read anything. This ebb and flow tends to correlate with stress. When I’m feeling overwhelmed, reading is the first thing to go. When life is good and things are moving smoothly I’ll crank through books. Am I the only one like this?
My 9 Favorite Books from 2018:
1:: My Year of Running Dangerously by Tom Foreman - nonfiction
For anyone who has ever been swept up in the marathon hoopla this book is for you. It’s all about Tom as he picks up running again after years at the request of his daughter, and how that one little ask lead to a year of marathons, half marathons, and endurance running, while balancing a career and family. I enjoyed this from start to finish and read it in one weekend.
2:: First Life by Gena Showalter - fiction
Everyone is required to pick a side for their second life. You must pick between the noble but rule-bound empire to the pleasure-filled empire. But if you are unsigned, both sides will vie for you attention and you’ll have a heck of a time deciding. The correlations to heaven and hell and more than apparent, but it was such a creative way of presenting this theme in a young adult novel that I was hooked from the first chapter.
3:: It Worked for Me: in life and leadership by Colin Powell - autobiography
This guys should run for president - that’s all I thought as I listed to this book chronicling his life and the lessons he wants to pass on to others about leadership. I’ve used many a quote from this book in talks I’ve given over the last year.
4:: Caraval by Stephanie Garber - fiction
I love a good fantasy young adult novel, so this was right up my alley, especially with a little intrigue and romance mixed in. Two sisters and a sailor enter the famed Caraval hoping to win the game and win the promised wish. But things and people are not what they seem and winning might be more complicated than what they thought. It’s such a magical world you are immediately drawn into the magic that is caraval.
5:: The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas - fiction
This is probably my favorite book from all of 2018. It was beautiful, gripping and eye-opening for this middle class white girl. The book centers around a young black girl who watches her friend get gunned down by a white cop and has to deal with the fall out - in her family, in her black community and at her mostly white private school. It’s now a movie, which I haven’t seen, but this book is so worth the read whether you have seen the movie or not.
6:: Matched by Ally Condie - fiction
You know I love a good dystopian young adult book. In this society, every aspect of your life is controlled - from your marriage to your profession. But one girl accidentally sees two different boys as her marriage match and now she needs to figure out what this means. Does she marry her best friend or the foreigner she grew up near but didn’t know much about?
7:: Make Your Bed by Admiral William McRaven - nonfiction
Based on the graduation speech he gave by the same name, this book expounds more about his major tenants in life and what each person should do to try to succeed. Loved this for its practical suggestions as well as his personal experiences that he filters in to illustrate the point.
8:: 168 Hours by Laura Vanderkam - nonfiction
To be honest, I thought this was the biggest joke in the first couple chapters. A colleague recommended it to me and I was like, I am super focused on using my time well so this isn’t going to be anything. But I ended up loving this book and have recommended it to so many people. It’s all about how we can use our 168 hours every week really well. The author uses real people to show how you can get more out of your 168 hours. But what I found most interesting was the need to focus on core competencies and leave the rest behind or find a way to outsource that. This single idea has informed so much of what I do with my time in 2019. Here’s the blog post about 10 Time Management Hacks that was inspired by this book.
9:: Being Mortal by Atul Gawande - nonfiction
Written by a doctor, who is the son of two doctors, about end of life care, this book is all about how we need to rewrite the narrative for these moments and think about what is really best for these people. While I am not there yet with my own parents, it gave me a lot of things to begin talking about with them as well as my grandma who is still alive and sauntering around in her high heels and red hair at 90.
What did you read last year, or this year that you love? What should I add to my list?
In case you were wondering… these pics revolve around a Madeleine L’Engle book that I loved in high school. It was this book that made me really want to be a writer. Shoutout to Maria from RedHead Creative Studio for these pics, which we took at the Harold Washington Library last month.
