My Top Reading Picks of 2018

These are the books that stuck with me for 2018.  They all are amazing reads

The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah
I am a big fan of Kristin but I always ended up needing tissues for her reads.

Beartown
This is a book I wouldn't have picked up but Modern Mrs Darcy's Book Flight had me reading it. So glad I did.

Educated by Tara Westover
This true story is incredible.

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan

This is part of of county's Whatcom Reads.  This is a book I wouldn't of picked up on my own. It is extremely topical in light of all the really really big fires that have happened in the last year. It is really worth the read. I have to say parts of this book have haunted me.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan
I also enjoyed the book and movie. I am still waiting to read the sequels.

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
I heard this is going to be turned into a movie.  I can't wait. This was a pick by Reese Witherspoon

Booking It December

I seem to read in procrastination of doing all the other things I should be doing.  Anyone else do that?  I am linking up with the Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading too.

The Home for Unwanted Girls by Joanna Goodman  -This book is actually based on historical events.  In Canada orphanages were turned into mental institutions. The setting is 1950's Quebec. I thought this was interesting and compelling story but graphic in some places.

Sourdough or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market by Robin Sloan. This is a quirky book and I enjoyed it.  Lois a tech company employee is left some sourdough starter by two brothers who run a hole in the wall delivery restaurant. Lois has many adventures learning to make sourdough and life that the starter takes on. Robin Sloan also wrote Mr Penumbra's 24 hour Bookstore.You really should read this while eating sourdough bread. It made me want to try making sourdough again. You can read about my previous sourdough adventures here. The non fiction book 52 Loaves -A Half Baked Adventure by William Alexander would make an interesting book flight

Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens was one of Reese Witherspoon's book club picks.  Kya is raised in the swamp and as a young girl is abandoned there as well. Kya grows to love the marshland. A man is found marshland dead suspicion turns to Kya. This had a twist ending.  It was a lovely book and a quick read. I would consider this one of my top reads of 2018.

November Reading

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy.  Check out what everyone else is reading. My reading has picked up with the cooler weather.

The Assistants by Camille Perri is a quick chick lit read.  It about a assistant who fails to return a check for over payment from boss and instead uses it to pay off her student loans.  Another assistant finds out and things begin to snowball.  This is a good, entertaining, chick lit book. Maybe slightly implausible but love the girl power angle.

The Lost Ones by Sheena Kamal - Got this pick off the Hot Picks table at the library.  Sometimes I think I have fatal attraction with this table at the library.

It begins with a phone call that Nora Watts has dreaded for fifteen years—since the day she gave up her newborn daughter for adoption. Bonnie has vanished. The police consider her a chronic runaway and aren’t looking for her, leaving her desperate adoptive parents to reach out to her birth mother as a last hope.

A biracial product of the foster system, transient, homeless, scarred by a past filled with pain and violence, and cursed with unnervingly dark eyes that absorb the light around them—and can pierce deep into a person’s soul—Nora knows intimately what happens to vulnerable girls on the streets. Caring despite herself, she sets out to find Bonnie with her mutt, Whisper, as her only companion. While she risks reopening wounds that have never really healed, she plunges into the darkness with little to protect her but her instincts and a freakish ability to detect truth from lies.

The search uncovers a puzzling conspiracy that leads Nora on a harrowing journey of deception and violence, from the gloomy rain-soaked streets of Vancouver to the icy white mountains of the Canadian interior, to the beautiful and dangerous island where she will face her most terrifying demon. All to save a girl she wished had never been born. - Amazon 

The setting is Vancouver, BC and I don't live far from the Canadian Border and Vancouver so I think this is what initially drew me to this book. It did keep me reading though I thought the author was trying to do a little too much with the plot.  The topics covered - Alcoholism, Racism, Adoption, Stem Cells

Without You, There is No Us by Suki Kim

This is a true story. It is Suki Kim's memoir about being a teacher to the North Korean Elite Children right before the end of Kim Jong-il's reign. Suki Kim was a journalist basically posing a teacher at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology with a Christian Missionary Group contracted to teach these children.  I found this fascinating look at the children's lives and the general life of North Koreans.

October Reading

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit.  Check out what everyone else is reading.

My reading has slowed to a trickle but I did manage to squeeze out one book.

Walk to Beautiful by Jimmy Wayne is his story about his life and his connection to foster care.  Jimmy Wayne is also a country music star and just as his career was about to take off when he decided to walk from Nashville to Arizona to raise awareness about foster care and those who were about to age out the system.  I love Jimmy Wayne's heart. Jimmy Wayne was lucky to be taken in by an older couple in his teenage years.  It saved his life. Jimmy had this to say about them, " Bea and Russell didn't talk about loving God and loving people, they just did it."

September Reading

I am linking up to the Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading.

I seem to be stuck in a golden age non fiction reading binge.  Earlier this year I read the Big Burn which is our county's reading book for 2019. Well, I ended up reading, The Last Castle by Denise Kiernan about the Biltmore.  I thought it was fascinating and because I read the Big Burn some of the big historical figures of the time also were big influencers on the forest surrounding the Biltmore such as Gifford Pinchot. George Vanderbilt built this massive house but it was really his wife and later their son in law John Cecil which allowed it to be the nation's largest privately owned home. I haven't had the opportunity to visit the Biltmore.

I guess my reading this month could also be summarized as books about really really rich people. I can not lie, I read books about the rich. I read Crazy Rich Asians. This book didn't disappoint.  I can see how this could made into a movie. I haven't seen the movie yet. Anyone seen the movie?

What I Read August

I am linking up to Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit.  Check out what everyone else is reading.

Yes, it is a Danielle Steel book - Fall From Grace.  Sometimes I need predictable and this one had a decent story line about a return to work widow trying to get back into the fashion industry.  When my life gets stressful I just want to read something easy and doesn't require to much work on my part.  Anyone else like that?  I guess I am an escapist. IS THIS A LITERARY SIN?

The Book of Essie has had a lot of buzz.  Essie, the main character,  is part of reality show based on her religious family.  But is the show really reality especially when Essie becomes pregnant out of wedlock.  Will she expose her family secrets?  I admit I kinda enjoy watching Counting On and Bringing Up Bates and there is some food for thought in there about these kinds of shows as well. I thought it was an interesting read.

The Last Suppers by Mandy Mikulencuk
This was an impulse pick up at the library. It is about the cook,Ginny Polk, who serves the last suppers for the inmates on Louisiana Death Row in the 1950s. This is a work of total fiction.  There is a lot about complicated relationships with her mother, father who had been a prison guard and the current warden. I thought it was a quick interesting read.  It had some surprising twists. 

What I Read in July

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy. Check out what everyone else is reading.

My reads this past month were on the heavier side with two non fiction books and 1 historical fiction. The very slim commonality between the non fiction books is both involve National Parks and National Park Rangers. This could almost be a book flight.

Pilgrim's Wilderness

True story about Papa Pilgrim and his move to a homestead with his 15 children located in a National Park.  The book talks how Papa Pilgrim's beliefs conflicted with the National Park Service and the stand off he had with the park service.  Papa Pilgrim has a dark past and later the abuse of his family members is revealed.

The Big Burn by Timothy Egan is our local county's all read - Whatcom Reads.  I don't know if I would of picked up this book on my own.  I found it a fascinating history about the formation of the National Parks and the struggle in the beginning to manage large amounts of land by few rangers and specifically this details the fire of 1910 that swept through Washington, Idaho, and Montana. The author really did a great job of profiling Gifford Pinchot, Chief Forester and Teddy Roosevelt and their vision of National Parks and Conservation.  The fire of 1910 was devastating to the forest and mountain communities. The books does cover specifically what rangers and firefighters did to stay alive during the fire.  I admit I had a few dreams/nightmares about fires while reading this. It also details the heroic efforts the rangers or Little G.P.'s made during the fire including the efforts of a ranger named Pulaski which centered around the town of Wallace, Idaho.  There is a fire fighting tool that Pulaski created after the fires that still in use to today.  It is called the Pulaski which is a head on a handle that contains the axe and hoe (adze) Roosevelt and Pinchot were the first to use the word conservation and believed the forest were for the people not the timber barons. Roosevelt and Pinchot firmly believed with enough rangers and firefighters they could control wildfires .  Later the National Parks Service came to believe , " Fire is neither good nor bad . It just is." Jack Ward Thomas, Chief of the Forest Service. Leading to the policy that some fires would be allowed to burn and others would be actively put out. I did enjoy this book better than some of the selections for Whatcom Reads.  It was not an easy read for me and I ended up renewing so it took me a good 4 weeks to get through. I think it was worth it.  It seems so topical as there are currently fires raging in California and Colorado.  I think it was also helpful that I had ridden the Hiawatha trail in Idaho as the book talks a lot about the fire and its effect on Wallace Idaho and how some people escaped on the train.

Carnegie's Maid by Marie Benedict

This is a fictional book that imagines that Andrew Carnegie had a budding romance with his mother's ladies maid.  The maid Clara Kelley may have spurred Andrew into becoming a philanthropist. This well research book was a great summer read. I read Marie Benedict's book, The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict and I also enjoyed it. Interestingly I read The Other Einstein July 2017.

What I Read June

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit.  Check out what everyone else is reading.

I first saw this book Starvation Heights by Gregg Olson at Nonna's.  This is a twisted true story about a woman who called herself Dr Hazzard who offered a cure of fasting to her rich patients.  Once she got them into a weakened state basically drained their bank accounts.  Dr Linda Hazzard will give you the creeps.

In 1911 two wealthy British heiresses, Claire and Dora Williamson, arrived at a sanitorium in the forests of the Pacific Northwest to undergo the revolutionary “fasting treatment” of Dr. Linda Burfield Hazzard. It was supposed to be a holiday for the two sisters, but within a month of arriving at what the locals called Starvation Heights, the women underwent brutal treatments and were emaciated shadows of their former selves. 

Claire and Dora were not the first victims of Linda Hazzard, a quack doctor of extraordinary evil and greed. But as their jewelry disappeared and forged bank drafts began transferring their wealth to Hazzard’s accounts, the sisters came to learn that Hazzard would stop at nothing short of murder to achieve her ambitions. (Amazon)

I found The Woman in the Photo by Mary Hogan on the hot reads table at the library.  While the book is not a true story it is based on a true event of a dam breaking. The book is set in the past and present. An adopted girl in the present finds a gilded age photo in her adoption records that leads her to discover her ancestry. This is a good summer read.  The historical event of the dam breaking was well researched and interesting. 

The Widows of Malabar Hill is part of Modern Mrs Darcy's Summer Reading Guide.  I really liked this book.  The main character is Perveen Mistry. Perveen Mistry is Bombay's first female lawyer and takes on a case of 3 Muslim woman and a will she is trying to settle for them of their late husband.  This was a great mystery set in 1920 Bombay.  I found the cultural information fascinating.  This book reminded me of some of Zoe Ferraris books though the setting is Saudi Arabia and not India.  

Booking It May

 Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit is not happening this month but she will be sharing her Summer Reading Guide. This was a slower reading month for me.

Educated by Tara Westover -The wait list for the physical book was so long at the library I opted for the ebook.  This book has been getting a lot of hype and I have to say Tara's life story is mind blowing.  Where she is today is a testament to her resilience. This book was also picked as part of the March Madness - Books That Are Better Read Together at Modern Mrs Darcy

I also enjoyed NewYork Times Book Review Podcast that featured Tara.

Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal - I should of included this in my book review last month.  This was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick.  It was interesting but not a book I would of probably chosen on my own. Yep, this book is a little bit on the racy side so if not your cup of tea you might want to pass on this one.

Happiness a Memoir by Heather Harpham is another Reese Witherspoon  book club pick.  This was a quick read for me.  This book is mainly about Heather's child Gracie and her experience of getting a bone marrow transplant.  I won't lie I did read part of the ending in the middle of the book.  I just had to know.  I also love the love story between her husband and Heather.  It is so imperfect but real. I love the quote below.

If You are lucky, you meet four or five people in a lifetime who you're totally comfortable with . Comfortable in a way that causes you best self to surge forward. With them, rowing through life's quotidian mess is an adventure.

Mega April Booking It and Book Flight Bonzana

I have been working on Modern Mrs Book Flights.  Similar to Basketball March Madness Brackets but with book pairing.  BECAUSE some books are better together. I have been on fire. I had been in a bit of a reading slump lately but this seemed to jolt me out of it. Check out what other people have been reading this month at Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit.

TRUTH OR FICTION BOOK FLIGHT 

The Romanov Sisters

After reading this I had a much clearer picture of the Romanov's and their reign.  Everyone knows Anastasia but I was more interested in her sister's.  The Romanov sisters were extremely sheltered and I ended up feeling bad for them.  There seems like there was so much potential that was lost like they never lived.  Their Mother and brother were constantly ill and worse yet their mother didn't seem to understand the politics of the time.

Who couldn't use some links to enhance this book flight.  Because one thing I kept asking myself why were people so fascinated with Anastasia and why did they believe she lived? I needed more back story.

The Anastasia Story

DNA Testing Ends Mystery Surrounding Czar Nicholas II Children

*Young Jane Young and So You've Been Publicly Shamed
the only complete book flight I have in Fact and Fiction

This was a quick read for me.  I love that the story was told from the different perspective of all the woman in the story - intern, daughter, adult intern, mother, and wife.  I love that it reinforces the fact that the internet lives forever.  This is really a commentary on social media and shamming. Why this book doesn't have anything to do with Monica Lewinsky there is a somewhat similar story line.  Thought you all would enjoy this Vanity Fair Linky.

The #MeToo Movement means rethinking everything about Monica Lewinsky  (It made me think of this book in the context of the #MeToo Movement and consent etc.)

So You've Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson

This book is incredibly timely a non fiction book discussing public shaming in the form of tweets with very real life examples. There is so much food for thought in this book about social media. Though this book mainly deals with the social media of Twitter. I think it applies to all social platforms - facebook etc..

I love the Micheal Fertik quote" The biggest lie is, "The Internet is about you." We like to think of ourselves as people who have choice and taste and personalized content. But the Internet isn't about us. It about the companies that dominate the data flows of the Internet." I also love the quote that Jon Ronson ended his book with " The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people. Let's not turn it into a world where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless.



Dreamland Burning

This book is told from 2 points of view one in the present and the other in 1921.  Dreamland Burning is based on the Tulsa  Race Riot of 1921. This kinda had a twist I didn't see coming or I thought I knew what was what.  This was a quick read.

Circling the Sun
I had never heard of Beryl Markham.  This is quite a story based on the real life of Beryl Markham.  Beryl sounds like a remarkable woman and pretty much a maverick of her time.  The Africa she lived in seem like it had quite the soap opera of characters and affairs.

The Great Alone and Into the Wild

Are they any Hannah Kirsten books that don't make you cry.  I am pretty sure her books need t come with Kleenex.  I do think this is a good book to pair with Into the Wild.  This book will take you through all the emotions.  I did buy this book as I was about 200th on the wait list.  This book has all the feels.

*** I had read a few books already in the fact and fiction flight.  See my reviews below

Into the Wild - I read this in 2008.  It is haunting. (my review)  I more recently read his sister's book,  Wild Alone by Carine McCandless, and that was enlightening why Christopher may have chosen to escape into the wild.  She provides more of the back story to Christopher's  life.

Just Mercy - I read this in 2015 and I have to say it had a profound effect on how I viewed justice. (my review)

Brand New + Old and True
Brand new books are hard for me to come by as I use the library for 99% of my reading needs. However even the old ones in this section were hard for me to come by.  So I read no new or old books in this category.  But this is a testimony to the staying power of these selections.On top of that there is only 1 Old and True selection I have read.  The Glass Castle back in 2007 before I started reviewing books but I did list it as a favorite for that year.

Book Club Favorites

The Mothers

This book contains some sensitive subjects - abortion and infidelity. I really didn't care for the book and not the because of the sensitive subjects. It just wasn't my cup of tea.

Beartown

I didn't think I would like a book about hockey and small towns.  I found this a book such a good read.  I would desperately would like to discuss with someone.  I live in a small town that is seemingly obsessed with high school sports.  So, I totally understand the bear mentality and I am an outsider too even though I have lived here for 14 years.

Take Another Look

Something in Between
Oh this is a timely read.  This is an immigration story.  It is a good story BUT I am hung up on it mainly because it is a teen pick and there is an agenda. Agenda isn't the right word and one sideness isn' t it either. There are many ways to immigrate illegally and not all people are good people.  I don't want to start a immigration debate.  I think all of us can agree that the immigration and enforcement of immigration law is really messed up in the US.  The characters described in this book are exactly the type of immigrants we want to become US citizens.  I can honestly say I am torn about this book and I would love to discuss BUT we don't discuss these topics in our society.  We loudly brow beat people about their opinion and choose sides.

*** I had read previously Code Name Verity. Review here

Booking It March 2018

I am linking up with Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit.  Check out what everyone else is reading.

The first book I am discussing, Rising Strong by Brene Brown,  I didn't finish.  There is so much good information here but for me it was overwhelming.  I had checked this out of the library and I had to renew it once and I didn't finish it then either.  I think this book that could use a highlighter.  So much good information, I think this would be a welcome edition to anyone's library

So being that I quit Rising Strong.  I thought I would give Braving the Wilderness a shot.  Yet again, I was unable o finish. I was able to download this to my tablet via my Library OverDrive account.  Once again I wish I had a highlighter. Brene Brown books I believe are meant to be savored. I will definately be checking these out again.

I also read All the Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo.

"This love story between Lucy & Gabe spans decades and continents as two star-crossed lovers try to return to each other...Will they ever meet again? This book kept me up at night, turning the pages to find out, and the ending did not disappoint."--Reese Witherspoon

This was a Reese Witherspoon book club pick. I had to keep reminding myself this book was fiction. It read a lot like a auto biography. Lots of sex in this book so if that isn't your cup of tea probably not the book for you. I loved the quote about relationships and fire.

That some relationships feel like a wildfire- they're powerful and compelling and majestic and dangerous and the capability to burn you before you even realize you've been consumed. And that some relationships feel like a hearth fire - they're solid and sable and cozy and nourishing

Booking It - February

I am linking up to Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading. My reads have been few and far between. 

The Major's Daughter by J.P. Francis

This book is set at Camp Stark a German Internment Camp located in New Hampshire.  The camp housed 150 captured German Afrika Korps . The prisoners worked as loggers bring out pulp for the Brown Paper Company

The story is fiction but Camp Stark did indeed exist. However, the characters in the book are all fiction. The story is about Collie the Major's daughter. The Major is the also the commander of the Camp Stark. Collie aids her father by being a translator. Collie finds herself falling  in love with  a imprisoned German Soldier. Overall, I enjoyed the book but I did find myself in the last 1/4 of the book jumping ahead to the ending.  But ever the rule follower, I ended up going back and reading the last 1/4 of the book. Many of us are aware of Japanese Internment Camps but few us realize that there were German Internment Work Camps in the United States during the war.  I loved the author's attention to detail and how they described how the US soldiers tried to show compassion and fairness to the imprisoned German Soldiers.  The history was fascinating to me.  I wish the story was a bit more compelling.

This was an enjoyable quick read.  I was once again taken in by the "Hot Picks" table at my library. My son is taking French this year in school and my husband's grandmother was French so I could relate a bit to that. It was interesting memoir and I liked the recipes interspersed throughout.

Booking It 2018 - January

I am linking up with the Modern Mrs Darcy's Quick Lit. Check out what everyone else is reading. Well all my selections below I read in December but I am going to be discussing them anyway.

My December reading was on the lighter chick lit side.  I finished my year by reading these titles

June by M Beverly - Whittemore
The Duchess by Danielle Steele
The Runaway Princess by Hester Browne
The Whistler by J Grisham

This is the Story of a Happy Marriage by Ann Patchett  was part of Reese Witherspoon's book club.  It took me a bit to get into.  I really enjoyed the story about her trying out for the police academy.  I also loved the message from the short story for which the book is named.  I think the advice to " marry someone who makes you a better person" is great advice.  I would say applies to picking friends as well.

Another list worth checking out  - LibraryReads favorite books of 2017

What to READ in 2018

Oh the lists are out.  I thought I would post a few book list links for all you who have book goals in the new year. EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE BOOK GOALS - HA HA

10 Diverse New Books from Women Authors 2017

Goodreaders favorite under the radar books of 2017

Confessions of a CookbookQueen - Favorite Books of 2017

Modern Mrs Darcy's 2018 Reading Challenge