Sometimes you write a blog when you’re about to go on maternity leave, but you forget to schedule its publication. Although it’s a little late, here is my take on the books I read last year.
Taking Stock of What We Read
As we look back on 2018, one thing we here at Plume like to mull over the books that we read this past year (whether new or old). What did we most enjoy reading? What challenged us? Surprised us? Felt so necessary we couldn’t believe we had never read anything like it before?
My Favorite Books I Read This Year
The most gorgeously written book I read last year was Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. This will likely come as no surprise to anyone else who has read this award-winning tour-de-force. Its haunting, lyrical prose is still stuck in my head months after I finished it.
The book I was happiest I finally went back to read was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L’Engle. As I mentioned before, I started this book as a kid, but abandoned it early on because I thought there was too much “math.” Seeing how beautiful the film adaptation looked, I had to go back and finish the book first. It’s a children’s book, but I still found it compelling and kooky as an adult. I doubt I’ll ever delve into the sequels, but I’m glad to know more about Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas knocked me flat. Police violence against African Americans is a well-known social crisis, so Thomas isn’t reinventing the wheel by writing about it; however, she paints a vivid perspective with Starr, her narrator who witnesses this violence and its aftermath firsthand. YA is also one of my favorite genres, so I never had the issue of, “Oh, this is just a book for teens.” It’s so much more!
A lot of the time I’ll pick up an older book because it’s about to be made into a TV show or film, and this was the case with Sharp Objects, a book Gillian Flynn wrote before her breakout success, Gone Girl. As dark as Gone Girl was, I think Sharp Objects was even more so. Flynn is not afraid to write “unlikable” female characters, and what I admired about this older book was how it explored female rage and the toxicity that sometimes creeps into familial relationships between women. It’s a quick read, too, if you want something gripping that you can’t put down for a weekend.
Okay, I’m going to cheat a little with this next one because technically I read it in 2017. But I’m still thinking about it! Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado is an astounding fiction collection. The stories are often bizarre and a little grotesque, but they speak to dark truths related to gender and society. It’s mostly short stories, but also contains a novella, loosely based on Law and Order: Special Victims Unit with fantastical elements that leave you questioning reality (read the full novella here!). I can’t recommend this book enough.
And there you have it, the books I am most thankful for from 2018. *I’m still creeping through my reading challenge, though I think I may only fit in one or two more books by the end of the year (How to choose?!). What books did you read last year that you can’t stop thinking about? Head on over to Twitter, Instagram, and/or Facebook and let us know!
*I ended up listening to Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime in the early stages of labor, and finished up the year with The Night Circus.