My Favorite Books of 2018

I’ve read 42 books this year. Eleven fall in the category of memoir/biography/autobiography and 8 in the category of general non-fiction. So, about half were fiction, and half again of those were cheesy fiction.

As I looked over all 42 titles, 3 stood out:

While the City Slept: A Love Lost to Violence and a Wake-Up Call for Mental Health Care in America. This is the true story of a 2009 murder in Seattle. I read it early in the year and can still remember many of the aspects of it. I won’t repeat myself here; I reviewed the book in February on this blog.

The Man from the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery. OMG! This book was fascinating! I loved it. I dreaded reading it. It led to uneasy sleep on several nights. The killer kills by hitting people in the head with the blunt side of an axe – whole families at a time, in the middle of the night - a lot of them. The murders occurred between 1898 and 1912.

The authors have done their research and provide background and history on the quirky characters on the periphery of these murders as well as those who were unfortunately accused and convicted of some of the crimes.

Both of the above books are true crime, or Fact Crime as the category for The Edgar Awards is called. The Edgards.com is one of my go-to places when I’m looking for something to read. A couple of my other favorite categories on this site are First Novel and Young Adult. Check it out!

The third book of my favorites is Calypso by David Sedaris. I’ve read a number of his books and this one does not disappoint in the humor department. But, it goes beyond that with some deeply personal and poignant stories/observations. It’s one of those books that you laugh out loud while reading, and the person sitting in the room with you says, “yeeess?” You pretty much end up reading the whole book to them.

Looking forward to new favorites in 2019!