2018 Reading List

I perused my ongoing list of book recommendations along with the New York Times and Globe and Mail Best Books of 2017 lists, and this is what I've put on my reading list for 2017.

Scarborough by Catherine Hernandez. This one is set in Toronto (obvi) so I think I will appreciate some local references.  I don't venture East of Yonge much so I'll look forward to exploring this strange new side of the city.

Turtles All The Way Down by John Green.  This one is about mental illness; a difficult but fascinating topic.

Exit West by Moshid Hamid.  Although Syrian refugees didn't dominate our headlines as much this year, refugees are still out there and require continued attention.  This book is about refugees but I think it takes place in some alternate universe, so I'm curious how it will read.

Hunger: A Memoir of my Body by Roxanne Gay. I thought I would throw in a few non-fiction selections.  This one was on one of those lists of good writing.  With the constant discussion about body image and women, this is apparently a very honest account of being overweight and what goes along with that.

Church of Small Things by Melanie Shankle. This is also non-fiction, and on my Christmas list this year.

Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan.  This is a fun one that I've heard some good things about.  Excited to pick it up, and maybe the sequel too.

Do Not Say We Have Nothing by Madeleine Thein. Giller Prize winner, say no more (but if I must, it takes place in China, which is a place about which I haven't read a lot about).

The Nazi Officer's Wife by Edith H. Beer.  Another non-fiction selection. This is a crazy record of survival of a woman during World War II.  I'm interested in all things about the two World Wars and I have heard that it reads like a novel.

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng. I really don't know much about this one other than it has showed up on a few must-read lists.  One of the nice things about book club was reading things that I knew nothing about so that's why I added it to the list.

And Then You Loved Me by Inglath Cooper.  So the front of this book makes me think it will be a romance.  I used to read romance novels all the time, so this may be a nice throwback.

Interestingly as I was making this list, I removed two that I had selected because I realized I had read another book by those authors and hated them.  One was Transit by Rachel Cusk, we read Outline for our book club, and I was not a fan.  The other was Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan.  Our book club also read A Visit From the Goon Squad and I didn't like it either.  Now that I'm choosing my own books, I can do what I want!