We've come to the end of another year which also means another year of reading! In 2017 I finished 200 books and I didn't expect to repeat that feat again. In 2018 I finished 175 which is still pretty high but the first year since 2013 that my total decreased from the year before. And in 2013 we adopted a baby and in 2018 we adopted a baby...there might be some correlation there. BUT, I still read 175 books which is a heck of a lot of books.
I've written posts about tracking my reading, planning my reading, and managing my reading but not one post on how I manage to fit in so much reading time. So that's on the blog schedule now. In short, I don't watch a lot of tv on my own. If I have time where Luke is at school, Matt is at work, Sam is napping and I don't have any pressing housework/work work/blog work to do...I am probably reading.
I always have a hard time picking favorites off the top of my head but then once I go through Goodreads I have trouble narrowing it down. I (usually) don't count rereads since I obviously liked those enough to read them again, and they probably already made one of my previous lists (47 of my finished books this year were rereads).
I'm not saying these are the best books written this year or the most well written but just the ones I enjoyed the most. Sometimes that comes down to the circumstances in which I read them - I got a few hours on a perfect summer day to read a book (I don't know that this happened this year). I do read more fiction than non-fiction but somehow this list is half and half. Maybe I need to step up my fiction reading.
Enough of my rambling (should be my blog name), my top 10 favorite {grown-up} reads of 2018:
A Simplified Life: Tactical Tools for Intentional Living by Emily Ley
I've been following Emily Ley for a few years (her Grace, Not Perfection was one of my favorites last year) and was very interested in this book about simplifying many areas of our lives. It's a continual process but one I especially embark on at the start of the new year when Christmas is done and all of a sudden our lives seem to be both over cluttered and simpler. This is one I should reread every other year or so, just for the reminders. (More here)
I'll Be There for You: The One About Friends by Kelsey Miller
This might be the last of these top 10 that I read (finished in November) and was probably helped by the fact that shortly after finishing we started our annual rewatch of all the Friends Thanksgiving episodes (list here). Friends is the show I've listed on every adoption profile we've made (I've lost count how many of those there have been) as my favorite tv show and there is something so soothing about rewatching episodes. I loved this book about how the show was put together and how characters and some story lines were developed. Highly recommend to anyone who enjoys the show. (More here)
How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids by Jancee Dunn
I feel like I always need to disclaim this book with "I don't hate my husband" because I don't. BUT our relationship certainly changed when we became parents and he became the primary breadwinner (just kidding, he's pretty much always made more than me, probably because I resisted working 40 hours/week even before kids) and I became the primary person at home, all the time. I swear some of these example arguments we've had word for word and it was reassuring that we aren't alone in occasionally bickering about mundane things. Recommend to all parents, especially new-ish parents or any parents of younger kids. (More here)
Cozy Minimalist Home: More Style, Less Stuff by Myquillyn Smith
I really enjoy "home" books - about decorating or simplifying mainly so when a book combines the two - I am ALL IN. I am constantly trying to have less stuff (besides, you know, the constant Amazon and Target orders we seem to place) and this was hugely motivating to pare down our decor and furnishings to what we really need. Your house can still be cozy without being overflowing with STUFF. It was great. (Quick Lit here)
The Power of Moments: Why Certain Experiences Have Extraordinary Impact by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
This is non-fiction about how making little moments special, sometime just with a little work, can have a big impact. A lot of this looked at it from a business perspective - how little moments of customer service or customer appreciation can really change a customer's overall view, but I took it mostly as parenting advice, how to build up little moments can be lasting memories. Things like the first day of school, last day of school, little holiday celebrations. Doing the same or similar things year after year makes routine that kids will come to love and appreciate. It gave me a lot to think about in terms of what I can do make my boys' childhoods special without spoiling them rotten. (More here)
Castle of Water by Dane Hucklebridge
When I initially thought about my favorite books of the year, before I reviewed Goodreads, this is one of the few that immediately came to mind. I even wrote a whole post about it when Sam was about 2 weeks old and I barely had time to shower, much less blog. That's how much I liked it. There is a plane crash, only two survivors, they end up on a deserted island, will they survive? We were also rewatching Lost while I was reading this which made for some interesting parallels. I was fascinated by this book but also realllllly glad I was reading about it and not living it. (More here)
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The sole reread on this list but since my last read of it was at least 20 years ago, I'm letting it in the list. My Mom recommended Anne for me years ago, the copy of the book I read shows I got it for Christmas when I was 7 and I probably read it shortly after. Anne is just a delightful heroine and I loved reading about her spunk, spirit, and imagination. Every since I read Pride & Prejudice (and didn't like it) I've been leery of reading old books, that they would be hard to get through (like P&P was) but this one was just wonderful. I'm sure it was helped my many viewings over the year of the old Canadian/PBS tv movie. I hope to reread the rest of the series this year. (Quick Lit here)
The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister
I blew through this book in about 2 days and was completely captivated by it. It's about a group of people who all sign up for an evening cooking class. There is a chapter for each person in the group over each night of the class. You slowly learn more about these people and how life brought them to this class. It was beautiful but not boring, hard to put down. I wish they circled back and gave more than one chapter to each person but it was also pretty perfect in it's simplicity. (Quick Lit here)
The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand
I have read all her books and eagerly put myself on the library hold lists at least a month in advance of new releases. I always enjoy them but most are forgettable. I figured the fact that I could remember most of the plot of this one more than 6 months later was a good sign that I liked it. Like many of her books, this one is told from multiple perspectives. In this case, a member of a wedding party is found dead the night before the wedding and the police are interviewing everyone involved. It takes place on Nantucket, of course, and the characters are mostly interesting. I don't read many (any) mysteries but this one had a bit and I was trying to guess what actually happened before it was revealed. I often reread her books (helps when I forget the plots of them) and even though I remember most of this one, I will probably reread it in the next few years just because I liked it. (Quick Lit here)
Save the Date by Morgan Matson
I read three of her books this year and mostly enjoyed all of them but this one made the list because I love some good, messy, family love. This one is about a family with 5 kids who Mom has been drawing a nationally syndicated comic strip about them for years, decades? I forget just how long. But the strip is coming to an end, they are moving out the house they grew up in, but not before one of the kids is getting married in the backyard. There is some drama and things go a little sideways but you can tell there is a lot of love between all the family members. I always appreciate reading about larger families where not everything is perfect but there is a lot of love. (Quick Lit here)
What were YOUR favorite reads of 2018?
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2017
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2016
Favorite {Grown-Up} Reads of 2015
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