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Books I Have Read: 2018
Jan. 4th, 2019 07:26 pmSome years ago I started keeping a spreadsheet listing the books I read in a given year. In 2018, in addition to a truly astonishing amount of fanfic, I read or re-read 77 novels, 7 nonfiction works, several graphic novels, many children's books, and a bare minimum of 71 short stories - I stopped keeping track of those somewhere mid-year.
Books I had never read before included:
Murder with Peacocks, by Donna Andrews, the first of her works I have ever read; it hits much the same buttons that Ursula Vernon's works do, with the incredibly pragmatic heroine surrounded by absolute insanity. In this case, a murder mystery and three weddings, none of them the heroine's, plus a new love interest and a lot of peacocks. Also the heroine is a blacksmith. I should hunt down more of this series.
The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop, which I had somehow managed to not read as a teenager, which is a pity, because this is id-fic with a capital id. It's got some really interesting worldbuilding intermixed with some absurd names and so, so much whump and hurt/comfort.
Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, which was world-buildy and dark and plotty and absolutely delightful in ever particular. I should hunt down the sequel. I also read Beneath the Sugar Sky and am waiting impatiently for the library to get the next in the series.
The entire Murderbot series of novellas, by Martha Wells. This hits a lot of the same buttons for me as Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice series did, because apparently I really like nonhuman people learning to cope with the vagaries of humanity and being incredibly Done with human ridiculousness.
The Family Tree, by Sheri S. Tepper, which is one of her older works, and managed to completely blindside me with the twist three-quarters of the way through. I haven't been that surprised by a plot twist in absolutely ages.
Things I re-read this year because I love them so:
Twenty-nine Mercedes Lackey books in six separate 'verses, because her work is comfort reading for me: I don't have to think too hard, as long as I don't pick up the Vanyel series I know there will be a happy ending, and I like retold fairy tales.
Patricia C. Wrede's Thirteenth Child series, which I adore for the worldbuilding, and I really wish there were more books set in this world. It's fascinating. The big problem with it, of course, is that it's set in an alternate, magical world in which there are no native peoples in the Americas and therefore the slow westward movement of the young United States is far less problematic. So there's that.
Ann Maxwell's Fire Dancer series - why, why, why does this series not have an enormous cult following on AO3? It is pure, unadulterated id-fic. You've got your last survivors of a destroyed planet, your eventual fuck-or-die setup, your aliens-made-them-kiss scene in the first book...
The Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood duology by Patricia Briggs. I really like these. I like the hero, I like his eventual love interest, I like the OT3 that I can totally read into the text, I like the plot...they're just a lot of fun. Also there are dragons. Dragons make everything better.
So that was 2018! Anyone else read anything good?
Books I had never read before included:
Murder with Peacocks, by Donna Andrews, the first of her works I have ever read; it hits much the same buttons that Ursula Vernon's works do, with the incredibly pragmatic heroine surrounded by absolute insanity. In this case, a murder mystery and three weddings, none of them the heroine's, plus a new love interest and a lot of peacocks. Also the heroine is a blacksmith. I should hunt down more of this series.
The Black Jewels Trilogy, by Anne Bishop, which I had somehow managed to not read as a teenager, which is a pity, because this is id-fic with a capital id. It's got some really interesting worldbuilding intermixed with some absurd names and so, so much whump and hurt/comfort.
Sparrow Hill Road, by Seanan McGuire, which was world-buildy and dark and plotty and absolutely delightful in ever particular. I should hunt down the sequel. I also read Beneath the Sugar Sky and am waiting impatiently for the library to get the next in the series.
The entire Murderbot series of novellas, by Martha Wells. This hits a lot of the same buttons for me as Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice series did, because apparently I really like nonhuman people learning to cope with the vagaries of humanity and being incredibly Done with human ridiculousness.
The Family Tree, by Sheri S. Tepper, which is one of her older works, and managed to completely blindside me with the twist three-quarters of the way through. I haven't been that surprised by a plot twist in absolutely ages.
Things I re-read this year because I love them so:
Twenty-nine Mercedes Lackey books in six separate 'verses, because her work is comfort reading for me: I don't have to think too hard, as long as I don't pick up the Vanyel series I know there will be a happy ending, and I like retold fairy tales.
Patricia C. Wrede's Thirteenth Child series, which I adore for the worldbuilding, and I really wish there were more books set in this world. It's fascinating. The big problem with it, of course, is that it's set in an alternate, magical world in which there are no native peoples in the Americas and therefore the slow westward movement of the young United States is far less problematic. So there's that.
Ann Maxwell's Fire Dancer series - why, why, why does this series not have an enormous cult following on AO3? It is pure, unadulterated id-fic. You've got your last survivors of a destroyed planet, your eventual fuck-or-die setup, your aliens-made-them-kiss scene in the first book...
The Dragon Bones and Dragon Blood duology by Patricia Briggs. I really like these. I like the hero, I like his eventual love interest, I like the OT3 that I can totally read into the text, I like the plot...they're just a lot of fun. Also there are dragons. Dragons make everything better.
So that was 2018! Anyone else read anything good?
