Tanya's Book List 2018!

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Some quick facts:

Total books = 44

Audiobooks = 18 (41%)
Non-fiction = 16 (36%)

Set in England = 12 (46% of fiction books)

Mysteries = 13 (50% of fiction books)

*Top Picks

In reverse order read:

1. *Night Moves by Jessica  Hopper – Beautiful vignettes about being in love with a city (Chicago) and the Midwest, and your friends.
2. The Clocks (Hercule Poirot, #37) by Agatha Christie – Always a fun to spend time with my favorite quirky detective.
3. Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution by Shiri Eisner – Book about countering the myths and stereotypes about bisexuality, as well as discussing tactics for queer/bisexual activism.
4. Would You Rather? A Memoir of Growing Up and Coming Out by Katie Heaney – Charming memoir about uncovering a lesbian identity and integrating that into a personal narrative. 
5. Who Is Vera Kelly? by Rosalie Knecht – Novel about a female (bisexual) CIA agent who infiltrates a group of student activists in Buenos Aires in 1960s. 
6. Broken Harbour (Dublin Murder Squad, #4) by Tana French – She writes some gripping detective thrillers with complicated characters and satisfying twists and turns; with a dose of aggravation at how awful people can be towards each other. 
7. Blood at the Root (Inspector Banks, #9) by Peter Robinson – One of my British cop mystery series. Mediocre storylines but comforting accents and nice to have as background noise. 
8. *Lethal White (Cormoran Strike, #4) by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) – AH! I love this series! If you haven’t read her non-Harry Potter stories, I highly recommend you check out this excellent private-eye detective series. 
9. Crazy Rich Asians (Crazy Rich Asians, #1) by Kevin Kwan – Read this one because everyone else was readying it. Definitely in the rom com genre, with all the pitfalls and clichés. 
10. *No One Tells You This by Glynnis MacNicol – Loved this memoir about turning 40 and being single-ish. The last chapter had so much insight about how women can navigate finding independence and freedom. 
11. *Attached: The New Science of Adult Attachment and How It Can Help You Find‚ and Keep‚ Love by Amir Levine – This changes everything! Adult attachment theory is about how we relate to one another and how interactions may activate either anxious, avoidant or secure attachment behaviours. A book club favorite. 
12. The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2) by Philip Pullman – Young adult fantasy series that has delightful characters and fantastical beasts. 
13. How to Fall in Love with Anyone: A Memoir in Essays by Mandy Len Catron – Interesting memoir about how the narratives we (and the larger culture) create around our love stories can influence our relationships. 
14. Alone Time: Four Seasons, Four Cities, and the Pleasures of Solitude by Stephanie Rosenbloom – Great, readable book about solitude and traveling alone. Especially great section about Paris. 
15. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney – Delightful, gritty, realistic novel about friendship, love, and affairs. I love the development of the friendship between the two main characters. 
16. The Quest of the Missing Map (Nancy Drew Mystery Stories, #19) by Carolyn Keene – How long has it been since you read a Nancy Drew? Fun for a moment but it was so much more gendered and cheezy than I remembered. 
17. When Katie Met Cassidy by Camille Perri – Lovely lesbian romance novel set in New York City. 
18. Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot, #15) by Agatha Christie – Yay Agatha Christie! 
19. *Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence – A gripping classic with surprisingly racy even for a book known for its shocking love scenes. Worth a read if you love classics! 
20. *All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks - One of the best books I've read about love, actually taking time to define it and describe how we can love ourselves and another. She also gives a very important and clear message about spiritual community and living a loving faith. I recommend this book to everyone. 
21. Faithful Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #3) by Tana French - Such great character development in addition to being a compelling mystery story. 
22. The Populist Vision by Charles Postel - Fascinating and very readable for non-historians. Postel weaves together a series of characters and stories that touch many aspects of populism: the women leaders, the atheists and utopians, the white supremacists, the black leaders, and the railroad workers, farmers, politicians, and lecturers. 
23. *All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation by Rebecca Traister - I really enjoyed this book, which is more of a scattershot assortment of topics rather than a deep-dive on anything. I especially am interested in the way we value/devalue platonic friendships. Also good discussions about careers, sex, solo parenting, childfree by choice, and independence. 
24. How to Survive the Loss of a Love (How to Survive) by Melba Colgrove – Short vignettes reminding the reader that grieving is valid and takes time. 
25. Dawn (Xenogenesis, #1) by Octavia E. Butler – My sci-fi read of the year; still not my preferred genre. Other book club members liked it though! 
26. The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot – Slightly depressing classic novel, with a woman very much confined to one specific role in the world. 
27. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt – I finally got around to listening to this epic story that got so much (deserved) attention a few years ago. The characters have stayed with me in the months since I read it, a sign of a good book! 
28. How the Light Gets In (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #9) by Louise Penny – Good cozy detective novel set in Canada. 
29. The Last Storytellers: Tales from the Heart of Morocco by Richard L. Hamilton - It was so magical to read this book of Moroccan folk tales while staying in Marrakech. The introduction with the author's story of finding the storytellers and the tradition of storytelling was fascinating. The stories themselves are very traditional with a lot of the same themes of betrayal, testing fidelity, riches, and adventure. 
30. Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love, and Wisdom by Rick Hanson - Good insights about the goals and benefits of meditation and changing the way you interact with yourself and the world to increase happiness/contentment and decrease suffering/stress. 
31. Love's Not Color Blind: Race and Representation in Polyamorous and Other Alternative Communities by Kevin A. Patterson - Patterson writes clearly about racism, fetishization, 'othering', and tokenism, and also has some solid tips for how to make events more welcoming, comfortable, and inclusive for people of color. 
32. Your Brain on Sex: How Smarter Sex Can Change Your Life by Stanley Siegel - Great book to help explore your sexual desires and about how understanding and communicating those desires can lead to healing and transformation. 
33. The Brutal Telling (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, #5) by Louise Penny – I appreciate the cozy, small town setting of these novels and the comradery between the characters, but the mystery story itself is rather uneven. 
34. Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds by Natalie Zemon Davis – Pretty dense history book about this Muslim traveler and his world. Only enjoyable because I listened to it while in Morocco, where it is partly set. 
35. Rat Bohemia by Sarah Schulman – Beautiful story about the AIDS crisis and the gay community in New York. Moving sections about family, death, love, and grieving. And yet, it’s still a relatively upbeat story. 
36. In the Woods (Dublin Murder Squad, #1) by Tana French – Good mystery and believable outcome and characters. Somewhat depressing and disappointing because of the actions of the main characters made in the course of the investigation. 
37. *The Secret History by Donna Tartt – Another book by Tartt with vivid characters that jump off the page and stick in my mind. Set in a liberal arts college in New England, with the comfort of an academic setting. 
38. The State of Affairs: Rethinking Infidelity by Esther Perel – Another book club favorite! Perel has some great insights as to why people may have affairs. Stories from her therapy practice without judgement. 
39. The Caliph's House: A Year in Casablanca by Tahir Shah – A fun, light-hearted story of learning to live in a new culture. Getting ready for my trip to Morocco! 
40. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro – Such a complicated set up of a story – post-apocalyptic in a way, some similarities with Handmaiden’s Tale but not quite so depressing. I loved the ending of the story which seemed to pull together all the feelings and musings from throughout the book. 
41. *The Sellout by Paul Beatty - Funny, thought-provoking, clever, and sooooo SoCal. 
42. Double Sin and Other Stories (Hercule Poirot, #36) by Agatha Christie – I listen to an Agatha Christie story periodically whenever I want some light entertainment and distraction. 
43. *A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf – Cannot believe I had never read this book before. A true delight - inspiring, well-argued, stunningly written, and still so relevant. Feminists and fiction lovers should all read this book now. 
44. Monk's Hood (Chronicles of Brother Cadfael, #3) by Ellis Peters – I love the TV series and so it was lovely to read one of the books on which they’re based. Charming mystery set in medieval England.