My best books of 2018

There are many of these lists, and many of them from far more reputable people and organisations who have the time to read a far greater percentage of books being released than I will ever have! If that does not put you off, then here are the five books that got my attention in 2018. Not all are 2018 releases, but I read them in 2018 and that is what is required to make it to my list. So here it is, the five best books that I have read this year and, as a small bonus, the book that was the absolute standout for the year of reading to my boys (11 and 13). A little warning on that one too, as people wanting to read that one to their kids who have sensitive ears or are worried about the sensitivity of their children’s ears may want to edit out some of the fruitier language.....for better or worse I left it in, and even enhanced it sometime because it makes the boys giggle :) Cheers folks.

Elmet: Fiona Mozley

I could not put this one down. Elmet follows the story of a father bringing up two children living in a forest is Yorkshire. The story is narrated by the younger child, and in a lot of ways the most sensitive of the characters. His older sister is a tough and resourceful 15-year-old girl who hunts for the food for the family and plays a significant role in the final, bloody end to the story. The father is an undefeated, bare-knuckle fighter struggling to bring up and organise an education for his kids while battling to assist downtrodden members of the local town against a violent land-lord. Maybe it’s a theme of books that get my attention, but it’s not the happiest tale, but the writing was absolutely compelling and for a debut novel it’s superb. If I was voting, it would have won the Booker this year, but if I was a judge of the Booker there would have been a different result at least for the last four years. 

21 Lessons for the 21st Century: Yuval Noah Harari 

This book is sort of a collection of essays describing the current state of things in the world, and for much of it, could also be described as a good bit of reasoning about why we’re screwed as a species for the future. In a nut-shell, it covers a lot of the issues and topics we collectively need to get our heads around. Yuval Noah Harari explores a lot of topics from AI, religion, climate science and rising nationalism, to name a few, and generally had this reader feeling less positive and somewhat scared about the future of the human race. I would be interested to hear if any others take a more positive view after reading it. Anyway, many of the books I enjoy and from which I get a lot, whether fiction or non-fiction, tend to not be the happiest reads from cover to cover. This one is certainly not an exception, but well worth a read anyway!

Less: Andrew Sean Greer

This one added to my growing evidence that group deciding the Pulitzer Prize for fiction has a whole lot more to offer the world than the group deciding the Man Booker Prize :)

I loved this book. Our main character and narrator is a gay author approaching his 50th birthday called Arthur Less who deciding to set out on a solo tour through Europe, the Middle East and Japan since not much is going his way. The book explores a few topics such as relationships, romance, travel and love and it’s not too far in that I was a huge supported of Arthur Less and just wanted things to go well for him. The book is a comedy, it’s thoroughly entertaining and funny and probably the most enjoyable book I read this year. 

Warlight: Michael Ondaatje

I cannot tell you how many times I checked the “O” section of the bookshop looking for another book from Michael Ondaatje over the past seven years. The last novel from Ondaatje was The Cat’s Table in 2011 and for me, Warlight was worth the seven-year wait! The book is set in the aftermath of WWII in London where a brother and sister in their mid-teens are living with an interesting bunch of characters while their parents are away. I’m not going to go I to any detail about what’s actually happening because there is not much I can say without screwing up the intrigue for anyone planning on reading it. What I can say is that Ondaatje has nailed another classic novel from my perspective, and I would encourage anyone to ignore any reviews to the contrary and just read it. I loved every minute of it!\

Underground Railroad: Colson Whitehead

I did mention that many of the books I seem to love are bloody sad. This one has few happy points. A beautifully written and crushingly sad novel, it still remains a must-read. I was surprised I didn’t get to it before 2018, but if I had, it would not be on this short list of my personal 2018 books so no big loss. I am a sucker for historical novels with characters for whom I can cheer, and for whom I become desperate for them to get through their perils and find some success. The barriers put up against the main protagonists in this book are as large as anyone could imagine; it ticks every box for me. It hurts me to say, but if you read one of these five then this one should probably be it!

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....and one final one. It’s also not a 2018 book, but it was by far the best book I read to my boys this year. They’re 11 and 13 and like many boys this age, love adventure, action and space. As such, The Martian was perfect!

The Martian: Andy Wier

This book has everything for a pre-teen/early teen lad. Physics, action, some irreverence, a NASA communications director who swears in every sentence when she’s not in front of the camera. The book is long, but it expands on many of the technical aspects that a 90 minute film is forced to leave out and the constant ups and downs of Mark Whatney’s battle against Mars kept my boys captivated. If you have kids somewhere around the 10 to 14 age and you’re either reading to them or looking for something for them to read you should pop this one in the mix. As I said in the opening, some of the language in it is not necessarily something all parents might want for their kiddies to hear, but if you’re reading aloud you can skip that anyway. Let me know if you choose it and enjoy it!

That’s it for my 2018 book reviews. I am hoping that if you got this far you got something out of it....if not, my apologies for eating your time. Happy New Year folks!!