Books That Shaped Me in 2018
7 Reads I Think You’ll Love
I know there’s a lot of these ‘best of’ lists going around at the moment, but I’ve had a few people ask me for book recommendations over the last few days, so I thought I’d share the books I’ve read this year that have really stuck with me.
I don’t really have a particular ‘type’ I read, but I do tend to err on the side of thrillers and non-fiction (science in particular). This year I really tried to go a bit out of my comfort zone and try some more literary stuff, and boy did it pay off!
Highly recommend trying a new genre in 2019, I know I will be..!
- A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara
This isn’t the sort of book I’d normally pick up, being long, literary fiction, but after having 2 close friends recommended it to me at the start of the year, I picked it up. I don’t know how else to describe the effect this book had on me other than to say that every time I see someone on the tube reading it, my heart flutters for them — I’m thinking ‘JUST YOU WAIT PAL’. Sometimes I even ask them how they’re enjoying it — anyone living in London will know that it has to be something life-threatening or hugely important that would prompt you to strike up a conversation with a random person on the tube.
2. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders
I *love* this book. If anyone can recommend me something similar, please do!! It’s weirdly written, confusingly structured, and takes a bit of time to get into, but once I’d got the gist, I was totally immersed and hoovered it up over a weekend. It’s about the death of Abe Lincoln’s son, and him visiting the graveyard where he’s buried…from the perspective of the ghosts in the graveyard who are watching from beyond. It’s wacky and funny and tragic and clever.
3. The Buddha in the Attic, Julie Otsuka
Again, another book written in a strange manner — there’s no one central character and instead is told from the perspective of the full group of young women brought from Japan to San Francisco as “picture brides” nearly a century ago (plural first-person narrative for any nerds out there), which I totally loved. It’s a pretty quick read but because of the way Otsuka paints the picture of an entire group of people, it feels deep and long and breath-taking. This book has really stuck with me.
4. East of Eden, John Steinbeck
I didn’t know this was a famous book before I read it… 😬
I’d seen someone recommend it in their newsletter and picked it up based on their rave review. It’s not the sort of thing I’d normally read, but after coming off of A Little Life, this was the perfect follow up — another long story of an entire life of a person, so rich in story and emotion and drama and self-analysis. There were so many paragraphs I’d read and re-read over and over before moving onto the next page simply because they were so beautifully written and struck upon some kind of truth that really resonated with me.
5. The End of Loneliness, Benedict Wells
This has a lottttt of stuff about siblingship in it and is told from the perspective of a man with an older brother and eldest sister. I’m the oldest, with two younger brothers, so I couldn’t help but compare, and there were so many moments in here that caught my breath. Another long story encompassing an entire life of the protagonist (I guess I do read these kind of books now haha…) but another immersive beautiful tale of someone I was sad to leave behind when the book finished.
6. Bad Blood, John Carreyrou
Not entirely sure how else to describe this book than ‘must read’. It’s all about the Theranos debacle and it reads like a crime thriller. It’s unbelievably well reported, and I loved that the book took us through not just the story of what was going on behind closed doors at the startup, but also with the author himself and the sources he was chatting to — adds a whole other layer and really turns this from a non-fiction narrative into something so much more.
7. Bird By Bird, Anne Lamott
This is a glorious read on the act of writing and my god could I relate to so much of the agony Anne Lamott describes!! Highly recommend for any writer who sometimes wonders if writing is really for them (#thestruggleisreal). The focus was on fiction so I skimmed some of the chapters which were about character development as it felt too far away from my reasoning for reading the book in the first place, but the first half about the pursuit of writing was incredibly resonant, comforting and helpful (and funny!)
I wish I had more to add to this list, but I didn’t read as much as I would’ve liked this year, and a few of the books I picked up weren’t quite as worthwhile recommending..! I’ve gone on a bit of a book shopping spree over the last month though, so I’m psyched to inhale as much as possible over the festive period, and of course, into 2019.
(And, if nothing else, I can use reading for ‘research’ for my own book as an excuse…)
If you’re looking for more recommendations going into 2019, I got you covered with my newsletter Brain Reel, which you can sign up to here 😉
