34. A book that's published in 2018

[Kimberly]

I’m reading “As Bright as Heaven” by Susan Meisser for this one.

[The Chapter Conundrum (Stacey)]

For this prompt I'll either be reading:
Still Me by Jojo Moyes (Me Before You #3)
OR
Surprise Me by Sophie Kinsella (same author as the Shopaholic Series)

who am I kidding? I'll end up reading them both!

[Megan]

Melissa wrote: "Is it too much to hope that GRR Martin will finally publish the next installment of A Song of Ice and Fire in 2018?!?"

in a word: yes.

[Erika]

I'm reading Tell Me More: Stories about the 12 hardest things I'm learning to say by Kelly Corrigan. I definitely recommend it to everybody

[Rebecca]

Sarah wrote: "So, so excited for Tempests and Slaughter by Tamora Pierce, expected February 2018!"

I am so glad to find a fellow Tamora Pierce fan here! I still own all of my books. I read them all in middle school and now I want to re-read them and see it through my adult eyes. I am very excited for Tempests and Slaughter. I also want to read Tortall: A Spy's Guide which was published in October.

For this prompt though, I am going with The Great Alone: A Novel by Kristin Hannah. I LOVED The Nightingale and have been anxiously awaiting this book.

[Mac]

Looking forward to reading the YA antebellum zombie horror "Dread Nation" by Justina Ireland! Waiting another month or so for it to be published is hard lol

[Tytti]

I am reading "You in the year 1918" which was published at the end of January. It's a "choose your own adventure" type of book and I have currently read about six different fates for two different people.

I will probably read at least about a woman who was like my other grandmother (I already read about the other) and about a male character with details like my grandfather. I think my other grandfather, who actually was already an adult in 1918, would be too complicated to be represented properly as a character. But anyway, you can choose the area where they are from and some other details for the person you are reading about and some things are left for chance.

It's over 500 pages long so I'm not sure if I read every page and chapter of it (there are 289 chapters), some character details don't feel believable enough for me to be interested in them, but I will probably try to read most of it. And yes, I am keeping count of the chapters. I will also have to hurry because other people have holds on it.

[Nadine in NY]

Tytti wrote: "I am reading "You in the year 1918" which was published at the end of January. It's a "choose your own adventure" type of book and I have currently read about six different fates for two different ..."

That's a really neat idea! I am always telling my children about my grandparents (who were the children of immigrants to the US), what little I know of their childhood, because I think it's important to remember how much they struggled in the US in the early 20th century before there were things like labor unions and child labor laws and social welfare programs, etc.

[Tytti]

Well I'm not sure how well the book represents my ancestors as they were mainly peasants in the White ruled area, so the war didn't really affect them that much, and there isn't much of a story there to be told. (Also I don't agree with some of the details or their historical accuracy.) My father did tell me that his father had started working for the railways when he was 13 and had been working somewhere in the south when the war started but he managed to stay out of it, although as a worker he might have been expected to join the Red Guard. But then again his parents (my great grandparents) had survived the great hunger years in the late 1860's (it was the last famine in Europe caused by natural reasons) when maybe more than 8% of the total population starved to death, so I think it was normal for them that even children had to work so that the family could survive...

[Britany]

Finished by Kristin Hannah-- 5 Stars

I Loved this book!

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Tara]

It was just announced that Khaled Hosseini is releasing a new book in September!!!! He is my absolute favorite author so I'm a little excited.

[Jill Johnston]

I just finished The Great Alone, and I could not put it down!

[Leigh]

I read The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory, published 02/2018. This is the first book published this year that I have read but I am sure it won't be the last.

[Rachelnyc]

Britany wrote: "Finished by Kristin Hannah-- 5 Stars

I Loved this book!

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I'm reading it now and absolutely loving it. She is becoming one of my favorite authors.

I had already read The Immortalists for this prompt though which was good but I am liking The Great Alone more.

[Nicole]

I won an advanced copy of The Room on Rue Amélie by Kristin Harmel (being published March 27, 2018) in a Goodreads giveaway, so I may pick that one. It sounds good & has great ratings so far.

[Shelley]

I read The Grave's a Fine and Private Place which I had been looking forward to. It wasn't quite as good as some of the earlier books in the series, but was better than the last one. If anyone is looking for good audiobooks, I highly recommend the Flavia De Luce series. The narrator puts so much glee into words like cyanide and poison that it just elevates the whole book. Flavia is twisted little girl.

[Britany]

Rachelnyc wrote: "Britany wrote: "Finished by Kristin Hannah-- 5 Stars

I Loved this book!

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show..."

I'm readi..."
This makes me so happy! :)

[Rachelnyc]

Britany wrote: "Rachelnyc wrote: "Britany wrote: "Finished by Kristin Hannah-- 5 Stars

I Loved this book!

My Review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show......"

I rated it 5 stars as well. One of my favorite reads this year for sure!

[Britany]

Yay Rachelnyc! :)

[Nichelle]

Hi, all. For this prompt here, I read This Will Be My Undoing: Living at the Intersection of Black, Female, and Feminist in (White) America. such a letdown. I only struggled to finish it because it was also a book I was reading for a March book challenge.

[Patricia]

I read Closer Than You Know by Brad Parks. I was able to read it ahead of time through Penguin's First To Read program. GREAT BOOK! FAST READ!! Kept me guessing until the end!

[Lu]

I've just got my e-copy of The Oracle Year, it was released today! I hope it's as good as it seems!

[Jenn]

Check out Pretty Girls Dancing by Kylie Brant
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...

[Kristin]

For now, I have Jo Nesbø's Macbeth that I got from a Little Free Library for the Nordic Noir prompt, but in looking at it further, it likely doesn't fit Nordic Noir since it's a retelling of Shakespeare's Macbeth.

That said, I never liked Shakespeare and we didn't read Macbeth in school, so either I'm going to love the modern take on it and finally figure out why people love Shakespeare, or it's going to be brutal and find itself back in the LFL before I get finished with it.

[Nadine in NY]

Kristin wrote: "For now, I have Jo Nesbø's Macbeth that I got from a Little Free Library for the Nordic Noir prompt, but in looking at it further, it likely doesn't fit Nordic Noir since it's a ret..."

I am super excited to read that book!! I've never read Macbeth either, so I'm going to read Shakespeare's Macbeth first, and then put Nesbø's on hold at my library.

[Frogli]

I finally got my hands on Circe which I have been waiting for impatiently ever since I heard about it. Not read much yet as work has been insane this week but so far, so good :)

[Raquel (Silver Valkyrie Reads)]

Kristin wrote: "For now, I have Jo Nesbø's Macbeth that I got from a Little Free Library for the Nordic Noir prompt, but in looking at it further, it likely doesn't fit Nordic Noir since it's a ret..."

I don't think most people are ever going to figure out why people love Shakespeare by reading his plays, They were really meant to be performed, so either a live performance or a good movie version like Kenneth Branagh's versions are both more enjoyable and easier to follow than reading the script.

[Eujean2]

Raquel wrote: "I don't think most people are ever going to figure out why people love Shakespeare by reading his plays, They were really meant to be performed"

I totally agree. Comments like this are why GoodReads needs a like button!

[Melissa]

If you are looking for a "quick win" read, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo qualifies. I read it in 10 minutes on the way to work this morning.

[Marcie]

I just finished Carnegie ' s Maid and truly enjoyed it

[Ian]

I picked the book The Female Persuasion because I was going to the B&N book club with some coworkers and had already filled the "Problem in Society Today" and "Book about Feminism" prompts.

I picked this book up when a group of my coworkers decided they wanted to do Barnes & Noble's inaugural book club. When I picked it up, I thought I was going to get a fictional character's modern liberal female manifesto. With those expectations, I was immediately disappointed by the book, not through any fault of Meg Wolitzer's but because of my own misunderstanding. Meg Wolitzer has not written a rousing fictional call-to-arms for third and fourth wave feminists. What she has written is a compelling look at what it means to be a woman with influence and what to do with that power, whether it is localized in your family and community or played out on a public stage. This book was an excellent pick for an intimate discussion.

Even with my enriched understanding, I still found the book lacking in coherence of style. The book alternates between four different characters to varying degrees of focus (the main character - Greer - gets about half the novel's chapters, her love interest receives 3 - 4 chapters to himself, her best friend gets a chapter, and her mentor gets a chapter). With the lack of focus on the latter two characters, I did not quite understand the need for their own chapters. I found all four of these characters compelling and would have read a novel about any one of them on their own but could not get into the narrative break that came from giving minor characters a single chapter that took from the narrative flow of the main protagonist.

I also struggled with the book's style. The chapters for me had abrupt shifts in time with no visual cue to alert the reader to a temporal shift. In a single chapter, you might start in the present, shift to the 1970's, wind up in 1990, shift to 2010, backtrack to 2008, and then meander finally back to the present. I give props for stylistic experimentation, but the book does not always stick the landing on cohesion of execution.

For anyone else taking the 2018 Challenge, this book would also fill the prompts:
A Book about Death or Grief, A Book with an LGBTQ+ Protagonist, A Book about Feminism, A Book with Characters Who Are Twins, A Book about a Problem Facing Society Today

[Tania]

I've read 2 books this year that would qualify. I used Digging In for this prompt, but Watch Me is another good option published this year.

[Sally]

Somebody I used to know, by Wendy Mitchell. Wendy was diagnosed with dementia at the age of 58, 6 years ago. She relates how she has developed strategies to enable her to live well with her dementia. How she to.d her children and colleagues of her diagnosis. And importantly how although living with dementia she has a lot of living to do.

[Majo]

I'm so excited to be reading Shadow Child for this prompt! I've been waiting for Rizzuto's next book for what feels like a long time.

A little on the dark and twisty side and beautifully written. Family, identity, history, Hawaii, NY, a bit of a whodunit? Riveting read so far. Also works for the twins prompt or for local author if you're either in NY or Hawaii, should you want some flexibility.

[Kim]

I am reading the fiction book, The Atomic City Girls for this prompt.

[Nullifidian]

Victoria Patterson, whose works I deeply admire, is coming out with a new short story anthology titled The Secret Habit of Sorrow .

New Directions publishing is coming out with a paperback edition of Complete Stories by Clarice Lispector that contains three newly discovered stories not in the hardcover edition.

[SadieReadsAgain]

I read Repeal the 8th for this. It wasn't the book I thought I'd go for (as there are sooooo many books coming out that I want to read), but I heard about it in the days leading up to the Irish abortion referendum and couldn't not read it. It's a collection of essays, fiction, poems and personal stories inspired by the horrible abortion restrictions placed on women in Ireland, and the fight to repeal the problematic (misogynistic, barbaric, etc) 8th Amendment. The referendum was last week, and the Republic of Ireland did the right thing. I reserve celebration until actual change occurs, but that's a pretty awesome thing. This book was a great primer for someone like me who is fairly ignorant not just about Irish women's rights, but about Ireland in general. It was definitely a stirring battle cry, and a reminder that though the referendum in the Republic has been won, there is still a long way to go (especially for the women of Northern Ireland, who are not covered by the result of the vote). It was also really informative about the political position of reproductive rights more generally. On a bookish level, like many collections it had some standout pieces and some which didn't really grab me, but it was a short read and kept my attention all the way through.

[Tina]

I've already done this prompt, but for those who haven't, I highly recommend The Great Alone by Kristen Hannah. Stayed up late last night to finish it, great book. Intense and sad at times, but good read.

[Rachel]

I just finished Leah on the Offbeat last night. I actually somehow didn't have that one planned for this year at all, even though I was very excited for it. Luckily, I managed to shift things around so I could fit it in.

[Diane]

I am going with Lies That Bind Us. I think it was another one of the Amazon free reads of the month at some point. I don't want to say too much because I had to learn something about the character very early on that I'm not sure was expected. The two story lines (past and present) kept me intrigued enough to want to know how it was all going to end. Reminds me of The Boy Who Cried Wolf. I gave it 3 stars but would recommend it.

[Darchelle]

I read The Wicked Deep!

[Cyndy]

I read The Fallen by David Baldacci. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It's a sad thing that Mr. Baldacci doesn't write as fast as we read!

[WVrambler]

I'm currently listening to European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman by Theodora Goss, which came out in July and is the second book in a new series. It's based on the premise of so many mad scientists in goth novels having lovely daughters. So far, it combines Jekyll and Hyde, Frankenstein, the Island of Dr Morrow, Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, and several others I'm sure I'm leaving out. I just under halfway through and am really liking it.

[Tracy]

Looking forward to The Hazel Wood, but there are so many others 😩