Back for the first time in this format since 2014. In total in 2018, I read 65 books, split 21/44 between nonfiction and fiction. I read more fiction, but you’ll see more nonfiction below because I was on a quest to find young adult fiction that wasn’t about finding true love, and I was . . . not very successful.
Best nonfiction:
Winner – The Boys in the Boat, Daniel James Brown – How nine Americans rowed for a medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. A look into post-depression America, a time when you could still pay for college by working in the summer, pre-WWII Germany, and collegiate crew.
Nominees – The United States of Soccer, Phil West – A history of MLS. All references to the Revolution can be summed up as “and then they lost the MLS cup final.”
Hidden Figures, Margot Lee Shetterly – Basically the less dramatic, longer, more detailed version of the movie (women at NASA doing math before, during, and after the space race).
No Way Down, Graham Bowley – An account of several days on K2 in 2008 during which 11 climbers died. Engaging, in the style of Into Thin Air and The Climb1, but written by a non-climber, which lends objectivity; however, the lack of personal experience with the subject shows.
Apollo 8, Jeffrey Kluger – The tale of how three men came to spend Christmas of 1968 orbiting the moon. Kluger is also Jim Lovell’s coauthor for Apollo 13 (originally Lost Moon).
1Dueling accounts of the 1996 climbing season on Everest by Jon Krakauer, a client with mountaineering experience on one expedition, and Anatoli Boukreev, a guide from a competing agency.
Best supporting nonfiction2:
Pitch Perfect, Mickey Rapkin – A (slightly) more serious look at college a cappella than the movie.
The Pixar Touch, David A Price – The story of how Pixar came to be and the development of computer animation.
A Well-Ordered Thing, Michael Gordin – The life of Dmitri Mendeleev, the creator of the periodic table.
Leonard Bernstein, Allen Shawn – Have you ever wanted to know about the life of the perhaps the most famous conductor of the New York Philharmonic’s Young People’s Concerts? Here’s the book for you.
2Books listed here are good, but you would either need a strong interest in the subject to read them or be willing to plow through some less captivating writing.
Best fiction:
The Name of the Wind, Patrick Rothfuss – Similarly to Dune, this book starts out slowly, then you get really into it. I read a large chunk of this book on the train to/from Chicago in August. It’s the first book in a planned trilogy – the second came out in 2011, and the third is yet to be released. The first book ends in a not-too-cliffhanger-y way, so I’m planning to wait for the third book to be published before reading the second. This book is hard to describe without spoiling anything, so I’ll just say it’s good.
Best science fiction:
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, Philip K Dick – The book Blade Runner is based on. I also read Man in the High Castle, and I like this book better, but I can see how Man in the High Castle has more potential for a full TV series.
Year Zero, Robert Reid – A Hitchhiker’s Guide style romp through the universe featuring music-loving aliens, space travel, and . . . vacuums and copyright law?
Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View – A retelling of A New Hope by characters ranging from droids and stormtroopers to jawas and the cantina reprobates.
Best YA fiction:
Turtles All the Way Down – John Green’s latest book. I was on a search this year for YA fiction that wasn’t all about falling in love (i.e. “boy meets girl,” or its cousins, “those two people who hate each other are actually in love,” “turns out that one guy you’ve known forever and is your best guy friend is in love with you so let’s date,” and “hey there we just met three minutes ago in the grocery store but we’re meant to be together forever”). Turtles All the Way Down does include the relationship angle, but it’s a book discussing mental illness that has a relationship in it, not a love story in which one of the loveably quirky characters has OCD.
Best pictures:
The Complete Guide to Nature Photography, Sean Arbabi – Really. It’s got great pictures.
Now a major motion picture3:
Pitch Perfect – See above.
The Princess Bride, William Golding – Same storyline as the movie, but with a different flavor of Golding’s humor.
Julie and Julia, Julie Powell – Haven’t seen this movie; the book is part ingredient hunting, part New York apartment living, part labor-of-love/hate cooking, and part slice of life.
Hidden Figures – See above.
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline – 80s references galore. The movie deviates pretty far from the book, and I actually think the movie ending is better than the book’s. Fairly light/quick read.
3All the books listed here have been adapted for the big screen. If they’re not listed elsewhere in this post, they’re good, but not one of my absolute favorites for the year.
No comments:
Post a Comment