The Best Books I Read in 2018

But she was just treated terribly and I think this is such an important book generally about racism, civil rights, incarceration, criminal justice, political activism, so many different layers of things and it is such just a mind-blowing story that I would highly encourage everyone to read it.

But despite being like an action-filled book with quite a lot of like intense things going on at quite a rapid pace, it doesn't lack in character development at all for me. It is such a wonderful character study amidst a lot of things going on.

And there's so much that I loved about this book. I love that it gave Circe a whole narrative of her own. That is so rare in ancient literature for female characters of myth to have them truly be the focus of long epic tales.

But, I really adored this. I love Benjamin Zephaniah's rhyming and rhythm. He just, you know, pours emotion into this poetry.

This book really blew me away. I was not expecting to love it as much I did as I did, but I would recommend it to everyone.

It is so intricately woven, such a detailed story, really slow-paced, but in the most beautiful, majestic way. You feel like you're in the medieval Irish landscape. The characters are so incredibly well developed.

But you gradually watch this woman's life change with its ups and its downs and even if you don't always relate to Eleanor you empathize with her and I just find it such an engaging read with such a fascinating character and I love that it focused on kind of the importance of friendship and relationships with other people and how they can change your life and I just thought it was a really wonderful story that I wasn't expecting to love as much as I did.

I love the fae world, and this one was no disappointment. In fact, apart from Juliet Marillier's books, I think she writes my favorite fae fantasy as it stands at the moment.

And it is so incredibly well written. It is such an interesting concept. I've never read anything else quite like it.

So I had high hopes for Misogynation and it did not let me down. Although I will say there is definite repetition between this book and Everyday Sexism, which I didn't mind because that is not a surprise.

There is so much pun hilarity as in all of Terry Pratchett's books. They're so clever, and you think you know that premise, but trust me, he's going to just chuck hurdle after hurdle at your expectations when you read this novel cuz it will keep you in suspense.

And it's just an incredible, incredible novel. Lots of elements of it, like I said, are based on Jeanette Winterson's own experiences, and that's why I think it's so affecting as a novel.

And because of that there's so many different layers and I thought it was phenomenal. Just such an intricately woven book that only takes place across a few days a bit like Homer's Iliad and I think that reference to Medea added a new layer to it.

And it is heart-wrenching. This is a book where there are very, very few, if any, moments of lightness in the story. It's very dark, but it offers such an important perspective, I felt, on war and women's experiences of war that can be translated over so many centuries.

And I related so hard to Aza. And although at some points it was difficult to read about her journey, it voiced my feelings and my experiences in a way I've really never been able to articulate myself.