The Year in Books: Part 1

I think it's safe to say that all I did was read this year. I read an insane number of books, but there was a large number of fiction (almost half), and of those, there were a lot of youth fiction, which generally makes for quicker reading.

And here you have my favourite fiction from 2018 (in the order that I read them):

1. C.J. Hedgcock: The Baker Family Adventures. Just to be clear, they only make the list because I read #3-7, and not the first two (which I read last year). They get better around number 4. I only made it that far because there were several children at the church urging me to read them, and assuring me that they get better.

2. Agatha Christie: The Man in the Brown Suit; Three Act Tragedy; Lord Edgware Dies; Poirot Investigates; Curtains: Poirot's Last Case; Murder on the Orient Express; Nemesis. What can I say: I'm a huge fan Agatha Christie fan.

3. Jeanne Birdsall: The Penderwick series. I really enjoyed these; they're just nice books for kids. I read the first one in 2017, and the rest this year. The fourth one is the saddest and probably the weakest of the lot, but I still enjoyed it.

4. Robert C. O'Brien: Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. I have no idea how I missed this my entire life (it's older than I am). Friends insisted that I read it, and it's so good. The only problem is: I want to know what happens next!

5. Joan M. Wolf: Someone Named Eva. Although this is fiction, it is based on actual events in Czechoslovakia during WWII. It reminded me of how much history I don't know.

6. Brandon Sanderson: Arcanum Unbounded. This is a book of short stories, and I really enjoyed them. It may have helped to have read more of his longer fiction first, but for the most part what I have read was enough to follow the stories.

7. Sarah McCoy: Marilla of Green Gables. Okay, I'm not quite done this, but I anticipate finishing it tonight (or tomorrow morning at the latest, which is close enough). The author started with the bit of story in Anne of Green Gables when Marilla talks about John Blythe once being her beau. I'm really enjoying it; it's very well-written.

Although the rest were also good, those were my favourites.