I kept a list of what I read this year because of this post, which I read about a year ago. Two of my not especially secret habits are reading things and making lists, and in 2018 (despite a full-time job and acting in four plays) I read a widely as possible in an effort to come up with something equally worthwhile.
-Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell, David Yaffe
In 2018 I read several books about the rock scene of the 1960's and 70's. There wasn't a plan, it just happened that way. Reading about Mitchell - as tough and brilliant and inexplicable as you'd expect - and others was actually comforting, because that heavily romanticized era was in fact just as scary and confusing and hard to live through as our own times.
-The Force, Don Winslow
An atmospheric novel of police corruption which probably needed to end more neatly than it did.
-Cinnamon Skin, John D. MacDonald
A late entry in the series, not my favorite. I'd be up for rebooting Travis McGee as a woman.
-Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan
A historical novel which I rated 4 stars on Goodreads but didn't review. I can remember little about it other than that it involves diving.
-Silesian Station, David Downing
Part of a series of historical thrillers that I discovered thanks to this podcast. Well worth checking out if you like intrigue set in Germany just before WWII got serious.
-Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda, Becky Albertalli
A YA novel and the basis for the film Love, Simon. A very comfortable coming out story despite a distasteful blackmail subplot.
-Mrs. Fletcher, Tom Perrotta
I can't wait for the HBO adaptation of this starring Kathryn Hahn.
-Don't Suck, Don't Die : Giving Up Vic Chesnutt, Kristin Hersh
The Throwing Muses leader writes a short memoir of her late friend and collaborator.
-The Late Show, Michael Connelly
My favorite writer of popular mysteries begins a new series starring a female LAPD detective.
-Sticky Fingers : The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, Joe Hagan
Fascinating and horrifying. Rolling Stone badly needed an HR department.
-The White Album, Joan Didion
My favorite read of the year. Didion is a personal hero of sorts.
-Watch Me Disappear, Janelle Brown
I don't remember much about this mystery except that I saw the ending coming far too early.
-Love & Trouble : A Midlife Reckoning, Claire Dederer
Memoirs about messy lives written by punk rock fans are my thing.
-Sharp Objects, Gillian Flynn
I also seem to have read quite a few books in advance of shows and films this year. This one might have been better than I initially gave it credit for. After watching some of the TV show I can appreciate the detail with which Flynn studies the way hurt people can hurt people.
-Vacationland, John Hodgman
I got retweeted by the author when I posted something about enjoying this despite how much it made me think about my own death. I am the perfect age to have read this.
-Trajectory, Richard Russo
One of my favorite working writers. Three short stories and a novella.
-Astral Weeks: A Secret History of 1968, Ryan H. Walsh
See above comments about the chaotic qualities of the 1960's.
-Clock Dance, Anne Tyler
Tyler was on form with this story of a woman in midlife who develops unexpected emotional connections.
-Wilde Lake, Laura Lippman
Lippman is the only author on this list twice. I slightly preferred the other one.
-Pauline Kael : A Life in the Dark, Brian Kellow
A biography of another irascible personal hero.
-Mothering Sunday, Graham Swift
A very British novel of class and unfulfilled desire. My first Swift, and an easy read in a day
. -Seize the Day, Saul Bellow
My first Bellow. The Great American Novel? Terrifying.
-Levels of the Game, John McPhee
Awkward on race, but a work of narrative nonfiction that has otherwise stood the test of time.
-How to Write an Autobiographical Novel, Alexander Chee
I very much enjoyed this, an essay collection on overcoming trauma and finding one's place in the world.
-You Will Know Me, Megan Abbott
No one should ever be a gymnast.
-Sunburn, Laura Lippman
A quick and dirty read. Lippman has fun with shifting points of view and by not trying to overexplain her characters.
-Ohio, Stephen Markley
A very ambitious novel that sets the plot in motion far too late in the game.
-Wildlife, Richard Ford
Richard Ford is good at writing.
-If Beale Street Could Talk, James Baldwin
See above comment.
-The Realistic Joneses, Will Eno
The only script I read this year that I didn't act in, but I'd like to.
-The Little Drummer Girl, John Le Carre
It took me far too long to read this and so I'm not sure I'm recalling how little actually happens correctly. Events have badly aged this novel.
I am currently reading The Fifth Risk by Michael Lewis, and then comes 2019 …..
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