2018 Reading Challenge

2018 was indeed a year of good reading. I added three books to my five-star rating list (Hunger by Roxane Gay, The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer, and Enfleshing Freedom by M. Shawn Copeland). I read more nonfiction than ever before, and my reading list included more international authors. Two books I read continue to haunt me with their depictions of violence in this world (A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara and The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch). I discovered my favorite poet, Andrea Gibson, and I read poetry by authors around the world. I did not read a single one star book. I read five textbooks cover to cover.

I committed to the Goodreads 2018 Reading Challenge with a goal of 60 books, eight more books than last year. I barely made this goal (I read 20 books in the last three weeks to catch up), so I think I am going to drop my reading challenge to 52 books next year. I like encouraging myself to read, but I am constantly reading articles and chapters for school that are simply not counted in this system. Look out for more good books in 2019!

Below you will find all of the books I read this year:

A guide to my rating system:

★★★★★ - Reserved for my favorite books ever
★★★★    - A must-read
★★★       - Enjoyable, I recommend it
★★          -  Not recommended but ok
★             - Bad, not interesting at all
✔             - Click the checkmark to read my review

1. Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson ★★★★ ✔
2. Under the Harrow by Berry Flynn ★★★
3. Love Her Wild by Atticus ★★★
4. The Ballad of Reading Gaol by Oscar Wilde ★★★
5. The Peoples Act of Love by James Meek ★★
6. Our Lady of Not Asking Why by Courtney Kampa ★★★★
7. Take Me with You by Andrea Gibson ★★★★ ✔
8. Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke ★★★
9. Women of Resistance: Poems for a New Feminism edited by Danielle Barnhart ★★★★
10. Winter Season: A Dancer's Journal by Toni Bentley ★★★★
11. Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson ★★★★
12. War of the Encyclopaedists by Christopher Robinson ★★★★
13. Pansy by Andrea Gibson ★★★★ ✔
14. Notes from a Public Typewriter by Michael Gustafson ★★★★
15. Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah ★★★★ ✔
16. Ballet and Modern Dance by Susan Au ★★★
17. The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone ★★★
18. The Great Alone by Kristin Hannah ★★★★ ✔
19. The Orphan of Florence by Jeanne Kalogridis ★★★
20. Hunger by Roxane Gay ★★★★★
21. Queer, There, and Everywhere by Sarah Prager ★★★★
22. Aunty Lee's Delights by Olivia Yu ★★★
23. The Winemaker's Daughter by Timothy Egan ★★★★
24. The January Children by Safia Elhillo ★★★★ ✔
25.  The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer ★★★★★ ✔
26. New American Best Friend by Olivia Gatwood ★★★★ ✔
27. Helium by Rudy Francisco ★★★★ ✔
28. Naked by David Sedaris ★★★
29. Why We Dance by Kimerer LaMothe ★★★★
30. Water & Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha ★★★★
31. Le Petit Prince by Joann Sfar ★★★★
32. Wade in the Water by Tracy K Smith ★★★★
33. Paris by Edward Rutherfurd ★★★★
34. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara ★★★★ ✔
35. My Mother Was a Freedom Fighter by Aja Monet ★★★★
36. I Think I Am In Friend-Love With You by Yumi Sakugawa ★★★★
37. Consider Jesus by Elizabeth A. Johnson ★★★
38. In a New Light by Ron Austin ★★★
39. Regarding the Pain of Others by Susan Sontag ★★★★
40. Poems by Maya Angelou ★★★★
41. The Mothers by Brit Bennett ★★★★
42. The Problem of Evil by Daniel Speak ★★★★
43. Who is Jesus? by Thomas Rausch ★★★
44. The Image of Christ by Gabriele Finaldi ★★★★
45. Enfleshing Freedom by M. Shawn Copeland ★★★★★
46. Wild Embers by Nikita Gill ★★★
47. The Small Backs of Children by Lidia Yuknavitch ★★★★
48. Home Front by Kristin Hannah ★★★★ ✔
49. Blue Horses by Mary Oliver ★★★★
50. The Imperfectionists by Tom Rachman ★★★
51. Riot Days by Maria Alyokhina ★★★★
52. You Are One of Them by Elliott Holt ★★★
53. Under the Banner of Heaven by Jon Krakauer ★★★★
54. The Library Book by Susan Orlean ★★★★
55. The Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck ★★★
56. Collected Verse by Noel Coward ★★
57. Travelling Mercies by Anne Lamott ★★★★
58. A River Sutra by Gita Mehta ★★★
59. Fourteen British and American Poets edited by Rowland L. Collins ★★★
60. A Train in Winter by Caroline Moorehead ★★★★