2018: By The Books, Part 1 of 5
It’s pretty clear from the general zeitgeist that 2018 was a rough year for a lot of us – and even if that wasn’t through personal events, the news cycle put an incredible level of psychic stress on pretty much everyone. However, as we draw the year to a close, and head into 2019, I’ll look at 2018 at its best – by the books that I read.
The thing that I really love about Goodreads (other than some very fun author features that I like to play with on slow days) is how it lets me keep track of every book that I read. I finished 50 this year, and some were pretty great. Others were actually a surprise to remember that I’d even read, which probably says a lot about my experience reading them. And a few were pretty darn bad. But overall, another great year in books.
With a nice round number like fifty, I’m going to break this into five parts. I basically read as my tastes and inclinations led me, so there’s a mix here. If your reading overlapped with mine on any of these books, let me know in the comments.
January 9, 2018 – March 7, 2018
What Was Amazing And You Need To Read It Now, NOW I Tell You:
- Catherine The Great: Portrait of a Woman by Robert K. Massie
What Was Good, And Should Go On Your Giant, Teetering To-Read Tower:
- Lake Silence by Anne Bishop
Pretty Decent, Worth Reading One Of These Days:
- The Monsters of Templeton, by Lauren Groff
This Was, Indeed, A Book. And One That You Will Likely Complete:
- The Welsh Girl, by Peter Ho Davies
- How Eskimos Keep Their Babies Warm: And Other Adventures In Parenting, by Mei-Ling Hopgood
- Dead Ever After, by Charlaine Harris
- The Royal We, by Heather Cocks & Jessica Morgan
- Stronger, by Jeff Bauman
I Mean, It Filled Some Time And It’s Not Like It Was Awful
- The Other Family, by Joanna Trollope
Oh My God, It Was Awful
- Partnership, by Anne McCaffrey & Margaret Ball
Posted on December 31, 2018, in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. 4 Comments.
M. L. Brennan 
Hi, I just finished Generation V and really, really liked it. I had ordered it a while back on Amazon as an ebook along with the next two, but had too much on my plate to start earlier. I loved it so much, I just bought the fourth book as a print book. I am so sorry that the series ended when it did.
Ironically, I think that now it would be in a really good position to takeoff. I noticed that James butcher, the son of Jim Butcher, recently wrote a book and the main character was just as inept and unskilled a magic user as Fort is at being a vampire. I wish that Roc had tried a similar approach to marketing you book as they the approach that was done for Dead Man’s Hand… something like, “meet Fort, a vegetarian and the only member of his infamous undead family who utterly fails at being a ‘good’ vampire.” For me, a major part of his charm in terms of being a protagonist is that he is stumbling around in the supernatural world and wants to be an average human. He is able to bridge both of those worlds in a way that no one else in his family can. Ironically, I think that positions him to be a really strong leader someday. I think that his sincerity and compassion would earn him a stronger following by others because they would be bound to him through ties of voluntary loyalty as opposed to being an undead minion out of fear.
I’m not sure if you even read your website anymore because it’s been such a long time since you posted. But I wanted to comment and let you know how I like your book. I am now partway through the second one and enjoying it even more. (I admit that the series name kind of threw me for a loop.) Any suggestions on who I could write at Roc in support of you and this series?
I assume that you are very busy with parenthood but I do hope you will find some time to write again. I would absolutely love to read anything else you might write. You mentioned in one of your posts that you’re reading a series that takes place in the 1920s? What is the status on that? Or are you now working on something else? Anyway, I hope that you do see this and will respond by letting us know what you been up to since 2018! I think you are a fantastic author.
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