Short Story Collections

One genre I haven't discussed that much on this blog is short story collections.  In the early years of my top 10 lists, there often were multiple short story collections, but that seems to have trailed off in recent years, and I know in part it's because while I started reading more books, at the same time it seems I seemed to start reading fewer short story collections.  Maybe because short stories are good for when you are pressed for time/are reading in short bursts?  But in the last year or two I've gotten more interested in short stories, especially because these days I often like to have a second book going that I'm reading on my phone, and short story collections seem to be a good choice for that. (I've been reading more memoirs for the same reason.)

Here are some of my favorite short story collections of recent years:

Books Being Adapted Into Movies Coming Out in 2019

I'm always interested in what movies are coming out based on books - whether it is books I have already read and am curious to see how they are adapted, or books I've heard of and want to read before I see the movie.  Yes, I'm generally a firm believer in reading the book before seeing the movie - and also for the most part tend to find that the book version is better than the movie version.

Interestingly, of the books being adapted into movies that I included in my 2018 post on the same subject, I only ended up seeing two of the movies.  "Ready Player One" was an entertaining enough movie, but nowhere near as good as the book.  "Crazy Rich Asians," on the other hand, I was lukewarm on the book but loved the movie.  Go figure.  I did end up reading all the books I hadn't read that I mentioned in the post, but didn't end up seeing the other three movies - "Annihilation" because I hated the book, and "Red Sparrow" and "Love Simon" because I just didn't get around to seeing them.

Without further ado, here are some more books that are coming out as movies this year!  Like last year, I'm not going to include every single adaptation, just those that sound interesting to me  - and I'll separate the below list into books I've already read, and other books/movies I'm potentially interested in.

2018, The Best of the Rest, Part 2

I've already shared my Top 10 books of 2018, and, if you missed it, part 1 of my "best of the rest" covering realistic contemporary and historical fiction. Since I still have yet more books to recommend, today's post covers other genres, including mysteries and thrillers, science fiction and fantasy, and memoirs.  These are not necessarily books published in 2018, but books I read in 2018.

2018 - The Best of the Rest, Part 1

Back when I used to read a lot fewer books a year, my top 10 list pretty much encapsulated the books from the year that I would really recommend, give or take a few.  But now that I read SO many books a year, I have a lot more than 10 books which I would heartily recommend.  So in addition to my Top 10 books of 2018, I wanted to share with you many more books that I read last year which I would recommend!  So if you read all the books on my top 10 list you're interested in and are looking for more, you can hone in on the categories that interest you.  There are way too many books for me to blurb them all without this post taking forever to write (and read!), so I'm just going to list titles and authors.

And because I have SO many books to recommend, I'm going to break this post into two parts.  This one will cover realistic contemporary fiction and historical fiction; more other genres will be covered in the next post.

Books are listed below by genre.

Jen's Top 10 Books of 2018

I'm very excited to share with you my 10 favorite books that I read in 2018!  I read a record amount of books in 2018, so this really is the cream of the crop - and it was SO hard to narrow this list down!  The top 5 were pretty easy, but narrowing down to the remaining 5 was a real challenge.  So I'm also happy to tell you that in the coming weeks you can look for "best of the rest" post(s) highlighting some of the other books I loved in 2018!

Anyway, for many many years - dating back to a time when I barely used the internet (1999!) - I have been compiling a list of my ten favorite books read in the year just ended and sharing with my friends, first by e-mail, then by facebook, and starting last year, on this blog.  It's not necessarily books published in the year I make the list, just books I read that year.  Here's my list for 2018, in alphabetical order by author's last name:

The Royal We - Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan
This Is How It Always Is - Laurie Frankel
Force of Nature - Jane Harper
Queen of Shadows - Sarah J. Maas
The Clockmaker's Daughter - Kate Morton
Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld
What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw - Leah Stewart
Other People's Houses - Abbi Waxman
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
The Female Persuasion - Meg Wolitzer


Traditionally, I used to just send around a list with no further comment on the books.  But now that I have more space, I want to tell you more about the books - first a little bit about each book itself, and then some general comments on the list as a whole.  Though if you've been reading this blog regularly, I think you have actually heard about most of these books in one post or another.  And I would love to hear what everyone else thought of these books, and what your favorite books of 2018 were!

Read on for more: