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.

Contemporary women's fiction and chick lit

As a reminder, this category encompassed the bulk of my Top 10 list - The Royal We by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan, This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel, What You Don't Know About Charlie Outlaw by Leah Stewart, Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld, Other People's Houses by Abbi Waxman, and The Female Persuasion by Meg Wolitzer.  This category also comprises a lot of what I read, so I have a ton of books to recommend beyond those!  The first 5 books in the list below actually all were 4.5 star books for me and were considered (some more than others) for my top 10 list.

Other books in this category which I read in 2018 and highly recommend include:

I Liked My Life - Abby Fabiaschi
Between Me and You - Allison Winn Scotch
How to Walk Away - Katherine Center
The Hopefuls - Jennifer Close
Surprise Me - Sophie Kinsella
Still Me - Jojo Moyes
Class Mom - Laurie Gelman
Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win - Jo Piazza

And because I read so many in this genre that I loved, if that's still not enough for you, honorable mentions to:  The Family Next Door - Sally Hepworth; One True Loves - Taylor Jenkins Reid; After I Do - Taylor Jenkins Reid; The Husband Hour - Jamie Brenner; The High Season - Judy Blundell; Nine Perfect Strangers - Liane Moriarty; How Hard Can It Be? - Allison Pearson; Watch Me Disappear - Janelle Brown.


Other contemporary fiction/literary fiction

Where one draws the line between literary fiction and other contemporary fiction, I'm not really sure.  But these books seem just a little different and or/too different in subject matter to describe as contemporary women's fiction:

What We Were Promised - Lucy Tan
The Leavers - Lisa Ko
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
A Spark of Light - Jodi Picoult
The One in a Million Boy - Monica Wood
The Immortalists - Chloe Benjamin

Short Stories
I read 5 collections of short stories last year, but there's only one I would recommend, and as it happens I strongly recommend it:

You Think It, I'll Say It - Curtis Sittenfeld


Young adult realistic fiction

I read some very good young adult realistic fiction last year, although only one of the books below was actually written in 2018.  The first few of these were in the running for my top 10 but missed the cut.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda - Becky Albertalli
What to Say Next - Julie Buxbaum
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
Flight Season - Marie Marquardt
A List of Cages - Robin Roe

Historical fiction

There were two historical fiction novels on my top 10 list, The Clockmaker's Daughter by Kate Morton, and Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein.

Other books in this category which I read in 2018 and highly recommend include:

The Shadow Sister - Lucinda Riley
The Summer I Met Jack - Michelle Gable
The Alice Network - Kate Quinn
Girls on the Line - Aimee K. Runyan
Dear Mrs. Bird - A.J. Pearce
The Masterpiece - Fiona Davis
The Address - Fiona Davis
The Italian Party - Christina Lynch
House of Gold - Natasha Solomons

Honorable mentions to:  The Pearl Sister - Lucinda Riley; The Subway Girls - Susie Orman Schnall; Transcription - Kate Atkinson; In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills - Jennifer Haupt; The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo - Taylor Jenkins Reid;  The Summer Wives - Beatriz Williams.

Stay tuned for part 2, in which I'll share other favorite reads of 2018, including mystery/thrillers, science fiction, fantasy, and more!