Episode 20: Our Best Books of 2018

You’ve been asking for it, and now it’s here: our best books of 2018 list! We are the type of people who cannot pick our books until ALL the books have been finished for the year, so this is the soonest we could record!

You’ll hear a “bookish moment of the week” from each host: a Christmas gift that is perfect for an avid reader and the reason you all feel like your TBR lists explode whenever we release a new episode.

Next, we discuss what we are currently reading, and this week has an incredible variety of titles that we discuss.

This week’s deep dive is a recap of our top ten books of the year for each of us. We picked the cream of the crop to share with you, readers.

As always, we finish up with A Book (yep, capitalized) that we’d like to press into every reader’s hands: a gripping mystery and a two-book series that are so unexpectedly wonderful.

As always, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you’d like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don’t scroll down! 

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5:08 - Little Free Library!

9:33 – The Indifferent Stars Above by Daniel James Brown

9:45 – The Best Land Under Heaven by Michael Wallis

12:25 – The Hunger by Alma Katsu

13:00 – Becoming by Michelle Obama

16:19 - The Only Girl in the World by Maude Julien

16:34 - The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls

16:36 - Room by Emma Donoghue

18:56 - Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris

19:33 - Only Human by Sylvain Neuvel

19:41 - Sleeping Giants by Sylvain Neuvel

21:51 - Waking Gods by Sylvain Neuvel

22:59 - Sadie by Courtney Summers

25:13 - The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street by Karina Yan Glaser

29:10 - The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell

30:39 - The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne

32:32 - The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

33:15 - Essentialism by Greg McKeown

34:28 – The Read-Aloud Family by Sarah MacKenzie

35:03 – The Read-Aloud Revival Podcast

35:29 - American Marriage by Tayari Jones

36:39 - Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown

37:41 - Educated by Tara Westover

40:42 - Circe by Madeline Miller

42:32 - Tattoos on the Heart by Gregory Boyle

43:37 - Calypso by David Sedaris

45:03 - The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley

45:41 - Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

46:44 - The Word is Murder by Anthony Horowitz

47:58 - Where The Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens

49:48 - Nevermoor by Jessica Townsend

49:56 - Wundersmith by Jessica Townsend

52:41 - The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

54:52 - Behind Closed Doors by B.A. Paris

54:58 - The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn

55:51 - Us Against You by Frederik Backman

55:55 - Beartown by Frederik Backman

56:01 - A Man Called Ove by Frederik Backman

58:44 - Britt-Marie Was Here by Frederik Backman

58:45 - My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She’s Sorry by Frederik Backman

*Please note that all book titles linked above are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*