Top 5 Wednesday: Best Books So Far in 2018

Alright let me get back into doing these things.

Not that it's a pain, I just have terrible time management skills. And sometimes when I look at the prompts I feel overwhelmed with just how little I've read.

Today's Top 5 Wednesday prompt is "Best books you've read so far in 2018"

I'll go off my Goodreads ratings, and for the sake of everything I'm not counting: Children's books or graphic novels. I would want to make a post for each of them for this kind of thing...had I read more of them more diversely. Alas....that's not the case.

The following is a mix of audio books and physical copies that I've read and have enjoyed the most so far in 2018 (apologies if this feels like a bit of a repeat of my Mid-Year Book Freak Out Tag )

These wont by in any particular order:

1) Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

This book was over all just kind of intense and inspiring to me. Definite trigger warnings for abuse. I also just enjoyed the narration of the book. I listened to this on Audible Julia Whelan is Tara now. I don't know what Tara actually sounds like, I don't want to know. The perseverance and motivation Tara had to get herself educated was astounding and heartbreaking. This book surprised me.

2) The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James

Right off the bat I felt this book was over all enjoyable and unique. There were a couple things I thought were iffy with the main character that leaves me question if nurture or nature have bigger impacts on children's anxiety (it was a bit of a distraction honestly) otherwise this went darker than I had expected a YA to do which gave me anxiety reading this book, but was thrilling enough for me to not want to put it down.

3) Circe by Madeline Miller

I feel like I've talked a lot about this book recently. But it's honestly one of my favorites because my mind keeps going back to it. I didn't know who Circe was before reading this book, and it was enjoyable listening (audible) to her story interact with stories from Greek myth that I did know. Plus Perdita Weeks's voice was just so delightful, very smooth and rich, poised even.

4) The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X.R. Pan

I enjoyed the themes in this book, however some were worked out better than others. I mostly enjoyed this book for it's theme on suicide and the effects it has those nearest the victim. I also enjoyed the magical realism elements of this book and the emotion behind it.

5) Sourdough by Robin Sloan

This book made me crave bread so badly I can practically already taste it. This was over all magic realism mixed with science fiction, and I was such a fan. The ending was a bit odd to me, but otherwise I thought the bread this book explored as well as some of the other foods and fun San Francisco high lights were really enjoyable and familiar.

I was for a bit thinking of posting a recommendations post...This could easily be it if you don't mind me being restricted to things I read in 2018. There are obviously more that I could easily recommended beyond this year. Maybe at some point...

If you've read any of these let me know your thoughts on them. Did they make it to your top five of 2018?

Until next time!
Litta