2018 Book List. It's Long. I Read a Lot. As in, a LOT a Lot.

As a kid I read all the time. And by all the time I mean I read not just at every meal (as long as I could get away with it -- parents have an odd fondness for kids actually interacting with others at the dinner table). I read while blow-drying my hair, brushing my teeth, walking down the hallway or going up and down the stairs in our house, and under the covers at night with a flashlight. I learned to read at age five thanks to a mom who was a schoolteacher and put flashcards on everything in the house. I read at blinding speed even without the benefit of an Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics course (I date myself right there).

My e-reader lets me carry a library of books with me wherever I go. My transportation habits give me reading time riding the bus, light rail or train if I'm not bicycling. And I do still occasionally regularly often stay up a little too late reading, although I no longer need the flashlight since the e-reader has its own backlighting.

These factors, and not having kids at home with schedules to be juggled, are why I can rack up such a long list of books read over the course of a year. I'm reconstructing this list based on book purchases and use of Kindle Unlimited so I can share some of my favorites, roughly working backwards from December to January although the chronology isn't exact. 

First, a note on local economies: You should shop at a local, independently owned bookstore. Or check these out through your local library -- did you know they can do that with e-books? Links below are Amazon Affiliate links. I've never made a penny from Amazon but these links give you access to more information and reader reviews. If I ever do make anything I'll donate it to a local nonprofit that helps people who need it most.

You'll note a definite fondness for book series. I love to enter into an author's world and live there a while -- it's better bingeing than Netflix can offer. Notes on what's included:

• Because I'm reconstructing this list long after reading some of them this isn't a complete set of brief reviews like what I'd hoped to compile. Some have a sentence or two about what stuck with me or why I plan to read more by this author. 
• Lack of a commentary doesn't indicate a lack of quality in the book. 
• Where I could find a Twitter account for the author I've included that.

You may also notice that this list skews heavily toward works by women of color and people of color. I've made a conscious effort the past couple of years to make sure I'm reading works that introduce me to perspectives and traditions other than the ones I got so much exposure to as a young white girl growing up in Idaho. I pay attention to writers recommended by the ones whose work I admire (Twitter is especially good for this). If I read a review that says a book doesn't do a good job of representation I skip over it, although that's no guarantee that I always know about such a review. This has been a rich and rewarding experience and I highly recommend you think about what you do and don't get from your current reading lists.

With that, my 2018 reading list:

• Machineries of Empire trilogy by Yoon Ha Lee (@motomaratai): Ninefox Gambit, Raven Stratagem, Revenant Gun. Compelling characters, many of them non-binary or what the author refers to as "woman-form" or "man-form" (referring to trans or perhaps gender-fluid people), and a mathematically and calendrically fascinating take on technology. This trilogy closed out the year for me with some reading over the holidays.
• African Immortals Series: My Soul to Keep, The Living Blood, Blood Colony, by Tananarive Due (@TananariveDue): Long-secret brotherhood of men who undergo a ritual that makes them immortal, but then....
• Wayfarers series: The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet; A Closed and Common Orbit; Record of a Spaceborn Few, by Becky Chambers: Oh how I loved these! It's the future and people fled the dying Earth with different visions of how to survive, from a completely sustainable closed-loop system in spaceships to a capitalist do-over on Mars. Brilliant, funny, thought-provoking.
• The Way the World Ends, Jess Walter (@1JessWalter): Just read anything he ever writes and you won't be sorry.
• Under the Pendulum Sun, Jeannette Ng (@jeannette_ng): Victorian missionaries in Fairyland. Elves aren't nearly as nice as you've been led to believe.
• Autonomous, Annalee Newitz (@annaleen): Really fortuitous timing to read this right after Plum Rains. Enthralling.
• Plum Rains, Andromeda Romano-Lax (@romanolax): You will finish this thinking hard about both the essential and unappreciated labor of immigrants and a future with AI and robotic helpers.
• Ruined series: Ruined, Allied, Avenged, Amy Tintera (@amytintera): When some of you have magic and others don't, your peoples will end up at war. And talk about sibling rivalry.
• The Intuitionist, Colson Whitehead (@colsonwhitehead): You're the first African-American woman working in "vertical transportation" (elevators). By the author of The Underground Railroad (which was brilliant).
• Infomocracy, Null States, State Tectonics, Malka Older (@m_older): Found Malka thanks to reading a lot of books by her brother Daniel Jose Older. Perfect for people like me as a long-time SFF reader and participant/close observer of politics. Brilliant series -- I hope there are more.
• Strange the Dreamer, Muse of Nightmares, Laini Taylor (@lainitaylor). Oh, how I loved this series. I am hooked on her writing.
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Days of Blood & Starlight, Dreams of Gods & Monsters, Laini Taylor (@lainitaylor). Fabulous.
• Red Waters Rising, West Winds' Fool and Other Stories of the Devil's West, Laura Ann Gilman (@LAgilman): Book 3 and short stories set in The Devil's West series that I love by Seattle-area writer (and bike rider!) Gilman.
• Gods, Monsters, and the Lucky Peach: Kelly Robson (@kellyoyo). Climate change + time travel + ecological restoration = more please.
• In the Vanishers' Palace, Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb): Could be described as a queer alien and Vietnamese Beauty and the Beast but it doesn't need to be. Everything I've read by her is wonderful. Read anything she writes.
• Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Martha B. Wells (@marthawells1): The Murderbot Diaries. Who knew how much you could enjoy being inside the head of a part-human, mostly robot killing machine who did a little internal reprogramming to turn off the safeties?
• Lullaby for a Lost World, Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb). Set in her Dominion of the Fallen world but stands alone.
• Clockwork Century books by Cherie Priest (@cmpriest): Boneshaker, Dreadnought, Ganymede, The Inexplicables, Clementine, Fiddlehead, Jacaranda, Tanglefoot. Great steampunk series that starts with a veeerrrry different Seattle than the one I live in. I mean, if a toxic underground gas turns people into zombies, well....
• Atlanta Burns and The Hunt, Chuck Wendig (@chuckwendig): Don't mess with shotgun-wielding teen-ager Atlanta, that's all I can say.
• Happy Doomsday, David Sosnowski (@david_sosnowski): The central character is written as a teen-aged boy with Asperger's surviving in a post-apocalyptic landscape.
• The Thinking Woman's Guide to Real Magic: Emily Croy Barker (@emilycroybarker): A grown-up version of every book I ever read as a kid in which you get to leave your own world and go into another one where magic is real. Looking forward to the next book in this series.
• Everfair, Nisi Shawl (@nisishawl): Alternate history for the Congo with steampunk technology, multiple characters followed through the years, and a great opening sequence involving a woman riding a bicycle. (Bicycles show up several times, as they often do in works with a touch of steampunk.)
• Wheel of the Infinite, Martha B. Wells (@marthawells1): An older work by her that I'd love to see followed up with a sequel.
• Clocktaur War: Clockwork Boys and The Wonder Engine, T. Kingfisher (@ursulav). Such wonderful characters! Especially glad to have a central woman character who isn't young, slim and super-flexible. Kingfisher also writes for young adults as Ursula Vernon.
• Of Books, and Earth, and Courtship; In Morningstar's Shadow, Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb): Works in her Dominion of the Fallen stories, a rich and brilliantly inventive alternate history of a decaying Paris that houses both fallen angels with magic and dragon people from another magical system originating in Asia.
• Robots vs. Fairies: A great anthology. So tough to take sides.
• Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (@justinaireland): Alternate history in which the outcome of the Civil War changes thanks to the rise of zombies and young African Americans are trained as zombie fighters, but we still get racism and segregation.
• Space Opera, Catherine M. Valente (@catvalente): What a romp! Who wouldn't want an interstellar talent competition to determine the fate of humankind?
• An Ember in the Ashes, A Torch Against the Night, Sabaa Tahir (@sabaatahir): First two in her Ember in the Ashes series. I'll be reading the rest of these.
• Lilith's Brood, the Xenogenesis trilogy: Dawn, Imago, Adulthood Rites by Octavia E. Butler: I'd read other books by Butler but not this. It was especially interesting to read this after reading the Binti trilogy (listed below).
• Wake of Vultures, Conspiracy of Ravens, Malice of Crows, by Lila Bowen (@delilahsdawson): Another great "paranormal West" series that reminds me a bit of Laura Ann Gilman's Devil's West but neither is an imitation of the other. (Follow her on Twitter for 10 daily tips on writing.)
• Sky Full of Stars series by Lindsay Buroker (@goblinwriter): The Rogue Prince; Angle of Truth; Stolen Legacy. (Follow her on Twitter for great information on self-publishing and the e-book world.)
• Fallen Empire series by Lindsay Buroker (@goblinwriter): Star Nomad, Honor's Flight, Starseers, Relic of Sorrows, Cleon Moon, Arkadian Skies, Perilous Hunt, End Game, Cyborg Legacy. I enjoy Buroker's abilities to keep spinning yarns for characters who may play a smaller role in one book, then come to the forefront in another or get their back story revealed.
• Throne of the Crescent Moon (Crescent Moon Kingdoms Book 1), Saladin Ahmed (@saladinahmed). I'll be reading the rest of this series as it comes out.
• Cold Wind, Nicola Griffith (@nicolaz): I love everything of hers that I've read.
• The Church of Accelerated Redemption, Gareth L Powell (@garethlpowell) and Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb).
• The Song of Achilles: A Novel, Madeline Miller (@millermadeline): Really well-done retelling of the Trojan War that draws out the intimate relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. You don't need to remember your high-school Odyssey/Iliad to appreciate this.
• Trail of Lightning (The Sixth World Book 1), Rebecca Roanhorse (@roanhorsebex): Can't wait to read more of this series grounded in Native American belief systems with a really kick-ass young woman protagonist. I've preordered the next in the series.
• Jade City (The Green Bone Saga Book 1), Fonda Lee (@fondajlee): Ability to control jade magic underpins the power structure and economy in what is ultimately also a family saga.
• Xuya Universe books: On a Red Station, Drifting; The Tea Master and the Detective, Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb). Already read the other books set in this world.
• Scattered Among Strange Worlds, Aliette de Bodard (@aliettedb). Anthology.
• Children of Blood and Bone (Legacy of Orisha Book 1), Tomi Adeyemi (@tomi_adeyemi): Looking forward to the next in this West African-inspired fantasy series.
• Heritage of Power series by Lindsay Buroker (@goblinwriter) (a follow-up to the Dragon Blood series): Dragon Storm; Revelations; Origins; Unraveled; Gold Dragon: Buroker's books are always a fast, fun read.
• The City of Brass: A Novel (The Daevabad Trilogy), S. A. Chakraborty (@SAChakrabooks): Middle Eastern fantasy with magic, djinns, and yes, another strong central woman character. Buying the rest of this trilogy for sure.
• The Raven and the Reindeer, T. Kingfisher (@ursulav): I love this author's retellings of classic European fairy tales. This one is The Snow Queen.
• The Wrath and the Dawn series: The Wrath & the Dawn; The Rose & the Dagger; The Moth & the Flame; The Mirror & the Maze; Renée Ahdieh (@rahdieh): Another rich and wonderful fantasy with Middle Eastern roots. 
• The Binti Trilogy (Binti; Binti: Home; Binti: The Night Masquerade), Nnedi Okorafor (@nnedi): I read these before reading Octavia Butler's Xenogenesis trilogy. Read them together in whichever order you want to read them for a really rich experience.
• Dragon Blood series: The Blade's Memory; Under the Ice Blades; Raptor; Soulblade; Oaths; Shattered Past; The Fowl Proposal Bonus Scenes, Lindsay Buroker (@goblinwriter): I read the first part of the Dragon Blood series over the holidays in late 2017 and kept going
• Public Enemy Zero, Andrew Mayne (@andrewmayne): What if there's a disease outbreak and you are Patient Zero?
• Station Breaker; Orbital, Andrew Mayne (@andrewmayne)
• The Night Trade (Livia Lone #2), Barry Eisler (@barryeisler): If you like his John Rain books, which I read some time ago, you'll also appreciate these. Livia had a terrible childhood as the victim of human traffickers. She's grown up, she's angry, and she will take revenge.
• Steampunk World: Anthology with authors and perspectives from all around the globe.
• Visual Meetings: How Graphics, Sticky Notes and Idea Mapping Can Transform Group Productivity, David Sibbet (@DavidSibbett): Now I know how some of those techniques I keep encountering in transportation/urban planning circles got so popular, like big maps/sketches on the wall.
• As Good As True, Cheryl Reid (@lane_reid): An incredibly moving novel that puts you inside the head of Anna Nassad, daughter of Syrian refugees and battered wife.
• Extinction Files by A. G. Riddle (@riddlist): Pandemic; Genome: Gotta have a good end-of-the-world techno-thriller every now and then.
• The New Earth Series by Matthew Mather (@phuturenews): Nomad; Sanctuary; Resistance; Destiny: Another end-of-the-world series. This is why astronomers monitor the massive bodies out there in the galaxy....
• The Seventh Bride, T. Kingfisher (@ursulav): A reworking of Bluebeard. I love Kingfisher's heroines -- they're no-nonsense, real women.
• The Salt Roads, Nalo Hopkinson (@nalo_hopkinson): Interweaving stories of Afro-Caribbean gods and people over time.
• Game Changer, Douglas E. Richard: Techno-thriller. Remember that scene in The Matrix when Neo says, "I know kung-fu"?
• The Fifth Doll, Charlie N. Holmberg (@CNholmberg): A short but haunting work with a Russian flavor. I read her Paper Magician series a while back and enjoyed that.
• Behold the Dreamers, Imbolo Mbue: No wonder Oprah chose this for her book club. It's a heartbreaker.
• The Book of the Unnamed Midwife and The Book of Etta, Meg Elison (@megelison): You have to read these. Set in a post-apocalyptic world in which very few women can carry a pregnancy to term. Don't think of this as another version of The Handmaiden's Tale although it's easy to based on this short description; these are brilliant books. I've already preordered The Book of Flora as the next in the series.
• Night Flower: A Court of Fives Novella, Kate Elliott (@KateElliottSFF): Love the Court of Fives series; I read that in 2017. Putting this list together helped me discover another novella in this world, Bright Thrones, so I just ordered that.
• The Gold-Son, Carrie Anne Noble (@noblebat): Leprechauns aren't nearly as nice as the Lucky Charms commercials have led us to believe.
• Close to Home (Tracy Crosswhite Book 5), Robert Dugoni (@robertdugoni): Seattle Police Department detective series. 
• Darknet, Matthew Mather (@phuturenews)
• CyberStorm, Matthew Mather (@phuturenews): This will make you pack a bug-out bag and keep it handy.
• The Woken Gods, Gwenda Bond (@gwenda): Teen girl, ancient artifacts, trouble.
• Gilded, Christina Farley (@christinafarley): Korean-American Jae Hwa Lee goes to Korea and confronts teen problems and a Korean demi-god. Planning to read Silvern and Brazen in this series now that I'm reminded that I enjoyed this first one.

Related Reading
How I've Been Reading