Best Fiction Books of 2018

I love looking back at my year of reading and sharing my favorite books of the year with you.  For me, this was a pretty decent year quantity-wise in terms of reading. I read 73 books this year, the most since 2014. I attribute that increase to a few factors: my freelance work with Shelf Awareness; participating in several reading challenges; choosing shorter books; and listening to more audiobooks (28!) during my commute to work instead of getting stressed out by the news and President Puppet.

Of the 73 books I read, 30 were fiction and 44 were nonfiction. Most of these were published in 2018 but, as always, there are a few backlist titles included.

And as always, I’ll divide this recap into two posts, beginning with the Best Fiction of 2018 (alphabetical by author’s name, with my favorite book saved for the very end).

A Ladder to the Sky by John Boyne (Doubleday, 2018, 368 pages)
Maurice Swift is an aspiring author who cannot come up with an original idea for a novel. When he meets acclaimed writer Erich Ackermann, he ingratiates himself into his life and wins his trust. Erich tells him a devastating secret that he’s kept since childhood and Maurice callously, maliciously turns it into a bestselling novel. This becomes the pattern of Maurice’s life as he does the same with everyone he meets. Maurice is conniving and despicable and yet, you keep reading. A Ladder to the Sky is about greed, success, identity and the high price that’s paid when you sell your soul.

Short Cuts: Selected Stories by Raymond Carver (Vintage, 1993, 157 pages)
This was the year I really got into flash fiction — reading it and learning how to write it. Raymond Carver’s name seems to come up frequently, and with good reason. Short Cuts, which was made into a movie with a star-studded cast directed by Robert Altman, consists of nine stories {“Neighbors,” “They’re Not You’re Husband,” “Vitamins,” “Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?” “So Much Water Close to Home,” “A Small Good Thing,” “Jerry and Molly and Sam,” “Collectors,” and “Tell the Women We’re Going”) and one poem (“Lemonade”). Carver writes about seemingly ordinary people in everyday situations; just when you think not much is going to happen, things take a sudden dark, weird, strange turn. Kind of like life itself. I listened to this on audio and it was fantastic.
Vox by Christina Dalcher (Berkley, 2018, 336 pages)
A dystopian novel set in a terrifyingly realistic future where the president is “always on television… always trumpeting a new plan to turn the country around, constantly telling us how much better off we are.” It’s also a world where women and girls are permitted to speak only 100 words each day and their daily usage is electronically-monitored via a government-issued word counter which emits an instantaneous painful shock whenever violations occur. Read my full review on Shelf Awareness as well as my interview with Christina Dalcher.

Florida by Lauren Groff (Riverhead, 2018, 275 pages)
Lauren Groff’s version of Florida bears no resemblance to the world of Disney or sun-kissed beaches. This Florida is a dark, exotic wilderness where danger lurks in the form of snakes, swamps and storms. Most of these 11 stories have an element of suspense or characters in some sort of peril. Groff knows how to build tension in her tales and it’s palpable through the pages. The short story is where Groff excels and Florida, a finalist for the 2018 National Book Award, certainly does.

Another Side of Paradise by Sally Koslow (Harper, 2018, 352 pages)
Hollywood’s “golden age” marked a golden time for writers. In the 1930s, screenwriters could earn $1,000 per week from producers of films and movies that are now considered classics. With the success of The Great Gatsby well in his past, F. Scott Fitzgerald was among the many writers who headed to California during this time. Desperate for money, he was being rejected by publications that once readily accepted his short stories, his wife Zelda was hospitalized in a North Carolina asylum, and his drinking became excessive. Another Side of Paradise is a wonderful addition to the many books that have been written about Fitzgerald and is especially notable because of its focus on Sheilah Graham, a Hollywood gossip columnist who was engaged to the Marquess of Donegall when she met F. Scott Fitzgerald at a party. What followed was an intense, four-year love affair between Sheilah and Scott that was as dramatic and intriguing as anything on the silver screen–just like Graham’s own life story. Read my full review here. 

Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (Penguin Classics, first published 1818, 288 pages)
This year was the 200th anniversary of Frankenstein’s publication, a classic that I wanted to re-read because I had forgotten much of it — or didn’t fully appreciate the first time around. A timeless read about the wonders and dangers of science and what it means to be human.

Sugar Land by Tammy Lynne Stoner (Red Hen Press, 2018, 334 pages)
A gorgeously written debut novel set in 1923 about two girls, Dara and Rhodie, who fall in love. As an escape from their small Texas town and her feelings, Dara takes a job in the kitchen at Imperial State Prison Farm for men where she befriends real-life inmate and soon-to-be legendary blues singer Lead Belly. A compelling story with unforgettable characters.

And finally, my favorite novel of 2018, which should come as no surprise.
The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (Viking, 2018, 421 pages)
If I’ve given you a book recommendation this year, chances are The Great Believers was among them. It’s set in Chicago during the AIDS epidemic, and Fiona Marcus’s beloved brother Nico has just died. In her grief, she draws closer to his circle of friends. There’s also a storyline involving Nico’s work as a fundraiser for an art gallery and Makkai does an exceptional job of capturing the nuances of the development world. The Great Believers alternates between 1985 and 2015, when Fiona travels to Paris to try and find her daughter Claire who has gone missing. Fiona’s past and present collide in a novel that returns readers to a time when love meant fear, risk and death. Gorgeously written and one that will likely break your heart.

In addition to these 8 books, there were two more I would also rank as favorites. However, they won’t be published until April and May 2019, respectively, so they’ll have to wait for another post.

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