The State of the Art: Books 2018

To all the authors out there, I'm sorry. To all of my friends who delight in exchanging book and story recommendations, I'm sorry. To all the people who take pleasure in the written word, I'm sorry. So, so sorry. My book list for 2018 is nothing short of disgraceful. I could point to all sorts of excuses: I have a new job! I've been spending quality time with my boyfriend! I devoted a lot of attention to games! I've been (and still am) reading a book that tops out at more than 1100 pages!

All of those are true, but I still feel terrible that I read so little this year. Reading often has the capacity to expand the mind so much more than movies and television, and I'd hate to think that my brain is getting calcified by not reading as much as I should. Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things in 2019, but in the meantime, it's time to call out what I actually did get to this year.

Given the video game I chose, it appears that 2018 is the Year of Appreciation for Things That Can Actually Surprise Me, because the top of this year's list is 2016's The Power, by Naomi Alderman. When women and girls worldwide begin to exhibit the ability to electrify with their hands, they finally have a weapon to take down the most troublesome aspects of the patriarchy. Power corrupts, though, and things get wildly out of hand. It takes a gifted writer to make me truly able to see things as if I were viewing it from another person or group's perspective, and Alderman was able to convey not only the joy of newfound power, but the terror it can inflict.

Here's the full 2018 ranking:

The Power - Naomi Alderman (2016) (A)
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas (2017) (A-)

The Ice Cream Queen of Orchard Street - Susan Jane Gilman (2014) (B+)
Openly Straight - Bill Konigsberg (2013) (B+)
The Rosie Project - Graeme Simsion (2013) (B+)

They Both Die at the End - Adam Silvera (2017) (B)
Afterlife - Marcus Sakey (2017) (B)
Sweetbitter - Stephanie Danler (2016) (B-)
Children of Blood and Bone - Toni Adeyemi (2018) (B-)
Iron Gold - Pierce Brown (2018) (B-)
The Hearts of Men - Nickolas Butler (2017) (B-)

What Light - Jay Asher (2016) (C+)