Some trends I noticed when reviewing the 265 books I read this year (down about 70 from last year’s epic high but still respectable!):
- 62% women writers; 34% men; the remainder a mix of both. Non-fiction (69%) edged out fiction (31%) for the third year in a row.
- Read a lot more poetry in 2018. I hope this continues.
- Some great graphic novels (Fante Bukowski, Enclyclopedia of Early Earth, Megahex) stay stuck in my head.
- Went on some weird tangents like disaster movies, history of artists & window displays. Read a lot on the usual topics (walking, nature, capitalism, tourism, solitude, introspection). Read a lot of Anne Tyler and Sujata Massey as escapist fiction.
Non-fiction
- Suite for Barbara Loden by Nathalie Léger.
- Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey
- La Batarde by Violette Leduc
- The Recovering: Intoxication and its Aftermath by Leslie Jamison
- Ninth Street Women by Mary Gabriel
- The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein
- Doris: An Anthology 1991-2001
Fiction
- Circe by Madeline Miller
- Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
- Florida by Lauren Groff
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- Crudo by Olivia Laing
- The Briefcase by Hiromi Kawakami
Poetry
- Anything by Anne Boyer, like Handbook of Disappointed Fate or The Fall of Night
- Other poets like Kayo Chingonyi, Anne Carson, Sharon Olds, Alice Jones, Campbell McGrath.
Art
- Andy Goldsworthy: Projects
- Journals of Grace Hartigan, 1951-1955
- Anything and everything about artists that intrigued me, like Lynn Hershman, Agnes Denes, Tony Oursler’s archives, Rineke Dijkstra, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Joseph Cornell, Nell Blaine, Saul Steinberg.
Memoir/Essays
- Conversations with Kafka by Gustav Janouch
- 300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso
- Calypso by David Sedaris
- The Cost of Living by Deborah Levy
- Draft No. 4 by John McPhee
- How to Write an Autobiographical Novel by Alexander Chee
- Arbitrary Stupid Goal by Tamara Shopsin
Classics
Read or re-read Virginia Woolf (Room, Vol 1 Essays, Vol 1 Letters), Melville (Bartleby), DFW (Consider the Lobster), Proust, Betty Smith (Tree Grows in Brooklyn), Doris Lessing (Summer Before Dark), Dreiser (Sister Carrie). Discovered Richard Brautigan by way of a display at the Presidio branch library, read everything I could.