Thread by @SpeasySpice

ALRIGHT Y'ALL, OPERATION: BEST BOOKS OF 2018 THREAD IS LIVE!

Here's how this'll work: Each book I mention will have a blurb, a cover image, buy links from @justonemorepage wherever possible, and a @librofm link if I particularly enjoyed the audiobook.

HERE WE GO BUCKLE UP KIDS

WICKED AND THE WALLFLOWER by @sarahmaclean: My favorite book of the year, and my fave of Sarah's books. Thrilling, passionate, sexy as hell, incredibly moving, and a heroine that is EVERYTHING to me. Do yourself a favor and pick this up immediately.

📕: tinyurl.com/y7s37exx

THE POET X by @AcevedoWrites: This won the NBA for a reason, and it's the same reason I cried on the Metro listening to this audiobook at 9:30 on a Wednesday. Even months later this book gives me chills. Listen to it now.

📕: tinyurl.com/y7ve6f5d
🎧: tinyurl.com/y952jnkj

SPINNING SILVER by @naominovik: What a tour-de-force fairytale retelling through the lens of Eastern European folklore & Jewish culture & more. I was lucky enough to interview Naomi @justonemorepage this summer, & it was an absolute privilege & joy

📕: tinyurl.com/y6vstwaj

VALLEY GIRLS by @sarahnlemon: SNL is one of my fave YA writers, and Valley Girls is a perfect example of why. Come for the gorgeous descriptions of Yosemite, stay for the messy, complicated girls overcoming literal and metaphorical mountains.

📕: tinyurl.com/ya937w8m

CHECK, PLEASE! #HOCKEY by @ngoziu: Perfection. That's what this book is. A wee gay Southern figure skating champion who loves to bake gets a hockey scholarship to a Boston college and falls for the talldarkhandsome team captain??? YES. 100 TIMES YES.

📕: tinyurl.com/y7fq75m9

TIN MAN by Sarah Winman: An achingly beautiful, heartbreaking, and hopeful book about a man and the loves of his life: his mother, his wife, and his best friend. A powerful gutpunch to your heart, but also a tender balm to your soul.

📕: tinyurl.com/ycef9ybt

DREAMERS by @yuyimorales: I def cried when I read this picture book because it is such a gorgeously crafted love song to stories, libraries, family, & the power of dreams to carry you beyond borders. Pick this up for all your littles (and yourself.)

📕: tinyurl.com/yant3y4l

THE PRINCE & THE DRESSMAKER by @alooghobi: A sweet big-hearted graphic novel w/ wonderful characters, fabulous gowns, & a charming story abt. acceptance, love, discovery, & fashion. Such a delight, it made me want to dress infinitely better than I do.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9ujofj7

WHO IS VERY KELLY? by @RosalieKnecht: A thrilling spy story wrapped up in a queer coming-of-age story set in 1950s Maryland/DC & 1960s Buenos Aires on the cusp of a coup? Yes, thank you, I'll take ten, please.

📕: tinyurl.com/ydxqbvse
🎧: tinyurl.com/y9o2gyb2

MELMOTH by Sarah Perry (@customhousebks): Y'all know how much I adored ESSEX SERPENT, but MELMOTH is an ambitious neo-Gothic masterpiece that holds a mirror up to humanity & then asks you what you're going to do about it. This'll stick in your bones.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9ndtc5w

LAST SHOT by @djolder: Han, Lando, an Ewok hacker prodigy, an enby hotshot pilot, baby Ben Solo playing w/ a power drill, a Gungan bureaucrat who is Over Your Nonsense, possibly the Force, & maybe saving the galaxy? Again?

📕: tinyurl.com/y7fx25eg
🎧: tinyurl.com/yc8juwry

AQUICORN COVE by @strangelykatie: A lovely graphic novel by the author of THE TEA DRAGON SOCIETY about being kind to yourself, one another, and our environment as a young girl helps rebuild her community after a storm. Perfect gift for your littles.

📕: tinyurl.com/y823sgoa

CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX by Jordy Rosenberg: 😍

✅Genre? Unnecessary
✅Metafictional footnotes from an unhinged academic
✅Trans hero, Heroine of color, Queer AF
✅Anti-colonialist-anti-imperialist-anti-capitalist
✅Reimagining-ish of Threepenny Opera

📕: tinyurl.com/y8fgvp7l

THIS WILL BE MY UNDOING by @MorganJerkins: A sharp, incisive, collection of essays about living (as the subtitle suggests) at the intersection of black and female in White America. Morgan Jerkins is a voice of the future.

📕: tinyurl.com/ya4mgkzy
🎧: tinyurl.com/ydg7c3ew

SADIE by @courtney_s: Uncompromising and razor-sharp. Read it for all the girls who love & fight w/ equal ferocity, make the best of the world they're born into & take their fates into their own hands in spite of everyone who says they can’t.

📕: tinyurl.com/y88ynl7n

THE HAZEL WOOD by @mimi_albert: A dark, twisty, fairytale that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go. I thought I knew where this book was going no less than 3 separate times and was wrong EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

📕: tinyurl.com/ybnoc5fy
🎧: tinyurl.com/y8x8znua

I’VE GOT THIS ROUND by @mametown: I enjoyed this follow up to You Deserve a Drink SO MUCH. Mamrie Hart is smart, hilarious, poignant, and feels the exact same way about Bojangles biscuits as I do. North Carolina moonshine-flavored heart eyes forever.

📕: tinyurl.com/yddqw2mf

THE WEDDING DATE by @thebestjasmine: What an absolute DELIGHT. If you like your romance smart, sexy, with plus size rep, zero tolerance for the nonsense of white dudes, and an inordinate (read: correct) amount of food-eating scenes, this is FOR YOU.

📕: tinyurl.com/ybmduav6

BLANCA & ROJA BY @LaAnnaMarie: A new AMM book is always cause for celebration, but this one is something special. B&R is a gripping fable of swans, family curses, sisterly love, loyalty, magic and cranberries, a book to be tasted and savored.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9knjpgb

A GIRL LIKE THAT by Tanaz Bhathena: A fierce, unapologetic, and heartbreaking contemp YA about two Indian immigrants to Saudi Arabia, their friendship, and the double standards, gossip, rumors, and restrictions faced by women and girls. I loved it.

📕: tinyurl.com/yd48ll7h

Okay, I gotta take a break to go get dinner and then drive home, but there is a LOT MORE TO COME, so stay tuned folks!

*Angelica Schuyler voice*: Take a breeeak....

Aaaaaaand we're back, everyone! Food has been consumed, spreadsheet has been opened again, and we are GOOD TO GO!

NEXT YEAR IN HAVANA by @ChanelCleeton: A lushly drawn, sweepingly romantic book that dances with ease between 1950s Cuba on the brink of revolution and a modern woman who returns to a Cuba she doesn't recognize from her grandmother's stories. ❤️❤️❤️

📕: tinyurl.com/y8sllt88

THE DIVIDED EARTH by @FaithErinHicks: An action-packed and thoughtful conclusion to The Nameless City trilogy, this graphic novel is perfect for fans of Avatar: The Last Airbender & Delilah Dirk!

📕: tinyurl.com/yaurzwsa
Start the series here: tinyurl.com/y8hdgj3l

THE BATTLE FOR PARADISE by @NaomiAKlein: A slim but powerful snapshot of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, & the struggle b/t opportunistic venture capitalists and grassroots initiatives to develop sustainability/self-sufficiency.

📕: tinyurl.com/y8t6x3jq

TEMPESTS & SLAUGHTER by @TamoraPierce: Falling back into the Tortall universe was both exciting and comforting, like snuggling down into a favorite childhood blanket, and I am so thrilled for Arram/Numair's story to continue.

📕: tinyurl.com/ycur3vxk

A DUKE BY DEFAULT by @AlyssaColeLit: A hot-mess New York socialite pursuing her graduate degree in art history gets an internship with a medieval armory run by a handsome grumpy Scottish swordmaker LITERALLY WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME #SwordBae

📕: tinyurl.com/y8me6k2j

A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES BY @novaren: This is a simmering summer ghost story set amidst the secret nooks and crannies of New York City, a book of mystery, heartbreak, and female friendships that creates more questions than answers. 👻🏙️

📕: tinyurl.com/ybrxfexo

SHEETS by @brennathummler: A sweet, spooky, heartfull graphic novel about a girl who helps keep her family afloat by running the family laundromat and the ghost who finds his way into the forbidden human world.

📕: tinyurl.com/y87xq585

THE LINE BECOMES A RIVER by @_franciscocantu: A deeply personal account of US Border Patrol, but also a reckoning w/ how history weighs on a place, how it shapes a landscape & its people into something different, complicated, & impossible to quantify.

📕: tinyurl.com/y8nqgp4l

INKMISTRESS by @audwrites: What is a demigoddess to do when her ex-girlfriend turns into a savage, bloodthirsty dragon? A QUEST, OBVIOUSLY. A wonderful YA fantasy that feels comfortably familiar and yet thrillingly new at the same time.

📕: tinyurl.com/ycfy95mr

THE MERMAID & MRS. HANCOCK by @girlhermes: A magical, glittering jewel where the wealthy rub elbows w/ the common rabble, courtesans hold as much power as Parliament, and a simple man’s fortune can be made on the back of a single magical curiosity...

📕: tinyurl.com/y8oje9e3

FORBIDDEN HEARTS SERIES by @AlishaRai: I read all 3 books while I had the flu & I am BESOTTED. It's a well-crafted, sexy series where the characters grow, change & fall for each other BEAUTIFULLY

📕: tinyurl.com/yd5e4quv
📙: tinyurl.com/y745eozj
📘: tinyurl.com/yaysubsf

TANGERINE by Christine Mangan: A taut, atmospheric psychological thriller with shades of Talented Mr. Ripley. You can feel the heat and sweat of 1950s Tangier dripping off the page, particularly in the audiobook.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9xqtky6
🎧: tinyurl.com/y7eqbvqe

COLD-HEARTED RAKE/HELLO STRANGER by @LisaKleypas: Books 1 & 4 in the Ravenels series they are just an absolute treat! Hello Stranger, in particular, because it's b/t a spy-type gent & a lady doctor, and I SUPPORT IT. 😍😍

CHR: tinyurl.com/y9vnu94h
HS: tinyurl.com/ybcw2b4j

PRIME MERIDIAN by @silviamg: A nuanced and affecting novella that follows a woman struggling to make ends meet in a near-future Mexico City who dreams of going to Mars. A fascinating delve into nostalgia, loneliness, class, poverty, gender & more

📕: tinyurl.com/y9nsoexp

That does it for Books Released in 2018, but now we're going to move into books that I read this year that didn't come out in 2018, because backlist titles deserve some end of the year love too!

DONE DIRT CHEAP by @sarahnlemon: The elevator pitch for DDC is Thelma & Louise meets Sons of Anarchy, but there is a lot more meat within its pages. Still one of my fave books of 2018. I still think about it 8 months after I finished reading it.

📕: tinyurl.com/ybyreo5f

SIGNAL TO NOISE by @silviamg: This charming, engrossing, and unique book kicked me out of a wicked reading slump, & I adored it so much I promptly bought all of SMG's books. 3 teens in 1980s Mexico City make magic w/ music & vinyl records? Sign me up.

📕: tinyurl.com/y947vp96

CERTAIN DARK THINGS by @silviamg: Gritty Mexican vampire noir? LITERALLY WHAT ELSE DO YOU REQUIRE. It's so bloody and great and violent and beautiful and ugly and oddly hopeful and I loved every single page of it.

📕: tinyurl.com/yabwc5sp

SONG OF THE LIONESS QUARTET BY @TamoraPierce: Reread these for TORTALLAN KNIGHTS (@ACorusLine), the podcast I co-created where we reread every Tortall book & then gleefully discuss. Alanna was up first, and our episode for Book 2 goes live on Tuesday!
📕: tinyurl.com/yd8yatw4

THE LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET by Becky Chambers: This is the intimate space opera about love, home, aliens, humanity, belonging, connection, and found family that your heart needs. Y'all need to read it, like, yesterday.

📕: tinyurl.com/yat4plv9

PHOEBE & HER UNICORN 1-4 by @MizDanaClaire: If Calvin were a 9-year-old delightful weirdo named Phoebe, & Hobbes were a stunningly perfect (her words) & self-absorbed (Phoebe's words) unicorn named Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, you'd have this series 😍

📕: tinyurl.com/yb6ke4cu

POE DAMERON, VOL. 1-3 by @CharlesSoule @philnoto & @_AngelUnzueta_: These comics follow hot(shot) pilot Poe Dameron in the immediate leadup to The Force Awakens, featuring fabulous new characters, old favorites, and Poe's trademark sassiness.

Volume 1 📕: tinyurl.com/yc88xkmr

STAR WARS: SHATTERED EMPIRE by Greg Rucka & @MChecC: A really great one volume story about what happened immediately after the Death Star was destroyed and Palpatine was killed, and it just begs the question: WHERE IS MY SHARA BEY CONTENT, LUCASFILM

📕: tinyurl.com/ydxvjfd6

Whew, Mama didn't realize just how long this was going to take her, so we're gonna put this thread on pause until the morning so that I can get some sleep tonight!

HOWEVER, WE WILL BE BACK IN BUSINESS TOMORROW MORNING/AFTERNOON (depending on when I actually wake up lulzzz)

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand we are back everyone! THE THREAD CONTINUES!!!

(For those of you following along at home, we are currently in the depths of books that I loved this year that weren't released in 2018. Links from @justonemorepage [we ship books too!] and @librofm are provided!)

STAR WARS: AHSOKA by @ek_johnston: I watched all of The Clone Wars while I had the flu this year, & needed more Ahsoka. LUCKILY FOR ME, this wonderful book exists, and it is a really lovely bridge between where we see Ahsoka in CW and later in Rebels.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9ep3266

DARK DISCIPLE by @ChristieGolden: So I watched the entirety of The Clone Wars this year, aaaaaaand I ALSO required more Asajj Ventress content because she is the BEST. Sarcastic former Dark Side apprentice turned morally gray bounty hunter? SIGN ME UP

📕: tinyurl.com/ybna7mk4

LEIA:PRINCESS OF ALDERAAN by @claudiagray: This book is a really lovely exploration of Leia's first inklings of rebellion, her beginnings in the Galactic Senate, & the fine-tuning of her moral compass. Also bonus pts for Baby!Holdo, who is the best.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9f24vv5

AFTERMATH by @ChuckWendig: Listen, it's been the year of Star Wars, and this one is a heartpounding story that depicts the death throes of the Empire after Endor. Amazing characters, fascinating planets, and I can't wait to read the next two books.

📕: tinyurl.com/y975owso

WISHFUL DRINKING by Carrie Fisher: No one was as funny as Carrie Fisher, so do yourself a favor & get her audiobooks. As heartbreaking as it was to listen to, her impression of Debbie Reynolds in this one is fucking fabulous
📕: tinyurl.com/y7hmjwww
🎧: tinyurl.com/y8ubm9c5

THE PRINCESS DIARIST by Carrie Fisher: Bitingly clever, ferociously honest, intimate, revealing, and absolutely transporting. This book, like its author/reader, is a treasure. We miss you, Princess. Wish you were here.

📕: tinyurl.com/y8xkfnn8
🎧: tinyurl.com/y7hwolxs

THE WICKER KING by @KaylaAncrum: Whatever you think this book is going to be, it is not. It is continually unexpected, a razor-sharp story of two boys who would do anything for each other that is just so achingly GOOD that I devoured it in one sitting

📕: tinyurl.com/ybovcrwo

LIKE A RIVER GLORIOUS by @raecarson: I'm so behind on so many of my fave series, but I finally got around to book 2 in this series about a girl who can magically sense gold set during the California Gold Rush, and I ❤️ it!

📕: tinyurl.com/y9zg3fr9
🎧: tinyurl.com/yahj3nts

LABYRINTH LOST by @zlikeinzorro: Like I said, I'm so behind on so many series, but y'all don't want to miss this book about a Brooklyn bruja who accidentally magics her family into another world and then has to go on a quest to rescue them. SO GOOD.

📕: tinyurl.com/ya9zwlmh

WILD ACES SERIES by @ChanelCleeton: We read Book 1 for our romance book club, & I really enjoyed it so I immediately read the next two. PILOTS. MUSCLES. JETS. FEELINGS. WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT.

📗: tinyurl.com/y7fvofqb
📘: tinyurl.com/yc99dn4r
📕: tinyurl.com/ybkr5wgz

HIS DARK MATERIALS by @PhilipPullman: These were some of my fave books as a kid, and I relistened to them on audio this year, and I cannot recommend the audiobooks highly enough. Full cast, wonderfully read, happy Rebecca.

📕: tinyurl.com/ya5p57sh
🎧: tinyurl.com/yabfh3av

A CASTLE IN ENGLAND by @JamieERhodes & more: A beautiful and charming graphic novel by several different artists depicting several stories at a single castle at various points during its history. Perfect for my winter graphic novel reading binge.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9nxrwjj

PRIEST by @TheSierraSimone: This book is a pretty nuanced exploration of faith, desire, want, principles, and more, while also being so hot it could theoretically combust. But like if blasphemy is not your thing, this is.....maybe not for you. 🔥🔥🔥

📕: thesierrasimone.com

HIDDEN FIGURES by @margotshetterly: I know I'm like 3 years late to this party, but this book is so informative, powerful, & imminently readable, that I'd like to add my voice to the crowd telling you to read it NOW .

📕: tinyurl.com/y9dlxdds
🎧: tinyurl.com/ycpj7rlz

SANCTUARY by @RdotSpoon: I cannot emphasize enough to you that this series is called BEARDS & BONDAGE, & it is everything you would want in such a series. Plus they're so 🔥 that I wouldn't recommend reading them in public (unless that's ya thing)

📕: tinyurl.com/yc6xsgob

FRENCH MILK by @LucyKnisley: Another positively lovely graphic memoir from the Queen of Graphic Memoirs about a two month mother-daughter trip to Paris. Only Something New and Kid Gloves to read until I complete Lucy Knisley Bingo! 😂

📕: tinyurl.com/y9tojsos

WHITE TRASH by Nancy Isenberg: So the Staff Pick note that I have on this book at the bookstore where I work just says "PLEASE READ THIS INSTEAD OF HILLBILLY ELEGY." And I honestly don't know what else I can add to that.

📕: tinyurl.com/ya4c9kfr
🎧: tinyurl.com/ycldaydr

ACT LIKE IT by @_LucyParker: An absolutely charming romance set in the West End theatre scene w/ two actors who are forced to FAKE DATE for publicity yes PLEASE. I also appreciated that the theatrical trimmings felt for the most part very true to life.
📕: tinyurl.com/yau5htu8

HARD HITTER by @SarinaBowen: Hockey enforcer who hates being touched + the team's massage therapist = A VERY HAPPY REBECCA. I wish I could show you how much I enjoyed this through interpretive dance, that's how delightful this was.

📕: tinyurl.com/yb9o7fgf

BARE KNUCKLE by @MsKatiePorter: I found this beauty after @sarahmaclean tweeted about it, and I VERY MUCH enjoyed it. Scarred bare-knuckle boxer + a showgirl trying to make it in Vegas help and heal each other in the hottest ways possible HOORAY

📕: tinyurl.com/yb45ro7j

BLOOD OF ELVES by Andrzej Sapkowski: I spent about 100 hours playing Witcher 3 this year, so I decided to check the books out. The writing is ok, but the world/characters are so fascinating I didn't mind that much.

📕: tinyurl.com/y8sasgpe
🎧: tinyurl.com/yd69yt6y

DOWN AMONG THE STICKS AND BONES by @seananmcguire: The 2nd in the Wayward Children series, this is a dark fairytale for the new century, telling the story of Jack and Jill and how they found their Door into another world...

📕: tinyurl.com/y8wxlqes
🎧: tinyurl.com/ycycqv96

THE SCORPIO RACES by @mstiefvater: Another relisten for me, because I needed something familiar and favorite to listen to this rainy autumn. Plus it's pretty cool having your birthday on the same day as the Scorpio Races.

📕: tinyurl.com/y9xo4zcu
🎧: tinyurl.com/ya3ketj2

AND THAT'S IT! WE'RE DONE! WE MADE IT EVERYONE!

Those are all of the books I read/listened to and enjoyed this year. I didn't include books I didn't enjoy (obviously), plays that I had to read for various work things, or ARCs for 2019 books (because those'll come next year) ...

...and I don't think that I will finish anymore books by tomorrow, as I am still currently braindead from the holidays. However, I am currently reading HUNGER MAKES THE WOLF by @katsudonburi and THE FISHER OF BONES by @gaileyfrey via @serialboxpub and enjoying both very much!

So anyways, thanks for coming along this (surprisingly) two-day journey with me, y'all! Remember to support your local independent bookstore and/or library system!

Keep your blood on the inside, kids! ❤️❤️❤️