Top Ten Books Read in 2018
It's the mo-o-o-st wonderful time of the year...time to compile my list of favorite books read in 2018! I'm linking up with Top Ten Tuesday as I do so.
This year's list is a little unusual for me, in that for the first time since I started doing these posts, a full half of the titles are nonfiction. I think this is owing to a combination of circumstances—from my little pie-chart on Goodreads it looks like I read a little more nonfiction than last year; and besides that, my fiction reading seems to have been just a trifle...well, I won't say lackluster, as there were plenty of books I enjoyed; but just not as rich as in other years. Not as many brilliant standouts. Hopefully that won't be the case in 2019!
But anyway, on to the list. As always, books are listed in the order read, not in order of favorites.
Revival by Martyn Lloyd-Jones
An excellent look at what revival means, and why and how we should pray for it. Heartily recommended for every Christian, and especially those who already feel a burden on their heart for the state of the church and of the world around them. I want to re-read this again sometime soon. (Brief review here.)
The Story Book Girls by Christina Gowans Whyte
I feel like this is an unlikely entry for a top-ten list, but the fact remains: it's among the ten books I enjoyed most during this year. It may be here more because of my response to it at a time when I particularly needed a friendly, comforting sort of book to curl up with on a dreary day, than for any other reason. It's just a comfortable, rather rambling old-fashioned book about the haps and mishaps of an ordinary, affectionate family—nothing particularly earth-shaking or brilliant, but with enough wit and genuineness to elevate it above the commonplace.
The Anatomy of Story by John Truby
This book is different than any other how-to book on writing I've ever read before. It's the first book where, as I was reading, examples from good books and films I knew kept popping into my head to illustrate the points about story being made. The amount of pencil underlining and little flag bookmarks sprinkled through my copy testify to how useful I found most of the advice within. Not everything is equally helpful; some of the detailed plot breakdowns toward the end felt overwhelmingly complicated, and various bits of the sections on symbolism and world-building seemed like they could be matters of opinion. But in the areas where it's good—specifically character, theme, and conflict—it's very good.
The City Beyond the Glass by Suzannah Rowntree
A historical-fantasy retelling of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" set in medieval Venice, this is probably the most page-turning, must-see-what-happens-next of Rowntree's retellings so far; and rich with period detail as usual. I read it in a single afternoon!
The Lost Art of Dress by Linda Przybyszewski
This is my favorite book on fashion I've ever read. There was a time in the earlier 20th century when American women were considered some of the best-dressed women in the world, and this book reveals why. It takes a fascinating look at a generation of designers and fashion experts who taught American women how to apply the principles of art, as found in the natural world—harmony, proportion, balance, rhythm, and emphasis—to create and choose beautiful and tasteful clothing that suited them and their lifestyles. And how to do it on a thrifty budget. What's so neat about this book is that it's both a fun history lesson yet also practically inspiring, as you come to realize that the principles of art can be applied to choosing tasteful and flattering clothing in any era. I want to review this book in full one of these days, but for now I can tell you that it inspired me to dig out my sewing machine and alter some pieces already in my closet that just weren't quite right, but have since become favorite outfits!
Gone-Away Lake by Elizabeth Enright
I probably would have liked this book if I'd read it as a kid, but I may have enjoyed it even more as an adult for the way it reminded me of my own childhood. The descriptions of what it's like to be a kid, enjoying the simple pleasures of playing and exploring outdoors on a summer day, are spot-on. And I would have loved to have had the kind of adventures that the two kids in this book have—discovering the remnants of an abandoned old town, and listening to tales of its glory days from the two friendly and old-fashioned elderly residents who still live there. Full review here.
Meet Me in St. Louis by Sally Benson
Ah, this was charming. Anybody who knows the movie will find most of the familiar plot elements within these vignette-style short stories, but I thought the book had a much more authentic, homey feel to it—not everything seemed as expensive and glossy as in the movie. The Edwardian era is a favorite period of mine, and perhaps what I enjoyed most about this book is the way that Benson sketches for us, in relatively few words, the sights, sounds and smells of a pleasant suburban neighborhood and the little details of furnishings, clothes, food, and other aspects of everyday life at that time. (Brief review here.)
Cattle Kingdom by Christopher Knowlton
A deeply interesting book that looks at the economic circumstances leading to the cattle boom of the late 19th century, and the mistakes that led to its bust—but more particularly focuses on an element of American West history that probably few people are aware of: the large-scale investments made in the biggest cattle ranches by wealthy Eastern and foreign investors. It'll give you a wholly new perspective on the familiar "big rancher vs. little homesteader" land conflict so often used in Westerns. While I don't necessarily agree with every one of the author's conclusions, particularly his repetition of certain cliches about the "mythical" nature of the cowboy at the end of the book, I found Cattle Kingdom far more intriguing and thought-provoking than I had initially expected. You can read my full review here.
Death and the Joyful Woman by Ellis Peters
I came to this whodunit in a roundabout way: I'd once watched an episode of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour by the same name, and when I learned it was based on a book, yet the book had some intriguing differences—notably a British setting instead of American—I was interested. (The Hitchcock episode really borrowed scarcely more than the character names and can only loosely be called an "adaptation"!) It's a good mystery sure enough, but what raised it to a level above that for me was the sensitive development of the relationships between the characters, particularly the family dynamic of police inspector George Felse, his wife, and their teenage son, who pursues an independent investigation of the case himself and is really the novel's protagonist. If subsequent books are equally good, I can rejoice at having finally found another good, literate mystery series to work through!
A Short History of Germany by Ernest F. Henderson
Owing to a desultory but growing interest in German history and culture and my own German heritage over the last couple years, I wanted to find a book that was a very basic introduction to German history, and this one fit the bill admirably. What I didn't expect was to be so entertained by something that I initially thought was going to be rather dry. The often amazingly petty conflicts between kings, popes, emperors, electors and the like (which, unfortunately for their subjects, usually took a good deal of fire and sword to settle), and the continual appropriation of disputed territories by whoever had the biggest army at the moment, reminded me of nothing so much as a life-size game of Risk. Henderson has his shortcomings, naturally—e.g., as a secular historian, putting a political interpretation on most aspects of the Protestant Reformation; and a tendency to conflate the "heretics" persecuted by the Catholic church with thinkers who eschewed religion as a whole—but, his more detached view does give some perspective on what a remarkable and providential event the Reformation was given the state of things beforehand.
The Story Book Girls was a public-domain download from Project Gutenberg; A Short History of Germany is also in the public domain and so I got an inexpensive Kindle version for 99 cents. Revival and The Anatomy of Story were already-owned paperbacks (the latter was a Christmas gift last year!); The City Beyond the Glass and Death and the Joyful Woman were Kindle purchases; and the rest were library borrows. Come back soon for my roundup post of my whole year's reading, which ought to be up sometime in the next couple of weeks!