2018 in Reading

Introduction

Here’s all the books I that read in 2018:

• The Plays of Roswitha translated by Christopher St. John
• UH-OH: The Collected Poetry, Stories and Erotic Sass of Derrick C. Brown by Derrick C. Brown (poetry)
• Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard Reeves
• Our Super American Adventure by Sarah Graley (comics)
• Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
• Star*Line 40.4 edited by Vince Gotera (poetry)
• Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire
• The Miserable Mill by Lemony Snicket
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 20 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• Drink Cultura: Chicanismo by José Antonio Burciaga
• Dreams & Nightmares 108 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)
• The Stars Are Legion by Kameron Hurley
• Capricious Issue 9: Gender Diverse Pronouns edited by A.C. Buchanan
• The Austere Academy by Lemony Snicket
• Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker J. Palmer
• Pole Dancing to Gospel Hymns by Andrea Gibson (poetry)
• The Female Man by Joanna Russ
• The Ersatz Elevator by Lemony Snicket
• The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira
• The Vile Village by Lemony Snicket
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 21 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• The Missionary’s Curse and Other Tales from a Chinese Catholic Village by Henrietta Harrison
• Mythic Delirium 4.4 edited by Mike Allen
• A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.
• In the Pockets of Small Gods by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 22 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• The Hostile Hospital by Lemony Snicket
• Rendezvous with Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
• The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age by Adam Segal
• The Carnivorous Carnival by Lemony Snicket
• The Slippery Slope by Lemony Snicket
• The Grim Grotto by Lemony Snicket
• The Penultimate Peril by Lemony Snicket
• The End by Lemony Snicket
• Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson (comics)
• The China Questions: Critical Insights into a Rising Power edited by Jennifer Rudolph and Michael Szonyi
• Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 23 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• Teaching Critical Thinking: Practical Wisdom by bell hooks
• The Bride was a Boy by Chii (manga)
• Babylon’s Ashes by James S.A. Corey
• Dwarf Stars 2018: The Best Very Short Speculative Poems Published in 2017 edited by Deborah P. Kolodji (poetry)
• Broken Metropolis: Queer Tales of a City That Never Was edited by Dave Ring
• The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin and translated Ken Liu
• Transcendent: The Year’s Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by K.M. Szpara
• The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin and translated Joel Martinsen
• Fiyah Magazine Issue 7 edited by Justina Ireland, Troy L. Wiggins, and Brandon O’Brien
• Death’s End by Liu Cixin and translated Ken Liu
• Capricious Issue 10 edited by A.C. Buchanan
• Mithila Review Issue 10 edited by Salik Shah and Ajapa Sharma
• Over the Anvil We Stretch by Anis Mojgani (poetry)
• I Am Providence by Nick Mamatas
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 24: Disabled People Destroy Science Fiction! edited by Dominik Parisien and Elsa Sjunneson-Henry
• Sword and Sonnet edited by Aidan Doyle, Rachael K. Jones, E. Catherine Tobler
• Uncanny Magazine Issue 25 edited by Lynne M. Thomas and Michael Damian Thomas
• Kim Reaper: Grim Beginnings by Sarah Graley (comics)
• Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault
• The Remnant Fleet by Geonn Cannon
• Moonstruck Vol 1: Magic to Brew by Grace Ellis and Shae Beagle (comics)
• Amaryllis and Other Stories by Carrie Vaughn
• Dreams & Nightmares 109 edited by David C. Kopaska-Merkel (poetry)

Let’s review the highlights.

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim

Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim is so awesome and I love her. She’s a 10th-century German canoness, dramatist, and poet who attempted to christianize the work of Terence, the Roman comic playwright. I reread her plays at the start of 2018 and blogged about them.

This year, now that work from 1923 has finally, definitively entered the public domain, an English translation of her plays is now in the public domain. Yay! I blogged about that earlier this month and also shared an ebook of that book that I had designed.

Novellas

Beneath the Sugar Sky by Seanan McGuire was another fabulous entry in Seanan McGuire’s fabulous Wayward Children series.

Binti: The Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor is a delightful and surprising conclusion to Nnedi Okorafor’s Binti trilogy.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr.

Wow. This science fiction classic is funny, powerful, and stunningly unique, even 60 years later. I loved it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket

This series was fun and surprisingly challenging at times. I hadn’t read it before, and I’m very glad I read it last year.

The Expanse

The Expanse series remains tremendous fun. If you like space opera, or if you even just like stories set in space, I highly recommend you read this series.

The Remnant Fleet by Geonn Cannon

This was a fun, queer, and relatively short space opera that I stumbled upon. Of course I loved it.

Remembrance of Earth’s Past by Liu Cixin

This is the trilogy written by Liu Cixin and comprised of The Three-Body Problem, The Dark Forest, and Death’s End (translated Ken Liu and Joel Martinsen). I really enjoyed this imaginative and expansive trilogy.

Nonfiction Hits

Here’s some of the best nonfiction I read in 2018:

• Dream Hoarders: How the American Upper Middle Class Is Leaving Everyone Else in the Dust, Why That Is a Problem, and What to Do About It by Richard Reeves
• The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent edited Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira
• The Hacked World Order: How Nations Fight, Trade, Maneuver, and Manipulate in the Digital Age by Adam Segal
• Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michel Foucault

Short Fiction

And of course I read a ton of short fiction last year too. Check out my “Favorite 2018 Short Stories” post for more on that.