2018: some book recommendations

For the past several years, I've become acutely aware of this book hoarding "issue" I have. As in, I don't really want to move again. So I got into a terrible habit, which was to pull books from my shelves that I suspected I would find okay. These are the ones that have taken priority in my reading life; at this point, I have a thousand dollars in credit at the local bookstore from bringing them in.

Something, clearly, is not working. Midway through the year, I shifted, put those books I'd winnowed under the bed in those giant clothing storage boxes, and they come out one-at-a-time, so my reading mental space isn't clouded by the terrifyingly wobbly stacks, and I'm more likely to pick a book from the permanent shelves, resulting in a much more satisfying end-of-the-year list of books I'd recommend to any reader.

I look at this list and get giddy remembering reading them. There are plenty of good things to reflect on in 2018, but the sheer stomach-drop pleasure of reading a book by someone so masterful with language and story is hard to compare to anything else.

Poetry:
Silver Road: Maps, Essays and Calligraphies by Kazim Ali
From the Inside Quietly by Eloisa Amezcua
Black Box by Erin Belieu
One Above & One Below by Erin Belieu
Let's Not Live on Earth by Sarah Blake
Next by Lucille Clifton
My Lover's Discourse by BK Fischer
Some Ether by Nick Flynn
Nanopedia by Charles Jensen
Hunger by Judy Jordan
Course by Athena Kildegaard
The Explosive Expert's Wife by Shara Lessley
Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon
The Carrying by Ada Limon
Whereas by Layli LongSoldier
Coal by Audre Lorde
Bluets by Maggie Nelson (re-read)
Indecency by Justin Philips Reed
Wilder by Claire Wahmanholm

Nonfiction:
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music Science, and Senseless Love by Dessa
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby
16 Pills by Carley Moore
Riverwalking: Reflections on Moving Water by Kathleen Dean Moore
The Bright Hour: A Memoir of Living and Dying by Nina Riggs
Night by Elie Wiesel (re-read)

Fiction:
Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat (re-read)
Less by Andrew Sean Greer
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offill
The Perfect Nanny by Leila Slimani
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

Drama:
The Crucible by Arthur Miller (re-read; taught for the first time)

Young Adult / Middle Grade:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Wild Robot by Peter Brown (re-read with my daughter)
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich
Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm
The Book of Elsewhere: The Shadows by Jacqueline West