One of my favorite things in life is sitting down on a warm afternoon with a glass of wine and reading a good book for a while. I read a lot and this year has been particularly good for books and some absolutely fantastic reads. These are some some of my top recommendations and favorite books of 2018.
Books
I read a little over 30 books this year in a broad range of categories. Novels, history, biographies, and business books are my favorite kinds and I read to go to sleep at night and also for entertainment as I have the time. Here’s a couple of my favorite books from this year.
The Devil in the White City
This book touches on the first Chicago World’s Fair – the buildup, tensions, murders, and some absolutely fantastic storytelling to go along with it.
My Absolute Darling
This is the best novel that I’ve read in years. It is the enthralling story of a young girl growing up in a horrible situation and becoming her own person. This is without a doubt the most messed up story I’ve ever read, but I could not put it down until it was done.
Under the Banner of Heaven
Jon Krakauer is an excellent author and a fantastic storyteller. In this book, he tells the story of the Mormon faith, FLDS, and Utah with a series of well-written stories. I accidentally paired reading this with listening to Bundyville from NPR which also talks about Mormonism and the parallels were excellent.
Willpower Doesn’t Work
This is my productivity-type recommendation. It is an incredibly utilitarian manual to being more productive by using simple techniques to wrangle your habits. In short: change little, tiny habits in your life with intention and you’ll get more done.
Evicted
Evicted tells the stories and struggles of people who live paycheck to peycheck or are struggling under slumlords in Milwaukee. It really helps to better understand the plight and struggle of being systematically kept down.
Articles
My reading problem goes beyond books and I also have a habit of reading a lot of articles related to tech, business and recent events. Pocket has a great wrapup site which sums up my reading better than I could, so I’ll leave you to follow the link below:
P.S.: I really, really wish Gutenberg column blocks had editable and/or draggable widths. Assuming 2 columns should be split perfectly 50/50 is pretty naïve.