Facebook: First book you read in 2018?

From our Facebook page discussion: What's the first book you read (or started reading) in 2018?

Book club read that I started and finished in 2018: Hello, Sunshine, Dave -- basically, what happens when a social media darling's life implodes. Feels very relevant at the moment. Not sure it will feel relevant in five or ten years.

Death in a Strange Country: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon. I decided to read some of this series because I am going to Venice later this year.

Looking for other similar recommendations for Florence and Rome.

I started the year with Maxine Hong Kingston's Woman warrior: memoirs of a girlhood among ghosts. I've since finished 9 more, though. Making up for last year's slump. ;)

On January 4 I finished a collection of short stories by Huy Thiệp Nguyên translated into Swedish, and on January 8 I started a collection by Tim Powers, The Bible repairman and other stories.

I started Frankenstein which is a reread for me but I have finished Breakfast at Tiffany's.

It turned out not to be very good, so I'm not even mentioning it :)

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles. I wanted to start the New Year right, and I was not disappointed.

>3 perennialreader: You might enjoy The Monster of Florence by Douglas Preston It is a nonfiction book about the unsolved mystery of a serial killer in Florence. It reads like fiction.

First book finished in 2018: Winter of the Gods—I was looking for something fluffy, and this did the trick.

First book started (and now finished!) in 2018: The Girl With All the Gifts—for book club, but I've been looking forward to reading this one for years. It did not disappoint, and was (surprise, surprise) way better than the movie.

>9 nemoman: Thanks! I'll take a look at it.

I just realized that I'm reading a book that qualifies.

A Mathematician's Apology by G. H. Hardy, with a Foreword by C. P. Snow; the Foreword was added in 1967, and occupies the first fourth of the book. It's wonderful on its own, of course, and there's the pleasure of reading the work itself, still to come (I'm currently reading the foreword).

As is my habit, I'm ignoring any reviews (or even the description of it), as detracting from the experience.

ETA:

On the same day as I started this book, I also began reading Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward. It's part of a PBS/NYTimes project, as a group read, with one book per month. It's on Facebook, and I just couldn't take the stupid, but I'll probably end up reading each of the books (just not participating on Facebook or elsewhere).

I'm grateful to have found LT, and the FB group reminded me all over again that I was.

>12 Lyndatrue: Could participate here! We could start a thread in the 2018 books group for Now Read This.

>13 lesmel: I don't (or at least haven't, so far) participated in those groups. I'm finding this book interesting enough, but I have so many irons in the fire. It's not a bad idea, though. If you did manage to start a thread, post back here with the link. :-}

Before I forget, for the curious:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/features/now-read-this/

First book I finished was The Girl Who Fell From the Sky ... finished on 01Jan18

First book I STARTED was Starry Night by Debbie Macomber - a fast, quick read that satisfied a challenge.

>14 Lyndatrue: Here ya go: https://www.librarything.com/topic/285121

The Furthest Station was my first book to start and finish in 2018. Awesome choice! ;-)

I try to start every year off with choosing a biography as the first book I read and this year was The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger

I wanted to read it in preparation for reading The Wizard and the Prophet and honestly I hope the Wizard and the Prophet does better justice to Borlaug's story because the book I read sadly did not.

Sometimes I Lie, by Alice Feeney

First book read in 2018? The Woman in the Window by A.J. Finn - enjoyed it.

>8 MrsLee: A gentleman in Moscow was the second book I started in 2018...

The first book I finished in 2018 was A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller. First book I started was An officer and a spy by Robert Harris.

In keeping with my annual end-of-year Agatha Christie read, this year I chose "The Boomerang Clue," which turned out to be surprisingly good. It was the first book I started and the first one I finished in 2018.

If the Universe is Teeming with Aliens . . . Where Is Everybody? Seventy-five Solutions to the Fermi Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life, 2nd ed. by Stephen Webb. Great read, so far!

The Lime Tree by César Aira - translated by Chris Andrews.

Picked up some jewels, here is one of them:
"Words, in fact, are incidental; they are formulae for remembering things; we manipulate them in combinations that give us an illusion of power, but the things were there first, intractably."

First book finished in 2018:

5523. Hope and Glory Britain 1900-2000, by Peter Clarke (read 9 Jan 2018)

First book started in 2018:

5524. The Origins of American Intervention in the First World War, by Ross Gregory (read 9 Jan 2018)

I started The Five People You Meet in Heaven for book club and then realised I had the wrong book for January. Then read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.

A Standard of Behaviour by William Trevor

Women in the Castle by Jessica Shattuck. Very good book that I really enjoyed.

The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben
No walk in the woods will ever be the same.

I started a reread of Robert Jordan's 'Wheel of Time' series in memory of my son who passed away suddenly last August. He is the person that introduced me to Jordan's work when it still only had four or five titles in the series. Here's to you, Ben. Love you and miss you.

The Stone Sky, which is the last book in the remarkable Broken Earth Trilogy. The first two won Hugo Awards in 2016 and 2017, and I predict that this one will as well. Unfortunately, starting off the year with a book this good means it will be hard to beat for the rest of the year.

Being a YA librarian, I read "The Last True Love Story" by Brendan Kiely. It's a sweet story that touches on Alzheimer's Disease but also has a little teen romance.

Mrs: Jeffries and the Three Wise Women by Emily Brightwell

The Age of the Gladiators: Savagery and Spectacle in Ancient Rome by Rupert Matthews. Had some interesting details about the whole institution.

It's been fun reading the other entries. The first book I finished in 2018 was "An Object of Beauty" by Steve Martin. I've actually been reading it for awhile. I volunteer at the used bookstore at my locak library and pick a book off the shelf to read while I'm there. That's where I found this. I loved it.

Frosted Kisses by Heather Hepler

eBOOK Everywhere I Turn There's A Wet Nose
the love for and science of dogs.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078LYCL82/ref=kinw_clar_choose1?_encoding=UTF8&%2...

I don't deserve to be reading this post as I just realised that I have some 47 books that I am, apparently, still 'currently reading'.
I think I may need to start a challenge of my own 'Witling down your open book pile challenge 2018'. Any takers? :$

I love your honesty, Sylak! I just put together a pile of 21 books purchased in the last year or so that I am yet to read. I hear you!

My first book for 2018 was "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi.

The first book I read this year was "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay" by Michael Chabon. It was great.

My Absolute Darling

My first book has been The Painted Veil by W Somerset Maugham. Been meaning to read it for ages and so glad I did. I loved it.

My first this year was I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip.

Gay fiction is almost always bad, and Trip was. Gay non-fiction, especially essays, is often marvelous. There's a story there.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It's been sitting on my TBR shelves for years and I'm now doing a full immersion thing with it--watching the movies, listening to the book on CD, and reading the book at night. It's fascinating.

>45 SomeGuyInVirginia: My experience has been very different, but I don't read very much gay fiction. But everything I've read by Jamie O'Neill, Colm Tóibín, André Aciman and Sarah Waters has been excellent. And I haven't read much else.

>47 anglemark: I'll check them out, thanks. Have you read anything by Joe Keenan? I've always thought he was funny, and he's pretty underappreciated. Not that he cares, because he made a gazillion dollars writing for the US show Frazier. Still, I wish he'd write more. His Putting on the Ritz is my fav. Published in 1992 and it excoriated Trump's design sense.

The Black Mile by Mark Dawson

Detective mystery set in the 1940's set in London. Riveting!

>45 SomeGuyInVirginia: I don't tend to seek it out per say; but I remember very much enjoying Dorian Gray and other Oscar Wilde stuff as a kid; and Christopher Isherwood later in life. I must have also read tons of Clive Barker in my teens and my twenties - if that counts; and much of it was brilliant too.
Oh! and The Vesuvius Club. I thought that was interesting.
It's probably an acquired taste, but I also devour whole almost everything by William S. Burroughs.
...and Howl - if you count poetry as 'fiction'?

>48 SomeGuyInVirginia: Thernodynamic properties of Steam sounds like a real bundle of laughs! ;)

The Red-Haired Woman by Orhan Pahmuk.

The Origin by Dan Brown

I'm reading Love and Other Consolation Prizes. I got to meet Jamie Ford last fall, and my book club picked this for our meeting next month. So far it's been interesting and enlightening.

"One Damned Thing After Another" (time travel story

Hunger by Roxane Gay

A Mind Reader's Christmas by Al Macy.

Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline

Clutter Free by Kathi Lipp. It was an excellent book. I believe she was spot-on with the reasons behind WHY we keep clutter. I have found myself reflecting a lot as situations present themselves in choices I am making with my "whys". Most books I've attempted to read on similar subjects never really touch on these, at least not that I can recall. Now to implement. :)

"A Canticle for Leibowitz" is a fascinating book that is very special in many ways. I still think about it when I visit the old libraries in monasteries here in Europe.

I had read it as part of a high school class many years ago. When one of my fellow students found out that Miller had retired to Florida, the two of us called him at his home and started asking questions about the book that had puzzled us. He eventually invited our class to visit him at his home. One of the things I learned from this discussion was that there was much symbolism in the book that the author had not been aware of until after the book was published.

The first book I started and finished in 2018 was "Ramp Hollow" from Steven Stoll. It talks about the economic history of Appalachia and West Virginia. If I had finished it a few weeks earlier, I would have listed it as the best book I had read in 2017. I cannot recommend it enough for people interested in history and economics.

First book I read and completed in 2018 was 23 things they don't tell you about capitalism by Ha-Joon Chang. Not just another book about capitalism or economics but a fascinating and witty book about how the world really operates and the myths of our times.

I finished Tropic of Cancer first in 2018. I have a thousand books I have accumulated over the years that sit unread. My plan this year is to read them! I can't say I really enjoyed Henry Miller's book in it's entirety but I saw the beginning of a new way to write emerge from the effort. Stream of consciousness. No real story line. I realize his influence on those who followed in particular On the Road by Jack Kerouac and Anne Wright's The Gathering. I doubt I missed anything by not reading this book until this late autumn of my life.

Alan Hollinghurst's latest, The Sparsholt Affair - really good but not his best I think. Currently on the new Jennifer Egan, Manhattan Beach.

I started with The Gunslinger by Stephen King. He normally grabs me on page one and I can't put his books down. I was past page 70 in the middle of a gunfight when it dawned on me I didn't care who lived or died or how it was going to end. Since this book is the first in a series, I and I already knew I wouldn't read the rest of them, I decided to quit right there. I switched to Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult.

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman!

Frog by Mo Yan takes on the One Child Policy introduced in 1979 by the Chinese government. It is about Gugu, a midwife who is torn between the government edicit of one child and the parents who desperately want children. Her story is told by her nephew.

My first book this year was Plastic: a Toxic Love Story / Susan Freinkel. 4 stars

I've had an amazingly good start to the year. I'm usually a tough rater, but I've already had one 5 star book, and three 4.5 stars! So far, only one book under 4 stars, and it was still good at 3.5 stars.

The Fall of the House of Dixie by Bruce Levine

https://smile.amazon.com/FALL-HOUSE-DIXIE-House-Dixie/dp/B00B3B4PI8/ref=sr_1_2?i...

Not finished yet. The book is a careful and exhaustive discussion of slavery pre-Civil War, the lead up to the Civil War and beliefs in the South, what happened with slaves when Union forces began occupying formerly Confederate territories, Emancipation Proclamation effects and other events.

I started this year by finishing The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen and A Clash of Kings by George R. R. Martin. The first entire book I read was Body Double also by Tess Gerritsen. I'm currently in book #19 for the year with Vanilla Beaned by Jenn McKinlay.

The Warded Man by Peter V Brett first book of 2018!

First deamon fantasy or high fantasy (?) But I enjoyed it after I wrapped my mind around the concept! My wife was so happy I liked a book in her favorite genre that she got me books 2-4 in the demon cycle series to accomplish this year as well! Reading isn't really a passion of mine but I'm up for the new adventure(s)

Currently reading The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson

Just finished City of Endless Night by Preston and Childs and really enjoyed it. Am half way through Timekeepers. Very interesting book about time.

The Color Purple by Alice Walker

First book of 2018 for me was The Girl Who Came Home by Hazel Gaynor.

In Farleigh Field by Rhys Bowen, a mystery set in WW II in England.

I started the new year with The Girl With All the Gifts. I'm not much of a zombie fan but do like apocalypse stories.

The first book I finished in 2018 was Cradle and All by James Patterson. One of the oldest books on my mountainous TBR pile. This book was a lot different than what he normally writes but very good. Does anyone know if there is a sequel to this? It ended like it could be a continuation.

Sylak: I've made my own challenges this year. 2 challenges to be exact. #1 is to read some many books on my TBR pile before I buy more (maybe read 5 on my TBR pile before I buy more). I may have to start this in February though since I've already been to 2 library books sales and placed a order at Thriftbooks. LOL!! #2 is to read some of my huge books. I have to many of this that keep sitting on my shelf because they are so huge. I did read Outlander back in December so I'm going in the right direction.

It was awesome. It was the last book I finished in 2017. It had been in my TBR pile longer than planned. Now I wonder what took me so long.

Good to know, it is on my TBR list.

the one in my car is All the Light We Cannot See. the one by my bed is Restaurant at the End of the Universe.

My first book of 2018 was As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride. Now I am ready for the next!

And just at the end of January I finished my first book of the year, The Grapes of Wrath, and loved it.

The very first book I read in January was "The Best Kind of People" by Zoe Whittall, which I very much enjoyed.

Since then it has been a very good month for reading, quite surprisingly, because I have had a lot of other things going on.

In total I have read 13 books in January, a mixed bag. Two were outstanding - 'The Modern Kitchen' by Tim Hayward (which is non fiction about how the implements used in cooking over the ages have shaped how kitchens are today); and 'The Legacy' by Yrsa Sigurdardottir - Scandinavian crime fiction at its best.

A Tangled Mercy by Joy Jordan-Lake

Here's my blurb from GoodReads.org:

A compelling mystery told in alternating time periods (2015 and 1822). In 2015, Kate goes home to Charleston, SC, after her mother's death to unlock unanswered questions from her family tree, and to continue research into the Denmark Vesey almost uprising of 1822. Thanks to Joy Jordan-Lake for illuminating a piece of American history that I was unaware of, and needed to know.

I received an advanced e-ARC from NetGalley.