If one of your 2018 resolutions is to read more books – let’s be honest here, it’s a common resolution, but your GoodReads account hasn’t been updated since 2014 – we’ve got you covered. We’ve compiled a list of the most interesting books we’ve read this year, giving you diverse options of people, places, and stories. Browse this list, pick up a book!
Fiction
Table of Contents
If thrillers are your thing, this book is for you. It tells the story of Joe, a lonely young man on a quest to make the woman he loves fall in love with him. He’s charming, well-read, and incredibly intelligent, but that’s not all he claims to be.
The Wonder is an amazing historical piece that will really help set the scene – Ireland, 1859. By the end of this, you’ll be rethinking everything you know about historical miracles, and the lengths religious figures will go to establish them.
Set between Kolkata and Paris, this is an amazing tale of a woman in an unhappy arranged marriage. Cut to when she meets a suave Frenchman, who turns her world completely upside down, French Lover spins the tale of a meek housewife discovering what it means to love herself.
Arundhati Roy is back! The God of Small Things, her first novel, was a stunning success, and The Ministry of Utmost Happiness is just as good. If you’ve decided to read one book in 2018, make sure it’s this one. You won’t regret it.
Things could always be worse, and Every Day encompasses that. David Levithan introduces you to A, not a boy, not a girl, just a being who inhabits a different body every day. What happens when A inhabits Justin’s body… and falls in love with his girlfriend, Rihannon?
More: 6 Ways to Crush your New Year’s Health & Fitness Goals
Non-Fiction
Famous YouTuber and star of My Drunk Kitchen, Hannah Hart tells you about her life. She covers tough topics, from her father living as a Jehovah’s Witness, to her mother’s issues with hoarding. It’s an honest look into who she is, and her rags-to-riches story.
The premise of this book is simple: don’t do drugs. Cat Marnell was the former beauty editor for XoJane, and wrote for many other magazines and websites, until she fell down a rabbit-hole of drug addiction. How to Murder Your Life tells you how it can go from hero to zero in days.
This is the perfect book for stand-up fans. Sue Perkins, writer, comedian, and TV show host has put together a number of life anecdotes, each as charming and entertaining as the last. I laughed, I cried, and I gave three copies away as Christmas gifts.
If you’re looking for a self-help book, look no further. Mark Manson is here to tell millennials that not everything is a sunny Instagram photo on a beach, with a deep caption. Instead of making lemonade with the lemons life gives you, learn to handle the lemons better.
When Carrie Fisher died last year, it felt like losing the cool aunt you never had. Pacify yourself (or your favourite Star Wars fan) with Wishful Drinking. It’s a candid look at Carrie Fisher’s life both as Carrie Fisher, and as the best Disney princess, Leia Organa.
In this book, Dr. Roxane Gay is incredibly honest about her relationship with food, with weight issues, and with her body. She describes childhood trauma that lead to her weight-gain, and how she is perceived in the public sphere, due to her body. We promise this book will make you think.
More: Upgrade Your Personal Library with These 10 Bookshelves
Graphic Novels and Comic Books
John "Derf" Backderf went to school with Jeffrey Dahmer. Yep, that’s right – the Jeffrey Dahmer; rapist, cannibal, and serial killer. His experience here shaped the release of his graphic novel, following his life as a man who knew Jeffrey Dahmer in high school.
Sure, Iran seems like a country with very tight Sharia laws, but what was it like before that? Persepolis describes what life was like in Iran, before rise of the religious empire. Coming from a family of people who pushed for a secular Iran, Marjane Satrapi creates a stunning graphic novel.
Thi Bui creates a beautifully-drawn tale of a Vietnamese family moving to America from Vietnam in the midst of a war for a better life. Her style of drawing is as quaint as it is attractive, and put together with the story, it makes for a fantastic read.
With the most stunning style of art, Emil Ferris crafts the story of a ten-year-old girl who is attempting to solve the murder of her neighbour. While it might come across as slightly pulp-fiction in nature, it is, without a doubt, an aesthetically pleasing read.
With the rise in racial profiling among the police force, I am Alfonso Jones tackles this issue head-on. Featuring a young, African-American boy who has been unjustly murdered by the police, and now is hanging in the limbo of the afterlife, it’s a graphic novel for all ages.
Guy Delisle puts together a fantastic comic-book version of the true story of Christophe Andre, a Doctors Without Borders volunteer who was kidnapped and held hostage in the Caucus region for three months. It’s an inspiring, emotional, all-round brilliant version of his story.