My Top Ten of 2018 - Books

It's that time of the year again when I try to think back on all the media I consumed in the past 365+ days, and select ten of each as best of the best, and let me tell you, this is one of my favourite times. True, it's incredibly hard to make a selection when there's so much good shit coming out, but I love talking about things I love and I love making lists too, so why would I complain? I don't. Except about my own performance when it comes to books, because you see... you can't really make a list of the 10 best books released in 2018 when you've only read 15 of them, and only about three of those can be deemed amazing. I promise I'll try to do better next year and read more new releases, but for now, I'll have to contend myself with a list of the 10 best books I read in 2018, regardless of release date. Oh, and in strictly chronological order because I don't want to play favourites among my favourites. Right, here it goes! 

1. I, Claudius – Robert Graves

I've been meaning to read this for a while now and I honestly don't remember what prompted me to finally do it, but boy am I glad I did! It was slow going because I read it on my work computer whenever I ran out of actual work to do, but I enjoyed every second of it. Graves' Claudius is now one of my favourite fictional renderings of any historical character, but all the others are written brilliantly too. It induced me to do tons of research and I subsequently learned a whole lot about this era of the Roman Empire, which is what I love the most about reading historical fiction: it always makes me want to look up the actual history behind it. I also love drawing the family trees for myself to keep track of all the characters and how they're related to each other, and this book has a hell of a crazy one:

From the distance of a year even I can't make sense of some of this. 

2. Queen Victoria - Lytton Strachey 

I actually had this bookmarked for years on my laptop at home, and I opened it so many times with the intention of reading it that I actually memorised its first line: "On November 6, 1817, died the Princess Charlotte..." But then one day I finally had to admit it to myself that I will never actually take the time to read it at home, so maybe I could just... open Gutenberg.org at work and have it bookmarked for reading there? Yeah I'm dumb sometimes. But I did it and I read it and I loved it so much. I said it before that I will never tire of reading about the Victorian era, be it fiction or non-fiction, and that's obivously true for the Queen herself too. I actually have several more Victoria biographies added to my TBR. Nevertheless, I think this one will always hold a special place in my heart. 

3. Crooked Kingdom – Leigh Bardugo

I'm actually so damn proud of myself for finishing all five grisha books in a relatively short time, instead of my usual routine of reading the first one and then abandoning the series for years. I loved Ruin and Rising too but I wanted to choose just one of these books for my list, and in the end I went with Crooked Kingdom because it was the more daring and unusual of the two. It took risks that paid off in full, went to places I never expected it would, and in the end still managed to be satisfying. I can't wait to see Nina's story continue in King of Scars. 

4. Nevernight – Jay Kristoff

This was definitely one of the most unique and innovative fantasy books I've read in recent years, and for that alone it deserves to be on my list. The worldbuilding is so rich and extensive that I was almost convinced to start taking notes about halfway through, which is always a good sign, and the characters were all incredibly vivid and interesting. It's especially noteworthy that the author managed to take the often-told story of "main character has to win a competition to achieve their goals" and managed to make it not only entertaining as hell but actually suspenseful. Even if you're pretty certain that she's gonna be one of the winners, you can be certain about absolutely nothing else, and other books with a similar premise (*cough* Throne of Glass *cough*) could learn a lot from Jay Kristoff. 

5. The Essex Serpent – Sarah Perry (review)

I already sang odes about this book elsewhere and I'm not sure what else is left to say. Beautiful writing, haunting atmosphere, wonderfully unique characters, a story that I can't quite put my finger on but which grabbed me nonetheless and still hasn't let go. If only the author's 2018 followup, Melmoth, was half as amazing... still, I'm eagerly waiting fo her next book. 

6. Queen Victoria’s Matchmaking – Deborah Cadbury (review)

Oh how I loved getting lost in this wonderfully twisted, continent-encompassing, royal-imperial family tree. Some of the featured historical figures and their fates were already familiar to me, but others were new, and I would gladly read full biographies on any single one of them, they're just that fascinating.  

7. The Gown – Jennifer Robson (review)

Next to The Essex Serpent, this was the other book that most defined my 2018 reading year, one that I will definitely find myself thinking about for years to come. Again, I think I said everything I possibly could in my review. I adored this book.  

8. Babel – Gaston Dorren (review)

If there's one thing I love more than learning languages, it's thinking about learning languages. This book provided me with ample material for my "will learn one day" list, as well as some wonderful bits of etymological trivia. Highly recommended for any wannabe polyglot!  

9. A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Me and Dickens have a relationship that has so far rested on a pretty contradictory statement: I love his writing style, and yet I've never managed to finish any of his books. Not his fault, to be fair. It's just that so far I always tried to read his books while I was already reading twenty other books, and they always lost out to something else in the end. The idea that I should remedy this has been on my mind for a long time, so I was pretty thrilled when just as I decided that it was finally time for me to stop lurking in this one Goodreads group and start to actually participate in their challenges and discussions, they announced that their December group read would be A Christmas Carol. What an opportunity! So I devoured this wonderful little story in no time, and crowned a new favourite.  

10. Legendary – Stephanie Garber

Caraval was one of the best books I read in 2017, and the sequel definitely lived up to my expectations, even if I didn't necessarily agree with the direction it took in the end. I enjoyed being in Tella's shoes this time and all the lore-building that brought with it - God I wish I could have that pack of cards, magical or not. The new characters were fun to read about and the book even managed to manintain the same sense of suspense and feeling of never quite knowing what's going on that made the first one so enjoyable, and that's why I'm choosing to believe that even with the big revelation at the end, things are still not quite what they seem, and there will be more twists, turns and shocks to come in Finale. This is honestly the only thing I can believe because otherwise the answer to the question of Legend's identity is pretty lousy, and I refuse to believe that.

All right, so that was it for 2018! Please share in the comments YOUR favourite reads of the year! 

Golden Globes 2019: Wishes and Predictions

Here's something of a confession: I love watching award shows. Since I don't base my interest in movies and series on whether they've won any awards, my enjoyment of these shows is 70% the beautiful dresses, and 30% the acceptance speeches. Plus, when it comes to the Golden Globes, I love seeing those little interludes between presentations when you can get a glimpse of celebrities you'd never guess even knew each other have fun chatting and joking away. It's so much more relaxed and light-hearted than the Oscars, and no amount of political grandstanding is going to ruin it for me, dammit! That said, I would prefer if they didn't do it, but since nowadays you can get the biggest cheers and social media buzz just by saying "lol fuck Trump am I right?", can I really blame these actors for trying? Anyway, here are my wishes and predictions for this year's Golden Globes! Only the movies this time because I can't believe this but I only managed to watch maybe like three of the nominated TV series, so I don't feel comfortable commenting on any of those categories.

Best Motion Picture - Drama

I feel like this one could go two ways: ridiculously transparent with Black Panther winning, or still predictable but at least making sense with Blackkklansman winning. To be clear, I liked both of these movies, but only one of them is acually award-worthy, and it's not Panther. I don't care how "important" a film you think it was because I guess it's not my place to discuss that, but skin colours notwithstanding, it was exactly as good as any other Marvel movie that came out in the past ten years, and you didn't see those winning any Globes, did you? This one shouldn't, either. Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star Is Born were both stunning movies too but sadly I don't think they really have a chance in this category.

 
Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy

I will never understand what's the big deal about Crazy Rich Asians, because apart from the whole diversity angle, it has absolutely nothing more to offer than any other romantic comedy out there. You know, the kind of which at least a hundred comes out every year and you never even hear of them. I'm afraid it still might win thanks to the hype alone, although I personally am rooting for The Favourite instead.

 
Best Animated Feature Film

I'll admit I've only seen one of these nominees, Isle of Dogs. It was pretty great and definitely the most unique of them all in terms of art style, but those few minutes I've seen of Into the Spider-Verse after the credits of Venom convinced me that it would deserve to win too. It looks beautiful, creative and very funny, so I'm all for it.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama

Rami Malek should be a shoe-in for this one, although Bradley Cooper was great in A Star Is Born, and John David Washington just as great in Blackklansman. In the name of fairness, I think Rami should win this, Klansman the best movie, and Bradley the one for directors. He might actually be prouder of that, too.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama

Many people are saying that this was Glenn Close's best performance she ever gave, but I wouldn't know about that because I only really know her as Cruella de Vil (shame, I know). She certainly was fantastic in The Wife, but I just couldn't relate to her character at all, which usually coloures my impression of any performance, however unfair that is. Anyway, I don't really want to comment on or make predictions about this category, since the only other film here I managed to watch was A Star Is Born, and however great Gaga was in it (and she was), looking at the other names and titles I don't think she should, or will, win.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

I haven't seen any of these movies yet so I'll pass this one.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

Either Olivia Colman or Charlize Theron need to win this, because both of them were just WOW in their respective movies. Constance Wu is a terrific actress too, but as I said, Crazy Rich Asians did nothing to showcase that. Hopefully she can get a real meaty role one day and finally win herself an award, because unfortunately it doesn't look like she will be recognized for Fresh Off the Boat any time soon, even though THAT is a fantastic comedic performance. Every week, no less.

Best Supporting Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture

Again, only seen Blackkklansman, but based on that, Adam Driver would definitely deserve it. Then agian I love Sam Rockwell getting so much recognition lately, so I'm kinda rooting for him too.

Best Supporting Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture

It always makes me anxious when two people from the same film get nominated in the same category, regardless of whether I liked the film itself or not. But I did like The Favourite this time, and I think both Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone have an equal chance to win, unless Amy Adams beats them out both. Honestly I would be okay with any of them, they're all pretty amazing.

WWW Wednesday 01.02. - January reading plans

I was thinking about getting back to the habit of writing by talking a little about what I've been reading lately, and what I'm planning to read for the rest of the month. So this here is my first WWW entry! I plan to make a regular feature of this, maybe not every week but whenever I stumble onto some particularly interesting new book. So let's see what Janury has in store for me so far!

Recently finished: I completed my 2018 Reading Challenge on the 26th of December by finishing Queen of the Conqueror by Tracy Borman, a pretty excellent biography of not only Matilda of Flanders but also William the Conqueror and their entire family. It was a worthy last read of the year and I didn't want to add any more books to the challenge so for the last few remaining days I was reading The Dark Ages 476-918 A.D. by Sir Charles Oman, whose title is pretty self-explanatory. It's a good read but so freaking detailed that I can only manage a few chapters at a time, so I'm still only halfway through it. 

Currently reading: I will eventually finish The Dark Ages, but for now I put it away in favour of a book that's been marked as "currently reading" on my Goodreads for three years, along with several other books I started and never finished. No wonder I no longer use this feature: these books haunt me every day and I swear I will finish all of them eventually... but I really don't need to add more to this cursed list. Anyway, the book I took up again after so much time is Voyager by Diana Gabaldon, third in the Outlander series. My relationship with this series is a bit complicated, I don't love it as much as I expected I would but I still enjoy reading it a lot. I think I might elaborate on this later in a separate post. So far I'm making good progress on Voyager. I completely forgot how absolutely engaging and readable these books were, and it's nice to be back in their world a little bit, even if I probably won't pick up Book 4 immediately after this.

Next read: While I would love to finish Voyager by the end of January, this time I decided that I won't fret it. No one's rushing me (not that anyone ever was), and I have a couple other books I want to pick up this month: Ready Player One for my Reading Challenge group, as well as a couple new titles whose releases I'm eagerly awaiting: The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden, and The Wicked King by Holly Black.

Now tell me, what are YOU reading these days?