Well, better late than never so... 2018 was the year of change. There were a lot of ups and a lot of downs. Thankfully, books have been there to carry me through it. Also, reading-wise, this was an amazing year, with 44 books, including a fair number of amazing ones, I definitely had my word cut out when it came to picking out this year’s top 5. If you remember from last year, I could not even pick five memorable books, this year I had a few to choose from. Without further ado, in no specific order, here are my best reads of the year! The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd Summary Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women. Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love. My thoughts The Invention of Wings is raw. The subject-matter speaks of a time not-so-far-away where people genuinely thought about racial superiority and in the legitimacy of race-based politics. We are far from being out of the woods in this matter and books like The Invention of Wings only help emphasize some similarities between past and current treatment of minority groups, especially Blacks and African-Americans. Here, we find the real figures of Sarah Grimké, one of the narrators, and her sister, Angelica, and Hetty “Handful”, Sarah’s slave and the second narrator. Sarah and “Handful” each brought their own personalities to the novel, and both carried different, ground-breaking messages for their time. This novel is not only about slavery, but also about the roots of the feminist movement through the organization of anti-slavery associations with strong advocates like the Grimké sisters. The dual point of view perfectly serves the purpose of exposing parallel lives yet intrinsically linked lives and futures. The pacing of the novel is superb, the characters flawlessly human (an oxymoron) and the historical details are the cherry on cake. I would highly recommend this to anyone and everyone as the subject matter deserve to be observed further and since its concept superbly executed. It is simply a beautiful read. The Illuminae Files #3 Obsidio by Amy Kaufman & Jay Kristoff Summary Kady, Ezra, Hanna, and Nik narrowly escaped with their lives from the attacks on Heimdall station and now find themselves crammed with 2,000 refugees on the container ship, Mao. With the jump station destroyed and their resources scarce, the only option is to return to Kerenza—but who knows what they'll find seven months after the invasion? Meanwhile, Kady's cousin, Asha, survived the initial BeiTech assault and has joined Kerenza's ragtag underground resistance. When Rhys—an old flame from Asha's past—reappears on Kerenza, the two find themselves on opposite sides of the conflict. With time running out, a final battle will be waged on land and in space, heroes will fall, and hearts will be broken. My thoughts To say I was sad to see this series end is an understatement. The whole Illuminae Files series is, and probably will be, one of my all-time favorite series. It truly revolutionized the traditional ‘book’ format to convince even the strict traditional readers like myself. Unless you live under a rock or have no wandered across the YA section of any bookstore in the past four years, what makes the Illuminae Files truly special is its format: a mix between security camera transcripts, chatroom exchanges, emails, post-it notes… It is a story told through every-day mediums of communication. Obsidio was the perfect conclusion to this unique series. It all came down to these epic fights and insane plot twists at every chapter. Even if it is 600+ pages, it was a breeze to get through. I will say that throughout the series, the main characters, especially the girls, are all strikingly similar. They are still badass women but a little too bland for my taste. Fair warning, you will look crazy reading this on the bus by twisting and turning the book around to read the texts on the images, but it is entirely worth it. Trust me, I have recommended this series to a plethora of people and every single one of them has loved it. It was a risk by the ediots to put this on the market, but boy oh boy did it pay off. The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers Summary Mokhtar Alkhanshali is twenty-four and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleagured but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people. My thoughts The fact that The Monk of Mokha is a real-life story still blows my mind to this day. I will admit, I was drawn to this book in particular after seeing it explode on Internet and even more after seeing the BEAUTIFUL cover. Seriously, the person that designed it deserves a medal or a prize. Once you start reading, you find the inside as beautiful as the outside. Mokhtar Alkhanshali is a Yemeni immigrant in San Francisco where he aligns small jobs after small jobs, but, one day, he finds his calling. He wants to make coffee. He then makes it his life’s work to find a way to bring Yemeni coffee beans, which used to be highly sought for, to the Western world. If you’ve read the news recently, you’ll know that Yemen is in the midst of a Civil War which has caused the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. His story is, simply put, crazy. There are kidnappings, clan disputes, money issues etc. In the end, it is a gorgeous story about how to bridge the gaps between the developed and developing world with what can start as small-scale projects and grow into a powerful business. The only downside was Eggers’ writing. It was repetitive at times and lacked details occasionally. I would recommend it especially to political science and history lovers or fans of biographies as this one is undoubtedly unique. Royal de Jean-Philippe Baril Guérard Résumé La faculté de droit de l’Université de Montréal est le dépotoir de l’humanité. Tu le sais : t’en es le déchet cardinal. Tu viens de commencer ta première session, mais y a pas une minute à perdre : si tu veux un beau poste en finissant faudra un beau stage au Barreau et si tu veux un beau stage au Barreau faudra une belle moyenne au bacc et si tu veux une belle moyenne au bacc faudra casser des gueules parce qu’ici c’est free-for-all et on s’élève pas au-dessus de la mêlée en étant gentil. Être gentil, c’est être herbivore, c’est se vautrer dans la médiocrité, et toi tu comprends pas la médiocrité, tu aimes pas la médiocrité, tu chies sur la médiocrité. Toi, t’es venu ici pour être le roi de la montagne, et le début des cours, c’est le début du carnage. Mon opinion Royal n’est pas pour tout le monde. Royal traite de sujet tel que le suicide, les agressions sexuelles et la pression sociale. Pourtant, Royal est aussi un des livres les plus drôles que j’ai lu récemment. C’est un rire noir qui cache une vérité encore plus sombre en-dessous. Notre personnage principal est égocentrique, antipathique et cynique. Il tourne tout en moquerie, incluant la misère humaine. Il développe une sévère dépression lorsque, lui, qui a tout pour réussir, n’est pas à la hauteur de ces standards. Le point fort de Royal c’est son lien direct avec la réalité. Il est vrai que certains se tuent à l’ouvrage, que d’autres sabotage la réussite des autres pour s’avancer soi-même, que la sexualité est utilisée comme moyen de contrôle sur soi et l’autre. C’est une œuvre fantastique et ancrer dans le monde d’aujourd’hui. J’ai menti. Royal a une deuxième force : le style d’écriture de Baril Guérard. J’ai déjà mentionné qu’il était cynique, mais c’est fait de manière très rafraichissante et qui ne laissera personne (vraiment personne) indifférent. Pour ma part, j’ai adoré. Certains ont détesté. Ce qui est certain c’est que Royal laisse une marque indélébile et, j’ose espéré, encourage la discussion autour de la maladie mentale. The Raven Cycle #4 The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater Summary All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore. My thoughts This is another series that I was indescribably sad to see end. Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite authors of all time and The Raven Cycle is her best work. It is one of the most original series in YA by depicting mythology is a less cheesy and more adult way that Riordan’s Percy Jackson and by staying away from classic Hunger Games competitions. It has FOUR male protagonists (!) which are all different and have their own role in the storyline. They have layers on layers on layers of pain, truths and lies that they carried inside of them. What keeps me coming back to Stiefvater is her wistful writing. She builds magical universes like no other. Ones that are not reminiscent of Disney, but more like the original Grimm tales. Dark magic, unruly forces of nature and a thin balance between reality and imagination. The Raven King was the ultimate conclusion to the series. In the past three novels, we could see the cork tightening around our boys, time was ticking. It finally exploded into this grand piece of art. This is another series that I have recommended over and over again with a huge success. Even if it is graded as YA, it is a universally mind-blowing novel that’ll hold you on the edge of your seat.
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