Favourite books of 2018

2018 was a good reading year! Usually I make a top five. This year I have no less than seven favourites of the year! But before we go to the list, first some stats:

• I read 54 books! Of course the number doesn’t matter, but I am still quite proud of the amount of books I managed to read this year.
• 38 books were written by female writers and 15 books by male writers.
• In total I read 21552 pages. On average a book had 400 pages. The biggest book I read was Winter by Marissa Meyer with 838 pages.

• The writers of the books I read are from 16 different nationalities. Almost half of the books I read are written by an American writer.

• 10 books have main characters of color and 2 books have main characters that fall in the LGBQIA-spectrum. So I could definitely improve in this area…
• Just like last year most books I read were fantasy:

• I read 21 YA-books and 4 middle grade books.
• 7 books were re-reads:

 

Now we arrive at my top seven. Linking up with the weekly meme Top Ten Tuesday, here are my seven favourite books of 2018:

1. Muse of Nightmares – Laini Taylor
This is the incredible sequel to Strange the Dreamer! It was so interesting to read how every character changed throughout the duology.  My favourite character from the books is still Lazlo, but I ended up loving every one of them.

2. The Travelling Cat Chronicles – Hiro Arikawa
I adore cats, so it isn’t a surprise that I also adored this book. It’s about a road trip through Japan with a cat playing the leading part. This book starts as a feel-good story, but soon it becomes more than that. Nana is an amazing character.  If I could talk to a cat, I think he would sound like Nana.

3. Children of Blood and Bone – Tomi Adeyemi
I am sure this book is on a lot of best books of the year-lists. For a good reason, because it is an amazing story! It is set in a wonderful world, the story is full of action, and also has good characters. I am looking forward to the sequel!

4. Obsidio – Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
The ending of a great trilogy! I basically love everything about The Illuminae Files!

5. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows
Such a lovely book! Just after WWII Juliet gets a letter from a man living on Guernsey who found her address in a book. He appears to be a member of the The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. After this first letter, Juliet starts to exchange letters with members from this book club.

6. Words in Deep Blue – Cath Crowley
Another book about books. This one is partially set in a secondhand bookshop. This bookshop has a letter library: a bookcase in which people can leave messages and letters between the pages of the books. A wonderful idea! The perspective alternates between Rachel and Henry. They were best friends until Rachel moved. Now Rachel is back and they meet again.

7. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli
I didn’t expect to love this book so much. But I couldn’t stop reading and finished it in one morning. Simon is an adorable character and so funny. I also thought that I knew who Blue was, but I was wrong. So surprised to discover his identity!