Happy New Years Eve! Doesn’t look like I’m going to finish reading anything else before 2019, so here is the official list of all the novels, novellas, and graphic novels I’ve read this year. (Comics are in italics, novellas are underlined, and non-fiction is in bold.)

1. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, Vol. 1: BFF – Amy Reeder
2. The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women – Kate Moore
3. River of Teeth – Sarah Gailey
4. The Gentlemen’s Guide to Vice and Virtue – Mackenzi Lee
5. Meddling Kids – Edgar Cantero
6. Autonomous – Annalee Newitz
7. Snowspelled – Stephanie Burgis
8. One Dark Throne – Kendare Blake
9. Creatures of Will & Temper – Molly Tanzer
10. The Hate U Give – Angie Thomas
11. One of Us Is Lying – Karen M. McManus
12. The Lamb Will Slaughter the Lion – Margaret Killjoy
13. Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda – Becky Albertalli
14. Akata Warrior – Nnedi Okorafor
15. The Black Tides of Heaven – JY Yang
16. The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter – Theodora Goss
17. Where’d You Go, Bernadette? -Maria Semple
18. Cranioklepty: Grave Robbing and the Search for Genius – Colin Dickey
19. A Skinful of Shadows – Frances Hardinge
20. Let’s Talk About Love – Claire Kann
21. The City of Lost Fortune – Bryan Camp
22. Peasprout Chen: Future Legend of Skate and Sword – Henry Lien
23. Strong Poison – Dorothy Sayers
24. Anna Dressed in Blood – Kendare Blake
25. Jane, Unlimited – Kristin Cashore
26. Beneath the Sugar Sky – Seanan McGuire
27. The Good House – Tananarive Due
28. The Westing Game – Ellen Rankin
29. When the Moon Was Ours – Anna-Marie McLemore
30. The Moonstone – Wilkie Collins
31. Dread Nation – Justina Ireland
32. Paper Girls, Vol. 1 – Brian K. Vaughn
33. Thirteen Guests – J. Jefferson Farjeon
34. Bluebird, Bluebird – Attica Locke
35. The Collapsing Empire – John Scalzi
36. In Other Lands – Sarah Rees Brennan
37. Summer in Orcus – T. Kingfisher
38. Imposter Syndrome – Mishell Baker
39. The Five Red Herrings – Dorothy Sayers
40. The Invisible Orientation: An Introduction to Asexuality – Julie Sondra Decker
41. The Beautiful Ones – Silvia Moreno Garcia
42. Hollywood Homicide – Kellye Garrett
43. A Study in Honor – Claire O’Dell
44. An Unsuitable Job for a Woman – PD James
45. Binti – Nnedi Okorafor
46. Envy of Angels – Matt Wallace
47. Witchmark – C.L. Polk
48. Depth – Lev A.C. Rosen
49. Experimental Film – Gemma Files
50. Have His Carcase – Dorothy Sayers
51. Trail of Lightning – Rebecca Roanhorse
52. Unbury Carol – Josh Malerman
53. Murder Must Advertise – Dorothy Sayers
54. The Brief History of the Dead – Kevin Brockmeier
55. Jade City – Fonda Lee
56. Mystery in White – J. Jefferson Farjeon
57. Abbott – Saladin Ahmed
58. The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy – Mackenzi Lee
59. Queenpin – Megan Abbott
60. Jughead, Volume 1 – Chip Zdarsky
61. The Tea Master and the Detective – Aliette de Bodard

I plan to write a 2018 Book Superlatives post later (though it will likely be considerably abbreviated compared to prior years), but here are a few things I’ve noticed this year:

For no real reason that I can determine, I’ve read far, FAR fewer comic books this year. Seriously, this is even worse than 2017. It’s not that my interest has dipped; on the contrary, my To-Read list is positively bursting with comics, many of them aimed for much younger girls. (As well as comics I desperately need to return to: Velvet, for starters, and also The Wicked + The Divine: Year 3, which just FINALLY released.) I just haven’t gotten there yet.

OTOH, I have continued to up my novella game, though I may need to reconsider my purchasing strategy. In the last two years, I’ve read at least 6 different novellas with the intention of reading their follow-up sequels . . . only to completely fail to do that. I’ve managed to keep up with Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series, but that’s about it. For Christ’s sake, there are four Murder Bot novellas out there now and I’ve still only read All Systems Red. Clearly, this won’t do.

Once again, I’ve managed to read three whole non-fiction books this year! I’m very proud of myself.

Shocking no one, I appear to have read mostly fantasy, mystery, and YA, with a few scatterings of horror and SF and only the briefest of forays into romance, western, and, IDK, slice of life? I’m specifically a bit disappointed in how little SF I actually read. Thankfully, my book club’s next genre-of-choice is SPACE OPERA, so I should get 2019 off on the right foot.

If I gravitated heavily towards noir last year, this year has been all about cozy mysteries and, most especially, the Golden Age of Detective Fiction. I read four books by Dorothy Sayers (I’m reading the Lord Peter Wimsey books in order; next up: The Nine Tailors) and two by J. Jefferson Farjeon, who I just discovered by happy accident this year. If anyone here is a fan of 30’s English mysteries, what are your recommendations? If there’s a murder at a country manner or a dinner party, I’m interested!

To my knowledge:

Books Written By Women Authors: 44
Books Written by Men Authors: 15
Books Written by Non-Binary Authors: 2

(For the purposes of that stat, I’m lumping fiction, non-fiction, and comics together.)

Favorite New-to-Me Authors include Mackenzi Lee, Justina Ireland, Angie Thomas, Sarah Rees Brennan, Fonda Lee, J. Jefferson Farjeon, and Theodora Goss

Some of my absolute favorite books this year were completely off my radar until the 2017 Hugo and Not-a-Hugo finalists were announced. Award Season can be a stressful pain in the ass for writers–I don’t have much eligible this year, so I expect I’ll be more chill about it, maybe–but I’m really looking forward to seeing what people nominate.

Tell me in the comments about the books you’ve read this year. I’d love to hear about them!