Unlike previous years, this year I actually did it. I was able to complete my Goodreads Challenge for 2018 and with time to spare! You got that right – 52/52 books read.
The Complete List
- The Last Children of Tokyo by Yoko Tawada
- Exterminate all the Brutes by Sven Lindqvist
- The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
- Cantora by Slyvia Lopez-Medina
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
- What I Talk About When I Talk about Running by Haruki Murakami
- Botchan by Natsume Soseki
- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
- Twenty Four Eyes by Sakae-Tsuboi
- Kitchen by Banana Yoshimoto
- Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
- Strait is the Gate by Andre Gide
- The Second Penguin Book of English Short Stories edited by Christopher Dolley
- Strange Weather in Tokyo by Hiromi Kawakami
- Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
- The Penguin Book of English Short Stories edited by Christopher Dolley
- Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
- The Izu Dancer And Other Stories by Yasunari Kawabata and Yasushi Inoue
- We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture edited by David Dabydeen, Maria del Pilar Kaladeen, and Tina K. Ramnarine
- Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg
- Listen and Learn: 101 Japanese Idioms by Senko K. Maynard
- The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr., E.B. White
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros
- Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki
- Oh Happy Day by Michelle Ragoonanan-Ali
- ‘Til the Well Runs Dry by Lauren Francis-Sharma
- The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- Ghana Must Go: A Novel by Taiye Selasi
- Consuming Cultures: Globalization and Local Lives by Jeremy Seabrook
- Abraham: A Journey to the Heart of Three Faiths by Bruce Feiler
- The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values and Spiritual Growth by M. Scott Peck
- The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet
- Krik? Krak! by Edwidge Danticat
- The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
- Tata and the Big Bad Bull by Juleus Ghunta
- The Scent of the Past: Stories and Remembrances by Wayne Brown
- The Old House and the Dream by Joy Rudder
- Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan by Bruce Feiler
- And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini
- The Writer and the World: Essays by V.S. Naipaul
Highlight: We Mark Your Memory
First and foremost, I read We Mark Your Memory: Writing from the Descendants of Indenture, a first-of-its-kind literary anthology that also features my first ever published-in-a-book short story, “Homecoming.” Not many people know about indentureship which took place in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It involved mass migration of Indians from the subcontinent to far-flung places in the then British Empire to work on the sugarcane plantations.
The collection unites storytellers, poets, and essayists from the Caribbean, Canada, Fiji, Kenya, Malaysia, Mauritius, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, the UK, and the US. This is a collector’s item for anyone who is interested in how diasporic Indians wrestle with questions of identity, nationality, and culture in the contemporary, post-indenture world.
Favorite First-time Reads for 2018
Since I’ve completed the challenge, bookstagrammers have been asking me to pick my favorites. Here are my 8 favorite first-time reads in 2018:
- The Number 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith
- Lizard by Banana Yoshimoto
- Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson
- Rashōmon and Seventeen Other Stories by Ryunosuke Akutagawa
- The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
- Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
- The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
- In the Time of the Butterflies by Julia Alvarez
Rereads for 2018
Out of 52 books, I reread 10 books from my childhood, adolescent, and young adult reading experiences:
- The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz
- The Swinging Bridge by Ramabai Espinet
- The Amazing Absorbing Boy by Rabindranath Maharaj
- The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
- The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
- Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
- The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens by Sean Covey
- Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami
- The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Favorite reread in 2018: The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
I’d be lucky if I make it to half my goal…and my goal is just 20 books hahaha
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