2018 Book of the Year!

It's your my favorite time of the year - my 2018 book recommendations! Oh my goodness, I read some amazing stuff this year. I read a lot of international authors - I absolutely love African authors, books set in Africa and India, and I even recently read one set in Korea/Japan by an author from Korea. Such good stuff! I also read SEVEN novels out loud this year - to my kids, to Blu, to my New Day older kids, so that was a blast! It was so tough to decide, but both my fiction and nonfiction favorite books this year were set in Africa (shocker). So, without further ado....

2018 Fiction Book of the Year

Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue - This book follows the story of a hopeful immigrant family from Cameroon and their encounter with the "American Dream." Just wow.

2018 NonFiction Book of the Year

The Girl who Smiled Beads by Clemantine Wamariya - I love me a good memoir. This story follows a girl who came to America as a Rwandan refugee. I actually saw the Oprah episode where she was reunited with her Rwandan parents years ago. This book explained what came next. It was a tough read.

I feel like I can't close out without mentioning Radiance of Tomorrow by Ishmael Beah, children's books The Wednesday Wars by Gary Schmidt, Bud, not Buddy and The Mighty Miss Malone by Christopher Paul Harris, and memoirs The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner and A Mother's Reckoning: Inside the Aftermath of a Tragedy by Sue Klebold. SUCH good books this year. Can't wait to see what awesome novels 2019 brings! :)