Monday 31 December 2018

TheDaisyDeer's Best Books of 2018

Reading Year In Review

It's been a year filled with researching for my final project, my dissertation, and my personal development, as well as exploring new review copies and becoming a proper film critic! As a result, it's been up and down in terms of what I've been reading: some things I've absolutely fallen in love with, and others have disappointed me and sent me into reading slumps. The upside is that this year's winners have been pretty easy to narrow down, if difficult to assign to categories; I could've put most of them at the top of multiple groups, but without further ado, these are my stats and the best books that I read in 2018...

Books Read: 80
Novels Read: 41
*Pages Read: 24,743
*according to GoodReads so take it with a pinch of salt 


Novel with the Best Story read in 2018:


Kingdom of Ash
Sarah J. Maas
Novel with the Best Writing read in 2018:


Home Fire
Kamilla Shamsie


Novel with the Best Entertainment read in 2018:


Ash & Quill
Rachel Caine


Best New Discovery read in 2018:


Nevernight
Jay Kristoff


Best Fantasy Novel read in 2018:


The Bear and the Nightingale
Katherine Arden


Best Sci-Fi Novel read in 2018:


Ready Player One
Ernest Cline


Best Historical Novel read in 2018:


The Miniaturist
Jessie Burton


Best Contemporary Novel read in 2018:


Girl Meets Boy
Ali Smith


Best Graphic Novel read in 2018:


Paper Girls Vol.5
Brian K. Vaughan, Cliff Chiang & Matthew Wilson


Best Poetry Collection read in 2018:


New American Best Friend
Olivia Gatwood


Best Review Copy [not otherwise mentioned] read in 2018:


Spinning Silver
provided by Pan Macmillan
Namoi Movik
(My review for Spinning Silver was also featured on Pan Macmillan's twitter!)

Saturday 29 December 2018

Home Fire


Book Title: Home Fire
Author: Kamila Shamsie
Date Started: December 17th 2018
Date Completed: December 28th 2018
Genres: Contemporary
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Stars
Final Rating: Five stars
Review:

Antigone is my favourite play of all time, so I had high expectations going into Home Fire. As it ends, I think this is a book everyone should read, and enjoy doing so. I look forward to it being studied on syllabuses, discussed widely; it needs to be screamed from the rooftops and mailed to every politician in the country.

Addressing Muslim identity in the context of Britain the ignorance and disparity of its politicians was always going to be difficult. Shamsie dos it fearlessly, fiercely, and honestly. Humanising people is so important, and showing the forces pushing them that we can see and can't so obviously is how to do it. I am a reader that isn't as educated as she'd like to be about the matters of ISIS and racial prejudice, but this book was accessible to me regardless. It has its message, but for those of you that aren't into 'preachy' fiction (though it's sometimes necessary) will still be able to get lost in Home Fire; it's about the people and their story.

Knowing the plot of Antigone was interesting going in. There were definitely some things I knew were coming because of the parallels, but that didn't ruin it at all. In fact, I was excited to see how Shamsie was going to reinterpret it and make it her own. The play is an inspiration, but it gets developed in all directions for this rich and all-encompassing drama.

Home Fire's characters are electric, flawed and impossible not to be compassionate for. I became attached to people that weren't so compelling in the play because Shamsie does a brilliant job of positioning us at all angles with all the characters' lives - and each is different and gives something more to the story. It's a magnificently orchestrated book, really.

If you couldn't tell, I really enjoyed this book and I think it deserves all the praise it has received and more.

Sunday 16 December 2018

Smoke and Iron

Smoke and Iron (The Great Library, #4)

Book Title: Smoke and Iron
Author: Rachel Caine
Series: The Great Library #4
Date Started: December 13th 2018
Date Completed: December 16th 2018
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Stars
Final Rating: Three stars
Review:

The Great Library series is what I go to when I need an enjoyable, easy read. But I don't say that to talk down to it's quality, there's a lot of progressive and clever stuff that goes into these books. But the reason I sit down and read them - especially this time when I desperately needed something I wouldn't want to put down - is how damn fun they are.

At this, only Jess and Khalila are really achieveing anything. There's a lot of drama and attention all round (which is definitely appreciated) but the actions of most of the other characters are without consequence in the end. It feels like either there's some deus ex machina or they just aren't very effective where they try to be. It's a bit of a shame considering how wonderful all the characters are, but makes the action more streamlined I guess.

I think the different perspectives being split into parts ended up hindering the pace rather than helping it. Since everyone's split up this time, we jump between four simultaneous events in chunks, but for me it made it hard for me to really get into what was happening in each other - every time I started to get close, I was transported somewhere else. Altnernating chapters could've worked better to keep the momentum up but still cover a variety of subplots.

But really, what I care about are the characters. And while some of the relationships got a little confused in this book, it was still a joy to read. Admittedly, after four books you're bound to like most of the characters (otherwise, why bother?), but right since the first time the main characters of The Great Library series stood in Alexandria together there was just a spark. You get so attached to them, so quickly. Their friendships, partnerships, romances galore obviously help highlight their strengths, but even as indivdiuals doing their own thing Caine can break down that barrier between the audience and her fictional world - and that's not an easy thing to do.

I'm pretty sure there's only one book in this series left, which is really sad because, as I said, it's my go-to when I need an enjoyable read. Though Smoke and Iron wasn't as great as the previous books, you can tell it's building up for something really interesting at the conclusion. The characters, who are the real talents, were as engaging as ever and I'm not sure if I can wait however many months for the final installment to come out.