Michelle and Leslie's Book Picks

 Here are my favorite books of 2018. As a quick disclaimer, these books may not all be 2018 releases but I did read them in 2018. Currently, I am wrapping up my reading challenge and may go beyond my goal of 250 books. Without further ado, here are my favorite books of 2018 ranked according to the interest level.  Favorite Adult Books I read a quite a few adult titles that I enjoyed in 2018 and I am happy to report that I enjoyed quite a few titles. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah: In eighteen poignant, humorous, and incisive essays, Noah takes the reader along a personal journey of life inside South Africa. The City of Brass (The Daevabad Trilogy #1) by S.A. Chakraborty:  The City of Brass  is a complex, multilayered story that centers on the kingdom's deeply divisive religious, political, and racial tensions. The world building is excellent as clues are sprinkled evenly throughout the story will leaving mysteries that need to be solved. I loved the inclusion and...

Description: Trevor Noah’s unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. Trevor was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother at a time when such a union was punishable by five years in prison. Living proof of his parents’ indiscretion, Trevor was kept mostly indoors for the earliest years of his life, bound by the extreme and often absurd measures his mother took to hide him from a government that could, at any moment, steal him away. Finally liberated by the end of South Africa’s tyrannical white rule, Trevor and his mother set forth on a grand adventure, living openly and freely and embracing the opportunities won by a centuries-long struggle. Review: Trevor Noah, the host for The Daily Show, brings his sharp wit and analysis when talking about his childhood as a mixed-race individual in South Africa under the tyranny of apartheid. Initially I thought the title of Noah's memoir was tongue in ...

Description: In 1994, Yuyi Morales left her home in Xalapa, Mexico and came to the US with her infant son. She left behind nearly everything she owned, but she didn't come empty-handed. She brought her strength, her work, her passion, her hopes and dreams...and her stories. Review: In this gorgeously illustrated memoir picture book, Morales recalls the time from her son's birth to their move to the United States from Mexico in the mid-1990s. In the foreign land mother and son encounter many barriers, which are common to the many obstacles immigrants face while trying to survive in a new country that doesn't readily welcome non-English-speaking people of color. The pair encounters respite at the public library where, with the help of librarians, they find a home in the children's section.   The text is sparse though poetic and dreamlike. The artwork, in my opinion, speaks louder by capturing the wonder of childhood, learning, and discovery through books; howeve...

Description: Mary Shelley first began penning Frankenstein as part of a dare to write a ghost story, but the seeds of that story were planted long before that night. Mary, just nineteen years old at the time, had been living on her own for three years and had already lost a baby days after birth. She was deeply in love with famed poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, a mad man who both enthralled and terrified her, and her relationship with him was rife with scandal and ridicule. But rather than let it crush her, Mary fueled her grief, pain, and passion into a book that the world has still not forgotten 200 years later. Review: 2018 marked the 200 year anniversary of Mary Shelley's masterpiece Frankenstein. I had originally wanted to do a reread of the horror classic, but ran out of time and instead picked up Mary's Monster after reading glowing reviews about it. Mary's Monster is a beautifully crafted fictionalized biography in first-person free verse and it unveils how Ma...

Description: The Nameless City--held by the rogue Dao prince Erzi--is under siege by a coalition of Dao and Yisun forces who are determined to end the war once and for all... Rat and Kai must infiltrate Erzi's palace and steal back the ancient and deadly formula for napatha--the ancient weapon of mass destruction Erzi has unearthed--before he can use it to destroy everything they hold dear! Review: The Divided Earth is the final book of The Nameless City trilogy, and wraps the narrative up in a thrilling and thoroughly satisfying conclusion.   The story takes place in the fictional city Daidu, named by the Dao’s, the most recent conquering nation. However, due to centuries of conquest, the inhabitants of many different nationalities simply call it The Nameless City. This politically important Asian city, inspired by China, sits alongside a mountain pass and is the only route to the sea, making it a critical location for trade and military movements. An ancient people c...

Title: Winner Take All  Author: Laurie Devore Published January 30th 2018 by Imprint Goodreads ___________________________________________ I now see there are quite a few people who had problems with this book. I am not sure I am not one of them. But I give you this, it was entertaining from start to finish, whatever was happening: good, bad or worse, I was enthralled. And appalled. And confused. And most of all torn. At the end of the day I think I did like it. There are lot of feelings I share with Nell. I think every girl has felt the same way once or twice too. Like maybe the rules of the world are never fair, because no matter how much we try, guys seem to have it easier. I must confess, there were some parts when I really thought it was out of control. The relationship between Nell and Jackson, while passionate, seemed to be very toxic too. But this is good to read about, so you can identify if maybe you are in one too. The thing about this toxic relationships is that th...

Title: The Simple Wild  Author: K.A. Tucker Published August 7th 2018 by Atria Books Goodreads ______________________________ First of all, I hope K.A. Tucker is intentionally nodding at The Simple Life with that title, that would be just brilliant. #LongLiveParisHilton #NoShame Secondly, after finishing this book I can say that I am pleasantly surprised. Who is not into stories of city girls essentially tumbling out of their comfort zones? I mean it's basic human instinct to try and get a few laughs out of those hair and makeup predicaments. Though I must confess there were quite a few times I'd get annoyed at Calla, our Paris Hilton, for being maybe a tad too superficial and selfish. But that's okay, I can get over that as long as you show me some character development, and thankfully Calla showed some growth (but way too slowly for my liking if I admit). Even in the end, she seemed a bit reluctant to go and get what she wanted, but then again, some people take longer tha...