BookAnon.com

2018 was going to be a big year in books for me from the start. At the end of 2017, I realized I had averaged more than 70 books in each of the last two years, so I set myself what I saw as an ambitious goal: 108 books. It started out as a specific list of books, with the acknowledgement that I would add the occassional Advance Reader Copy (ARC) and would probably end the year at 120 or so - still nearly double my recent average. I distinctly remember even 53 books being very difficult in 2008, but my life had also been much different at the time, as a new person in my day job profession, new husband, and driving 100 miles one way to work for over half of that year. 2018 was going to be much easier - I was working a fairly easy job in a settled position in my career, married to the same lady from 2008, and working just 15 minutes from home.

I started the year with a couple of 19th century philosophical works, Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thorau and On Liberty by John Stuart Mills. Those would be the oldest books I read this year, and the only books published before the current Millenium. Over the course of the year, I would find many amazing books, a few duds, march through my mountain of a TBR (while adding even more, peril of a bookaholic), joined several more book and author groups, started a book blog, and overall surprise myself in a couple of ways:

1) I surpassed my original goal of 108 books in *October*. I closed the year at 156. 2) I didn't realize it until counting yesterday, but of those 156 books, 46 of them turned out to be ARCs!

But let's take a brief look at some "bes

This first week of 2019, we examine a book that sheds light on the fight to secure a crucial, if often underappreciated, Constitutional right in the United States: the right of the press and the

This week, we look at a strong and rare (and unique, in my own reading experience) book from a debut author. This week, we look at At Home by

This week, we look to a fun, flirty Christmas romance. This week, we look at

As the end of the year (and the holiday season) approaches, I'm noticing authors asking for reviews more than normal- which they tend to do at this time of year, as more and newer reviews tend to kick AI algorithms at various retail/ recommendation sites into gear.

And that is all well and good, but I've also become much more involved as an ARC reader this year, branching out from doing it consistently for one author to joining a few different ARC programs for various publishers, genres, and general (NetGalley). And it is within this ARC work

This week, we're looking at the apparent conclusion of a series we've been looking at for the last couple of months. This week, we're l

This week we look to - surprise, surprise - yet another new to me Lake Union author. This week, we look at Just After Midnight by C

This week, we're looking at yet another book from a Lake Union author. Though in this case, we're looking at t

This week, we're looking at a book from yet another new-to-me Lake Union author. This week, we're looking at

This week, we're looking at the second book in a new series whose opener we loo