It’s time for the December 2018 Book List. December is often not the best month for newly published books since people are looking backward to pick their best books of the past year, but that is not so true this year. With the holidays coming up there is a book on this list to interest almost every adult on your gift list. There is crime, fantasy, art, picture books (coffee table), mystery, music, romance, America’s foreign policy and our role in the world, Dungeons and Dragons, graphic novels, biographies and memoirs, books on feminism, books on racism, books on beauty. I love the idea of all these books, but of course I cannot read them all. My quick picks are followed by an asterisk but I may change my mind or get tantalized by some other title on this month’s list. Happy holidays, peace on earth, and I hope you get to read at least one great book this month.
Amazon
Literature and Fiction
North of the Dawn: A Novel by Nurrudin Farah
The Dakota Winters: A Novel by Tom Barbash
The Songbird by Marcia Willett
The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke, Carlos Rojas
Radiant Shimmering Light by Sarah Selecky
The Museum of Modern Love by Heather Rose
Once Upon a River: a Novel by Diane Setterfield
Trying by Emily Phillips
Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns*
Mystery and Thriller
The Mansion: A Novel by Ezekiel Boone
Broken Ground (Karen Pirie) by Val McDermid
Watching You: A Novel by Lisa Jewell
Once Upon a River: A Novel by Diane Setterfield
Milkman: A Novel by Anna Burns
Pandemic by Robin Cook
The Kingdom of the Blind: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny
Before We Were Strangers by Brenda Novak
Biographies and Memoirs
Never Grow Up by Jackie Chan
My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen
King of the Dinosaur Hunters: The Life of John Bell Hatcher and the Discoveries that Shaped Paleontology by Lowell Dingus
Kitchen Yarns: Notes on Life, Love and Food by Ann Hood
All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson by Mark Griffin
The Warner Boys: Our Family’s Story of Autism and Hope by Curt Warner, Ava Warner with Dave Boling
Daniel Morgan: A Revolutionary Life by Albert Louis Zambone
The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant by Ulysses S Grant, Elizabeth Somet
Bring It On Home: Peter Grant, Led Zeppelin and Beyond-The Story of Rock’s Greatest Manager by Mark Blake
Nonfiction
The Atom: A Visual Tour (The MIT Press) by Jack Challoner
This Is Cuba: An American Journalist Under Castro’s Shadow by David Aristo
Theater of the World: The Maps that Made History by Thomas Reinerstsen Berg, Alison McCullough
Congo Stories: Battling Five Centuries of Exploitation and Greed by John Pendergast, Fidel Bafilemba, Sam Ilus (illustrator)
McSweeney’s Issue 54: The End of Trust by Dave Eggers, Julia Angwin, Madeline Ashby
Influenza: The Hundred Year Hunt to Cure the Deadliest Disease in History by Dr. Jeremy Brown
You Are a Badass Every Day by Jen Sincero
Unruly Waters: How Rains, Rivers, Coasts and Seas have Shaped Asia’s History by Sunil Amrith
Dear Los Angeles: the City in Diaries and Letters, 1542 to 2018 (Modern Library) by David Kipen
Science Fiction
Bright Light: Star Carrier: Book Eight by Ian Douglas
The Day the Sun Died by Yan Lianke and Carlos Rojas
Sword Heart by T. Kingfisher
The Frame-Up (The Golden Arrow Mysteries) by Meghan Scott Molin
Marked By Stars (Songs of the Amaranthine, Book 1) by Forthright
Blood and Bone: Chronicles of the One, Book 2 by Nora Roberts *
The Razor by J. Barton Mitchell
The Mortal Word (The Invisible Library Novel) by Genevieve Cogman
New York Times Book Review
Nov. 11
Nonfiction
Frederick Douglas by David W. Blight
The Souls of Yellow Folk by Wesley Yang (essays)
Always Another Country: A Memoirs of Exile and Home by Sisonke Msimang
The Letters of Sylvia Plath, Vol. 2 edited by Peter Steinberg and Karen Kubil
Heart by Sandup Janhar
Becoming by Michelle Obama
The Shortlist
Consent on Campus: A Manifesto by Donna Freitas
Equality for Women = Prosperity for all by Augusto Lopez-Claros and Bahiyyih Nakhjavani
Can We All Be Feminists?: Seventeen Writers on Intersectionality, Identity, and Way Forward for Feminism by June Eric-Udorie
Fiction
Gone So Long by Andre Dubus III
Fiction (women with cancer)
Craving by Esther Gerritson, trans. by Michele Huchinson
The Bus on Thursday by Shirley Barrett
Fiction (cont.)
The Novel of Ferrar by Giorgio Bassoni
Samuel Johnson’s Eternal Return by Martin Riker
Night of Camp David: What Would Happen if the President of USA Went Stark-Raving Mad? By Fletcher Knebel (new reprint)
Nov. 18
Audiobooks
Accessory to War by Neil deGrasse Tyson
Parker: Selected Stories by Dorothy Parker read by Elaine Stritch
Patti Smith at the Minetta Lane: Words and Music by Patti Smith, read by the author
The Tattooist of Auschwitz by Heather Morris, read by Richard Armitage
My Squirrel Days by Ellie Kemper, read by the author
Out of My Mind by Alan Arkin, read by the author
We Are Not Yet Equal: Understanding Our Dark Racial Divide by Carol Anderson and Tonya Bolden, read by Robin Miles
We Say #Never Again, edited by Melissa Falkowski and Eric Garner, read by Melissa Falkowski, Eric Garner and the Parkland student journalists
Fiction
The Feral Detective by Jonathan Letham
Scribe by Alyson Hagy
Love Songs for a Lost Continent by Anita Felicelli
Useful Phrases for Immigrants by May-Lee Chai
Destroy All Monsters by Jeff Jackson
Nonfiction
(5 Books About Being Jewish in America)
The Chosen Wars: How Judaism Became an American Religion by Steven R Weisman
The New American Judaism: How Jews Practice their Religion Today by Jack Wertheimer
The Jewish American Paradox: Embracing Choice in a Changing World by Robert Mnookin
God is in the Crowd: Twenty-First Century Judaism by Tal Keinan
Dear Zealots: Letters From a Divided Land (Essays)
General nonfiction
Churchill: Walking with Destiny by Andrew Roberts
Best of Enemies by Gus Russo and Eric Dezenhall
Storm Lake by Art Cullen
Heavy by Kiese Laymon
The Red and the Blue by Steve Kornacki
Latinx: The New Force in American Politics and Culture by Ed Morales
The Shortlist (Americas’s Role in the World)
A New Foreign Policy: Beyond American Exceptionalism by Jeffrey Sachs
Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower by Michael Beckley *
The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World by Robert Kagan *
Nov. 25
Nonfiction
Debussey: A Painter in Sound by Stephen Walsh
Fryderyk Chopin by Alan Walker
Vietnam: An Epic Tragedy, 1945-1975 by Max Hastings*
The Hell of Good Intentions by Stephen M. Walt *
Schumann: The Faces and the Masks by Judith Chernaik
There Will Be No Miracles Here by Casey Gerald
In Extremis: The Life and Death of the War Correspondent Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum
I Am Dynamite! A Life of Nietzsche by Sue Prideaux
Hiking with Nietzsche: On Becoming. Who You Are by John Kaag
A Graphic Tribute to Anne Sexton by Katie Fricas
Dec 2
Fiction
(Other worldly)
Exit Strategy by Martha Wells (fourth part of Murderbot Diaries) *
Ghostographs: An Album by Maria Romasco Moore
The Monster of Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (second in a series)
Heresy by Melissa Lenhardt
Romance
Consumed by J R Ward
High Risk by Brenna Aubrey
Beautiful Sinner by Sophie Jordan
Rafe by Rebekah Weatherspoon
General Fiction
An Almost Perfect Christmas by Ruth Reichl
Berlin by Jason Lutes (graphic novel)
The Waiter by Matias Faldbakhen
Jeeves and the King of Clubs by Ben Schott
The Western Wind by Samantha Harvey *
Crime novels
Kingdom of the Blind by Louise Penny
Bryant and May: Hall of Mirrors by Christopher Fowler
The Shadows We Hide by Allen Eskens
Suitcase Charlie by John Guzlowski
More Fiction
The Last Poets by Christine Otten
Nonfiction
Hungover by Shaughnessy Bishop-Stall
(3 Art Books)
Henry Taylor: The Only Portrait I Ever Painted of My Mama was Stolen by Sarah Lewis, Charles Gaines, Zadie Smith, and Rachel Kaadzi Ghansak
The Sweet Flypaper of Life by Ray De Carava and Langston Hughes
I Too Sing America: The Harlem Renaissance at 100 by Will Haygood
Magnum China edited by Colin Pantall and Zheng Ziyu, add. Text by Jonathan Fenby (photos)
Chalk: The Art and Erasure of Cy Twombly by Joshua Rivkin
Dungeons & Dragons Art & Arcana: A Visual History by Michael Witmer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer
Food on the Move: Dining on the Legendary Railway Journeys of the World edited by Sharon Hudgins (essays)
Publisher’s Weekly
Nov 9
Money in the Morgue by Ngaio Marsh and Stella Duffy (mystery)
Dear Los Angeles: The City in Diaries and Letters edited by David Kipen (NF)
Miss Blaine’s Prefect and the Golden Samovar by Olga Wojtas (F)
Hearts of the Missing by Carol Potenza (mystery)
The Blood by E S Thomson (crime
Eighteen Below: A Fabian Risk Novel by Stefan Ahnhem, trans. from the Swedish by Rachel Wilson-Broyles (F)
King of the Road by R S Belcher (F)
My Favorite Half-Night Stand by Christina Lauren (F) (rom-com)
Deep War: The War with China and North Korea – The Nuclear Precipice by David Poyer (NF)
On Thomas Merton by Mary Gordon (Bio)
Stronger, Faster, and More Beautiful by Arwen Elys (NF)
Army of Empire: The Untold Story of the Indian Army in World War I by George Morton-Jack (NF)
The Kansas City Star Quilts Sampler: 60+ Blocks from 1928-1961 by Barbara Brackman (Art Picture Book)
A King in Cobwebs by David Keck (Fantasy)
Babel: Around the World in Twenty Languages by Gaston Dorren (NF)
Hunting Game by Helene Tursten, trans. from the Swedish by Paul Norlen (crime)
Nov 16
Faking It: The Lies Women Tell About Sex—and the Truths They Reveal by Lux Alptraum (NF)
City of Broken Magic by Mirah Bolender (Fantasy)
The Houseguest by Amparo Davilia, trans. from the Spanish by Audrey Haris and Matthew Gleeson (Short stories)
I Am Young by M. Dean (Short stories)
All the Life We Never Lived by Anuradha Roy (F)
Ways to Hide in Winter by Sarah St. Vincent (F)
Your Place in the Universe: Understanding Our Big, Messy Existence by Paul M Sutter (NF)
Dec 3
The Dakota Winters by Tom Barbash * (F)
Cold, Cold Heart by A J Cross (F)
Photo Credits: From a Google Image Search – The Economist
So Many Books, Choose Wisely 