STL #124: The Years in Reading, 2018 & 2019

 Again, lists recovered from a notebook. The were both ranked, and I didn't change the order even when it felt "wrong." The comments, such as they are, added in 2021. 

2018

1. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline. Co-listed with Pastoralia and Lincoln in the Bardo, so George Saunders was my writer of the year.
2. The Southern Reach Trilogy. I think these will be emblematic of this time. Annihilation is almost certainly the best. 
3. Lone Wolf and Cub. The whole thing. The bad guy is revealed like 10 volumes in and there's a sword fight that must last 1,000 pages.
4. Stamped from the Beginning. Shockingly persuasive.
5. Factfulness. A few years later I remember this as neoliberal propaganda. 
6. American Pastoral. I was into mid- to late- period Philip Roth at the time. 
7. Swallows and Amazons. Classic children's adventure. Will eventually read sequels.
8. Ms. Marvel/Bitch Planet. Not the most natural pair, maybe, the two best comics series I read. 
9. The Dispossessed. Flawed, sure, but emblematic of the best social science fiction.
10. The Red Parts. After reading Jane. One of the best true crime books.

2019

1. Hip Hop Family Tree/The Rap Yearbook. Seem like an odd choice for number one now, but I did get into early hip hop (and even 90s hip hop, really for the first time) as a result. 
2. Barnaby. Again, weird to see it so high now. Though I certainly like it. 
3. Our Band Could Be Your Life/Please Kill Me/Celebrated Summer. The third of this is a pretty graphic album thrown in only for thematic purposes. The other two have stuck with me.
4. "LeFanu/James" is what it said. I reread the book that included "Carmilla" (LeFanu) and I think that "James" is M.R. James. 
5. Comeback. I think this marks the beginning of the end of my rereading of the Parker novels in order. This was the first of the great sequence after his long break. I honestly don't know which one this is (maybe the riverboat job), but that is my favorite sequence. 
6. Parable of the Sower/Talents. Obviously these are good books, but I'm not as enthusiastic as some others.
7. Astro City. I love these comics. 
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes/I, Robot. A natural pair of puzzle fictions.
9. Best of the Best American Horror. Condensed from the first ten years of Ellen Datlow's annual series. 
10. Say Nothing. One of the best true crime books.