Helloooooo Boozers,

As I sit here the day after Christmas, I’m trying to reflect on 2018, or more often known as a trash fire year. My job was horrible, both awesome and abusive at the same time, my pain levels were hard to control, and my family life… whoo my family life is just a disaster.

However, with all of that, I also had a bunch of awesome things happen. I got to go see Parker Solar Probe launch from Cape Canaveral, I went to Disney World with my manfriend (he bought me a tiara), and I met my by-30 professional goal! I got to see a lot of my mom, cooked Thanksgiving for 27 people, with guest appearances with booktubers, and got to see my ducklings (my cousins’ kids) wear these shirts that I bought them, and went to the History of Magic Harry Potter museum in NYC. THE EAGLES WON THE SUPERBOWL! I got to see Hamilton with Ginny! So a lot of good things on top of the shitty.

As far as bookish stuff, we all went to BookCon and I met Brandon Sanderson, Nic Stone, and so many more. We had such a blast. We also hosted our annual Booziebookathon and co-hosted Tome Topple.

I read 91 books!! Holy crap I read 91 books… that’s 37,131 pages. Wow. I also made a conscious effort to read more diversely and review as many books as my liver would allow (44 to be exact).

Here are my Top 5 of the year!

5. State Tectonics by Malka Older: This book is the finale to the Centenal Cycle. We reviewed all three of them (Infomocracy, Null States, State Tectonics). This finale was amazing and I loved how Malka was able to round out the series without a pretty bow, but still felt satisfied. We also got to drink, er, talk with her, and we recorded it here.

 

 

4. The Tearling Trilogy by Erika Johansen: I still don’t know how I feel about the end of this trilogy but I loved every minute of it. See my reviews here and here.

 

 

 

3. The Tiger’s Daughter by K Arsenault Rivera: Wow. People were raving about this book and I was worried it wasn’t going to live up to the hype. It totally did. Shefali and Shizuka are an AMAZING couple. The world is awesome. Just. So good. Reviews for The Tiger’s Daughter and The Phoenix Empress.

 

 

 

2. Age of War by Michael J Sullivan: Sullivan is probably Top 5 fantasy authors of all time. The way he builds worlds and story arcs are amazing. This one had me IN TEARS. Sobbing openly, on the metro. It’s incredible and I cannot wait for the next one. Review here.

 

 

*drumroll please*

1. The Broken Earth Trilogy by NK Jemisin: Honestly, whenever I’m reminded of this series my heart breaks all over again. I actually get really really sad. What an amazing story with amazing characters and it’s just raw and real and wow. I don’t have words. Parker reviewed it here.

Honorable Mentions:

• Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor;
• Furyborn by Claire Legrand;
• Foundryside by Robert Bennett Jackson; and
• Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri.

Phew. I’ll have a 2019 goals post coming soon, but for now.

COMMENT DOWN BELOW: What was your favorite book(s) this year? Tell me about the best thing that happened to you in 2018.

Until next year (!!), we remain forever drunkenly yours,

Sam