Looking back on my reading list from 2018: I managed to complete 73 books this year, although that includes spending time with a lot more novels and poetry books than previous years. I again completed all of the 2018 Canada Reads books (The Marrow Thieves should have won!) and I kept a nerdy spreadsheet to ensure I stayed focused on reading authors with a wider diversity of backgrounds and identities, including LGBTQ2S authors.

2019 will be a year of distracting myself from a double election year by tackling some of the growing number of unread books on my shelf. As always, reading recommendations for 2019 are most welcome!

It was hard to pick my top choices this year, especially for fiction, so in no particular order here goes my best shot:

Non-Fiction: Seven Fallen Feathers, One Job Town, Tomboy Survival Guide, This Wound is a World and Bienfait: The Saskatchewan Miners’ Struggle of ’31

Fiction: Scarborough, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, Brother, Medicine Walk, Tin Man, Johnny Appleseed, The Marrow Thieves, and Such a Lonely, Lovely Road

Beyond that, this year’s complete reading list is below: with my made-up categories and highly inconsistent 5 star reviewing system. So really, if you want to know more about any of them definitely feel free to ask!

Canada Reads Books

• Precious Cargo – Craig Davidson (2018 Canada Reads) (***)
• Forgiveness – Mark Sakamoto (2018 Canada Reads) (*****)
• The Marrow Thieves – Cherie Dimaline (2018 Canada Reads) (*****)
• The Boat People – Sharon Bala (2018 Canada Reads) (*****)
• American War – Omar El Akkad (2018 Canada Reads) (*****)

Indigenous Literature/Studies

• Medicine Walk – Richard Wagamese (*****)
• A Girl Called Echo: Vol. 1 Pemmican Wars – Katherina Vermette (Looking forward to more from this comic series!) (*****)
• bawajigaywin visions – Lindsay Nixon (****)
• My Conversations with Canadians – Lee Maracle (***)
• I Am Woman – Lee Maracle (****)
• heart berries: A Memoir – Terese Marie Mailhot (****)
• Half-Breed – Maria Campbell (*****)
• Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City – Tanya Talaga (*****)
• All Our Relations: Finding The Path Forward (2018 CBC Massey Lecture) – Tanya Talaga (*****)
• Jonny Appleseed – Joshua Whitehead (*****)
• Price Paid: The Fight for First Nations Survival – Bev Sellars (****)
• Sanaaq – Mitiarjuk Nappaaluk (****)
• Red Rooms – Cherie Dimaline (****)
• Truth and Reconciliation in Canadian Schools – Pamela Rose Toulouse (****)

Other CanLit/Fiction

• Do Not Say We Have Nothing – Madeleine Thien (*****)
• Wisdom in Nonsense: Invaluable Lessons From My Father – Heather O’Neill (CLC Kreisel Lecture Series) (****)
• Small Beauty – jia qing wilson-yang (*****)
• Scarborough – Catherine Hernandez (*****)
• Little Fish – Casey Plett (*****)
• Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography – Chester Brown (*****)
• Brother – David Chariandy (*****)
• Soucouyant – David Chariandy (****)
• Full Disclosure – Beverly McLachlin (***)
• Such a Lonely, Lovely Road – Kagiso Lesego Molope (*****)
• Women Talking – Miriam Toews (****)

Other Lit/Fiction

• The Whistler – John Grisham (***)
• Call Me By Your Name – André Aciman (*****)
• Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (****)
• The Breadwinner – Deborah Ellis (***)
• Peril at End House – Agatha Christie (****)
• Tin Man – Sarah Winman (*****)

Labour Books

• Unbending Cane: Pablo Manlapit: A Filipino Labor Leader in Hawai’i – Melinda Tria Kerkvliet (****)
• Defying Expectations: The Case of UFCW Local 401 – Jason Foster (****)
• Silenced: Talks with working class Caribbean women about their lives and struggles as Domestic Workers in Canada – Makeda Silvera (*****)
• Hospital Strike: Women, Unions and Public Sector Conflict – Jerry P. White (****)
• May Day: A Graphic History of Protest – Robin Folvik, Sean Carleton & Mark Leier (Illustrators: Sam Bradd and Trevor McKillgan) (****)
• Showdown! Making Modern Unions – Rob Kristofferson & Simon Orpana (****)
• Tortillas and Tomatoes: Transmigrant Mexican Harvesters in Canada – Tanya Basok (****)
• Bienfait: The Saskatchewan Miners’ Struggle of ’31 – Stephen L. Endicott (*****)
• Ginger Goodwin: A Worker’s Friend – Laura Ellyn (****)
• One Job Town: Work, Belonging, and Betrayal in Northern Ontario – Steven High (*****)
• Westray: My Journey from Darkness to Light – Vernon Theriault as told by Marjorie Coady (*****)

Cultural Studies and Other Non-Fiction

• Saving Capitalism: For the Many, Not the Few – Robert B. Reich (****)
• A Healthy Society: How a Focus on Health Can Revive Canadian Democracy – Ryan Meili (*****)
• My Life On The Road- Gloria Steinem (****)
• Finding Their Way Again: The Experiences of Gang-Affected Refugee Youth – Matthew Fast (***)
• Tomboy Survival Guide – Ivan Coyote (*****)
• The Riot at Christie Pits – Cyril Levitt and William Shaffir (****)
• We Can Do Better: Ideas for Changing Society – David Camfield (***)
• How It All Began: The Story of the Organization of Saskatchewan Arts Councils 1968-1987 – Lynn Gidluck (****)
• Visionaries, Crusaders, and Firebrands: The Idealistic Canadians Who Built the NDP – Lynn Gidluck (****)
• The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You – S. Bear Bergman (****)
• I’ve Been Meaning To Tell You: A Letter To My Daughter – David Chariandy (****)
• The Story of Canada’s Coal – Carlyle Gerow (***)
• I’m Afraid of Men – Vivek Shraya (*****)
• Towards a Prairie Atonement – Trevor Herriot (****)
• Maui: A History – Cummens E. Speakman (****)

Poetry/ChapBooks/Comics

• This Wound is a World – Billy-Ray Belcourt (*****)
• Prison Industrial Complex Explodes – Mercedes Eng (***)
• Full-Metal Indigiqueer – Joshua Whitehead (****)
• A Really Good Brown Girl – Marilyn Dumont (****)
• red doc> – Anne Carson (****)
• the essential Dykes To Watch Out For – Alison Bechdel (****)
• Paper Girls Vol. 1 – Brian K. Vaughan (Art by Cliff Chiang) (***)
• How to (Hide) Be(hind) Your Songs – Rae Spoon (****)
• river woman – Katherena Vermette (*****)
• The Broadway Skids – Elise Pallagi (*****)

Looking back:

• Link to my: 2017 Reading List
• Link to my: 2016 Reading List
• Link to my: 2015 Reading List
• Link to my: 2014 Reading List