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The 29 best books we read in 2018

Dec 6, 2018, 01:21 IST

The Insider Picks team writes about stuff we think you'll like. Business Insider has affiliate partnerships, so we get a share of the revenue from your purchase.

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Algonquin Books/Instagram
Algonquin Books/Instagram

As 2018 comes to a close, you might measure the success of the year by important life events like graduations, weddings, and promotions, or by the number of countries you ticked off your travel bucket list.

For a group of writers and bookworms like the Insider Picks team, reflecting on the triumphs of 2018 wouldn't be complete without the mention of a few excellent book discoveries.

After a year of nestling into our favorite reading spots at cafes and bookstores, holding patiently for long library wait-lists, and actually hoping for delayed commutes so we can finish that last chapter, we came away with 29 books that compelled us this year.

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From painfully honest stories of self-image and loss to insider invitations to kitchens, labs, and offices, these books stand out among the many we read this year, rightfully earning their spots on our "favorites" shelves.

These are the best books we read in 2018.

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"Brief Answers to the Big Questions" by Stephen Hawking

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This book, like Stephen Hawking himself, is a gift to mankind. It was started by Hawking in life, and finished by his family after his death. It uses his notes, answers given after speeches, interviews, and essays to provide all of us with an easily-digestible reference book for most of the big questions: God, space, AI, Brexit, etc.

Most meaningful to me, however, was seeing one of the most prominent scientists of all time underscore the importance of our impact on one another during the twilight of his life. Understanding the universe is important, but it means relatively little if we do not acknowledge that it is other people that make life meaningful. —Mara Leighton, Insider Picks reporter

"And Then All Hell Broke Loose: Two Decades in the Middle East" by Richard Engel

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Nothing, for me, has so brutally and succinctly summed up what otherwise seems like an impossibly complex series of events that put the United States where it is in the Middle East right now.

Ultimately becoming NBC’s Chief Foreign Correspondent, Engel was at the center of it all starting in the 1990s, debriefing two presidential cabinets on the conflict and astutely taking note of the critical errors made by both. He also speaks volumes to the human psyche and the adrenaline junkie in us all, even if he denies having his own such tendencies. A thrillingly visceral, if remorseful ride. —Owen Burke, Insider Picks guides reporter

"Lethal White" by Robert Galbraith

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"Lethal White" is the latest installment of the Cormoran Strike detective novels by Robert Galbraith aka J.K. Rowling. I re-read the entire series before I cracked open the newest one because I love these books so much. Rowling’s alter ego does an excellent job of making the detective work seem real and the characters grow in complexity with each book.

"Lethal White" not only gives you the satisfaction of a mystery solved, it also gives Strike fans something they’ve been waiting for since that fateful day Robin entered his office as a temporary assistant. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

"Always Look on the Bright Side of Life: A Sortabiography" by Eric Idle

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Any Monty Python fan worth their giant foot deserves to have this title on their bookshelf. With frank honesty and humor, Eric Idle does his best to explain exactly how he ended up the way he is: funny, irreverent, and enormously talented.

His stories come off like living room recollections that include everyone from The Beatles to the Rolling Stones to the cast of "Star Wars." The book begins with his recollection of being tied to a cross during the shooting of Monty Python’s life of Brian, and it only gets funnier from there. —Brandt Ranj, Insider Picks associate editor

"Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng

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Celeste Ng drops you into the seemingly perfect town of Shaker Heights in the midst of its unraveling. The plot is full of surprises, the writing is beautiful (I found myself highlighting poetic phrases), but what is most impressive is the way Ng creates her characters. Each character is given such depth, seeming so raw and real, you can’t help but get wrapped up in the lives and drama in Shaker Heights. —Remi Rosmarin, Insider Picks intern

"Little Fires Everywhere" is a beautifully written book that’s prime for discussing with your book group. I highly suggest downloading this free reading book guide for discussion questions and a Q&A with Ng. After you’re finished reading and trying to decipher what all the small details Ng has deposited throughout "Little Fires" mean, do yourself a favor and pick up her debut novel, "Everything I Never Told You." —Ellen Hoffman, Insider Picks senior editor

"Lab Girl" by Hope Jahren

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When you see how much someone delights in discussing a topic they're passionate about, you can't help but beam yourself, even when (or perhaps especially when) it's something you've never spent more than 10 minutes ruminating over.

In her memoir, Jahren will make you appreciate trees, seeds, and soil in a way you haven't before, while also introducing the uninitiated to the institutional and psychological challenges of being a scientist and researcher. —Connie Chen, Insider Picks reporter

"Skinny Dip" by Carl Hiaasen

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I love pretty much everything Carl Hiaasen does. All of his villains are environmental terrorists who are somehow participating in the degradation of Florida’s natural resources and protected habitats. If you love murder mysteries, wry humor, intricate plots, and also care about the environment in any way, his beach-read books will grip you through and through.

This hilarious book in particular recounts a fictional story of a corrupt "scientist" who fudges toxicity levels in the Everglades for a wealthy farm owner whose crops and soil is so littered with pesticides, it's literally killing the environment. He tries to murder his wife who survives a fall from the cruise ship he pushed her off of, only to take her revenge by cleverly torturing him into a fatal sense of paranoia. —Sally Kaplan, Insider Picks editor

"The Song of Achilles" by Madeline Miller

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I’d heard that Madeline Miller’s "Circe" was the book to read in 2018, so naturally, I read her first full novel, "The Song of Achilles" first. I’m glad I did.

It’s a beautiful, lyrical, retelling of a tale everyone knows — the saga of Achilles and the Trojan horse — but from a fresh perspective. Miller plucks famous characters out of obscurity and gives them a voice. The first-person narrative is above all a love story, but it’s also a tale of fate and the choices we make that lead us to our ends. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

"Circe" by Madeline Miller

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After reading "The Song of Achilles," I moped around for a bit and then I picked up "Circe," which has a different feel all together, although it uses the same idea: take an obscure figure and give her a voice. Circe is a fascinating character. She’s wild — feral, almost — and she’s a true witch. She does as much evil as she does good, but in the end, she wants to do right by those she loves. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

I got this book sent to me as a Book of the Month hardcover, but I wish I had chosen it myself. It’s a grown-up, fleshed-out retelling of the Greek myths you most loved in childhood. Circe, one of the most infamous female figures in the Odyssey, is remade by a masterful contemporary storyteller, Madeline Miller. I didn’t think I’d get to experience the same excitement, suspense, and can’t-put-it-down feeling as I did as a kid with a great book, but "Circe" is an epic that I was excited to get home to. —Mara Leighton, Insider Picks reporter

"Testimony" by Robbie Robertson

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An almost fantastical, Odyssean journey from humble Canadian beginnings leading up to a fateful journey into the Mississippi Delta at the age of 16, Robbie Robertson’s storytelling is as mythical and full of mystique as his archaeological songwriting for the group that would eventually come to be known as "The Band." —Owen Burke, Insider Picks guides reporter

"Creative Selection: Inside Apple's Design Process During the Golden Age of Steve Jobs" by Ken Kocienda

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Imagine the stress of having to give a product demo in front of Steve Jobs. Now imagine the stress of doing that multiple times over the course of several years.

Ken Kocienda helped bring the software for many of Apple’s most important products — the Safari web browser, iPhone, and iPad — to life. In his memoir, he recalls the stresses and triumphs the original iPhone team underwent to help create what has arguably become the most important consumer technology gadget. Apple is a notoriously secretive company, but Ken pulls back the curtain enough to let us all in on the story behind the company’s incredibly precise design process. —Brandt Ranj, Insider Picks associate editor

"Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body" by Roxane Gay

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Roxane Gay became one of my favorite writers of all time with her nuanced, disarmingly candid "Bad Feminist" collection in 2014. "Hunger" is just as good.

It’s a powerful memoir of Gay’s relationship with her body, including the complexities of weight, self-image, and society’s response to "undisciplined" bodies like hers, as well as the violence Gay experienced in childhood that acted as a catalyst. Gay makes public something traditionally unspeakably intimate, and in doing so enables readers to become more sensitive, aware people. It should be required reading. —Mara Leighton, Insider Picks reporter

"The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google" by Scott Galloway

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Scott Galloway is a professor at NYU and in addition to being a great follow in Twitter for all things media and technology, his book "The Four" was my favorite read of this year. It takes a unique look at four of the most influential companies in America over the last decade plus. —Breton Fischetti, Insider Picks vice president

"The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin

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I’ve long revered James Baldwin, and as such, I avoided most of his best-loved works. What if they didn’t live up to what I’d hoped? But "The Fire Next Time" — one of the most influential books of the civil rights movement — is unbelievable. It’s broken into two essays: the first written as a letter to his 14-year-old nephew on the 100th anniversary of emancipation, and the second as a longer critique of America’s history, religion, and race relations.

Baldwin manages, as always, to hold in the same hand the seemingly incongruous anger of an intelligent person repressed by the illusions of others, as well as the impossible compassion of a man who still loves his country and brethren. —Mara Leighton, Insider Picks reporter

"The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead

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Colson Whitehead is a phenomenal and masterful writer whose work (even the less serious stuff) I recommend to everyone. "Underground Railroad" tells the story of a slave who escaped the violence of life on a plantation only to realize that life on the run and in the "free" world would never truly feel like freedom, either. It should be required reading in my opinion. —Sally Kaplan, Insider Picks editor

"X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century" by Chuck Klosterman

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An anthology of articles published across various magazines, journals, etc., this book focuses mostly on music, sports, and culture. For example, in one of the articles, advanced statistics typically reserved for baseball teams are applied to rock bands to determine each member's value to the group, while another one goes into how sprinters continually break world records even though science says we may have peaked. —Danny Bakst, Insider Picks content producer

"A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara

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I'm not sure if I've ever read anything as devastating as this story of three college friends and their unconditional devotion to a fourth who is haunted by a past of unspeakable trauma. Every time I thought my heart wasn't capable of breaking more, this book took me for another spin, yet I couldn't put it down.

Though it's difficult to get through (not to mention an intimidating 800 pages long), it's an unflinching, beautifully written deep dive into the relationships between and growth of many complex characters. I spent many nights way past my bedtime rereading portions and marinating in the jumbled web of emotions it created in me. —Connie Chen, Insider Picks reporter

"Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking" by Samin Nosrat

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What if, instead of needing the right ingredients to cook a good meal, you really need the right elements? In "Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat," a chef, restaurateur, and food columnist breaks down food into these categories, explaining how their use (correctly or incorrectly) can seriously impact the final result.

Yes, there are recipes, but the real value of this book is being open to it changing your point of view on how to cook food — I’ll never look at salt the same way. Personal anecdotes are woven into the explanations and the fun illustrations are worth the price of admission on their own. Yes, this is now a four-part Netflix series, but in this case you should still read the book. —Brandt Ranj, Insider Picks associate editor

"Case Histories" by Kate Atkinson

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I loved Kate Atkinson’s novel "Life After Life," and I’d always heard that her Jackson Brodie detective novels were excellent as well. Spoiler alert: They are just as great.

Atkinson has a fascinating way of writing that borders on stream of consciousness at times. You hear those random interjections of the characters' thoughts as if they were your own, and they’re oddly moving and profound. She also treats the subject of lonely, damaged people with great care, making for a very human detective novel that’s more than a simple whodunit. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

"Kitchen Confidential" by Anthony Bourdain

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I’d heard that "Kitchen Confidential" was a must-read for years, and now that I’ve finally read it, I recommend it to everyone. I tore through it in a weekend; Bourdain’s writing voice is mesmerizing. His words jump right off the page and make you feel like you’re right there in the kitchen with him. Suffice it to say you won’t want to put it down once you start. —Ellen Hoffman, Insider Picks senior editor

The entire "Outlander" series by Diana Gabladon

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This is actually the second time I’ve read the entire Outlander series. It sounds like a cheesy premise — a woman travels back in time through standing stones and meets the love of her life — but the series is so much more complex than that.

The protagonist Claire evolves into an inspiring forceful character that only grows richer as the books progress. She’s a modern woman and a doctor in a time when women were supposed to be merely ornamental. She defies convention and overcomes the stigma of being a "witch" (that’s 18th-century speak for a powerful woman) to be respected for what she is: a healer committed to do no harm.

It is, of course, and epic love story that’s steeped in fantasy and history, but it is not romanticized — you get treated to colorful descriptions of 18th century smells, diseases, and amputations. Bizarrely, a book about time travel ends up feeling incredibly real. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

"The Animators" by Kayla Rae Whitaker

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No one ever said working with your best friend was easy, particularly not in the world of art, where egos run high, what's considered "good" is subjective, and you're facing a crowd of peers and competitors all pushing towards the same success. This dynamic duo of talented animators, Mel and Sharon, whose personalities both balance out and clash with each other, do make it big, but not without plenty of sacrifices along the way.

I loved how real Mel and Sharon and their friendship felt. At times I wanted to laugh along with and hug them, and at others I wanted to shout at each for how stupid she was acting — all good marks of an attached reader who inched towards the ending with simultaneous hope and dread. —Connie Chen, Insider Picks reporter

"The Defining Decade" by Meg Jay

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I was gifted this book right after my college graduation (thanks Mom), but was apprehensive to read it. Ultimately, I ended up really enjoying what I would call somewhat of a guidebook to growing up.

Meg Jay is a clinical psychologist, who uses scientific findings as well as experiences with her own patients to explain why your 20s are not a trivial decade, but rather an important, defining one. While Jay doesn’t have all the answers, if you’re feeling a little stuck, this book is an easy-to-get-through read that offers some helpful insight on making the most of these years. —Remi Rosmarin, Insider Picks intern

"The Night Manager" by John le Carre

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I first heard about John le Carre’s books on an episode of "60 Minutes" and was so intrigued that I borrowed "The Night Manager" from my digital library (more famous titles like "The Constant Gardener," which is now a movie, were checked out).

His writing is beautiful, so you’ll come across some truly striking sentences. The characters are interesting and the plot moves smoothly, building towards a realistic ending in which the reality of corruption rears its head. —Malarie Gokey, Insider Picks guides editor

"Reckless Daughter: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell" by David Yaffe

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Having shied away from the limelight of cameras and interviews throughout most of her career, Joni Mitchell has always remained a relative enigma. But now, she finally offers something of a window on her world thanks to journalist David Yaffe’s tireless, near decade-long effort to explore the heart and mind — and prowess — of one of the most fluidly creative geniuses of our time.

Still, Yaffe leaves us with the feeling that she can’t, nor will she ever, be deconstructed, but also that we wouldn’t want to have it any other way. —Owen Burke, Insider Picks guides reporter

"That Thin, Wild Mercury Sound: Dylan, Nashville, and the Making of Blonde on Blonde" by Daryl Sanders

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Bob Dylan’s nearly sixty year career has been full of ups and downs, but it’s arguable that his masterpiece is 1966’s Blonde on Blonde. This books dives into the place, poet, and players that made rock’s first double album a cultural landmark.

Despite the dense material, this book is incredibly easy to read — it took me less than 24 hours to devour it — and don’t be surprised if you find yourself flipping back to dog-eared pages to reread a choice anecdote or quote. —Brandt Ranj, Insider Picks associate editor

"The Leavers" by Lisa Ko

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I started 2018 with this moving debut novel about an undocumented Chinese immigrant who is forced to leave her young son and make a series of decisions that no mother should be faced with.

By the end of the year, it has still stuck with me, not only for the story itself, but also for its bouts of poetic or synesthesia-like prose ("turquoise vocals whipped into a thick, butter frosting") that weave through straightforward narrative and realistic dialogue. —Connie Chen, Insider Picks reporter

"Half of a Yellow Sun" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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A moving, beautifully-written novel about the tumultuous struggle for independence, the Biafran war. Adichie masterfully tells a history that was ignored by many then, and remembered by few today, in a way that refuses to be forgotten.

She follows the lives of five main characters during wartime, weaving their stories together to help the reader understand the complexities of Biafra’s struggle for independence. The love, loss, hope, and passion embedded in the struggle add humanity to the narrative, something that can easily be lost in stories of war, but truly speaks to Adichie’s powerful storytelling. —Remi Rosmarin, Insider Picks intern

"Basketball (and Other Things)" by Shea Serrano

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This book features 33 random questions and scenarios about the NBA, including a draft of the best basketball players across TV and movies, a list of the best NBA players after changing one letter in their name, and a “Disrespectful Dunk” all-time ranking. —Danny Bakst, Insider Picks content producer

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