Top 5 Saturday: Top Books of 2018

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and for this week’s challenge I’m reminiscing on the best books I read in 2018!

I couldn’t find the actual topic for this week, so I just decided to come up with my own! I tried brainstorming what kinds of bookish topics really interested me and that would be different than what I usually post about. I feel like I typically blog about books I’ve read more recently since it’s easier to write about books that are still fresh in my mind. However, there are so many great books that I’ve read before starting this blog!

2018 may seem like an oddly specific and random year to choose for this. However, this was a special reading year for me. During college, I went through a period where I nearly stopped reading. It wasn’t intentional, but as I was taking a gap year between college and grad school, I realized that this was a part of myself that I had kind of lost over the last few years. Reading has always been such an important part of my life, and it made me sad to realize how much I had let it go during college. Therefore, in 2018, I made an effort to begin reading again and take back my identity as a reader. That’s why this year-in-books stood out to me and why I decided to single it out for this post! The books on this list are the books that helped me fall back in love with reading as an adult. Also, just to clarify, these are books that I read in 2018, and not necessarily books that were published in 2018. And full disclosure – there are actually seven books on this list instead of five! I just couldn’t narrow it down any further. In no particular order, here are my top seven books of 2018!

Top 5 Saturday: Longest Books

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge is about the longest books – either that you’ve read or that are on your TBR!

This was a really fun prompt! I do tend to enjoy long books, but I don’t read them very often because I find them so intimidating! Of course, once I get into the story I don’t even notice the length anymore, but just looking at the extreme girth of a long book can be a little nerve-wracking. Of these five books, I’ve read the first three and the last two are still on my TBR. Without further ado, here are my top five longest books!

Top 5 Saturday: April Acrostic

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and for this week’s challenge I’m using book titles to create an April acrostic poem!

This week’s prompt was originally about books with blood on the cover, but I couldn’t really think of any for that. However, April does have five letters, so I figured an acrostic poem would make a good prompt! The books I’m picking have nothing to do with April or spring or anything, I picked them solely based on the first letter of their titles (and also if I enjoyed them enough to flaunt them on here)! Without further ado, here are my top five books that make up an April acrostic poem:

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Diverse Characters

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with diverse characters.

It was really hard to narrow it down for this one! I love reading books with a diverse cast of characters, and I’m especially particular about this when choosing books to use in my classroom. Therefore, this is going to be kind of an eclectic list of books! I tried to include a broad selection of books that ranges from middle grade, to young adult, to contemporary fiction. Without further ado, here are my top five books with diverse characters (in no particular order)…

Top 5 Saturday: Books for Foodies

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a desert setting (which I changed to books for foodies!).

I really couldn’t think of many books with a desert setting, but I figured the word “desert” is similar to “dessert.” This then got me thinking about books that feature food in some way, so I ended up choosing five books that feature food or dessert! In no particular order, here are my top five books for foodies!

Top 5 Saturday: Love Triangles

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on literary love triangles.

I was surprised that I struggled with this one! I read quite a bit of young adult fiction, and the love triangle is a pretty common romantic trope in these books. However, after listing a few of my favorite ones from when I was a teenager, I kind of drew a blank! I did manage to come up with a list of five, though. It may not be my favorite trope, but they are fun to read occasionally! In no particular order, here are my top five!

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Fire on the Cover

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with fire on the cover.

I struggled again with this one! Maybe it’s because I can’t tell from just the spines, and I typically don’t like to take books off my shelves unless I intend to read them? Or maybe I just haven’t read many books with fiery covers! However, I did manage to scrape together a list of five books with some fire on the cover. So, in no particular order, here they are!

Top 5 Saturday: Gift Books

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on gift books.

This prompt could be interpreted in so many ways! I love books and one of my top love languages is gifts, so I frequently give and receive books as gifts. I’ve been so lucky to receive thoughtful bookish gifts from the people who know me best, so I’ve decided to divide this list by categories of gift givers (rather than books themselves), while also highlighting books that have been gifted in the last year. Without further ado, here is my “top five”!

Top 5 Saturday: Books with Snow on the Cover

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a snow on the cover.

I really struggled again this week! Apparently I don’t read too many snowy, wintery, cozy books. For this list, I managed to come up with a list of books for adults and for children that feature snow in some way on the cover (some of which I’ve read, and some of which I haven’t). Without further ado, here are my top five choices (in no particular order)!

Top 5 Saturday: Books with a Family Relationship in the Title

Welcome to Top 5 Saturday! This is a weekly challenge hosted by Devouring Books, and this week’s challenge focuses on books with a family relationship in the title.

I was actually surprised by how much I struggled with this one! It seems pretty straightforward, but it turns out that I haven’t read many books (nor do I have many unread ones on my shelf) that reference family relationships in their titles. However, the ones that I managed to come up with are either ones that I’ve really enjoyed, or ones that I am really looking forward to reading! Here are my top five (in no particular order)!