2018 Books

I’ve always read a lot. Since I was a little girl. I used to become so engrossed in books my parents had to take them out of my hands so I could join them at the dinner table. For the past several years I have set a reading challenge for myself on Goodreads and every year I surpass it. This year was no exception – my goal was 60 and I read 71! I had several reading goals coming in to Peace Corps: 1) read about my country of service, 2) read general Peace Corps stories, 3) read a book from each of the countries that PC is currently serving and has served and, 4) read all the books on my Kindle that I downloaded before, during and after grad school. I’m making great progress in each of these areas! I also have a massive list of books I want to read (kept in an excel file, of course) and the PC Library has been very helpful.

Here are all the books I read this year and my rating for each one:

January Rating

Inside a U.S. Embassy: How the Foreign Service Works for America by Shawn Dorman

3 stars

The Woman Who Smashed Codes: A True Story of Love, Spies, and the Unlikely

Heroine who Outwitted America’s Enemies by Jason Fagone 5 stars

Call Me by Your Name by Andre Aciman 5 stars

Stolen Lives: Twenty Years in a Desert Jail by Malik’s Oufkir 5 stars

Sipping from the Nike: My Exodus from Egypt by Jean Naggar 4 stars

Fascinate: Unlocking the Secret Triggers of Influence, Persuasion, and Captivation by

Sally Hogshead 3 stars

The Judgement of Richard Richter by Igor Stiks 2 stars

February

Lost in Shangri-la: A True Story of Survival, Adventure, and the Most Incredible Rescue

Mission of World War II by Mitchell Zuckoff 5 stars

Emma’s War by Deborah Scroggins 5 stars

Pirate Latitudes by Michael Crichton 3 stars

Secondborn by Amy A. Bartol 3 stars

Without Reservations: The Travels of an Independent Woman by

Alice Steinbach 5 stars

Servants’ Hall: A Real Life Upstairs, Downstairs Romance by

Margaret Powell 5 stars

March

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore 5 stars

Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea 5 stars

Balthasar’s Odyssey by Amin Maalouf 5 stars

Spymistress: The Life of Vera Adkins, the Greatest Female Secret Agent

of World War I by William Stevenson 2 stars

April

Pachinko by Min Jin Lee 5 stars

The Paradise Guest House by Ellen Sussman 3 stars

Queen Isabella: Treachery, Adultery and Murder in Medieval

England by Alison Weir 4 stars

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie 5 stars

State of Fear by Michael Crichton 2 stars

May

Freedom in Exile: The Autobiography of the Dalai Lama 5 stars

There’s No Toilet Paper…on the Road Less Traveled: The Best of

Travel Humor and Misadventure by Doug Lanksy 3 stars

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams 3 stars

Tangerine by Christine Morgan 4 stars

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri 4 stars

Lost Lexington, Kentucky by Peter Brackney 4 stars

The Designer by Marius Gabriel 4 stars

American Pharoah: The Untold Story of the Triple Crown Winner’s

Legendary Rise by Joe Drape 5 stars

June

Origin by Dan Brown 5 stars

Something in the Water by Catherine Steadman 5 stars

Voices of Resistence: Oral Histories of Moroccan Women by Alison Baker 5 stars

The Birdwoman’s Palate by Lakshmi Pamuntjak 3 stars

Descent into Chaos: The United States & the Failure of Nation Building

in Pakistan, Afghanistan & Central Asia by Ahmed Rashid 5 stars

July

America’s Women: 400 Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates and

Heroines by Gail Collins 5 stars

River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze by Peter Hessler 5 stars

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man

Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder 5 stars

Grandma 64 Joins the Peace Corps and Lands in Namibia by Anne Baker 4 stars

The Taliba Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan by Kim Barker 5 stars

The Far Traveler: Voyages of a Viking Woman by Nancy Marie Brown. 5 stars

African Visas: A Novella and Stories by Maria Thomas 1 star

Without You, There is No Us: My Time with The Sons of North Korea’s

Elite by Suki Kim 5 stars

The Map That Changed the World by Simon Winchester 3 stars

August

Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali 5 stars

The Lost Order by Steve Berry 5 stars

Island of the Lost: Shipwrecked at the Edge of the World by Joan Druett 5 stars

The Lost City of the Monkey God by Douglas Preston 5 stars

An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor 5 stars

Next Year in Havana by Chanel Cleeton 4 stars

September

Loving Frank by Nancy Horan 4 stars

Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World

by Christina Rickardsson 4 stars

The Honest Spy by Andreas Kollender 3 stars

The Concealed Sarah Kleck. 3 stars

Splendid Isolation: The Jekyll Island Millionaires’ Club 1888-1942

By Pamela Bauer Mueller 4 stars

October

Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover 5 stars

Lethal White by Robert Galbraith 5 stars

I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced by Nujood Ali 5 stars

Circe by Madeline Miller 5 stars

Sapiens: A Brief History of Mankind by Yuval Noah Harari 3 stars

The Bishop’s Pawn by Steve Berry 5 stars

The Museum of Mysteries by Steve Berry 5 stars

The Unkillable Kitty O’Kane by Colin Falconer 1 star

A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medeival Mind and The Renaissance:

Portrait of an Age by William Manchester 4 stars

November

Ten Women by Marcela Serrano 4 stars

The Road of Lost Innocence: The True Story of a Cambodian Heroine by Somaly Mam 5 stars

The Question of Red by Laksmi Pamuntjak 3 stars

Notes on a Foreign Country: An American Abroad in a Post-American World by Suzy Hansen 5 stars

December

Becoming by Michelle Obama 5+ stars

The Great Passage by Shion Miura 5 stars

**4 & 5 star ratings are highly recommended