“Clear the decks!” crows Mom. “It’s Best Books time!”

She may be a bit confused. Ever since my puppy days it’s been “deck the halls” this time of year. Well. You know how moms are. Especially when someone asks, “Which kid is your favorite?”

Okay, okay. So no one put it quite like that. But plenty have asked which books are her favorite. “It’s almost the same thing,” sniffs Mom.

Hah, bumhug! says I.

Arf you may know, Mom met her 2018 reading challenge last week: 365 books in one year. People keep asking which “kids” are her favorite from that long, long list. (For background, see: When They Tell You It’s “Impossible.” Also see: How I Read 100+ books in 90 days.)

I’m kinda curious myself. I gave her the puppy eyes look.

Works every time.

So ‘clear the decks’ for Mom’s Top Reads of 2018.

Warning: “That ‘top 20’ thing’s just not gonna happen,” says Mom.

Indeed, competition for a spot on Mom’s ‘totally subjective, 100% unscientific’ list was fierce. So bow-wow-ish, in fact, that Mom divided the list into four basic categories:

1. Best Fiction
2. Best Non-Fiction
3. Best Series
4. Favorite Authors.

Also Honorable Mentions.

Each book earned its respective spot based on quality of writing, creativity and poignancy, superior characterizations, outstanding, unique plots and overall excellence. And Just Plain Fun. (Note: No book that brainlessly, repeatedly deploys gratuitous profanity ever makes Mom’s “best” list. She calls that “sloppy-writing-lazy.” Hah, bumhug again.)

Anyway, Mom’s Top Books Read in 2018 are,in no particular order:

Best Fiction

1. Hattie Big Sky – Kirby Larson
2. Time for Andrew – Mary Downing Hahn
3. A Dog Called Homeless – Sarah Lean
4. Run Far, Run Fast – Walt Morey
5. The Incredible Journey – Sheila Burnford
6. There Come a Soldier Peggy Mercer
7. Wolf by Wolf – Ryan Graudin
8. Anchor in the Storm – Sarah Sundin
9. The Wood – Chelsea Bobulski
10. Man O’War – Walter Farley
11. The Journey Back – Priscilla Cummings
12. Sarah Bishop, Thunder Rolling in the Mountains – Scott O’Dell
13. The Adoration of Jenna Fox – Mary Pearson
14. Ever the Hunted– Erin Summerill
15. Hoot – Carl Hiassen
16. Dividing Eden – Joelle Charbonneau
17. The Velveteen Rabbit – Margery Williams
18. Unwind – Neal Shusterman

Best Nonfiction

1. A Prisoner and Yet – Corrie ten Boom
2. The Kite Runner (historical fiction) – Khaled Hosseini
3. The Black Dogs Project – Fred Levy
4. Before Amen – Max Lucado
5. My Family for the War (historical novel) – Anne Voorhoeve
6. Great Lodges of the National Parks – Christine Barnes
7. Hidden Child – Isaac Millman

Best Series

1. The Misty of Chincoteague series – Marguerite Henry
2. The Silver Brumby series – Elyne Mitchell
3. Billy and Blaze books– C.W. Anderson
4. The Jimmy Vega mystery series – Suzanne Chazin
5. Black Stallion series– Walter Farley
6. The Survivors series – Erin Hunter
7. Fire and Thorns trilogy – Rae Carson

Favorite Authors

• Max Lucado
• Robert McCloskey
• Richard Paul Evans
• Lemony Snicket
• Mary Downing Hahn
• Walt Morey
• Scott O’Dell
• Gary Paulsen
• Debbie Macomber
• Jan Karon

Honorable Mentions

• Look for Me by Moonlight – Mary Downing Hahn (creepy)
• The House of the Scorpion – Nancy Farmer – (chilling)
• A Medal for Leroy – Michael Murpago (inspiring)

Well, woof the deck! Or something. All this reading and book-ing makes me hungry. About that leftover pot roast… You gonna eat that?