 Hello everybody, E here welcome back to top five Friday. This is going to be the last top five Friday of The year so we won't have another one until the first week of January the first Friday of January anyways We're going to I'm going to preface this with there are more videos coming They may not be what you expect They may not be what you want when I'm gonna try out a couple new things with the channel You can like dislike whatever you want to do But I need you to interact and let me know what kind of content you want to see If any of these new ideas coming are things that you like I really need to hear from you if you dislike them give that dislike button to click It doesn't hurt my feelings whatsoever. I don't need the support. I need the input. Okay, so let me know On those videos use the like and dislike buttons like they were first intended to whether or not you like or dislike that content So top five Friday today is my top reads of 2018 period. I'm gonna start off with an honorable mention one that I mentioned this a couple Episodes back about wanting to bring out books that were you know Maybe other people thought were great that I didn't care too much for this time I am going to bite the bullet and take off one of my favorite reads of the year because I know most of you will Not like it will not enjoy it So we are going to start off with an honorable mention, which is how do you give it a commies killing commendatory? This one I loved everything about it, but I know it's not going to be for everyone the rest of these books I'm pretty sure most people will like this one while it was one of my favorites It'd probably be number, you know number two on the list because I did like one just that much more I know that most of you won't like it So I'm gonna bite the bullet on this one and do the ones that I think that I should you get everybody should go out and buy I don't think everybody should run out and buy this one plus. There's a problem with the actual hardcover of the book Watch my review for that. So honorable mention out of the way Jump into number five gun love by Jennifer Clement This book has stuck with me half the year. I can't remember exactly when I read it It was before blogging for books closed. So as least half the year ago I got it free for review and it's one of my favorites of the year. I Remember every single detail. It's a rather short book But I remember every single detail of this novel the little girl the the way that guns were handled in the book Where there really was no side taken and I appreciate that There's one of the reasons why I hated elevation Stephen King's elevation so much is because he took a side and he cemented whether that side He's right or wrong. It doesn't matter Because life is not right or wrong Human beings are not right or wrong By you know just by definition. We can be right. We can be wrong and there are some right things about What are perceived wrong and there's some wrong things about you know what's perceived right? And I think she did very well with this Jennifer Clement is definitely an author. I'm going to be Whose books I almost said I'm gonna consume her I'm gonna be consuming her fiction, you know as the years go on so number four Aram into halls our kind of cruelty I was fascinated by this book it was my number one for most of the year and The reason the only reason I dropped it down is because I am still thinking of a group of characters more than In other books also I'm still thinking about those characters more and what stuck with me the most about this one wasn't so much the characters But the way the characters were handled like I don't remember any of the characters names in here And that's that's fun gun loves the same way. I'm bad with character names as it is But none of them none of their personalities really stuck out. It's more what happened This is probably the best story just hands down best story. I read in 2018 A lot of it had to do with this is like the anti you You Caroline Kepnes is you this is the this is the response to that book basically and it's funny because Aram into Hall on Caroline Kepnes. I've seen Caroline Kepnes I've seen them interact online on Twitter and they're just you know, they're great to each other So it's not like Aram into Hall is coming out, you know shops fired at Kepnes. That's not what happened What happened here is she wanted to give the other side the other possibility of this type of Stalkerish relationship and she nailed it and at number three we have the mere wife by Maria Davana Hedley this book I I'm a big fan of the Beowulf legend poem all that this put a Amazing twist on the story and gave different characters point of views from that story and modernized it it tackled some some Issues with society today. It tackles all all different aspects of life today Tackles the impoverished. It tackles the wealthy. It tackles everything I was very impressed with what she did and the imagery toward the end is fantastic Okay, so next we have our top two books if You've been a fan of the channel this year You've heard me talk about both of these authors over and over and over again. You've heard me talk about both of these books One of them more so than the other but just because there was really no reason no purpose to bring up the number one But number two is of course the outsider by Stephen King The reason this book is on here is going to surprise some people because I keep hearing Time and time again that the second half of this book is terrible I thought the beginning of the book while engaging was just another generic thriller on Par with like mr. Mercedes or even some of the other stuff like like Harlan Coban In fact, he he mentions Harlan Coban books in this one It's almost like he was shooting for that and it just got it to a certain point I was like, okay I'm ready for this to end and as soon as I felt that way the book completely switched gears and it turned into a Stephen King book what he does in the second half of this novel is what Stephen King always does Which it it doesn't really drive me crazy as much as I just don't understand people who show up for a Stephen King Novel and then get to the second half of this book and dislike it And there's a lot of you that I agree with on everything else when it comes to Stephen King We dislike Tommy knockers together. We dislike dream catcher together. We dislike all of those books But then we get to this one and the second half of this book is good King content is some of his best work It's his story within a story. It's the there's a supernatural aspect everything that King has done right in his career He does right in the second half of this book, but still I'm seeing people enjoying the front matter more than the back half and that's really interesting to me and I'm wondering if it's because he's gotten people into this new style of his and They have forgotten the old version of King because from dr. Sleep all the way up until I would say Yeah sleeping beauties end of watch all that stuff. He's been writing the same kind of way It's not been it has not had that flavor other than revival But I hear that was a trunk novel that was sitting around for a while just like that cemetery was But there and that that might not be true But what I'm getting at is there was a problem with those books because there was no king content in those books The Mercedes trilogy did get some stuff in the way of brady heartsfield there towards the end But mostly what we got was just generic thriller and that's what you get at the beginning of the outsider But then as soon as king start starts doing what king always did before Before Uh dr. Sleep, that's where people are having a problem and an issue and that that really fascinates me So if you want to talk about that more you can down there in the comments unless we've already talked about this Then I mean there's no really real reason to rehash it Anywho going on to the number one spot there are characters in this book that I cannot get out of my head eggy and low these two characters I I don't know why they stuck with me as well as they did probably because they remind me of me and my wife But the number one spot goes to Providence by carolina keppness caroline keppness. I always want to like roll it carolina It's not it's caroline keppness So fantastic fantastic book and it has stayed with me. Yes It came out this year but I read it during the winter uh in december of last year, but it did come out this year. So i'm putting it in this year um the The the story is great and i'm not going to give any spoilers. I'm not going to get into it whatsoever I really did appreciate the uh The extra aspect that she added to the book and if you want to talk about this And I don't want to spoil anything for anybody. Um, but if you want to talk about what happens between the two main characters Then we can but what I really appreciated Was eggy and low the detective and his wife those two characters really really stood out for me And I had the same thing happen with hidden bodies Some of the side characters meant more to me than the main characters not that I don't love joe Or love this character's name or in you not that I didn't love beck and joe and reading about those characters But the side characters Keptness what keppness does that almost no other author in her genre does is makes the smallest character matter And I find that I I love that everybody matters in one of her books. There are no throwaway characters There are no superfluous characters. There are only characters there to forward the plot and even if they don't forward the plot They still get a full story Everybody in her books get a full story. She right reminds me of steven king in that regard So This year we have in the top five. We have some new faces. We have some old faces Um, and especially if you don't go out and buy any uh any other books this year I highly suggest getting the top two which is steven king's the outsider keeping in mind what I just said about it And providence by caroline keppness, which is funny because both of these books have the same kind of thing They could be fine the stories could be fine without the extra added element But they added it and I appreciate that they had the the courage to add those extra elements and step outside Maybe their comfort zone or their reader's comfort zone, but until next time I have been e you've been you This has been the best books of 2018. I'll talk to you guys later. Bye. Bye