Books Read in 2017 #MyYearInBooks

This is my tenth annual book post! Before 2008, I never kept track of the books I read. I wish I had a whole list of every book I've ever read...wow, wouldn't that be amazing? It all got much easier when I started keeping track online. It seems to me that there are more and better books all the time -- I love the way that social media allows me to share in what others are reading all the time. I love the recommendations of friends' reading choices (there are a few friends who, when they post about a book, I immediately rush to get that one).

the view from the aforementioned hammock

I love looking over this list because often each book inspires memories of where I was while reading. Several were consumed from my hammock at camp...ahh....

So here is this year's list...

1. A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
2. Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
3. It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
4. El Deafo by Cece Bell
5. Swing Time by Zadie Smith
6. Carve the Mark by Veronica Roth
7. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles
8. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
9. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me by Jennifer Teege
10. The Unlikely Spy by Daniel Silva
11. Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon
12. Run You Down by Julia Dahl
13. Conviction by Julia Dahl
14. The Girls by Emma Cline
15. My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
16. The Houseguest by Kim Brookis
17. Norwegian by Night by Derek Miller
18. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (can you believe I'd never read it?) by John Boyne
19. Behold the Dreamers by Imbolo Mbue
20. Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
21. Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
22. Because of Mr. Terupt by Rob Buyea
23. A Piece of the World by Christina Baker Kline
24. Option B by Sheryl Sandberg
25. Nine Folds Make a Paper Swan by Ruth Gilligan
26. The Widow of Wall Street by Randy Susan Meyers
27. All the Rivers by Dorit Rabinyan
28. The Arrangement by Sarah Dunn
29. Heirlooms: Stories by Rachel Hall
30. Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
31. The Other Einstein by Marie Benedict
32. Secondborn by Amy Bartol
33. And After the Fire by Lauren Belfer
34. House of Spies by Daniel Silva
35. Enchanted Islands by Allison Amend
36. Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
37. The Inquisitor's Tale by Adam Gidwitz
38. The Extra by AB Yehoshua
39. Now by Morris Gleitzman
40. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons for the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder
41. The Light We Lost by Jill Santopolo
42. Becoming a Soulful Educator by Aryeh Ben David
43. The Improbability of Love by Hannah Rothschild
44. The Chilbury Ladies' Choir by Jennifer Ryan
45. Real Friends by Shannon Hale
46. Braving the Wilderness: The Quest for True Belonging by Brene Brown
47. Milkweed by Jerry Spinelli
48. If All The Seas were Ink by Ilana Kurshan
49. Children of the Fleet by Orson Scott Card
50. Turtles All the Way Down by John Green
51. The One and Only Ivan by Katherine Applegate
52. Tell Tale: Short Stories by Jeffrey Archer
53. The Cuban Affair by Nelson DeMille
54. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
55. Ronit and Jamil by Pamela Laskin
56. Waking Lions by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen
57. Boys are Dogs by Leslie Margolis
58. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
59. The Power by Naomi Alderman
60. This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel
61. Fish in a Tree by Linda Mullaly Hunt
62. A Replacement Life by Boris Fishman
63. Pax by Sara Pennypacker
64. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

My favorites this year?
Homegoing and A Gentleman in Moscow definitely topped the list. Chilbury Ladies' Choir and Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk are also on my list of favorites. I was tickled by Tell Tale - I'm not usually a short story fan, but these were delightful. I also recommend This Is How It Always Is and Little Fires Everywhere, and Lillian Boxfish Takes a Walk. The Hate U Give was really quite remarkable and powerful, and This is How it Always Is was so thought-provoking. (I'm really terrible at the "favorites" thing, as evidenced by my "favorite" Torah portion and my "favorite" child.)

I read quite a few books in tandem with Yael - we checked out two copies from the library, and I highly recommend Fish in a Tree and El Deafo (even though I usually don't love the graphic novel thing)!

My "to read" list for 2018, so far:

• Lincoln in the Bardo (this has topped a bunch of lists, but I didn't like last year's "best" book so....who knows)
• The Ministry of Utmost Happiness
• Pachinko
• The Leavers
• The Resurrection of Joan Ashby
• Very Jane Young
• The Weight of Ink

(I like these aggregate "best of" lists (one here and one here) - it's so hard to know which ones really are "the best" isn't it?)

For 2018, I'm also considering this challenge from Book Riot - it's called "Read Harder" and gives an interesting list of book categories. I'm not sure that I have the wherewithal to read "harder" but I do love the idea of stretching and reading books I might never have chosen otherwise. Are my book choices diverse? I'm not even sure! But "a book of genre fiction in translation"? Hmm....I think I might need some help with some of these categories. Are you interested in joining me in this challenge?

What else do you think I should read in 2018?

What are you going to read? What was the best book you read in 2017?
I keep track of my books on Goodreads - follow me there.

And previous years' book lists are here:

Books Read in 2016
Books Read in 2015
Books Read in 2014
Books Read in 2013
Books Read in 2012
Books Read in 2011
Books Read in 2010 (this year I read 100 -- a big highlight!)
Books Read in 2009
Books Read in 2008