My Year in Books

Here it is: the complete list of books I finished in 2017. A few caveats: I have a toddler, so both reading time and energy are in short supply; there are lots more books that I started, or read pieces of, or read excerpts of in magazines; current events were much more distracting this year than others. That being said, I’m proud of this list. I read some truly great books, and thanks to the Book Riot Read Harder Challenge (more on that next week), I read a much wider range of genres than I typically would.

The best of the best: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid and Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward were the best novels I read this year, and One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin was the most unexpected. For nonfiction, I loved Code Girls by Liza Mundy and I savored How to Sit by Thich Nhat Hanh. Sparrow by Sarah Moon is the last book I finished this year, and it’s a YA novel I wish I’d had by my side in middle school.

The skippable: It was a good year, so there’s hardly anything I regret. I read Month of Sundays for the Read Harder Challenge (category: LGBTQ+ romance) and just could not get over how amateurish the writing was. I don’t have anything against romance in theory, and I’m not mad that I read it, but I certainly wouldn’t recommend it.

Goals for 2018:

• Read at least 50 books (this year’s total was 40)
• More reviews on the blog, fewer random musings

Happy new year and happy reading!

Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Ms. Marvel Vol. 1 by G. Willow Wilson
The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
Beyond Infinity by Eugenia Cheng
A Colony in a Nation by Chris Hayes
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Ms. Marvel Vol. 2 by G. Willow Wilson
Startup by Doree Shafrir
How to Sit by Thich Nhat Hanh
The Burning Girl by Claire Messud
Irresistible by Adam Alter
American War by Omar El Akkad
My Life with Bob by Pamela Paul
One Hundred Twenty-One Days by Michèle Audin
The Glass Universe by Dava Sobel
Chemistry by Weike Wang
Grist Mill Road by Christopher J. Yates
The Readymade Thief by Augustus Rose
The Ice Museum by Joanna Kavenna
Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
The Pigeon Tunnel by John le Carré
Ghachar Ghochar by Vivek Shanbhag
Code Girls by Liza Mundy
Midnight at the Bright Ideas Bookstore by Matthew Sullivan
Lumberjanes Vol. 2 by Noelle Stevenson
Red Clocks by Leni Zumas
Saga Vol. 1 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Saga Vol. 2 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Saga Vol. 3 by Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Come, Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan
How to Stop Time by Matt Haig
The Dark Dark by Samantha Hunt
Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Month of Sundays by Yolanda Wallace
Sparrow by Sarah Moon