2017 in books

Well, well, well.  Another year winds down and it's time for my annual tradition of reviewing my list of books read throughout the past year.  Given that the first five months of this year were spent reading business cases and textbooks for graduate school I'd say this list rounded itself out pretty well once I graduated and was free during the second half of the year to devote more time to reading for plain old fun once again.

2017 Books:

1.)    A Gentleman In Moscow – Amor Towles 
2.)    The Girls – Emma Cline 
3.)    Plainsong – Kent Haurf 
4.)    The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga 
5.)    Commonwealth – Ann Patchett 
6.)    Night – Elie Wiesel 
7.)    The Underground Railroad – Colson Whitehead 
8.)    I Feel Bad About My Neck – Nora Ephron 
9.)    Option B – Sheryl Sandberg & Adam Grant 
10.) The Nest – Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney 
11.)  The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood 
12.)  Love & Gelato – Jenna Evans Welch 
13.)  The Nightingale – Kristin Hannah 
14.) Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman 
15.)  Invincible Summer - Alice Adams 
16.)  I Remember Nothing (and Other Reflections) - Nora Ephron  
17.)  SweetBitter - Stephanie Danler 
18.)  Today Will Be Different - Maria Semple 
19.)  Big Magic - Elizabeth Gilbert 
20.)  Attachments - Rainbow Rowell 
21.)  Nine Stories - J.D. Salinger 
22.)  A Man Called Ove - Frednick Beckman 
23.)  Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone - J.K. Rowling 
24.)  The Power - Naomi Alderman 
25.)  Anything Is Possible - Elizabeth Strout

I loved, loved, loved: Plainsong.  That was probably the most beautiful novel I read all year.  Followed closely by Commonwealth. (Let's be honest, if it's Ann Patchett, I'll like it. I'd read her grocery lists with pleasure.) 
SweetBitter was my surprise hit; I'd picked that up on a whim and really enjoyed it.  I'm glad I finally read The Handmaid's Tale as it had somehow escaped from any assigned reading lists in school.  The Girls was a compelling read I couldn't put down.  Anything is Possible is one I keep thinking about after reading the last page.  (I'd read Elizabeth Stout's grocery lists too.) The Underground Railroad was definitely my most intense read of the year; another one I find my mind drifting back to often.

I never got into the Harry Potter phenomenon (gasp! I know!) so I started the series this year, determined to eventually make my way through all the books - nothing like jumping onto a cultural phenomenon twenty years after the fact, right?

Books I didn't love? The Nightingale.  Ugh.  I got tricked by this one being prominently displayed in every book store known to man and its best seller status.  However, in my humble opinion it was 250 pages too long and could have used a stronger editor to tighten that plot line up.  (But, hey, it was on the best seller list for months and months so what do I know?) The same goes for A Gentleman in Moscow.  Another one that's been top of the bestseller list for almost a year and I was left scratching my head, wondering what all the fuss was about when I finally read the last page.  Ditto too for A Man Called Ove, which came very highly recommended but left me underwhelmed.  I suppose the take away in all of that is that it's far better to just trust my own judgment when picking up my next read versus the best-seller lists. 

That's the thing about another year gone by - we get some highs, some lows, and some in betweens...both in books and in life.  So, we turn the page (ha, see what I did there?) to 2018 and reach for brand new titles as well as older books that we've been meaning to read forever...and with every new book hope for the very best of discoveries.