Year in Review: 2017 Book List

2017 was a year of ups and downs. But I think most of us can say this just about any year, and that’s one of the best things about reading: offering perspective. It’s easy to get trapped in the tragedies of the year, and it felt like there were so, so many in 2017. But I read some truly magnificent books that yanked me right out of my head and into another world. I traveled to the hills near Mumbai, the streets of Fuzhou, and World War 2-era Manhattan Beach in books this year. I read about war and behavioral economics and interfaith conversations and black holes. I love combing through the year's list of books and remembering where I was when I read them – like the Nashville airport or crashing on a friend’s couch in Santa Cruz or the lawn by my apartment on a summer day – and how I was feeling at that time.

I was a member of Book of the Month in 2017 and that was a really fun way to read new books months (or, let’s be honest, years) before I normally would. Several of the books on my top ten list were Book of the Month picks.

As always, I don’t recommend every single book – skip past the big list for my top ten if you’d like some recommendations.

American War ~ Omar El Akkad
Artemis ~ Andy Weir
The Blinds ~ Adam Sternbergh
A Brief History of Time ~ Stephen Hawking
Chemistry ~ Weike Wang
Dark Matter ~ Blake Crouch
The De-Textbook: The Stuff You Didn’t Know About the Stuff You Thought You Knew ~ Cracked.com
Exit West ~ Mohsin Hamid
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding ~ Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner
Goodbye, Vitamin ~ Rachel Khong
Heroes of the Frontier ~ Dave Eggers
Infinity: Outrage ~ Víctor Santos and Kenny Ruiz
Inherent Vice ~ Thomas Pynchon
Iron Gold ~ Pierce Brown
The Kingkiller Chronicle ~ Patrick Rothfuss
     The Name of the Wind
     The Wise Man’s Fear
     The Slow Regard of Silent Things
The Leavers ~ Lisa Ko
Lucky You ~ Erika Carter
Manhattan Beach ~ Jennifer Egan
The Mountain Shadow ~ Gregory David Roberts
The Night Manager ~ John le Carré
Pachinko ~ Min Jin Lee
Sing, Unburied, Sing ~ Jesmyn Ward
Travels with Charley in Search of America ~ John Steinbeck
The Undoing Project ~ Michael Lewis
A Visit from the Goon Squad ~ Jennifer Egan
War and Peace ~ Leo Tolstoy
The World and Watertown ~ Greg Beach
A Wrinkle in Time ~ Madeleine L’Engle

Reread 

The Harry Potter series ~ J.K. Rowling
Shantaram ~ Gregory David Roberts
Red Rising ~ Pierce Brown
Golden Son ~ Pierce Brown
Morning Star ~ Pierce Brown
The Martian ~ Andy Weir
The Silmarillion ~ J.R.R. Tolkien

Top 10 List (in alphabetical order)

Artemis ~ Andy Weir
The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew - Three Women Search for Understanding ~ Ranya Idliby, Suzanne Oliver, Priscilla Warner
Heroes of the Frontier ~ Dave Eggers
Iron Gold ~ Pierce Brown
The Leavers ~ Lisa Ko
The Mountain Shadow ~ Gregory David Roberts
Pachinko ~ Min Jin Lee
Sing, Unburied, Sing ~ Jesmyn Ward
Travels with Charley in Search of America ~ John Steinbeck
War and Peace ~ Leo Tolstoy

And why I recommend them

1. I know a lot of you read The Martian by Andy Weir! I really enjoyed his second novel. It made me laugh out loud and was packed with all the same science nerdery of The Martian. I’m officially going to read any books Weir writes.

2. I just read The Faith Club near the end of the year and really, really enjoyed this look at three major world religions from three women who practice them. The book was written after 9/11 but is just as relevant today. I liked the book because it wasn’t just a nice summary of how three women practice three different religions. No, these women dove right in to stereotypes and conflicts and the ways religion divides instead of bringing us together. But they did so with respect – and their deepening relationship based on a search for truth and understanding really pulled me in. I’d recommend the book for someone of any (or no) religion.

3. Those of you who read my list last year know I got hooked on Dave Eggers. I finally read his book that came out that year this year and loved it. In another writer’s hands, I don’t think I would have liked the main character, but Eggers conveyed her faults while also humanizing her. I was rooting for her and was captivated by her journey. And her kids were some of my favorite fictional kids ever.

4. All right everyone, ever since I got sucked into Red Rising in 2014, I’ve been telling everyone who will listen to read Pierce Brown’s books. So there’s no excuse. Read them. I got an advance copy of Iron Gold for a forthcoming article and while I can’t say too much, pre-order it. Read the rest of the series first if you haven’t. Read Iron Gold. I’m obsessed. This is my all-time favorite modern book series. UPDATE 1/16/18: Read my interview with Brown on Bustle here!

Pre-order it, people.

5. The Leavers was a beautiful story of family and identity. Ko gave characters I didn’t expect the chance to tell their stories and it made for a really incredible book.

6. The Mountain Shadow is the sequel to Shantaram – which, if you haven’t read, you absolutely must. I wasn’t sure if The Mountain Shadow could live up to it. And while they’re different books, I really loved it. Reading it was a spiritual experience for me, and it was neat to reconnect with characters I’ve known for almost seven years now.

7. Pachinko was my favorite Book of the Month this year. I realized I haven’t read many books about the area of the world in which it is set – Korea and Japan – and I had a lot of fun exploring the setting. But it’s the family saga told in this novel that’s really gripping.

8. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a close second to Pachinko for my favorite Book of the Month. I really loved the characters. They felt real. And I cared about what happened to all of them, from the ones easy to love to the ones I loathed. Ward also blended real-world issues with otherworldly elements in a way that didn’t feel unbelievable at all, but immediate and compelling.

9. This was my yearly Steinbeck. I’m basically reading a Steinbeck every year until I get through the entire canon and loving it! But turned out to be a timely pick for a few months in to a new administration after a turbulent election. The book came out in 1962, and it was fascinating to read Steinbeck’s predictions and see how many came true or turned out differently, and compare the sentiment of the country back then to now. It was fascinating to watch Steinbeck wrestle with what he might take away from his United States road trip, and remember just how big and varied and diverse in just about every sense of the word the country is.

10. I’ve wanted to tackle War and Peace for years. Aaron actually bought it for me from Chaucer’s Bookstore in Santa Barbara for one of our first Christmases. I never attempted it there and when we moved, it was in a box of books the post office tragically lost. So when I visited Santa Barbara a year ago, and went into Chaucer’s (one of the best places in the entire world) with a little Christmas money, I decided to buy the exact same version Aaron bought me, from the same place, and finally read it. And then – surprise! – I loved it. I loved it so much I convinced Aaron to read it too. It was a really rich reading experience. And what a time to read it – with concerns over possible collusion with Russia, here I was reading a book about Russia. It was good to be reminded there’s more to countries than what’s going on with our politicians. And fascinating to see how Tolstoy views history.

Need more book recommendations? I’ve been writing these up for several years now (mind-blowing!). Here are all the lists from the past:

2016
2015
2014
2013
2012