I read 95 books in 2017 and have some favorites to share.
I struggled to find books I loved this year and coupled with my relatively low reading count, that makes it hard to come up with a top 10.
I actually re-read several books that deserve to be on this list, but it doesn’t seem fair to list a book I’ve listed in a previous year’s top list. The last two are probably more honorable mentions than actual top books.
That’s not to say these aren’t great books. I gave the top 8 books 5 stars on Goodreads (and I’m stingy with my 5-star ratings).
But I’m parsing. Let’s get to it.
Here’s a look at my favorite fiction of 2017:
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng – The best book I’ve read in a while.
- American War by Omar El Akkad – A second American civil war that can help us understand terrorism. (read my blog post)
- Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View by Various – I don’t like short story collections, but this one is great. (read my blog post)
- All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai – Great time travel story.
- Dark Matter by Blake Crouch – Great multi-dimension story (kinda like time travel, but not quite).
- Young Jane Young by Gabrielle Zevin – A novel about Congressional sexual misconduct before all the actual sexual misconduct.
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas – This was a tough, but necessary read.
- March Book Three by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, Nate Powell – The finale in the series that hits the biggest points.
- Time Salvager by Wesley Chu – A really unique futuristic time travel story.
- Clay’s Ark by Octavia Butler – A very unique turn in a series. I’m not sure anyone else could pull that off.
And an honorable mention to Patina by Jason Reynolds and The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne (I wanted to quit it a few times, but I’m glad I stuck it out).
More Reading
If you want to read more, check out my booklet 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading Again.