Out of 102 books, it's obviously not easy to narrow it down to just a few favorites. I know a lot of people make their favorites list match up with the year — so like, "Top 17 of 2017" ... but then what happens when it's 2049 or something?
And ten is a nice round number, and putting a limit on it forces you to be more thoughtful in how you think of "favorites," which I appreciate.
However, I definitely can't rank these in any kind of order among them, as they all received 5 stars, so this list is just in the order I read them. (And note, these are not my favorite books published in 2017, although five of them were.)
Click through to read my abbreviated thoughts!
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
This is a nonfiction account of the sinking of the luxury ocean liner Lusitania by a German U-Boat during World War I. If you're not a history nerd or generally uninterested in nonfiction, I know that might not sound super exciting. But in Larson's hands, I promise you it is. He is so skilled at what is called narrative nonfiction — if you didn't know any better, and were just handed the book without the cover or identifying info, you'd think you were reading a novel. And it is that skill that can really draw you into a story that you never knew you cared about until he made you realize you did.
The book is told along two parallel storylines, one with the passengers and crew aboard the Lusitania, and one with the Germans manning the U-Boat, as well as British intelligence officers who were tracking it. You know that these lines are destined to bend toward each other and end up in a literal collision, but the suspense that Larson builds by allowing you to experience the innocence of the Lusitania passengers is gripping nonetheless.
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
You have almost certainly heard of this young adult book, and for good reason. This is a stunning debut novel, one I never would have guessed was a debut if I didn't know. It tells the story of a Black teenage girl, Starr, who witnesses the murder of her friend by a police officer. At first, Starr is an anonymous witness, but as the case roils in the city and the nationwide media, she has to navigate what role she can safely play in defense of her friend's memory and her community.
The book has often been billed as being about the Black Lives Matter movement, and it is indeed, but it's so much more, too. It's about being torn between opposing worlds, about learning who you are and who you need to be, about what it truly means to fight for racial justice. I am so glad this book is out there for so many young Black men and women, boys and girls, to see their lives and their truth represented. And I am also glad that a lot of white people are reading it and hopefully realizing some of the ways in which we have been ignorant or neglectful or too quick to judge.
The Story of the Lost Child by Elena Ferrante
Oh my lord. If you haven't read the Neapolitan Novels, what even are you doing with your life? This quartet, of which The Story of the Lost Child is the final volume, is one of the most impressive and inspiring and heart-wrenching works of literary genius I've ever encountered.
The novels tell the story of Elena and Lila, two best friends who progress from young girls to old women, who spend their lives trying to escape the violence and suffocation of their home turfs in Naples, Italy, who chart very different paths as they try to discover who they are both in relation to the other and as individuals, and who embody such fully realized and authentic characters that you'd swear by the end they were actual friends of yours.
I don't cry easily while reading, but I did so a number of times during this book, and my heart was so full and so heavy by the final page. I rarely reread books, but I know one day I will want to go back to Naples, back to Elena and Lila, and experience it all over again.
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
This is an award-winning novel that landed on dozens of "best of" lists in 2016, and for good reason. The author manages to deliver an epic family saga in a slim volume, giving us a vast array of characters and layers upon layers of emotion and conflict and struggle. It begins with two half-sisters in 18th century Ghana, whose lives follow starkly different paths, but are still tied together through the violence of war, slavery, and the evil that men do.
We follow their descendants down through the generations up to the present, and at each turn, we meet people who in various ways are fighting for survival in a world that is often actively opposed to it. We see the depths of depravity that bigotry, colonialism, and violence can sink to, but also the amazing fortitude that exists within a people against all odds.
The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
This book is so much fun. It's honestly like nothing I've read before, which is saying a lot in the YA world. It's historical fiction mixed with adventure mixed with romance with a little bit of fantasy element added in. The writing is funny and witty and sharp, and the characters are unique and lovable even when they're not.
We follow a young 18th century man named Monty who is heading off on his grand tour of Europe before being expected to settle down and take over his family's estate — something he has zero desire to do, to the hateful resentment of his father. Monty is accompanied on the tour by his best friend Percy — but the two boys are more than friends, something quite dangerous in their time, especially considering Percy is biracial as well. Monty's clever sister Felicity is along for the ride, too, and the three get into some hilarious, exciting, and headshaking scrapes and messes. And it's awesome and adorable. Historical queers are some of my faves.
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
No, this wasn't a reread — I had actually made it to 37 without reading this book, even though I am a lit nerd who loves Dickens. But it was never assigned reading in school, and while I did start reading it on my own near the end of a school year, I never picked it back up over that summer or since.
But I am so glad I finally did because it truly is the classic it's known to be, Dickens at his finest in so many ways. No one crafts a character, whether they be good or wicked, or sets a scene like him. The backdrop of the French Revolution gives it an urgent air and makes it feel so very real, because so much of what he represented on the page was real in spirit, if not to the exact letter. I'm not sure if it beats out Bleak House as my favorite Dickens work, but it's a damn close second.
And yes, I cried at the end. What kind of monster wouldn't?!
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Or as I prefer to call it, What in the God Damn Motherfuck Happened. Ahem.
I mean, listen. You know what this book is about, and if you're inclined to read it, you probably already have. But if not, please don't listen to sexist douchebags or lefty bros or whoever else — this book is NOT Clinton blaming everyone under the sun for her loss. This is a factual account of the campaign, and a very unflinching and honest at herself and where she felt she erred, as well as others whose role in the fucking debacle of November 8, 2016, cannot be denied without the utmost adherence to intentional ignorance of reality.
Russia, James Comey, a spineless RNC, and a whole lot of people who are terrified like little toddlers at the thought of a female president — they all had a hand in this. It is not denying her own part to point out that others were there, too.
And the book is also so chock-full of intelligent discourse about policy and politics, about how to confront issues facing the country and the world, about what a Clinton administration would have looked like, that it just proves over and over again what a horrendous nightmare we were plunged into, and what could have been, what should have been. Sigh.
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
I'm usually reluctant to read books by men with female main characters, because for the most part, you end up wondering if the author has never met actual human women. But Hosseini is quite different, and the women in his books are very real, very sensitively drawn, and evoke a sense of empathy and recognition rarely seen in the women that men dream up.
Two women in Afghanistan try to navigate the basics of life and family and home as their nation roils violently around them, near and far. They have been forced together in a way many of us couldn't imagine, and must learn to accept each other and lean on each other when the forces of hateful patriarchy are constantly trying to tear them apart, almost literally.
This book made my heart ache, but was so beautiful at the same time. Hosseini's talent that the world already knew from books like The Kite Runner is on even more powerful display here.
The Leavers by Lisa Ko
This is another novel that will do a number on your heart, because I guess I like to cry? But again, it's a story filled with pain but also with bravery and resilience and characters who you will not easily forget.
An 11 year old Chinese boy's mother disappears one day, and no one knows what happened to her. A white couple eventually adopts him, and his life and very identity are the next things to vanish. We follow his story as he struggles to become a man when he barely knows who he is as a person, and we follow the saga of his mother, whose disappearance is part of a years-long battle to simply provide a better life for her child, a battle the world will force her to lose.
This book is about what it means to belong, to be who we are, to know who we are, and about the ability of love to withstand so much upheaval.
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
This was the last book I read in 2017, and what a way to close out the reading year. I had read Ng's first novel, Everything I Never Told You, a few months earlier and loved it. And her follow-up proved that award-winning debut was no flash in the pan.
Shaker Heights is a planned community — literally. Everything is nailed down to rules and guidelines and customs, and everyone seems happy to abide by it all. But beneath the neatness of the town, the Richardson family kids are chafing in their own ways at their surroundings. And when a nomadic, artsy mother and daughter move to town and work their way into the family's daily life, a whole lot of darkness is brought to the bright, shiny surface.
What is right and wrong? What makes a family? Who deserves to be given the benefit of the doubt, and who ought to be shamed for their errors? Ng explores all of these big ideas in intricate ways, and as we watch the story unfold and know what it is coming in the end, her handling of the thorny issues surrounding those questions is nothing short of expert.
(Honorable mentions to the rest of my 5-star reads, also in chronological order: Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo; Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough; Jane Steele by Lyndsay Faye; Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare; The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah; The Sisters Chase by Sarah Healy; What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard; The Unseen World by Liz Moore; Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo; Vassa in the Night by Sarah Porter; Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng; and Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond.)
Whew — so, those were my favorite reads in 2017! What were some of your favorites? Did you discover a new author or try out a new genre? Do tell!
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