The best books you read in 2017?

[southeastdweller]

So as another year is coming to an end, I've been thinking about all the books I've read in 2017. These were my stand-out reads of the year:

1. Keeping On Keeping On - Alan Bennett
2. A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
3. Swing Time - Zadie Smith
4. One Good Turn – Kate Atkinson
5. Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
6. The Silence Between Breaths - Cath Staincliffe

What have been your favourite books this year?

Oh it was a good book - stood out from a lot out there. But no, didn’t quite hit the spot all round for me.

I’ve still got 2 Shardlakes after successful ekeing.

The Anna Karenina Fix - Viv Groskop
Covers all those Russian novels you really should have read but just haven’t. Very funny too.

I listened to Lincoln in the Bardo, was very nearly my favourite audio book of the year. The multi-narrator format worked wonderfully (just like a long radio play) for the style of the book. David Sedaris and Nic Offerman were completely perfect for their characters. Just thinking about the Reverend's judgment scene gives me the tingles. I went out and bought the book to read it as soon as I had finished the audiobook. Dh has it at the moment so it shall have to wait for the new year.

I’ve read some great books in 2017, a mix of library, languishing on my Kindle books and audiobooks. I find some books work out better as an audiobook for me and may not have had the same impact if I’d just read them.

It’s been a year of contemplation for me; one of those years where stress has had the upper hand. Reading and The 50 Booker thread is always a joy and a diverting distraction.

My favourites of 2017:
Fiction:
The Story of a New Name and Those who leave and Those who stay (Book 2 and 3 of Neopolitan Novels) by Elena Ferrante.
Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter.
The Last Policeman: A Novel (The Last Policeman Book I) by Ben H.Winters
Lord of the Flies by William Golding.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty (Audiobook)

Non-Fiction:
Jerusalem:The Biography by Simon Sebag Montefiore (😜 Remus)
Palestine by Joe Sacco
Mindfulness: A practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world by Mark Williams and Danny Penman.
Sapiens by Yuval Noah Hurari. (Audiobook)

Already looking forward to what 2018 will bring on the 50 Bookers Thread!

Lincoln in the Bardo

Little Fires Everywhere

The Keeper of Lost Things

How to Stop Time

Now you're just taunting me, aren't you, Shake?

F

my highlights, not including re-reads but otherwise shamelessly pasted from the 50 book thread:

The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
Mothering Sunday - Graham Swift
The Spy Who Came In From The Cold - John Le Carre
The Book of Daniel - E.L. Doctorow
The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
The Sellout by Paul Beatty
The Tidal Zone by Sarah Moss
We Have Always Lived In The Castle by Shirley Jackson
Black Swan Green by David Mitchell
His Bloody Project by Graeme MacRae Burnet.
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Never read a Shardlake! Should I?

Checkpoint yes!

Mine are:

Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
The Siege by Helen Dunmore
The House by the Lake by Thomas Harding
Stuart-A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters
A House Full of Daughters by Juliet Nicholson
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
Restoration by Rose Tremain
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead

So quite a few really although most of them are older books.

Southeast I’m looking forward to Keeping on Keeping on but a bit worried about the length!

I love this thread!! Especially when I see that a good few of the books named are on my book shelf just waiting for me. Except now I feel like re-posting my list with more favourites.
Whitewine I loved Restoration when I read it. I lent it to someone and it never made its way back to me but I have the sequel, Merivel and that was very good and well worth the wait - I think it was 10, or maybe even more, years between them.

Ooh exciting I will get one!
wine I loved a life lived backwards.

Looking back on Goodreads I’ve had a shockingly poor year for reading books.

But I enjoyed The Essex Serpent and The Watchmaker Of Filigree Street on the “proper fiction” side, and on the genre side I absolutely loved The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross. The Laundry Files is one of those rare series where every book can be rated entirely independently of every other - they don’t get better or worse - they’re all one of a kind, and Nightmares Stacks is my personal favourite.

Spinning, yes I enjoyed Merivel as well, he is a great character.

Check, A Life Backwards was a book group that I would never have read otherwise, a real eye opener.

I really enjoyed Restoration, and am hoping someone gets me Merivel for Christmas.

My reads of the year are:

Nothing To Envy: Real Lives In North Korea - Barbara Demick
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
The Dark Is Rising - Susan Cooper
The Strange Last Voyage of Donald Crowhurst - Nicholas Tomalin and Ron Hall
Arabian Sands - Wilfred Thesinger
Lincoln In The Bardo - George Saunders
Mont Blanc To Everest - Gaston Rebuffat

Mostly books I've read in the second half of the year, after a bit of a shaky start. If I had to pick one I'd go for Lincoln In The Bardo.

Mine are:
A little life
Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine.
Cheer up love by Susan Calman.

Swimming Lessons by Claire Fuller.
Pages for her by Sylvia Brownrigg.

wine you might like my favourite ever book which is similar-ish, called A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, it's pretty much autobiographical and I just loved it.

I have loads-mostly on audible & mostly not recent releases

Fingersmith
Tipping the velvet
La Belle sauvage
The kitchen God's wife
This is the place
A little life (although it really irritated me also)
His bloody project
The goldfinch

I didn't like the power, currently on the stand & it's ok but looking forward to finishing it. Im sure I will add some of these to my enormous to read list.

Had to pipe up that Gilead is one of my faves too.

A million little pieces I also enjoyed years ago too

Another blatant placemarker. Will read through the thread later, I love finding out what everyone has enjoyed!

Another vote for His Bloody Project - absolutely gripping.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang which blew my mind.

I've discovered Menna Van Praag this year, her books are simply delightful.