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?

buckeejit Gilead is so beautiful. I cannot believe I had it sitting on my shelves for years and only read it now!

I am trying to ration her other books. Otherwise I will gobble them up too fast!

My top 5 this year.

Lord of The Flies (absolutely bloody outstanding)
His Bloody Project
It
Jane Eyre
East of Eden.

meg Nothing to Envy should be on everyone's reading list I think. It's fascinating.

Can we have a worst book thread too? I want to warn everyone off the misogynistic, badly written, derivative abomination that is The End of The World Running Club.

Good idea Best! You start one - am sure I have a couple to add.

Thanks for this thread southeast it’s got me excited about reading again in the New Year, and yes a worst books thread is a great idea.

I second that, Satsuki! Great thread, South. I love hearing everyone’s Best Of The Year Reads.

Days without End, Sebastian Barry

Lincoln in the Bardo
Augustown
My Name is Lucy Barton
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Burial Rites

Currently reading Days Without End and think it’s fabulous. Didn’t really like the last Sebastian Barry book I read.

Forgot Days without end. Wonderful book

My best book of the year was a bit of a surprise...

After two failed attempts at reading it I finished Cloud Atlas. I don't know what it was this time round but it just clicked and I absolutely adored it.

I also really enjoyed Wuthering Heights, which was my first foray into classics (outside of the few we did at school)

I veer between loving and hating a little life. I think it is a very flawed book, but I still got that sense of loss when I finished it, which is something I associate with a really great read....

The dialogue pissed me off though:-

'I'm sorry Willem' said Jude.
'That's OK Jude' said Willem.

It reads like a winnie-the-pooh book at times.

at Winnie the Pooh. I took several attempts before falling under the spell of Cloud Atlas too.

I am now desperate to read days without end.

Soup - only one of my top 5 was new this year.

It's now that I have realised how little fiction I have read this year!

Non-Fiction
How Not To Be A Boy - Robert Webb
Born a Crime - Trevor Noah
The Descent of Man - Grayson Perry
Stiff Upper Lip - Alex Renton
The Butterfly Effect - Jon Ronson

I loved:

• A Little Life
• See What I Have Done: Sarah Schmidt
• Little Deaths: Emma Flint
• Eleanor Oliphant
• Autumn: Ali Smith

And I read the Shardlake series again for the fourth time. They’re as good as ever :)

There are very few that I liked unreservedly, homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari springs to mind

I am reading Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng and it's brilliant.

My top 10 from the year are (not in order):-

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society - Mary Ann Shaffer
Only Ever Yours - Louise O'Neil
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
The Poison Tree - Erin Kelly
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah
The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
1984 - George Orwell
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox - Maggie O'Farrell
I let You Go - Clare Mackintosh
Our Endless Numbered Days - Claire Fuller

My two stand out reads this year were :

Things Fall Apart Chinua Achebe
All Quiet on the Western Front Erich Maria Remarque

Past reads mentioned in other's lists which I'd include in my outstanding reads list include :
The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox Maggie O'Farrell
A Little Life Hanya Yanighara
This Thing of Darkness Harry Thompson

I've fallen woefully short on my reading target this year and have far too many books unfinished, so going to mine this thread for some suggestions.

Life After Life - Kate Atkinson Possibly in my top ten ever.
Gun Street Girl - Adrian McKinty.
The Goldfinch - Donna Tartt (actually not finished yet but counting it as 2017).

I've just added loads to my audible wish list after this thread, so many good recommendations 😃

And just noticed I haven't mentioned Eleanor & Park which I loved

Have read many great books this year. He Said/She Said by Erin Kelly perhaps the best but there have been several others such as I Let You Go and I See You (both by Clare McIntosh) that have utterly gripped me.