Favorite books you read in 2017!

[ufcasey]

A good way of getting a lot great book recommendations for the new year is if everyone lists out some of their favorite books that they read in 2017 (it does not have to be a book published in 2017, just one you happened to read in 2017). Bonus points if you list out what genre the book falls under. List as many favorites as you like

[rainbowchip]

Ya Fantasy
Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom
Shadow and Bone, Siege and Storm, and Ruin and Rising

Ya Fiction
The Hate U Give
Thirteen Reasons Why

Historical Fiction
Homegoing

Science Fiction
The Passage, The Twelve, and The City of Mirrors
Artemis

Autobiography/Memoir
Born a Crime

[Vespasia]

My Absolute Favorites:

The Bear and the Nightingale  - Fantasy

Book of Strange New Things - Sci-Fi

Night Film - Thriller


Other Favorites:

Underground Railroad - Historical Fiction with a twist

Underground Airlines - Alternate History? 

In the Woods - Murder Mystery

Artemis - Sci-Fi    

[ufcasey]

Absolute favorites are in bold

Classic:
The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier

Contemporary Romance:
Dream a Little Dream by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Attachments by Rainbow Rowell
Idol by Kristen Callihan
Most of All You by Mia Sheridan

Fantasy Romance:
Land of the Beautiful Dead by R. Lee Smith
Rhapsodic by Laura Thalassa (entire series so far)

Fiction:
Be Frank With Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Historical Fiction:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Lord of the Silver Bow by David Gemmell (the entire trilogy)
The Stars Are Fire by Anita Shreve
Burial Rites by Hannah Kent

Historical Romance:
Tempt Me at Twilight (#3 in series) Lisa Kleypas (the whole series is great)
Three Weeks With Lady X by Eloisa James

Mystery/Thriller:
Career of Evil (#3 in series) by Robert Galbraith
The Butterfly Garden by Dot Hutchison
The Cruelest Month (#3 in series) by Louise Penny (the whole series is great)

Non-Fiction:
What Happened by Hillary Rodham Clinton
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood by Trevor Noah
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner

Paranormal Romance/Urban Fiction:
Wildfire (#3 in series) by Ilona Andrews
One Fell Sweep (#3 in series) by Ilona Andrews (whole series is great)
Silence Fallen (#10 in series) by Patricia Briggs (whole series is great)

Science Fiction-ish:
All Our Wrong Todays by Elan Mastai
Waking Gods (#2 in series) by Sylvain Neuvel

YA:
Now I Rise (#2 in series) by Kiersten White
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
Split by Swati Avasthi
Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

[Vespasia]

ufcasey I read Burial Rites a few years ago and absolutely loved it. I am glad you brought it up because I didn't realize she had a new book out!

[kelliebeans104]

Absolute Favorites

A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff
Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman



Honorable Mentions

A Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
Lilian Boxfish Takes a Walk by Kathleen Rooney
Baker's Secret by Stephen P. Kiernan

[abs]

Yay, one of my favorite threads of the year!!

Fiction:
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane by Lisa See

Historical Fiction:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

YA/Kids Fiction:
Wonder by R.J. Palacio
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

[monkeyfeet]

Nonfiction
The Wright Brothers

Historical Fiction
Once We were Brothers
The Sea of Tranquility

YA
The Unexpected Everything
The Hate You Give

Thrillers
Tell No One
The Last Child

Children’s
Poppy

[oliviapope]

Historical Fiction-
The Nightingale- Kristin Hannah
Homegoing- Yaa Gyasi

YA-
The Hate U Give- Angie Thomas

Memoir-
Born A Crime- Trevor Noah
We're Going To Need More Wine- Gabrielle Union

[ssmjlm]

I had very few 5 stars this year.

Fiction:
All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood 5* (Loved this book so much!)
Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine 4*
When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz 4*
Into the Darkest Corner by Elizabeth Haynes 4*

Romance:
Beautifully Damaged by LA Fiore 4*
Sting by Sandra Brown 4* (I'm sure she doesn't consider herself a typical romance author, but all her books follow the same mystery/romance formula)

Non-Fiction:
When Breathe Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi 4*

[bex]

Favorites -

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
No one is Coming to Save Us by Stephanie Powell Watts
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

[aurora]

Jan 2, 2018 11:34:51 GMT -5 Vespasia said:

My Absolute Favorites:

The Bear and the Nightingale  - Fantasy

Book of Strange New Things - Sci-Fi

Night Film - Thriller


Other Favorites:

Underground Railroad - Historical Fiction with a twist

Underground Airlines - Alternate History? 

In the Woods - Murder Mystery

Artemis - Sci-Fi    

I was skimming for available audiobooks at my library and Night Film is available, so I just checked it out. Hope it's awesome!

[aurora]

I don't like starring my books, which always makes this kind of thing harder in retrospect. Of the books I read for the first time in 2017, I'd list these as favorites:

Fiction:
The Fifth Season by NK Jemisin
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Girls of Riyadh by Rajaa Alsanea

Non-fiction:
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

Well, huh, it strikes me that all of these are written by women (two of whom are black, one Saudi)! I did read a number of books by male authors, but it looks like of my 2017 list the majority of books (38/62) were written by women and the vast majority of new reads were written by women. I didn't realize that in the moment!

[rootbeerfloat]

Historical Fiction
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
The Tea Girl of Hummingbird Lane, Lisa See

Fiction
A Man Called Ove, Frederik Backman

YA Fiction
The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
Kindred Spirits, Rainbow Rowell (short story)
The Sun is Also a Star, Nicola Yoon

Nonfiction
We Should All Be Feminists, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

[minzy]

4.5 star Fiction books I read in 2017:
A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman
It Ends with Us - Colleen Hoover
The Hate U Give - Angie Thomas
A Court of Wings and Ruin - Sarah J. Maas
The Lost Wife - Alyson Richman

4.5 stars Nonfiction
Strangers in Their Own Land - Anger and Mourning on the American Right - Arlie Russell Hochschild
What Happened - Hillary Rodham Clinton

5 stars Fiction
A Court of Mist and Fury - Sarah J. Maas 

5 stars Nonfiction
Earth in Human Hands - Shaping Our Planet's Future - David Grinspoon 
The Warmth of Other Suns - The Epic Story of America's Great Migration - Isabel Wilkerson
Dreamland - The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic - Sam Quinones
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - Ashlee Vance*
The Water Will Come - Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World - Jeff Goodell

*my top pick of the whole year if I had to pick just one 

[oliviapope]

Jan 2, 2018 16:50:24 GMT -5 @tooshort said:

Everything you want me to be: Mindy Mejia

I just finished this today! I've had it sitting on my nightstand forever, but I picked it up this morning and flew through it. I was pretty impressed.

[krystee]

The Child Finder
The Hate U Give
Lilac Girls

[charlatti]

Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin
Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
Glass Houses by Louise Penny
South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby

Standouts in YA/middle grade:
Every Day by David Levithan
Dragons Green by Scarlett Thomas
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

[litskispeciality]

I'm so bad with genres. Here are my top:

Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty
It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Party of One by Dave Holmes
Younger by Pamela Redmond Satran
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (although I rank this 3rd of her major hits)
The Wolf of Wall Street by Jordan Belfort

[travella]

5*s
Girl at War by Sara Novic

4*s
The One-in-a-Million Boy by Monica Wood
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer
Beartown by Fredrik Backman
Travels with Charley by Steinbeck
Alice Network by Kate Quinn
Right Behind You by Lisa Gardener
Glass Houses by Louise Penny

I absolutely loved Little Fires Everywhere (5*), but I didn't finish it until this afternoon so it is technically a 2018 book.

[mrspez07]

Fiction:
This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel - fiction
The large illustrated Harry Potter books (first 2). I didn’t read them when they came out, and we’ve been reading these with the boys. They’re like art in book-form. Stories of course are great too!
The Handmaids Tale
Modern Girls by Jennifer S Brown


YA:
The Hate u Give

Audio/non-fiction:
John Adams by David McCullough - very long but very interesting

[mpc]

I'm new here but I will jump in with my 5 star books from last year.

The Hate you Give (Angie Thomas)
Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (Sherman Alexie)
The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah)
The Girl with all the Gifts (M.R. Carey)
Just Mercy (Bryan Stevenson)
Where'd You Go, Bernadette? (Maria Semple)
The Handmaid's Tale (Margaret Atwood)

[turboteal]

I have been waiting for a free moment to come here and rave about a series I finished in December! The Mistborn trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (The Final Empire, The Well of Ascension, and The Hero of Ages). It's fantasy genre, really well written and thought out plot, incredibly well developed and unique system of magic (really refreshing to read about a new version of supernatural "powers"), great world building all around. Add a female protagonist and plot twists for days and it was the best new series I have read in a while. I will definitely be checking out more of his books!

Other books I loved in 2017:
I had great luck with some classics (The Bluest Eye, Beloved, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn) that I'd never read in school but probably should have. Reading these reminds me what good writing really is. I also loved Margaret Atwood's Cat's Eye, I've read several of hers now after starting with The Handmaid's Tale a few years ago, this is my favorite of her besides that one. It's not a dystopia or sci-fi, but a fiction with insights into women's relationships that really reverberated for me.

Looking forward to reading more great books this year with the help of y'all!

[jmliongrrrl]

The best thing I read in 2017 was The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. My hubs is a huge King fan and he has been telling for years that I would like this series. I'm not a fan of scary things so I wasn't persuaded to pick up The Gunslinger until last spring. I loved the whole series! My favorite of the seven was Wizard and Glass (the fourth).
I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology and Whitehead's Underground Railroad

[MrsAxilla]

Jan 6, 2018 0:54:14 GMT -5 jmliongrrrl said:

The best thing I read in 2017 was The Dark Tower series by Stephen King. My hubs is a huge King fan and he has been telling for years that I would like this series. I'm not a fan of scary things so I wasn't persuaded to pick up The Gunslinger until last spring. I loved the whole series! My favorite of the seven was Wizard and Glass (the fourth).
I also really enjoyed Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology and Whitehead's Underground Railroad

❤️ All time fave, especially Wizards and Glass.

aurora, I have a hard time with ratings, too.  They’re more like a grade based on shifting criteria with a healthy dose of subjectivity.  The books I enjoyed the most didn’t necessary rate the highest.

I really enjoyed Prince Lestat and the Realms of Atlantis. I’ve been following Lestat since the 80s, so I love it all.  Ben and I are reading the Wings of Fire series, so that ranks as a standout even though it wasn’t so great.

I absolutely loved Kindred by Octavia Butler.  It’s an old school time travel novel about a black woman in the 70s who travels to the antebellum south - written in the 70s by a black woman.  

[mx27]

Okay, I need to read “Homegoing”!!! Just added it to my “must read “ list!

[bex]

Jan 6, 2018 11:48:46 GMT -5 mx27 said:

Okay, I need to read “Homegoing”!!! Just added it to my “must read “ list!

It's incredible. It's the kind of book you can read in a weekend, but its not light and not necessarily "easy." Just very well written.