Books I Read in 2017

Another year, another 61 books. Although 2017 was an absolutely terrible year, it’s been a good year for reading. 21 of the books I read were 4 stars (out of 5) or above, including a few fun trilogies:  N.K Jemison’s Broken Earth trilogy, and Erika Johansen’s The Queen of the Tearling trilogy.

I discovered a few new favorite authors, chiefly N.K Jemison and Atul Gawande. And I read some more by authors I already knew and loved, such as Margaret Atwood and Jhumpa Lahiri.

All three of my 5 star ratings went to nonfiction books (for the first time ever?), and 2 were by Atul Gawande. The Digital Doctor, Complications, and Being Mortal were all amazing.

The Ratings

If you’re new to my book lists, here’s how I rate the books I read:

• * I couldn’t finish reading it, I hated it so much
• ** I finished the book, but I wish I had the hours back I spent on it
• *** It was about as expected, glad I read it but I wouldn’t recommend it
• **** I really enjoyed reading the book, and would definitely recommend it to others
• **** I MUST OWN THIS NOW! I want to reread it over and over and over

Looking for past years? Here’s 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012.

And now, without further ado, the books I read in 2017.

Books I Read in 2017

• The Illegal, by Lawrence Hill***
• Kraken, by China Mieville****
• The Storied Life of AJ Firky, by Gabrielle Zevin****
• Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World, by Haruki  Murakami***
• The Kitchen House, by Kathleen Grissom****
• Amsterdam, by Ian McEwan***
• The Shining, by Stephen King***
• The Fifth Season, by N.K. Jemisin****
• The Fate of the Tearling, by Erika Johansen****
• Sybil, by Flora Rheta Schreiber**
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne, Translated by Walter James Miller and Frederick Paul Walter***
• The Obelisk Gate, by N.K. Jemisin****
• Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut***
• The Art of Hearing Heartbeats, by Jan-Philipp Sendker**
• Lake of the Woods, by Tim O’Brien****
• The Digital Doctor, by Robert Wachter*****
• The Hike, by Drew Magary***
• Little Bee, by Chris Cleave****
• Peppermints in the Parlor, by Barbara Brooks Wallace***
• The Sweet Hereafter, by Russell Banks**
• Complications, by Atul Gawande*****
• Jurassic Park, by Michael Crighton***
• The Diamond Age, by Neal Stephenson***
• The Girl with All the Gifts, by M.R. Carey***
• Night Film, by Marisha Pessl****
• Marathon Man, by William Goldman***
• Setting the Table, by Danny Meyer**
• Cutting for Stone, by Abraham Verghese***
• The Way the Crow Flies, by Ann-Marie MacDonald***
• Seabiscuit, by Laura Hillenbrand****
• Managing Humans, by Michael Lopp**
• Homegoing, by Yaa Gyasi***
• Perdido Street Station, by China Mieville***
• Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa Davis **
• Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood***
• The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood****
• MaddAddam, by Margaret Atwood***
• The Magicians, by Lev Grossman***
• The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner, ****
• One True Thing, by Anna Quindlen****
• Miss Peregrine’s School for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs***
• Turtle Moon, by Alice Hoffman***
• Being Mortal, by Atul Gawande*****
• The Magician King, by Lev Grossman***
• Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri**** (reread)
• The Magician’s Land, by Lev Grossman***
• Age of Innocence, by Edith Wharton****
• The Art Forger, by B. A. Shapiro***
• The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, by Oliver Sachs***
• LaRose, by Louise Erditch***
• Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly***
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, by John Berendt****
• The Diamond in the Window, by Jane Langton***
• To the Lighthouse, by Virginia Woolf***
• The Call of the Wild, by Jack London***
• No Country for Old Men, by Cormac McCarthy****
• The Stone Sky, by N.K. Jeminin****
• Mysteries of Winterthurn, by Joyce Carol Oates***
• Lucky Girls, by Nell Freudenberger*** (reread)
• Lord of the Flies, by William Golding***
• The Bear and the Nightengale, by Katherine Arden***

Started, not completed: Infinite Jest