Thursday, January 04, 2018

The Book I Read Was in Your Eyes


Since we're just starting 2018, I guess I better get on my 2017 "end of the year posts". This first one will be all about books. Yea!

This year I read 69 books, 25,882 pages in all. I didn't get in as many as I did last year, but I read some longer books, and stuff comes up and whatever.

Here are categories of my best books...Or worst, depending. This isn't a review of the best books this year in general, just the ones I read, so they are from many different years and genres.

My top five books I read this year in order from most favorite on down:

1. "The Moor's Account", by Laila Lalami. This is an amazing story of a slave who came to the US with Spanish explorers.

2. "Half of a Yellow Sun", by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. A novel about the brief state of Biafra, when the Igbo's of Nigeria tried to secede after a massacre of their people. It is heartbreaking and very well written.

3."A Man Called Ove", by Fredrick Backman. It is a story about an old, Swedish, curmudgeon who gets saved by a family who annoys him with love.

4. "My Name is Lucy Barton", by Elizabeth Strout. It is a short novel about a woman who's mother comes to stay with her at the hospital when she is sick. She has been estranged from her since college and they reconnect the best that they are able.

5. "Moonglow", by Michael Chabon. It's kinda, sorta like the male version of Lucy Barton. It's about a time in Chabon's life where his grandfather is dying of cancer and full of meds and he tells his grandson about his life.


Best Classic Fiction I read in order of best to least best:

1. "Disgrace", by J. M. Coetzee.

2. "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn', by Betty Smith.

3. "For Whom the Bell Tolls", by Ernest Hemmingway.


Best Children's Classic Fiction:

"Anne of Green Gables", by L.M. Montgomery.

"The Golden Compass", by Philip Pullman.


Best Classic Science Fiction:

1. "American Gods", Neil Gaiman.

2. "The Sparrow", by Mary Doria Russell.

3. "Neuromancer", William Gibson.

4. "The Hobbitt", J. R. R. Tolkien.

Best Rereads:

1. "Beloved", by Toni Morrison.

2."Housekeeping", by Marylinne Robinson.

3. "The World According to Garp", John Irving.


Best current Science Fiction:

1. "The Deadlands", by Benjamin Percy.

Best Short fiction:

1. "Mothers and Sons", by Colm Toibin.

2. "The Moons of Jupiter", by Alice Munro.

Best Non-fiction:

1."Men We Reaped", Jesmyn Ward.

2."The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks", Rebecca Skloot.

3. "Bossypants", Tina Fey.

Westerns:

1. "Lonesome Dove", Larry McMurtry. I was in love with this book. I would have put it on the list for best book of the year, except I only had one other Western and I didn't want that book to be lonely.

2. "News of the World", by Paulette Jiles. This was another incredible novel.

Best Fun, Women Novels (Some Might label it chicklit, but I hate that term, and these are just well written books by women that I found very engaging):

1. "Eligible", by Curtis Sittenfeld. A current take of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice", all new and improved with reality TV shows.

2. "Commonwealth", Anne Patchett.

3. "Another Brooklyn", by Jacqueline Woodson

4. "Tomorrow Will Be Different", Maria Semple


Best Harry Potter Books that I read:

All three that I read, of course. The third, fourth and fifth.


The worst book I read all year, was "The Dog: A Novel", by Joseph O'Neil. I just couldn't get into it. It was supposed to take place in Dubai and you would think that would be interesting, but it was too boring and a lot of talk about stuff that put me to sleep.

Genres I didn't read and wished I had:

Detective/Crime and Horror stories. I already read my first detective novel for 2018, so I plan on making up for that this year.

That's what I got for 2017. Let me know your favorites. I love for people to tell me what they're reading.


2 comments:

A in Texas said...

You gave us Ove this summer and I read it - then Theo and I read it together out loud and then all four of us watched the movie together (the first time the boys ever watched a whole subtitled movie!) Now we are anxiously awaiting the Tom Hanks version -
Ove is so good over and over and over again. Thanks for sharing

Churls said...

That's great to hear. I still haven't seen the movie. I need to get on that...