What I’m Reading: Becky’ Favorite Reads of 2017

Its my annual list of the best books I read this year, regardless of what year they were published. But, I am changing it up this year and putting my“best” books into categories. Why? Because as I was going through everything I read this year, I kept identifying favorites with caveats like, “that was the best historical fiction I read” or “that was my favorite audio.” Also I realized that grouping them in this way didn’t only make it easier for me to make choices, but it also made the list more useful to you as you help readers.

For example, knowing that I have River of Teeth on my list because it is the “Most fun I had reading a book this year,” means much more than simply listing it as a favorite.

Plus, after 10 years of “best” lists, it’s time to do something a little different. Even I am getting bored of myself.

On a side note, I am very proud of myself that there was almost 50% diversity in my favorite book choices. I actually made myself pick my favorites first and then went back and audited my results. Here are the results:

• I have 4 straight up POC titles
• 1 LGBTQ
• 1 has a non binary protagonist

That’s 6 out of 13 titles listed here.

Enough intro. Here is the list with links to my full reviews either from the blog or on Goodreads.

• Most fun I had reading this year-- River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
• Best Audio-- Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
• Best Nonfiction- Radium Girls by Kate Moore
• Best GN- My Favorite Thing Is Monsters by Emil Ferris
• Best Debut- City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty
• Best Historical- Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
• Best books from 2016 that I read in 2017: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead and News of the World by Paulette Jiles
• Best Horror-- In the Valley of the Sun by Andy Davidson. My full list of the best horror I read in 2017 is here.
• Best backlist gem-- The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
• Best book that sneaked in under the wire: A Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds
• Wildcards: Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill and Exit West by Mohsin Hamid

Speaking of categories, my colleagues over at the Booklist Readers also made a fun year end list based on highly specific categories. Check it out here.

Finally, a reminder that I am starting 2018 with Sing Unburied Sing and The Changeling-- In this post I said that The Leavers would be one of those books, but it looks like I will be reading it for a book club later in 2018, so I am pushing that one back. I never got to The Changeling when I got the ARC and it is the one best speculative book I didn’t read this year.

This is my last post of the year. After a short break, I will return with some catch up reviews before beginning the regular blogging schedule again on 1.8.18.