What I read in 2017
Another year, another list of books. Quite a short list, really, considering I wasn’t studying this year, but I think somewhere over the last few years I’ve lost the reading habit slightly. (And yes, I’m aware that for a lot of people, reading 106 books in a year (even given my rather broad definition of what a book is) is an unattainable goal, but I’ve managed to get into the 150s some years, so it’s a major reduction for me.)
Total = 106 books
January (7)
- Invasive by Chuck Wendig (library audio book)
- Bubbles in Trouble by Sarah Strohmeyer
- It’s Not About the Tapas by Polly Evans (library audio book)
- Cat Tales for Christmas edited by Mark Bryant
- Version Control by Dexter Palmer (library audio book)
- Veil of Darkness by Gillian White
- When the Cat’s Away by Jackie Rutherford
February (7)
- The Battle for Room 314 by Ed Boland (library audio book)
- Dogside Story by Patricia Grace
- Brooklyn by Colm Tóibín (library audio book)
- Hot Rock Mountain by Elizabeth Laird
- The Zigzag Way by Anita Desai
- The Guineveres by Sarah Domet (library audio book)
- A Cat in Hell’s Chance edited by Anny Malle
March (7)
- Murder at the Laurels by Lesley Cookman
- The Mill River Redemption by Darcie Chan (library audio book)
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
- You Are Here by Jenny Lawson
- Pancakes in Paris by Craig Carlson (library audio book)
- A Little Trouble with the Facts by Nina Siegal
- When We Were Sisters by Emilie Richards (library audio book)
April (8)
- Mezzofanti’s Gift by Michael Erard
- Hogfather by Terry Pratchett (library audio book)
- Untorn Tickets by Paul Burke
- Hear the Wind Sing by Haruki Murakami (library audio book)
- Gender Failure by Rae Spoon and Ivan E. Coyote
- Vroom by the Sea by Peter Moore
- Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett (library audio book)
- The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
May (9)
- Timekeepers by Simon Garfield
- The Co-Op’s Got Bananas! by Hunter Davies (library audio book)
- The Wish Child by Catherine Chidgey
- The Dressmaker’s Dowry by Meredith Jaeger (library audio book)
- Hag-Seed by Margaret Atwood
- The Catastrophe by Ian Wedde
- Portland Place by Sarah Shaw (library audio book)
- Madame Doubtfire by Anne Fine
- Serengeti by JB Rockwell (library audio book)
June (10)
- The Following Girls by Louise Levene
- One in Every Crowd by Ivan Coyote
- You Can’t Touch My Hair by Phoebe Robinson (library audio book)
- The Book of Etta by Meg Elison
- The Salamanders by William Lane
- The Kingdom of Speech by Tom Wolfe (library audio book)
- Ladies’ Man by John Ramster
- Lion Boy by Zizou Corder
- Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote
- Wildcat Under Glass by Alki Zei
July (7)
- Dorothy Must Die by Danielle Paige (library audio book)
- The Wonder by Emma Donoghue
- Stonewall by Ann Bausum (library audio book)
- A Little More Human by Fiona Maazel (library audio book)
- Faithless by Joyce Carol Oates
- The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge
- Other Minds by Peter Godfrey Smith (library audio book)
August (13)
- Another Man’s Moccasins by Craig Johnson
- Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings (library audio book)
- The Postmistress by Sarah Blake
- The Wicked Will Rise by Danielle Paige (library audio book)
- Queer by Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele (library book)
- Archer’s Goon by Diana Wynne Jones (library audio book)
- Piecing the Piece O’ Cake Way by Linda Jenkins and Becky Goldsmith (library book)
- Stashbusters by Sarah Maxwell and Dolores Smith (library book)
- Fight Like a Girl by Clementine Ford
- Word Nerd by Susan Nielsen (library book)
- A Wicked Old Woman by Ravinder Randhawa
- A Widow’s Story by Joyce Carol Oates (library audio book)
- Adventures in Stationery by James Ward
September (9)
- American Street by Ibi Zoboi (library audio book)
- Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
- Kissing the Pink by Jane Holland
- Setting Free the Kites by Alex George (library audio book)
- The Cut of Love by Helena Close
- Q by Evan Mandery
- Yellow Brick War by Danielle Paige (library audio book)
- Pompeii by Robert Harris
- Unforgotten by Tohby Riddle
October (8)
- Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice Cream Float Before He Stole My Ma by Kerry Hudson (library audio book)
- Minority Monsters by Tab Kimpton
- Stolen Time by Vangelis Hatziyannidis
- Cat Kid: The Fishy Field Trip by Brian James
- The Cat Who Wasn’t There by Lilian Jackson Braun
- The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker (library audio book)
- Jack Glass by Adam Roberts
- The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George
November (11)
- Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig (library audio book)
- Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
- Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran (library audio book)
- The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld compiled by Stephen Briggs
- Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett
- Mermaid Monster by Jessie Ash (e-book)
- The ABC’s of LGBT+ by Ashley Mardell (e-book)
- The Elite by Kiera Cass (e-book)
- The One by Kiera Cass (e-book)
- In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (e-book)
- Bookends by Jane Green
December (10)
- Mennonite in a Little Black Dress by Rhoda Janzen (library audio book)
- Ostrich by Matt Greene
- The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth (e-book)
- Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult (library audio book)
- New Life Stories by David Attenborough (library audio book)
- This is How You Die edited by Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, and David Malki!
- The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (library audio book)
- Crimes Against a Book Club by Kathy Cooperman (e-book)
- The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher (e-book)
- They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera (library audio book)
What I read in 2016 (92 books)
What I read in 2015 (112 books)
What I read in 2014 (93 books)
What I read in 2013 (129 books)
What I read in 2012 (128 books)
What I read in 2011 (133 books)
What I read in 2010 (137 books)
What I read in 2009 (150 books)
What I read in 2008 (154 books)
What I read in 2007 (123 books)
What I read in 2006 (140 books)
What I read in 2005 (168 books)
What counts as a book?
I know this may be an impossible question… but IF you could choose just one of those books to recommend as an enjoyable read, what would it be?
Yeah, pretty impossible 🙂 And it would depend on who I was recommending it to, of course. But glancing through the list, a few that stand out for me:
Dogside Story is a lovely book by a great New Zealand author – Patricia Grace writes about contemporary Maori life in a way that is deeply authentic and uncompromising, but still accessible to a non-Maori readership.
The Book Thief is an obvious recommendation – powerful and moving and will make you cry many times, but definitely has to be read.
Gender Failure I might not recommend to others, but it really resonated with me personally, just because I recognised so many of my own experiences and feelings in their writing.
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is probably the best new science fiction I’ve read in years. Dark and depressing, but amazingly written.
There’s probably others in that list that I loved, but not enough for them to really stick in my mind. And I think I’ve just proven that I can’t pick just one book 🙂
I managed to get 5 books read last year so you are doing far better than me!!