One of my favorite posts of  the year!  For the past several years now, I’ve been assigning cheeky high school-style awards to the books that I’ve read over the course of the year.  It’s always such fun to look back over my booklist and decide on things like “teacher’s pet,” and “prom queen” and “most likely to succeed.”  (Fun fact: I won a senior superlative in my final year of high school, but it was lame – “shortest.”  Blah.)  As usual, and just to be clear, these aren’t necessarily books published in 2017 (although some may be) nor are they all my favorites for the year.  They’re just the books that I think fit best into the categories of a typical high school yearbook, yes it’s completely ridiculous, and now let’s have some fun.

Brainiest.  I must’ve scanned through my booklist five times but there was no help for it – the smartest person on there in 2017 was Hillary Rodham Clinton, whose well-considered, thoughtful, intelligent plans for our country quietly wrecked me.  Her musings on history and feminism, her plans to improve our infrastructure, our economy, our standing in the world and the health and education of our children – imagine, we could have had all that.  Hillary is the 2017 valedictorian of my booklist and I’m off to cry again.

Best Looking.  From the purple and white clothbound cover and silver slipcase to the luminous interior illustrations – the approach to Moonacre, Maria’s colorful tower bedroom – and the sweetly evocative text, Maria Merryweather and The Little White Horse are gorgeous indeed.

Best Friends.  Jess, Megan, Becca, Cassidy, and Emma take the title this year, as they reconvene for one summer together as camp counselors before going their separate ways to college.  And of course, they deal with challenges from their campers and their surly boss the way their moms taught them – by starting a book club and reading some classic literature!

Class Clown.  I laughed until I cried at Alexandra Petri.  She’s the classic class clown – self-deprecating in the most hilarious way.  You haven’t really laughed until you’ve read her account of being hit on while wearing a Jabba the Hutt suit at a Star Wars convention.

Biggest Jock.  Beartown is a whole town full of jocks – hockey jocks, to be specific.  They run the gamut from mildly obsessed to dangerously so, and when the star player of the town’s junior team commits a horrible crime, they have to decide what is more important – hockey, or the young woman whose life he ruins.  Since it’s a town of hockey jocks, some choose hockey, and it’s chilling.  (I love hockey, but it is only a game.)

Teacher’s Pet.  When her neighbor brings a “guru” to town, Lucia Lucas sees no way forward except to steal the “guru” for herself and become his star pupil.  When he turns out to be a swindler, she’s disappointed but undaunted.  The image of Lucia in flowing white robes, holding court as a yoga instructor in her guru’s model, is hilarious.

Biggest Nerd.  Who wants to read a doorstopper of a non-fiction book about every aspect of the typical Victorian day down to the minutia of hair-dressing?  Me!  Me, please!  Ruth Goodman’s unabashed enthusiasm for the details of a departed historic era earn her the title of “biggest nerd,” and it is a title I bestow with great love and affection, because nerds are the best people, and everyone should love something.

Most Creative.  Mia Warren, avant-garde photographer, gets the title this year for her headfirst, tumultuous approach to photography and life.  I only wish we’d gotten to follow along with her career to the fame that we are assured she eventually finds.

Most Opinionated.  Ta-Nehisi Coates’ writing for The Atlantic is brilliant, comprehensive, and unfailingly honest and raw.  I invariably devour anything he publishes on The Atlantic online, so I’d already read a few of the essays in his collection of eight pieces published during the Obama Administration, but I gladly read them again.  Reading Coates has expanded my horizons in so many ways, and his take on the current events of the day is invariably complex, nuanced and thought-provoking.

Most Likely to End Up in Hollywood.  It was hard not to cheat on this one, because I read so many books last year that I know are destined for Hollywood because they’re in preproduction or further along in the process of being made into a movie.  But there’s no fun in predicting that Ready Player One will end up in Hollywood, because – duh, it’s already there.  So I’m giving the title to Willie Lincoln and the cast of characters he meets while lingering in the space between death and the afterlife in Lincoln in the Bardo.  I will say, as I believe I have before in this category, that if this is made into a movie I’m not going to see it.  I found the imagery upsetting enough on the page – I don’t need to see it played out before my eyes.

Biggest Rebel.  Nimona is the definition of a rebel – who else would saunter into a villain’s lair and insist on becoming his sidekick?  Of course, as the graphic novel plays out, it becomes clear that Nimona has no interest in playing by the rules that Lord Ballister Blackheart (villain) and Sir Ambrosius Goldenloin (hero) have set up to govern their interactions – and also that Nimona is way scarier than her boss, Blackheart.

Biggest Loner.  He’s a hero, celebrity, and one of a trio of code-breaking geeks as Parzival in the virtual world of The Oasis, but in “reality,” Wade Watts is as alone as you can get – huddled in his hideout, wearing his virtual reality goggles twenty hours a day.  You can’t feel sorry for him, though, because everyone else is locked away in their own virtual worlds, too.

Cutest Couple.  Ari Mendoza and Dante Quintana take this year’s prize!  The boys meet at a swimming pool and become best friends, their friendship lasting through major ordeals and self-discovery.  When they finally kissed, it was all I could do not to cheer (I would have, but I was on the metro, listening to Lin-Manuel Miranda gorgeously read the audiobook version).

Prom King.  Who is the mysterious guy that makes all the girls swoon?  He’s suave and sophisticated and you know he knows where all the best libations are hidden.  This year’s Prom King is Count Alexander Rostov.

Prom Queen.  The 2017 Prom Queen is even more mysterious than the Prom King.  Astrid Leong comes from a family so rich that they don’t even want their existence known.  She is effortlessly graceful and stylish – she makes Jacqueline Kennedy look like, well, the rest of us.  Astrid would be mortified to be elected Prom Queen, but she shouldn’t worry.  This isn’t exactly the gossip papers.

Most Likely to Succeed.  How does a regular young girl end up one of the President’s most trusted advisors?  Alyssa Mastromonaco is going to tell you all about it.  Her memoir of her rise from campaign worker to a senior White House advisor under President Obama is absolutely fascinating, and she also drops in her thoughts about professionalism, preparation, teamwork and more.  If you want to know how to succeed in any venture you choose, the road map is right here.

There they are – the 2017 class of superlatives!  They’re a rowdy bunch but they’ve given me a lot of fun over the past twelve months.  I wonder what the 2018 class is going to do with their time…

Do you give high school yearbook-style awards to your books, too?  Just me?

This is always a hard post to write!  Reading around 100 books every year (give or take) it’s a tall order to whittle that down to a list of the ten best of the best.  I usually enjoy the books I am reading – by now, I know my tastes well enough that I do a decent job of choosing what to pick up in the first place – and I give a lot of four and five star ratings on Goodreads.  Plus, how do you decide how to “rank” the books you read?  There are as many schools of thought on this as there are readers, no doubt, but my approach is to choose the ten I enjoyed most – regardless of critical opinion, objective merit, or any other trait.  So, with that preamble and in no particular order – my best of the best, read (but not necessarily published) in 2017:

The Blue Castle, by L.M. Montgomery – I delighted in this LMM novel for adults.  Valancy Stirling, the heroine, is an absolute joy, and her progression from cowed and cowering soul to free spirit was one of my favorite things to read all year.  The scene in which Valancy shocks her buttoned-up relatives by saying exactly what she is thinking at a dinner party was pure fun, and the nature writing is – as expected – superb.  I felt as though I was tramping with Valancy and Barney through witchy November woods and skating with them under a riotous January sky.  Oh, to go back there right now.

Barchester Towers, by Anthony Trollope – While I read The Warden in 2016, last year was really the year I discovered how delightful Trollope actually is.  The second in his Chronicles of Barsetshire, Barchester Towers focuses on the local upheaval after elderly Bishop Grantly passes away.  While a novel about ecclesiastical succession in a backwater cathedral town could be dull, Barchester Towers is anything but – it’s absolutely hilarious.  The dinner party scene!  The “Countess” on her chaise!  Miss Thorne and her medieval sports!  You have to read it.

London War Notes, by Mollie Panter-Downes – It took me months to read, but that was because of intervening library deadlines, and not a reflection on the book itself.  Panter-Downes’ collection of “letters from London,” originally published in The New Yorker between 1939 and 1945, is a glimpse into wartime London, equal parts bracing, funny, and terrifying.  Panter-Downes doesn’t shy away from the hard stuff, but she captures the indomitable British wartime spirit.  My favorite bit was her send-up of the village of “Mugborne” and its war preparations, but really the entire book is one gem after another.

The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas – I think this book is going to be on a lot of “best books of 2017” lists, and for good reason.  The Hate U Give is a stunning tour-de-force.  Starr Carter is thrust into a nightmare when she witnesses the shooting of her best friend at the hands of a police officer.  Now “the witness,” Starr must come to terms with a legal system that doesn’t want justice, with the latent racism of her private school community, and with her own feelings about family, community, and right.  It’s gorgeous and powerful.

A Gentleman in Moscow, by Amor Towles – I didn’t read Towles’ debut, but I surely will, because I loved this.  Count Alexander Rostov, judged an unrepentant aristocrat and sentenced to “house arrest” in the attic of the hotel where he makes his home, is one of the most delightful literary characters I met all year.  The cast of supporting parts surrounding him in the hotel was nearly as delightful.  Count Rostov’s job in the hotel restaurant was completely fitting (and made me hungry) and his exploits with Nina and, later, Sofia, were utterly charming.  And the ending was edge-of-your-seat exciting.

Hidden Figures, by Margot Lee Shetterly – I still haven’t seen the movie (it’s on my list!) but I just loved this history of the heretofore unsung black female NASA mathematicians whose calculations helped win World War II and send men to the moon.  Shetterly’s history is gentle, yet focused, and her real-life characters leap off the page.  I could barely stop myself from cheering when one “computer” removed a “whites only” sign from the cafeteria.  Hidden Figures was a spellbinding story of a group of American heroines who are finally getting their due.

Hag-Seed, by Margaret Atwood – On a scale of one to Handmaid’s Tale, Hag-Seed barely registers.  It has none of the trademark Atwood disturbing-ness, but it’s still vintage and completely weird.  Atwood’s contribution to the Hogarth Shakespeare project sends up The Tempest via a psychedelic performance by a group of correctional center inmates – and it’s all part of an elaborate plot to get revenge on the government official who ousted their director from his previous post as head of a summer theatre.  See?  I told you.  Totally weird.  And totally great.

What Happened, by Hillary Rodham Clinton – Another one that will probably be on lots of “best of 2017” lists.  I wish What Happened had never had occasion to be written, because I wish Secretary Clinton was sitting in the Oval Office instead.  But since we have what we have, we get What Happened instead, and it’s sad, illuminating, thoughtful, meticulous, and everything we expect from Clinton.  And to think, we could have had that thoughtfulness in the White House.

March: Book Three, by Representative John Lewis – Lewis is a civil rights icon, a movement leader and an American treasure.  It’s fitting that he should share a memoir of the most formative moments of his life – which coincide with some of the most formative moments of American history – but his approach, through the medium of a three-part graphic novel, is fresh and fascinating.  I read the first two volumes back in 2016, and happened to be reading the third over MLK weekend in 2017, which felt fitting.

Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K. Jerome – Don’t let the author’s name turn you off, because Three Men in a Boat is really such a romp.  I read a newly reprinted edition from The Folio Society, and the whimsical cartoon illustrations added an extra pop of fun to the story of – you guessed it – three friends who take a boating holiday up the Thames in Edwardian England.  They make tea, bicker, have trouble packing, and get into all sorts of mischief on the river, and it’s way too delightful.

Well, there you have it – ten favorites from my 2017 reading!  This is never an easy task, and it felt harder than usual because last year I read so many delightful books.  The ten above were the highlights, but man – there are so many that deserve honorable mentions.  What a year.

What were some of your favorite reads of 2017?

Well!  Wrapping up another year – here we go.  We’re a couple of weeks into 2018 now, but it always takes me all of January to get through my posts looking back on the last year, especially when it comes to books and reading.  2017 was another banner year for me in books – no matter what else may change, or how crazy life may get, books are always my refuge, so I guess it makes sense that I read as much as I did in 2017.  Here’s how my numbers are looking, now that I’ve closed the book (sorry) on the year.

Just the Facts, Ma’am

Looking at the numbers alone, it looks like I read 102 books this year – which is a pace of juuuuuuust a hair under two books per week.  That sounds about right to me.  It was a busy year, full of travel, parenting and work stress, so it seems that no matter what I do, I come out around 100 books in a year.  That seems to be the sweet spot.

My longest book, clocking in at 904 pages, was Middlemarch, by George Eliot (which I actually listened to on audiobook this time around, although I have read it in print, in the past).  My shortest book, at a slim 46 pages, was Simplify, by Joshua Becker.  Funnily enough, Simplify was also the first book I read in 2017.  It’s a good New Year’s book.

Pie-Oh-My

One of my favorite exercises to do at the end of a year (or beginning of a new year) is look back over all of the books I read in the previous year.  It’s always fun to see where I began, where I went, and where I ended – and of course, to relive a list of wonderful books.

Fiction/Non-Fiction

Always the easiest place to begin.  As always, I was a big fiction reader this year – that never changes.  72 fiction to 28 non-fiction – more than twice as much.  Non-fiction represented a little more than a quarter of my reading this year, which – again – is pretty consistent for me.  What did change is that I read two books of poetry this year!  I considered placing them in the non-fiction category, but they didn’t quite fit there, so I’ve got a new category on this graph this year.  I hope it’s a bigger sliver of the pie in 2018.

Format

Unsurprisingly, I was heavily into physical books this year – always am.  I don’t have a particular prejudice in favor of physical books; they just tend to be what I pick up.  And when you consider that the comics/graphic novels (only three this year, which is a departure from the past couple of years) and journals that I read this year are also physical objects, that’s even more.  I did read more electronically this year – five audiobooks and eleven ebooks – than I have done in the past, which is interesting.  (Despite what this chart may look like, I don’t place a value on reading physical books or reading electronically, so I have no 2018 goals in either direction.  I gravitate more toward physical books because I can’t read on my phone, as many ebook readers do – too much time looking at my phone screen gives me debilitating headaches.  My kindle doesn’t have the same effect, so most ebooks I’m reading are completed with that device.)  The one thing that I really like is that it appears I read across a number of different formats – including two journals – this year.  I’d like to keep that up, and to read more journals and more comics, in 2018.

Source of Book

As usual, I was a heavy library user this year.  Reading 102 books in a year, I guess I have to be – or I’d break the bank.  (Plus there was Project 24 to contend with this year – I only bought 24 books for myself all year, and while that may seem like a lot to some people, I am confident that here, among my kindred spirits as I am, you all are praising my fortitude and forbearance.)  The change was that I was actually not as heavy of a library user as I have been in the past.  While library books still made up the bulk of my reading this year, Audible (I have a membership) and Kindle (thanks to Modern Mrs. Darcy‘s daily ebook deals emails) chipped away at the graph, and I also made an effort to read from my own shelves.  I have a lot of beautiful editions of classics that I’m hoping to finally get to in 2018, so that number will – I am optimistically predicting – grow even more in 2018.

Fiction Genres

Now comes the fun part – getting into the weeds a bit more.  Starting with fiction genres – I was thrilled to see that I read 22 classics this year; by far the biggest chunk of all the fiction genres.  Literary fiction, clocking in at 16 books, was also a big category for me (it always is) but I love to see classics top the chart.  Mystery is usually a reliable genre for me, too, and six books is respectable.  As for the rest, I was dabbling all over the place this year, and it shows in small numbers over a bunch of categories – one short stories, one romance, two historical fiction – you can see.  This chart is pretty normal for me, and for 2018 I’m predicting an even heavier weight toward classics, since I’m feeling very drawn to them at the moment (could this tumultuous national atmosphere have anything to do with that, I wonder?).

Nonfiction Genres

I was really surprised to see so many memoirs.  I had no idea that genre interested me as much as it does.  Part of it, I think, is the grey area of classification – for instance, I put both Hillary Clinton’s What Happened and Alyssa Mastromonaco’s Who Thought This Was a Good Idea? into the memoir category, but either or both could have fit into the politics category just as neatly.  The discretion and judgment calls involved in assigning categories do sometimes result in one category getting weighted, and I think that’s what’s happening here.  But expect to see a heavy memoir year in 2018, too, because I’ve been stockpiling Slightly Foxed Editions, and those are all classic-but-forgotten memoirs.  Another one to file in the non-surprise category – five books about politics!  (And that’s leaving out Hillary and Alyssa, as noted.)  Usually I lump politics, history and social science into one category; this year, I read so many that I ended up breaking them apart.  Again – I wonder if the tumultuous national atmosphere has anything to do with that.  I’m sure I’m not the only one turning to books to make sense of what’s going on.

Settings

Always a fun one to review!  No surprise here – England and the USA were by far my two biggest categories.  They’re usually fairly close to even, but this year, the USA pulled way ahead.  I’m guessing that was at least partially due to the heavier slate of political books and political memoirs, but I don’t think that can totally explain it.  I’m going out on a limb and speculating here, but I also was actively seeking out books about the African-American and immigrant experiences, as part of my effort to read diversely, and that may have inflated the USA total as well.  Other items of note – four books set in multiple settings, and funnily, two of those were evenly divided between Italy and England (who’d have thunk?).  Also, I read a book set in outer space – Octavia Butler’s Dawn, which takes place entirely aboard an alien spaceship.  Wild stuff.

Diverse Voices

In 2017, I set the goal to read at least 33% diverse voices (which I sketchily defined as including racial minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, and underrepresented religions, or a combination thereof).  That goal doesn’t quite get me to 33% people of color (which is the American population, roughly) because some of the categories – like LGBTQ+ and underrepresented religions – can and do include white writers.  But I like the number 33% because I think it’s a serious goal.  (Note: I didn’t actually set a number or percentage goal for 2018, but I am still paying attention and actively seeking out diverse books.)  Anyway, the chart above shows how I did – and it’s good.  For the second year in a row, I exceeded 33% of my booklist being devoted to diverse books.  At 40 books out of a total of 102, I came in at about 39.6%, and I am really pleased with that.  Some of the best books I read this year were by diverse writers and writers of color – like Little Fires Everywhere, by Celeste Ng, and The Hate U Give, by Angie Thomas – and I don’t know that they would have come my way if I hadn’t been actively seeking them out.  That effort is the thing, and it’s so important.  I don’t say that to congratulate myself – goodness knows I have room to improve – but to point out that it’s easy to fall into a pattern of not seeking out diverse books.  This is a problem in publishing.  It shouldn’t require planning and legwork and commitment by the reader to track down and obtain these books; they are compelling stories told in great prose and they deserve a lot more exposure.

Diverse Groups

Final pie chart – a bit more detail on my diverse reading efforts.  Consistent with 2016, African-Americans and African Diaspora authors were the largest group.  This is unsurprising, because I try particularly hard to seek out those stories.  I also read a lot of Asian and Asian-American authors this year, and really enjoyed the time I spent with them (Kevin Kwan and Celeste Ng, I’m looking at you).  One thing that disappointed me?  My LGBTQ+ number, which I’d like to see a lot higher.  (It’s not as bad as it looks, though.  Both of the books that I classified as “multiple” diverse groups were from LGBTQ+ authors, who also happened to be people of color.  But five LGBTQ+ authors is still not enough.)  A pleasant surprise was my Native American total, although six of those seven books were Louise Erdrich novels.  I’d love to keep growing there, so please, hit me with your best Native American/Native Canadian/First Nations recommendations.

So – there it is!  A year in reading, broke down in the nerdiest way imaginable.  I had a good bookish year, if you couldn’t tell from the above.  Lots of laughter, lots of thought, some tears, and quite a few new fictional friends.  And now – onward to 2018, which I hope will be a banner year for both classics and diverse books.

Did you have reading goals in 2017?  How’d it go?