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?