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What was your favorite adult book you read in '17?

Alicia64

By Alicia64,
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Alicia64

Alicia64

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I'll go first. I just finished The Hundred Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared.

 

So, so, so good!

 

It will pull you in immediately and it's full of easily understood real life history.

 

Highly recommend.

 

Can you share the book that you just LOVED?

 

Edited to add: can you give a sentence or two re: why you loved it?

 

TIA!!

 

Alley

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gingersmom

gingersmom

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I have too many favorites to choose!!!

 

Non fiction:

Forget you had a daughter: Doing time in the Bangkok Hilton

Between Breaths: A memoir of panic and addiction

The stranger in the woods : the extraordinary story of the last true hermit

You don't have to say you love me

I can't make this up: Life lessons

Born with teeth

 

Fiction:

Small great things

Big little lies

 

Currently working my way through the Poldark series, love!!!

 

ETA:

 

Esther the Wonder Pig: changing the world one heart at a time

A Street Cat Named Bob ( read the book, listen to audiobook, skip the movie. Such a nice nice story!!!)

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Annie G

Annie G

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In 2016 it was Hillbilly Elegy.

2017 is similar in some ways--Janesville.  It made me cry though.  And books never EVER make me actually cry.

Evicted was a good and important read, too.

 

In fiction, I'm not sure.  Maybe The Mountain Story.

 

Thanks for the heads up on Janesville. I have reserved it at the library. 

 

My favorite this year was Forty Autumns by Nina Willner.

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mumto2

mumto2

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I read many great books this year so it's really hard to pick. ;) On Goodreads I gave many of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries 5* during my recent series read. I had read the first three previously and liked but did not love them. When I kept hearing how great the series was I decided to try them one more time. Wonderful characters and stories.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/42154-chief-inspector-armand-gamache

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madteaparty

madteaparty

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It was a tie: Tolstoy's Anna Karenina and Cormac McCarthy's The Road

 

slowly I am knocking off my list...

Cheerful ;)

I re read Anna Karenina for DS’s class and you know it has aged so well (Levin agriculture excepted) and I appreciate it better at my current age.

The Road I refuse to read but DS has read it 😰

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guilfordlake

guilfordlake

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The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer.  I loved it because she articulated how I feel about supporting artists, writers, musicians, creatives in general. Yes, please tell me (or your fans in general) how we can help you because we *want* to support you in any way possible. Secondly, I loved the trust she has in asking. She is completely comfortable staying in stranger's homes while touring. I could never imagine such a thing. I admire her faith in humanity/her fans. The community she and her fans have created is beautiful and that is the kind of following I would want to create were I in that position.

 

Her TED talk on the topic is here. 

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Ottakee

Ottakee

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Another vote for the historical fiction novel The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Heart wrenching and intriguing set during the war in 1940’s. Stayed with me long after finishing.

It is very powerful as an audio book with the accents.  It does stay with you long after finishing.

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BarbecueMom

BarbecueMom

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I can't really remember what fiction I read this year.  I started to write it down, then forgot about it after, oh, January 3.  I'm going to say Ancillary Justice (the whole trilogy actually) by Ann Leckie, because that one jumps out of my head first.

 

Toss up for non-fiction between Evicted and The Signal and the Noise.

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Guest

Guest

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I love ALL the books! :D

 

For fiction, I loved The Miniaturist, by Jessie Burton. I very much liked The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Frye by Rachel Joyce. I also greatly enjoyed The Last Mrs. Parrish, written by my mother’s best friend, Valerie Constantine, with her sister Lynn, under the psuedonym Liv Constantine.

 

For non-fiction, I loved Hilbilly Elegy by J. Vance and The Other Wes Moore, by Wes Moore. I loved the marriage advice in the non-fiction book, It Takes One to Tango, by Winifred Reilly.

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Guest

Guest

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The Art of Asking by Amanda Palmer. I loved it because she articulated how I feel about supporting artists, writers, musicians, creatives in general. Yes, please tell me (or your fans in general) how we can help you because we *want* to support you in any way possible. Secondly, I loved the trust she has in asking. She is completely comfortable staying in stranger's homes while touring. I could never imagine such a thing. I admire her faith in humanity/her fans. The community she and her fans have created is beautiful and that is the kind of following I would want to create were I in that position.

 

Her TED talk on the topic is here.

Boy, does this ever sound like a book I need to read. I am such a terrible asker. I think I must do everything. I have gotten a little better about accepting help when it is offered and I truly do want or need it, but it is still very difficult for me to ask someone to do something for me, especially if it is something I would like them to just do out of kindness (not for pay).

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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

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Fiction:

 

News of the World - good story well told, wonderful characters.

 

Big Little Lies - starts out as what seems like shallow chick lit, moves to serious topics in a respectful way. Quirky but real characters.

 

Non-fiction:

 

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End - I rarely recommend books unless asked but I do recommend this one to anyone who has or will have aging parents, and to anyone who hopes to live to a ripe old age.

 

Bellevue: Three Centuries of Medicine and Mayhem at America's Most Storied Hospital - if you like history this is a mix of the history of medicine, of NYC, and of the United States. Also, like many people I always associated Bellevue with mental illness and people being committed against their will. The hospital is so much more than that.

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Lady Florida.

Lady Florida.

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It was a tie:  Tolstoy's Anna Karenina  and Cormac McCarthy's The Road

 

  slowly I am knocking off my list...

 

I read The Road a few years ago with my IRL book club. It was interesting but bleak. Then again, I don't think I'm a Cormac McCarthy fan - I didn't care for No Country for Old Men either.

 

Anna Karenina is one of my favorite novels of all time. I'm thinking of rereading it in 2018 but I also want to knock books off my list, especially the ones that have been there a while.

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AppleGreen

AppleGreen

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I have too many favorites to choose!!!

 

Non fiction:

Forget you had a daughter: Doing time in the Bangkok Hilton

Between Breaths: A memoir of panic and addiction

The stranger in the woods : the extraordinary story of the last true hermit

You don't have to say you love me

I can't make this up: Life lessons

Born with teeth

 

Fiction:

Small great things

Big little lies

 

Currently working my way through the Poldark series, love!!!

 

ETA:

 

Esther the Wonder Pig: changing the world one heart at a time

A Street Cat Named Bob ( read the book, listen to audiobook, skip the movie. Such a nice nice story!!!)

Oooo, I love the Amazon series. It is what I have sewn kids' Christmas gifts to the last two years.  :001_smile:  I think I may like the series, nice to see an endorsement. 

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Chris in VA

Chris in VA

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I read many great books this year so it's really hard to pick. ;) On Goodreads I gave many of Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache mysteries 5* during my recent series read. I had read the first three previously and liked but did not love them. When I kept hearing how great the series was I decided to try them one more time. Wonderful characters and stories.

https://www.goodreads.com/series/42154-chief-inspector-armand-gamache

These books were definitely my daughter's favorites. She really loved the Quebecois culture.

 

Her other favorite was a re-read--Rebecca. 

 

(I didn't have a favorite. I read IT and Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King (and SB was also by his son, Owen). IT was more disturbing but pretty good. SB was a real dumb-ass of a book and so disappointing I almost cried.)

 

This year for Xmas I got Ship of Theseus, and I can't wait to read it, but I will have to be very awake as it's a unique mystery and requires attentive reading. 

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guilfordlake

guilfordlake

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Boy, does this ever sound like a book I need to read. I am such a terrible asker. I think I must do everything. I have gotten a little better about accepting help when it is offered and I truly do want or need it, but it is still very difficult for me to ask someone to do something for me, especially if it is something I would like them to just do out of kindness (not for pay).

 

One of the stories she tells in the book is about how difficult it was to ask for and accept financial help from her husband, Neil Gaiman, when she was recording one of her albums and needed more money to finish it. Of course he wanted to help her but she felt awful about using *his* money for *her* project. It was so relatable because I hate asking my husband (or anyone) for help. 

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Kareni

Kareni

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I had three favorite series this year ~

 

The Others by Anne Bishop; the series starts with the book Written in Red. This is a series set in a different version of our own world with shapeshifters, vampires, and the like as well as humans.  The humans are often not sympathetic characters though there are some exceptions.  There is a very slight romance that builds over the course of the five books.

 

The New Scotland Yard mysteries by Anne Cleeland; the series starts with Murder In Thrall.  This series features a rather unheroic hero, an aristocrat who is a chief inspector, and a heroine, a low level detective of Irish birth who has a knack for telling if the truth is being told.  This series combines mystery and romance.

 

My third favorite series is one that would not suit conservative readers.  It is an alien male/male romance series with adult content. The series is by Lyn Gala and begins with the book Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts.  Much of the series deals with individuals from different worlds learning to understand each others' language and culture.  You can obtain a free prelude here:  Prelude to Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts.

 

Regards,

Kareni 

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TABmom

TABmom

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Isn't Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah been out for a few years? I wonder why it has been so popular this year? I also read it on the recommendation of my SIL who also read it this year.

I'd have to say my fave was The Orphan Train. It's about a girl and a girl+ baby escaping Germany during WW2 by joining the circus. One of the girls was already an acrobat and the other didn't set out to join the circus, but that's where she ended up. It had great characters and I loved the setting of the circus of long ago.

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eternalsummer

eternalsummer

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Don't laugh, I read Huck Finn for the first time this year.  I won't spoil it for the one or two people in the universe who still haven't read it, but I will say that the emotional climax, when he makes the sort of fundamental moral decision, was one of the best moments I've ever read in fiction, ever.  

 

so that's my recommendation, Huckleberry Finn.

 

 

I will say that it is nice to have some of the great classics left to read as an older (30s, anyway) adult; I didn't waste them all on the limited understanding of my youth :)  

 

 

Non-fiction, I'm currently reading The Sea Around Us, which I really got for DD12 to read, and it is quite beautiful.  

 

 

Night Elf, I also really liked The Martian - I thought it was really very old-school sci-fi, and very well written.  It also has that admirable quality of (imo) most self-published fiction, which is a sort of earnestness and lack of cynicism.  Published works, with all their fancy editors, are often more readable (as a lot of self-published stuff could have used an editor or four or someone to say "you can't write, go home"), but you can't manufacture that innocence and purity of POV, and The Martian has it.  DD12 and I both read it so many times the cover fell off, so I bought another copy and the cover fell off of that one eventually too.

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Pawz4me

Pawz4me

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Isn't Firefly Lane by Kristin Hannah been out for a few years? I wonder why it has been so popular this year? I also read it on the recommendation of my SIL who also read it this year.

 

Well, speaking only for myself -- I can almost guarantee it was a Kindle daily deal at some point during the year. That's how I get most of my books.

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Kassia

Kassia

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Don't laugh, I read Huck Finn for the first time this year.  I won't spoil it for the one or two people in the universe who still haven't read it, but I will say that the emotional climax, when he makes the sort of fundamental moral decision, was one of the best moments I've ever read in fiction, ever.  

 

so that's my recommendation, Huckleberry Finn.

 

 

I will say that it is nice to have some of the great classics left to read as an older (30s, anyway) adult; I didn't waste them all on the limited understanding of my youth :)  

 

 

 

 

I am 50 and am reading Huck Finn for the first time!  

 

I agree that the classics are appreciated more when you read them as an adult (in general).  I think I get way more out of the books I am reading now than I would have as a teen.  

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6packofun

6packofun

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 SB was a real dumb-ass of a book and so disappointing I almost cried.)

 

 

 LOL  YES!

 

My favorite non-fiction was The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich.  

My review from Goodreads: 

 

This was a difficult read. (Warning: If you have suffered childhood trauma you may want to pass on this one, as good as it is.)

The Fact of a Body is less about the two crimes described within its pages than it is about how we respond to them, how we view justice based upon our own experiences. Every crime is a story and how it is told--where one storyteller begins and ends that tale, what details are withheld or cannot be known, and even how the facts find their place within the story--combines with our own body of knowledge and experience to create "a verdict." The author takes us through her own difficult circumstances and how that affects her desire to know and understand Ricky, a child molester facing a retrial to be given the death penalty again or receive life in prison. Masterfully and sensitively told, you may find yourself questioning how to KNOW what someone "deserves", how a victim and his or her family can find real justice...or if there is such a thing at all that can be definitively decided. And who decides?

 

My favorite fiction was either The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley by Hannah Tinti or The Magpie Murders by Anthony Hororwitz. (Probably the latter because I love mysteries and this was just an homage to the mystery genre...a mystery within a mystery!  Very well-written.)

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Rachel

Rachel

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Here’s most of my 5 star books from this past year.

 

The Light Between Oceans by MD Stedman. It was haunting but I just loved how the light keeper was torn between doing what was right and his love for his family. I rarely listen to audiobooks, but did for this one and was glad I did.

 

One of Ours by Willa Cather. I think I partially liked it because it was set near where I grew up and Cather is one of my favorite authors. It was WW1 fiction and while I have read a ton set during WW2, there just isn’t as many books set during the first World War.

 

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. It’s a memoir written in verse and just beautiful. Another audiobook that was read by the author, it’s beautiful.

 

Born Bright: A young girls journey from nothing to something in America by C. Nicole Mason. I called this the black persons version of Hilbilly Elegy and I liked it better. I think partially I enjoyed it because it described a background so different than anything I have known.

 

I’ve added a few books to my to-read list.

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Teachaheart

Teachaheart

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My favorite fiction books this year were by Thrity Umrigar: The Story Hour, The Space Between Us and The Weight of Heaven. The writing is elegant, and the characters and their stories drew me in and massaged all my emotions.

 

I also unexpectedly enjoyed Exit West by Mohsin Hamid. It took me a couple tries to get into it, but once I did, I stayed up all night to finish it.

 

In nonfiction, I enjoyed Sophia Al-Maria's memoir The Girl Who Fell to Earth, which tells of her experience growing up with her American mother and Arab father and trying to come to terms with and find her place in both American and Bedouin cultures.

 

Natalie Goldberg has been my writing mentor this year with Writing Down the Bones and The True Secret of Writing: Connecting Life with Language.

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