2017 Year in Review

In 2017 I read 67 books, or 24,127 pages . This is an increase over last year when I read 57 books, or 18,395 pages. I continue to listen to audio books as I train for half-marathons and I recently changed jobs requiring a longer commute, and therefore, more time with my audiobooks. Considering I spent almost 80 hours this fall listening to a podcast rather than books (seriously The Adventure Zone was sooooo good), this number could have been even higher. All the reviews this year on the blog were my own fresh from 2017. I had been hoping to feature guest blogs last year and that just did NOT come together, so maybe 2018 is my year. A lot of this year felt like keeping my head down in a book and trying to find some escape from the very volatile political climate in our country. 2017 was the year I quit Facebook! My average book rating this year was 3.7 meaning that the books I read were more good than bad.

Longest Book: The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt. At 771 pages this book clocked in as my heftiest book of the year. But I loved every freaking page of it. Donna Tartt's writing is so crisp, so fantastic that it's also my BEST book of the year. See below. 

Best Book: The Goldfinch by  Donna Tartt. Holy moly, I felt like I was reading this for a long time, but I just never got bored with it, even when in depth descriptions were made of a bird painting. Donna Tartt's writing is something I cannot get enough of. I read The Secret History later this year and loved it as well. Down to the disturbing details and the dense history of the characters she presents, the Goldfinch is a masterpiece through and through.

You can read the review here.

Shortest Book: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling). I watched the movie on a plane this year, travelling from the west coast on an overnight flight during which I was too cold to sleep. Red-eyes are very very dumb y'all. So naturally I had to read the screenplay when it came out and then had to catch up on this little tome to add to my Beetle the Bards and the History of Quidditch (which my 5 year old has taken to walking around the house with despite his never reading it and knowing nothing about the Harry Potter books or movies). It was short, quick, cute, and a nice dip into the Harry Potter world.

I didn't even write a review for this but you can read the review  of the screenplay here.

Best Character: Kolya from City of Thieves. I really loved City of Thieves. It was such a great story of two young men during the siege of Leningrad. Zig zagging it's way from heartbreaking to hilarious, Kolya made the story for me and for the other main protagonist, Lev Beniov. Kolya reminded me of my best friend from high school, with just a little extra macabre charm.

You can read the review here.

Worst Book: Blood Work by Michael Connelly. This was hard to decide. Last year I read some really really bad books. And this year I had so few one or two star reviews - but a lot of threes. This was a straight two. Connelly really missed the mark here. The love story was very smarmy and unrealistic. Overly dramatic and equally unbelievable, the story is somehow made worse by the terrible movie made with Clint Eastwood. Please do yourself a favor and skip it.

You can read the review here.

Biggest Disappointment: The Book of Harlan by Bernice McFadden. I made a commitment to read a book by an African American author for Black History Month. Bernice McFadden has been so well lauded for her earlier work that I had high expectations for this book about her direct ancestor who was a jazz performer and had to spend time in a Nazi concentration camp. Somehow, unbelievably, the book focuses very little on this time and instead delves into the various ancestry of McFadden and the possible descendants of her familial line. I can see why the author was more interested in how her own history was created, but the story, the line of interest was definitely more with an accidental victim of the nazi violence than with the every day struggles of a single mom in New York who we never get to meet too clearly.

You can read the review here.






Worst Character: Claire Roth, The Art Forger. Oh god. Claire. She was so so dumb. And so easily manipulated. And so defined by her past relationships with more powerful or influential men. Ick. The book ultimately was interesting, but Claire was just so so terrible.

You can read the review here.

Honorable Mentions:  Cutting for Stone. I really really loved this book. I love stories of siblings and this one of identical twins, born of a secret love between a nun and an English doctor was so moving and touching and just well everything. I really can't say enough good things about this book.

You can read the review here.

Goals for 2018: I've set my goal of 60 books for this year. I know it is doable since I blew that away in 2017. I'll be training for another half marathon soon so I'll have the time to listen. 60 books is slightly more than a book a week and I know I'll get my Ploughshares love in four times this year.

Will George RR Martin get around to publishing Winds of Winter (signs are pointing to yes!- check out this update), I'm not counting on it (I was similarly disappointed last year and even wrote that EXACT SAME SENTENCE in last year's review - AND the year before that) or I would have set the goal at 52. But if it ruins my reading goal for the year, I'd be okay with that.