In 2017, I read 48 books. This is a big decrease from the 67 books I read last year. Part of this drop is due to reading too much about the deterioration of America in the news. The other reason is because I was dealing with a family death, and was reading much slower.
Here are the 48 books I read in 2017. They are listed in the order in which I read them.
Like I did in 2016, I picked the top ten books that I especially enjoyed and/or changed me for the better. These books are in bold. While I enjoyed many of the books I read this year, these ten hold a special place in my heart and I highly recommend them.
- Maman’s Homesick Pie by Donia Bijan
- Paper Girls by Brian K. Vaughn & Cliff Chiang
- Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing by Kay A. Haring & Robert Neubecker
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen
- This City by Claudia Castro Luna
- Found Poetry Review, Vol. 7, edited by Jenni B. Baker & Beth Ayer
- Working Days: The Journals of The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck & edited by Robert DeMott
- Show Your Work! by Austin Kleon *
- Make Trouble by John Waters
- Sunday Sketching by Christoph Niemann
- Kindred Spirits by Rainbow Rowell
- Of Lamb by Matthea Harvey & Amy Jean Porter
- The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
- You Are a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero
- Death at Glacier Lake by Pam Stucky
- My Mother Was Nuts by Penny Marshall
- The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight
- Northwest Cartoonists Cookbook by various cartoonists & artists
- The Round House by Louise Erdrich
- Theft by Finding: Diaries (1977-2002) by David Sedaris
- Orange Ginger Jam by frannerd
- Perfect Tree Shapes by frannerd
- Boogie-Woogie Crisscross by Tess Gallagher and Lawrence Matsuda
- Chinook & Chanterelle by Robert Michael Pyle
- Chibi Samurai Wants a Pet by Sanae Ishida
- The Way of the Writer by Charles Johnson
- Poetry, March 2017
- IBS–Free at Last! by Patsy Catsos
- The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han
- Scratch: Writers, Money, and the Art of Making a Living edited by Manjula Martin
- The Autobiography of an American Buffalo by Oscar Zeta Acosta
- Why We March: Signs of Protest and Hope by Artisan
- Radiant Child: the Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat by Javaka Steptoe
- The Jones Family Express by Javaka Steptoe
- Inspirations: Poems of Life and Love by Kathryn Carole Ellison
- Devil in a Blue Dress by Walter Mosley
- Dumplin’ by Julie Murphy
- Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar
- Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill
- Case Histories by Kate Atkinson
- Ms. Marvel: No Normal: Issues 1-5 by G. Willow Wilson and Adrian Alphona
- Perennial Seller by Ryan Holiday
- Enginerds by Jarrett Lerner
- Invisible Dead by Sam Wiebe
- The Simple Path to Wealth by JL Collins
- Monstress, Volume II, by Marjorie Liu and Sana Takeda
- I Am Pusheen the Cat by Claire Belton
* indicates that I read this book in a previous year and read it again this year
Hope this list gives you good ideas for books to read in 2018. And if you’ve read any of these already, please let me know what you thought of them in the comments box. Happy New Year and happy reading!
Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel that asks, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle. Peg is also the creator of Fear & Writing, a workshop for procrastinating writers from all walks of life.
Great list, look forward to checking some of these out! 48 is still impressive, I think I will end up with around 30 if I finish one I’m reading today, which would probably be a better use of my time than watching football. 😉 The first half of the year I read every New Yorker to finish out my subscription, which left little time for books, so was relieved when that ended. My pile of 2018 reading is already staggering, we’ll see how it goes. Happy reading (and writing)!
You’re so good–reading every New Yorker to finish out your subscription! I’m like that too. If I pay for a subscription, then I will make myself read every magazine. Usually. But you’re more dedicated than me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a full New Yorker magazine. This statement may be sacrilege to the literary illuminati, but I like shorter articles. Long articles bore me. Even if they’re written by brilliant people.
Hey, if football makes you happy, keep watching it. We all need to do more thing that make us happy. 🙂 Happy reading in 2018!
Yes, Jeanie is awesome that way (among others). I’m currently laboring under a New Yorker subscription, and weirdly, I can’t figure out who gave it to me. I hate the ever-growing pile of unread articles pouting at me–I wish I could get an online-only subscription.
Anyway, I enjoy a good long article, as long as it’s not by John McPhee. (If you ever want a taste of hell, Cubby, exhume his five-part article on the orange.) Yes, I suppose he’s technically good at writing. But for me it’s like I’m standing near the rim of the Grand Canyon, being lectured by a genial, portly, self-satisfied professor who never steps back from the railing, and just lets me look. As if the knowledge of a thing were more important than the thing itself. But people I respect love his writing, so I guess it’s just me.
You’ve just confirmed to me that I should never get a New Yorker subscription. Thank you, Edgy. I bet if you contacted them and asked to be switched to online-only, they’d do it.
I have not read anything by John McPhee but I’ve heard that other people like his stuff. But a 5-part article on an orange?! Jesus. I know what you mean about the genial, self-satisfied professor who just chuffs on and on and never lets you see the Grand Canyon. That’s a great analogy! I’ve been in that spot. If we’re ever both in that position at the same time, I’ll stick out my leg and you push. Deal?