Stef's Favorite Books of 2017

My favorite books of 2017! Basically in the order that I read them, not the order that I liked them. I can't choose favorites among my favorites! What am I, a monster?

My reading goal for 2017 was to read more nonfiction by women (journalistic/research-based nonfiction--not memoir. No offense intended, memoir.) and I did read so many amazing books by brilliant women. It's a dang good goal if you're looking for one, and it does take a bit of effort-- there is undoubtedly a bias towards men when it comes to this type of nonfiction. I also kept up with my 2016 goal to read more women of color-- that remains the best reading decision of my adult life, easy. My 2018 reading goal is to read nonfiction by women of color, and to make it a priority to read small press books over the hyped hits from the Big Five.

My last goal is to break my habit of listening to audio books of "girl" thrillers. Sure, they're entertaining but it occurred to me recently that the protagonists are all white women, who are beautiful and who have nice things. Has there been a "girl" thriller with a main character who is a women of color? (Let me know if there has been-- I will read it!)

Best Book I Apparently Waited Until 2017 for Cosmic Reasons to Read: The Handmaid's Tale by duh

Fiction- Novels
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Lucky Boy by Shanthi Sekaran
Salt Houses by Hala Alyan
The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Goodbye, Vitamin by Rachel Khong
A Catalog of Birds by Laura Harrington
Future Home of the Living God by Louise Erdrich
The Animators by Kayla Rae Whitaker
Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Fiction- Short Story Collections:
The Redemption of Galen Pike by Carys Davies
Fen: Stories by Daisy Johnson
Her Body and Other Parties: Stories by Carmen Maria Machado

Nonfiction
The Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir by Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich
The New Odyssey: The Story of the Twenty-First Century Refugee Crisis by Patrick Kingsley
The Road to Jonestown: Jim Jones and Peoples Temple by Jeff Guinn
Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy by Tressie McMillan Cottom
Janesville: An American Story by Jane Goldstein
American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land by Monica Hesse
God in Captivity: The Rise of Faith-Based Prison Ministries in the Age of Mass Incarceration by Tanya Erzen
Loving: Interracial Intimacy in America and the Threat to White Supremacy by Sheryll Cashin
After the Eclipse: A Mother's Murder, a Daughter's Search by Sarah Perry
Real American: A Memoir by Julie Lythcott-Hayes

Nonfiction- Essay Collections
The Wrong Way to Save Your Life: Essays by Megan Stielstra
Too Much and Not the Mood: Essays by Durga Chew-Bose
The Mother of All Questions by Rebecca Solnit

YA
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Genuine Fraud by E Lockhart
Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu

And because I'm petty, the number of books I read all the way through but was BITTERLY disappointed with: 10 (That's a lot! Stop disappointing me, books!)

I'll follow up with more details about each book! She said confidently!