At the dawn of this new year, I was challenged by my friend and critique partner to participate in an #amreading2017 Instagram challenge. Part of that challenge was to list 17 of our must-read books (either new releases or established favorites) of 2017.
Now that we’ve hit July and the midpoint of the year, I thought it was time to go back over this list and see how I was doing on the reading challenge. Not so bad, as it turns out…
Seventeen books for 2017
1. “Make Me” by Lee Child: Read it. Loved it. Same vein as the 19 previous installments of Jack Reacher, but with a couple of fantastically morbid twists that made the pages fly by.
2. “Magician’s Nephew” by C.S. Lewis: So, so wonderful. Listened to the book on CD with my girls on a recent road trip. Can’t wait to tackle the rest of the Narnia series with them!!
3. “Truly Madly Guilty” by Liane Moriarty: Not my favorite book of hers (I preferred “Big Little Lies” by a longshot) but a solid read nonetheless. I think I got frustrated early on by the sheer number of named characters which, it turns out, was only three couples. Early dementia, much??
4. “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” by J.K. Rowling: Not reading yet. Saving for finale to series with older daughter.
5. “Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens. Devoured it. Loved it. Using it as inspiration for my current work in progress called “Last Dream of My Soul.”
6. “Blackout: Remembering the Things I Drank to Forget” by Sarah Hepola. One of only two nonfiction books on this list, I really need to get to reading this. Checked it out, got distracted by other books, returned to the library w/o cracking the cover. #bookfail #tryagain
7. “Moonlight Over Paris” by Jennifer Robson. Not at all what I was expecting, but super sweet and easy-to-read historical fiction.
8. “The Coincidence of Coconut Cake” by Amy E. Reichert. Did not get to this one yet (library only has the online version) but I was thrilled to devour “Love, Luck and Lemon Pie” as well as “The Simplicity of Cider” by the same author. And she’s from Wisconsin! And she went to St. Norbert College with my husband!! #smallworld
9. “Outlander” by Diana Gabaldon. Haven’t gotten to this one yet. Part of me is afraid that I’ll become obsessed with the series and not want to read anything else for the foreseeable future…
10. “The Vanishing Year” by Kate Moretti. Chilling and haunting, the author proves you never know who you can really trust — especially if you don’t know who you really are. A fantastic thriller.
11. “Small Great Things” by Jodi Picoult. Perhaps the most unsettling of her books — and quite deliberately so. This latest novel takes an up-close look at modern racism in our country. And I’m not impressed with what I saw but VERY impressed with how this book made me feel. A must-read.
12. “Faithful” by Alice Hoffman. So many “holds” on this book at the library!! I’m next in line, though. Fingers crossed it becomes available before my vacation…
13. “Wildflower” by Drew Barrymore. The other non-fiction book on my list. (WTH, Laura?) Definitely on my must-read-during-vaycay list.
14. “Difficult Women” by Roxane Gay. There’s something about anthologies and collections of short stories that make my hand hesitate at the bookshelf level. It shouldn’t. I know it. Still on my want-to-read list…
15. “I Know a Secret” by Tess Gerritsen. I was starting to feel guilty and off my game for having not read so many consecutive books on my list. Then I noticed that this installment of the “Rizzoli & Isles” series isn’t going to be published until next month. Moving on…
16. “The Sleepwalker” by Chris Bohjalian. Fantastically brilliant and richly compelling as only Bohjalian can be. Not as eerie or haunting as “Close Your Eyes Hold Hands” but I’m not saying that’s a bad thing, as I was able to still sleep after putting this book down.
17. “Into the Water” by Paula Hawkins. This book by “Girl on the Train” author must be on every book club list in Brown County, because I’m roughly #101 on the library holds list. Thankfully, I’ve got several other books (several of them, ahem, non-fiction) to keep me entertained while I wait. Currently, I’m flying through Fannie Flagg’s “I Still Dream of You” and I’m soon to start in on “Songs of Willow Frost” by Jamie Ford.
So that’s eight down, nine to go in the next six months. I’d say I’m right on pace. Is there anything more amazing than books? Yes! Authors! And book lists! What’s been your favorite book thus far in 2017? I always love to hear your recommendations!