Books in 2017

Here are the books I read in 2017. Sometimes I was diligent and recorded whenabouts I finished the book.

• The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo – Amy Schumer
• The Last Days of Night – Graham Moore
• You’ll Grow Out of It – Jessie Klein (1/29)
• Hillbilly Elegy – J.D. Vance
• My Lady Jane – Cynthia Hand et. al
• I Remember Nothing – Nora Ephron
• The Name of the Wind – Patrick Rothfuss (Feb)
• The Circle – David Eggers (Mar)
• The Wise Man’s Fear – Patrick Rothfuss
• Born to Run – Chris McDougall (4/26)
• The Airbnb Story – Leigh Gallagher (Jul)
• Marley and Me – David Frankel (Jul)
• The Year Without Pants – Scott Berkun (Jul)
• Hidden Figures – Margot Lee Shetterly (Aug)
• The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood (8/22)
• Sweet Tooth: A Novel – Ian McEwan
• A Game of Thrones – George  R.R. Martin
• The Forty Rules of Love – Elif Shafak
• When Breath Become Air – Paul Kalanithi
• A Clash of Kings – George  R.R. Martin
• The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman

The Kingkiller Chronicle (The Name of the Wind, The Wise Man’s Fear) was a nice discovery in 2017, but is yet another series where I’m left waiting indefinitely for the next installment. Chris McDougall’s books got me fantasizing about fascia and the superhuman I could become if I could just unleash its powers. I finished Marley and Me by shedding silent tears in the subway on the way home from work. (Also cried at the end of When Breath Becomes Air, but not on public transit.) I got really excited about the idea of a blog of postcards like Aziz’s from The Forty Rules of Love. Speaking of blogs, The Year Without Pants introduced me to WordPress and eventually led me to start this space. And The Book of Dust was just a fantastic way to end the year because…backstory. Backstory in books is just the best.

And here are the audiobooks listened to. I usually listen to books as I fall asleep so last year they ended up being childhood favorites where it doesn’t matter if I miss chunks of the plot.

• Harry Potter series (books 1 – 3) – J.K. Rowling
• His Dark Materials series (books 1-3) – Philip Pullman (These really came alive as multiple voice actors played the different characters. It feels like you’re listening to a movie.)
• Anne of the Island – L.M. Montgomery

Valiant efforts: Books I borrowed and either didn’t finish or never got around to.

• The Maytrees – Annie Dillard
• Natural Born Heroes – Chris McDougall
• The Pursuit of Love – Nancy Mitford
• Move Fast and Break Things: How Facebook, Google, and Amazon Cornered Culture and Undermined Democracy – Jonathan Taplin
• 168 Hours: You Have More Time Than You Think – Laura Vanderkam
• Underground Airlines – Ben Winters
• A Storm of Swords – George R.R. Martin (The wait list to borrow was too long between books; it’s hard to get back into these once you’ve lost momentum.)