Thoughts on 2017 reading

182 books read in 2017. The fewest since 175 in 2014.

I started keeping this list in 1996 and have now exceeded 3,100 books read.

So, what were my favorites? The books I’d recommend? The year started out slowly, but finished strong with some excellent books — both fiction and non-fiction.

Here’s what I liked the most (in no particular order).

Fiction:

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

Abide With Me, Elizabeth Strout

The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George

Camino Island, John Grisham

Birdcage Walk, Helen Dunmore

The Force, Don Winslow

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O, Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland

The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott

A Legacy of Spies, John Le Carrè

Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan

The Last Ballad, Wiley Cash

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

Winter, Ali Smith

Righteous, Joe Ide

IQ, Joe Ide

Going Into Town, A Love Letter to New York, Roz Chast

Women Crime Writers, Suspense Novels of the 1940s

Women Crime Writers, Suspense Novels of the 1950s

I completed a trifecta of sorts with Norse Mythology. I read the book, listened to an audio book (Gaiman is the reader) and attended a reading by Gaiman in Seattle. Thor, Odin, Loki, Frost Giants. What’s not to like?

My great friend, Ralph Yaniz, recommended both The Little Paris Bookshop and Camino Island. Both books were about books; one a love story, the other a mystery.   

I really enjoyed The Force by Don Winslow, but his The Cartel didn’t make the list. 

The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland was fun, mixing magic, time travel and a mysterious governmental agency.

Joe Ide’s two books, IQ and Righteous, feature a new and novel detective. Think Sherlock Holmes set in the Hood.  

Women Crime Writers featured eight novels in a two-book set from the Library of America. A fabulous introduction to (for me) little-known women writers from the 1940s and ‘50s.

I highly recommend Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan and The Last Ballad by Wiley Cash.  

My favorite book, though, was A Gentlemen in Moscow by Amor Towles. It was delightful, full of humor and warmth, and superbly written.   It’s exactly what I look for in a novel. I am grateful for the recommendation from Diane Renzuli.   How I missed Towles until now, I’ll never know. 

Non-Fiction:

White Trash, The 400-year Untold History of Class in America,  Nancy Isenberg

You  Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, Sherman Alexie

Cover Me, Ray Padgett

Huè 1968, Mark Bowden

Grant, Ron Chernow

I think the titles give you an idea of what you’re getting here. Alexie’s book is a memoir. Bowden writes about a critical battle in Vietnam and Chernow continues to produce highly readable biographies about notable figures from America’s past.  He’s tackled George Washington and  Alexander Hamilton. Grant runs to almost 1,000 pages, but it worth the effort.

The non-fiction book that I enjoyed the most was Cover Me by Ray Padgett.  The book’s sub-title sums it up neatly: The Stories Behind the Great Cover Songs of All Time. A sample: Johnny Cash singing “Hurt” by Nine Inch Nails, the Fugees recording “Killing Me Softly” by Roberta Flack, Patti Smith riffing on Van Morrison’s “Gloria”.

Finally, I’d like to mention Janet Reno, Doing the Right Thing, a biography of the former attorney general by Paul Anderson. Paul was my supervisor for several years when I worked for AARP in Washington. It’s always a joy to read a work by someone you know. That’s was especially true here.  It’s an excellent book, suggesting a second career for Paul when he retires.   

2017 Reading List

“I’m tired of people saying they don’t have time to read. I don’t have time for anything else.”

                                     — George Whitman, Shakespeare and Company

January

1. A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens

2. The Fever, Megan Abbott

3. Shakespeare and Company Paris: A History of the Rag & Bone 

Shop of the Heart, ed. Krista Halverson

4. The Ranger, Ace Atkins

5. Sweet Lamb of Heaven, Lydia Millet

6. Talking God, Tony Hillerman

7. American Born Chinese, Gene Luen Yang

8. The Rock Rats, Ben Bova

9. The Singing Bones, Shaun Tan

10. The Holy Grail of Hoops, Josh Swade

11. Collected Stories, Cynthia Ozick

12. The Boat Rocker, Ha Jin

13. Any Other Name, Craig Johnson

14. Hallowe’en Party, Agatha Christie

15. The Portable Veblen, Elizabeth McKenzie

16. In The Company of Liars,  David Ellis

17. Rode, Thomas Fox Averill

18. Rogue Heroes, Ben Macintyre

19. Union Station, Ande Parks & Eduardo Barreto

20. The Terranauts, T. C. Boyle

21. Bill Clinton, Michael Tomasky

22. Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie

February

23. The Lost Witness, Robert Ellis

24. Dry Bones, Craig Johnson

25. History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund

26. The Testament, John Grisham

27. Level Up, Gene Luen Yang & Thien Pham

28. The Silent War, Ben Bova

29. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

30. Nanjing Requiem, Ha Jin

31. The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville

32. Janet Reno, Doing the Right Thing, Paul Anderson

33. The Highwayman, Craig Johnson

34. Drawing Comics With Dick Giordano, Dick Giordano

35. The Red Road, Denise Mina

36. Neverwhere*, Neil Gaiman

37. Universal Harvester, John Darnielle

38. An Obvious Fact, Craig Johnson

39. Exposure, Helen Dunmore

40. Writing With Intent, Margaret Atwood

41. The Last Alibi, David Ellis

42. The Science of Supervillains, Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg

March

43. Vanity Fair, William Makepeace Thackeray

44. Bad Dreams, Tessa Hadley

45. August Snow, Stephen Mack Jones

46. The Aftermath, Ben Bova

47. Phog, Scott Morrow Johnson

48. Ill Will, Dan Chaon

49. Saturn, Ben Bova

50. Jules Feiffer’s America, ed.  Steven Heller

51. The Pigeon Tunnel, John le Carré

52. Winsor McCay, His Life and Art, John Canemaker

53. 4 3 2 1, Paul Auster

54. The Long Drop, Denise Mina

April

55. Tomorrow and Tomorrow, Charles Sheffield

56. Empire Games, Charles Stross

57. Lud-in-the-Mist*, Hope Mirrlees

58. Red Moon and Black Mountain*, Joy Chant

59. The Twelve Lives of Samuel Hawley, Hannah Tinti

60. Vicious Circle, C.J. Box 

61. The Sorcerer’s Ship*, Hannes Bok

62. Surrender, Dorothy, Meg Wolitzer

63. The French Chef in America, Alex Prud’Homme

64. Unnatural Creatures, ed. Neil Gaiman

65. Neuromancer*, William Gibson

May

66. Leviathans of Jupiter, Ben Bova

67. The Legion of Regrettable Super Villains, Jon Morris

68. The Telling, Ursula K. LeGuin

69. Shattered, Jonathan Allen & Amie Parnes

70. Animal Crackers, Hannah Tinti

71. Anything Is Possible, Elizabeth Strout

72. Eye of the Needle, Ken Follett

73. The Science of Superheroes, Lois Gresh & Robert Weinberg

74. The Frumious Bandersnatch, Ed McBain

75. Missile Gap, Charles Stross

76. The Empty Family, Colm Tóibín

77. Long Way From Home, Frederick Busch

78. Titan, Ben Bova

79. Abide With Me, Elizabeth Strout

80. White Trash, The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America,

Nancy Isenberg

81. New Boy, Tracy Chevalier

82. Why Call Them Back From Heaven?^*, Clifford Simak

83. Telling Stories: The Comic Art of Frank Frazetta, ed. Edward Mason

June

84. Reservoir 13, Jon McGregor

85. The People of the Mist*, H. Rider Haggard

86. The Muddy Fork & Other Things, James Crumley

87. Symphony in the Flint Hills, Field Journal 2009, ed. Marty White

88. House of Names, Colm Tóibín

89. Tortilla Flat, John Steinbeck

90. Since We Fell, Dennis Lehane

91. The Last Unicorn^*, Peter S. Beagle

92. No Middle Name, Lee Child

93. Exit Strategy, Steve Hamilton

94. The Little Paris Bookshop, Nina George

95. The Last Kind Words Saloon, Larry McMurtry

96. Birdcage Walk, Helen Dunmore

97. Trajectory, Richard Russo

July

98. Laura#, Vera Caspary

99. Wilson, Daniel Clowes

100. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Arundhati Roy

101. The Force, Don Winslow

102. Mercury, Ben Bova

103. Saga, Book One*, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

104. Saga, Book Two, Brian K. Vaughan & Fiona Staples

105. Mickey Mantle, The Commerce Comet, Jonah Winter & C.F. Payne

106. The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O., Neal Stephenson & Nicole Galland

107. A Really Big Lunch, Jim Harrison

108. The Horizontal Man#, Helen Eustis

109. Nashville Chrome, Rick Bass

110. The Cost of Discipleship*, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

111. The Late Show, Michael Connelly

August

112. A House Among the Trees, Julia Glass

113. Phil Gordon’s Little Black Book, Phil Gordon  & Jonathan Grotenstein

114. Do Not Become Alarmed, Maile Meloy

115. Future Home of the Living God, Louise Erdrich

116. You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me, Sherman Alexie

117. Mars Life, Ben Bova

118. Paradise Valley, C.J. Box

119. Phil Gordon’s Little Blue Book, Phil Gordon

120. Camino Island, John Grisham

121. Trout Fishing In America, Richard Brautigan

122. Exit Ghost, Philip Roth

123. In A Lonely Place#, Dorothy B. Hughes

September

124. Cinnamon Skin, John D. MacDonald

125. The Reserve, Russell Banks

126. The Ways of Wolfe, James Carlos Blake

127. Huê 1968, Mark Bowden

128. Sin Killer, Larry McMurtry

129. The Room of White Fire, T. Jefferson Parker

130. Venus, Ben Bova

131. Glass Houses, Louise Penny

132. Superheroes!, Laurence Maslon & Michael Kantor

132. Slip of the Knife, Denise Mina

133. Roughneck, Jeff Lemire

134. Sunburn, Laura  Lippman

135. Page After Page, Tim Page

136. Gods’ Man, Lynd Ward

October

137. Dinner at the Center of the Earth, Nathan Englander

138. The Blank Wall#, Elisabeth Sanxay Holding

139. The Western Star, Craig Johnson

140. The Ninth Hour, Alice McDermott

141. Eisner/Miller, ed. Charles Brownstein

142. Fast Falls The Night, Julia Keller

143. The Lonely Silver Rain, John D. MacDonald

144. A Legacy of Spies, John Le Carré

145. The Same River Twice, Ted Mooney

146. Bringing Up Father, George McManus

147. Dunbar, Edward St Aubyn

148. Cast Iron,  Peter May

149. Dong Xoai, Vietnam 1965, Joe Hubert

150. Do You Want To Talk About It?, Edward Koren

November

151. Mischief, Charlotte Armstrong

152. Manhattan Beach, Jennifer Egan

153. The Last Ballad, Wiley Cash

154. Going Into Town, A Love Letter to New York, Roz Chast

155. The Wandering Hill^, Larry McMurtry

156. The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century,

ed. Tony Hillerman and Otto Penzler

157. Fools and Mortals, Bernard Cornwell

158. A Gentle Madness*, Nicholas Basbane

159. Two Kinds of Truth, Michael Connelly

160. The Blunderer, Patricia Highsmith

161. Fresh Complaint, Jeffrey Eugenides

162. This Boy’s Life, Tobias Wolff

163. A Gentleman In Moscow, Amor Towles

164. Sleep No More, P.D. James

165. Ten Ever-Lovin’ Blue-Eyed Years With Pogo, Walt Kelly

December

166. The Midnight Line, Lee Child

167. Cover Me, Ray Padgett

168. The Blues In Black & White, Kirk West

169. Winter, Ali Smith

170. The Art of Spider-Man Classic, ed. John Rhett Thomas

171. IQ, Joe Ide

172. Madman’s Drug, Lynd Ward

173. Righteous, Joe Ide

174. First Person, Richard Flanagan

175. Sleeping in the Ground, Peter Robinson

176. The Locals, Jonathan Dee

177. A Patient Fury, Sarah Ward

178. Lincoln in the Bardo, George Saunders

179. Beast In View, Margaret Millar

180. Fools’ Gold, Dolores Hitchens

181. Grant,  Ron Chernow

182. The Cartel, Don Winslow

* indicates books I re-read

February reading -- Gaiman, Craig Johnson, Atwood and Dunmore

Here’s my February reading. The books I liked were: 

Dry Bones, The Highwayman and An Obvious Fact, all a part of Craig Johnson’s Longmire series. As with any series that features recurring characters, I like to read the books in chronological order. I was late starting on the Longmire books, but I’m caught up now. Johnson’s is a skilled writer, who gives us finely drawn characters and a dash of magical realism. 

Level Up, a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang and Thien Pham, no spoilers, but the ending made me laugh.

Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman’s newest book. The stories in Norse Mythology will be familiar to readers. It’s that special Gaiman touch that makes this book enjoyable. I also re-read his fantasy classic Neverwhere.  Like The Graveyard Book, Neverwhere merits re-reading every few years.

Exposure by Helen Dunmore is the story of a family caught up in a web of deceit when the husband is thought to be a Russian spy. I’m wondering why this book didn’t attract more attention when it was published last year.

The Red Road by Denise Mina. The fourth book in Mina’s Alex Morrow series. 

The Last Witness by Robert Ellis. This was my introduction to Ellis. I’ll be reading more of his books in the future. 

Margaret Atwoood’s Writing With Intent is an enjoyable collection of essays, reviews and miscellaneous writing.  Atwood’s intelligence permeates the book as it does all her writing.

Paul Anderson’s Janet Reno, Doing the Right Thing. Published in 1994, Anderson’s book provides a biography of Reno along with a summation of her first year in office as Attorney General. Anderson combines solid reporting and an ear for the telling anecdote to fashion a highly readable account of our first female AG.   (In the interest of disclosure, I worked for Paul for many years. I like him quite a bit. That doesn’t alter the fact this is a good read.)

Drawing Comics With Dick Giordano, Dick Giordano. I can’t draw a crooked line, but I admire Giordano’s work, and I learned a lot about how an artist approaches his work as well as tips of the trade.

The Science of Supervillains, Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg. This was fun, but the science is dated. 

The book I didn’t like:

The Last Alibi by David Ellis.  Normally, I’m a fan of books in the Jason Kolarich series. This one wasn’t up to par. 

Universal Harvester by John Darnielle. This is the second book by Darnielle that’s I’ve read. We’ll be parting ways. 

History of Wolves is attracting a great deal of critical attention and is an early entry in the “best book of 2017” category. I didn’t like it.

On the fence:

I’m still digesting China Miéville’s The Last Days of New Paris. I’m going to need to read it more than once to make sense of things.

The Testament by John Grisham.  Smoothly written, but its Christian message is heavy handed.

The Silent War by Ben Bova.  I’m reading Bova’s entire Grand Tour series. He’s good with the science, but his characters are clunky i.e. the villian in this book repeatedly calls the woman who thwarts his efforts to seize absolute control of the asteroid belt a “guttersnipe.” Yep, I hear that one all the time. 

Nanjing Requiem by Ha Jin. I like Jin’s work — normally. This account of the Japanese invasion of Nanking lacked punch.

23. The Lost Witness, Robert Ellis

24. Dry Bones, Craig Johnson

25. History of Wolves, Emily Fridlund

26. The Testament, John Grisham

27. Level Up, Gene Luen Yang & Thien Pham

28. The Silent War, Ben Bova

29. Norse Mythology, Neil Gaiman

30. Nanjing Requiem, Ha Jin

31. The Last Days of New Paris, China Miéville

32. Janet Reno, Doing the Right Thing, Paul Anderson

33. The Highwayman, Craig Johnson

34. Drawing Comics With Dick Giordano, Dick Giordano

35. The Red Road, Denise Mina

36. Neverwhere*, Neil Gaiman

37. Universal Harvester, John Darnielle

38. An Obvious Fact, Craig Johnson

39. Exposure, Helen Dunmore

40. Writing With Intent, Margaret Atwood

41. The Last Alibi, David Ellis

42. The Science of Supervillains, Lois H. Gresh & Robert Weinberg