Books Read in 2017

[lillibet]

Here are the books I read for the first time in 2017:

The Praxis: Dread Empire's Fall - Walter Jon Williams
The Sundering: Dread Empire's Fall - Walter Jon Williams
Conventions of War: Dread Empire's Fall - Walter Jon Williams
Deadly Engagement: A Georgian Historical Mystery - Lucinda Brant
Revenger - Alastair Reynolds
Metropolitan - Walter Jon Williams
City on Fire - Walter Jon Williams
Deadly Scandal - Kate Parker
Jackaby - William Ritter
The Vanishing Thief - Kate Paker
The Book of Joy - The Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Carlton Adams
Deadly Wedding - Kate Parker
Beastly Bones: A Jackaby Novel - William Ritter
Norse Mythology - Neil Gaiman
Murder on the Serpentine - Anne Perry
Where the Dead Lie - C.S. Harris
A Study in Death - Anna Lee Huber
All the Birds in the Sky - Charlie Jane Anders
Lovecraft Country: A Novel - Matt Ruff
As Death Draws Near - Anna Lee Huber
The Eight - Katherine Neville
The Technologists - Matthew Pearl
The Corporation Wars; Dissidence - Ken MacLeod
Angela's Christmas Adventure - Clara Benson
Enter Pale Death - Barbara Cleverly
Walkaway - Cory Doctorow
Murder in Thrall - Anne Cleeland
Ghostly Echoes: A Jackaby Novel - William Ritter
Half-Ressurrection Blues: A Bone Street Rhumba Novel - Daniel Jose Older
The Chalk Pit (Ruth Galloway Mysteries) - Elly Griffiths
The long Way to a Small, Angry Planet - Becky Chambers
Lagoon - Nnedi Okorafor
The Essex Serpent - Sarah Perry
Chmistry: A novel - Weike Wang
The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. - Neal Stephenson
A Closed and Common Orbit - Becky Chambers
A Perilous Undertaking - Deanna Raybourn
Strange Dogs: An Expanse Novella - James S.A. Corey
Murder in Retribution - Anne Cleeland
Raven Black - Ann Cleeves
Tomorrow's Kin - Nancy Kress
In Milady's Chamber - Sheri Cobb South
A Dead Bore - Sheri Cobb South
Family Plot - Sheri Cobb South
Dinner Most Deadly - Sheri Cobb South
Too Hot to Handel - Sheri Cobb South
For Deader or Worse - Sheri Cobb South
Pickpocket's Apprentice - Sheri Cobb South
Children of Earth and Sky - Guy Gavriel Kay
White Nights - Ann Cleeves
Red Bones - Ann Cleeves
Red Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
Glass Houses - Louise Penny
Green Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
The Man Who Was Thursday - G.K. Chesterton
Blue Mars - Kim Stanley Robinson
An Echo of Murder - Anne Perry
Provenance - Ann Leckie
A Casualty of War - Charles Todd
Party Discipline - Cory Doctorow
This Side of Murder - Anna Lee Huber
Blue Lightning - Ann Cleeves
The Corporation Wars: Insurgence - Ken MacLeod
The Corporation Wars: Emergence - Ken MacLeod
Dead Water - Ann Cleeves
The Power - Naomi Alderman
Thin Air - Ann Cleeves
Cold Earth - Ann Cleeves
Persepolis Rising - James S.A. Corey
The Crow Trap - Ann Cleeves
King of the Dead - R.A. MacAvoy
The Belly of the Wolf - R.A. MacAvoy
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murder and the Birth of the FBI - David Grann

Comments

[coraline]

any recommendations or stand-outs? (i'm particularly interested in ones i might like -- no grimdark, more interested in quick-moving plot and characters i can root for than elaborate descriptions or intrigue.)

[lillibet]

Well, if you haven't read The Book of Joy, I really recommend that. I'm not usually a self-help, how-to-live-a-better-life type book lover, but this one has really stuck with me and helps a lot through the dark political times.

I think you're not much of a mystery fan, so I'll skip those.

I quite enjoyed Dread Empire's Fall. It's war stories, but with a very interesting female character at the center. If you haven't read Williams' Ten Points for Style trilogy, then start there--it's lighter and marvelously cheeky.

Lovecraft Country was probably the best book I read this year, which is general true whenever Matt Ruff has a new book out. It's inspired by the Green Book for Negro Travellers and the work of H.P. Lovecraft, a set of interlocking classic SF adventures with black characters at the center. A white man writing black characters might be problematic, but it's been well-reviewed by POC and is in development as a TV series by Jordan Peele.

Do you read Cory Doctorow? I find his work fun, quick and yet thought-provoking, which is a nifty trick. My favorite is Pirate Cinema.

I got a lot of recommendations from people at the New Year, so I'm hoping to have an exciting few months worth of reading to report shortly.

[coraline]

I actually do quite enjoy a good mystery! I just made my way through half the Miss Fishers this year, and Dorothy Sayers is one of my fundamental formative authors...

I'll check out Dread Empire's Fall (and snagged the first Maijstral book from Kindle).

I enjoyed "Sewer, Gas, Electric" but never looked up any of Matt Ruff's other books, so that's definitely intriguing!

I think I have read most of Doctorow's stuff at this point, and yes, he's definitely in my list of "fun intelligent but still quick reads".

and yay more recs!

[lillibet]

Oh! You should read Set This House in Order as soon as possible. It's my favorite Ruff. Each book he's written is totally different not only from his other books, but from anything else I read.

In mysteries I quite enjoyed the Gaslight Mysteries, set in 19th century New York. I've been enjoying the Shetland series, but they're a bit grim. Not, y'know, Swedish grim, but definitely Scotland grim.

Enjoy! And report back :)

[coraline]

sadly the Ruff isn't available from the library but i'll find it somewhere :)

and thanks for the other recs! they're on hold now :)

[labingi]

I admire your reading virtuosity!

[lillibet]

Thank you! I usually aim for 100 books a year, but I did a bunch of re-reading this year and was pretty busy this fall.