I tried to gather the books I read this year for a family portrait, but it turns out that despite not sounding like much, 25 books is a lot to fit into one picture. That's fitting, because once I got them all together, I realized how much information I was looking at.
I usually read a lot of history, particularly about women, and that held true this year. There's significantly more political writing in my stack this year, as I've tried to stop just reading about people and read what they've said themselves. There were a couple of novellas by my favorite author (Elena Ferrante), several different types of fiction and a few books that float around the margins.
You can see the whole list of books I've read, this year and any other, on my Goodreads account. I was really excited when Goodreads was an option for the social media tabs at the top of this page, because it's honestly my favorite social media site, because there's nothing negative about people reading and sharing opinions on books. It's also helpful because I get questions on what I'm reading pretty frequently, and even if I have some oddball answer (The first book I'll finish in 2018 will be Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, which is engrossing but not what most people want to hear), there's something on there for anyone.
But, here are some of my favorites from the past year:
Courage in a Dangerous World: The Political Writings of Eleanor Roosevelt
Since I was in second grade, Eleanor Roosevelt has been my political hero. Knowing that politics, particularly on social issues, have changed dramatically since she was writing made me apprehensive. Would she, after all these years of admiration, let me down? She didn't. Sure, once in a while there was something that made me wince, but it was usually where she tried to concede something to an audience not ready for her ideas that still feel modern and progressive.
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
This book is deceptively simple: reading it reminded me of the historical fiction books I read growing up. But this book takes each happy ending you would expect in one of those books and shows how the reality of the dangers destroyed those endings.
Joan of Arc: A Life Transfigured by Katheryn Harrison
Joan of Arc is a fascinating mystery. We still can't answer why a teenage girl in the middle ages put on pants and decided to lead an army. We still can't explain how she was prepared to, either. Most stories like this, when you look closer, fall apart and disappoint. But the more evidence you read on Joan of Arc, the stranger the story becomes.
The Romanovs by Simon Sebag Montefiore
On the other side of history is the Russian imperial family, the Romanovs. I took a class on imperial Russia in college (hence why War and Peace is on the list of books I've read), but no class could encompass the complete mayhem that was the Russian court. It's an incredibly entertaining history, as well as a disturbing one, especially near the end.
Catherine the Great particularly fascinates me, and although I read a biography on her alone just last year, her entry in this book made her come even more alive.
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
This is perhaps the most British book ever written. It's the second book I've ever picked up just because the blurb was written by J.K. Rowling, and both are favorites of mine (the other is The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge, which I read when I was around 13 years old). Reading about Cassandra's adventures was like being inside my own head. I haven't enjoyed book as much as this one in years.
Honorable mentions:
- Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward (a gutting look at problems that those of us in rural areas see frequently)
- The Isabella Stewart Gardner museum guide (#lifegoals)
- The Lost Daughter and Troubling Love (Elena Ferrante is a genius and also Troubling Love is a better version of Atonement, and was published first)
I'm enabling comments. What were the best things you read this year?