Starting off the list at number 10, we have The Last Four Days of Paddy Buckley! This is not a perfect book by any means, but it was practically made for me, being about a funeral home worker from Ireland who accidentally kills a mobster, siccing a prominent Dublin organized crime group on him. It's entertaining, even a little gory, and a whole lot of fun to read. The humor in the book is also fantastic, and as a whole it is the kind of book I would write if Massey hadn't already written it for me.
I didn't fully appreciate Tell the Wolves I'm Home when I first read it. This was because I read it in a month where the bad was much, much more obvious than the good, and then a couple of weeks later I read a little novel called Brideshead Revisited, which quickly became my obsession. But now I see I unfairly judged this book, and in retrospect, I really love it. It takes place in one of my favorite times, the 1980s, is about one of my favorite subjects to read about, the AIDS epidemic, and features one character I can really get behind, Toby. When I first encountered Tell the Wolves I'm Home, I thought it would be insufferably twee, like a cozy mystery novel, but instead ended up being about some rather dark stuff, like watching a close family member die of a horrible disease, realizing postmortem that he had a whole life he kept hidden, and then watching your one connection to his secret life die horribly of the same disease that killed your family member. The reason for it being so low on this list is because it does have some of that literary fiction-type nonsense, but that didn't stop me from appreciating the depth to what could have so easily been a "cute" novel.
Life was not my first introduction to the late Mal Peet, no, that honor goes to Tamar, which I read a few years ago and really liked. But Life is one of the most original historical fiction novels I have ever read, and one of the most entertaining, too. Not only that, but it feels real. It reminded me of Bill Bryson novels such as The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid or other books in that humor-memoir category. I wish more historical fiction writers, YA or adult, took their cues from this novel.
7. Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (9/10)
2017 was the year of adult fiction for me, and that meant reading authors I had wanted to read for a long time, but never got up the courage to go near. Haruki Murakami, with his long, surrealist novels translated from Japanese into English, had always scared me. So naturally, I pick up his most vanilla novel to start with. This probably wasn't the best choice for an introduction into Murakami's work, but I still loved it, much more than I was expecting to. I think the main reason why I loved it so much is because Midori and Tomu are both such great characters with such fantastic chemistry and dynamics that it really made the book. Not only that, but it's easy to read and even easier to understand, surprising, especially for a foreign novel by, again, a famous magical realist writer who writes books with titles like Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World or 1Q84. I'm sure hard-core Murakami fans will hate me for loving this book, but I can't help it.
6. Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback (8.5-9/10)
I would say that, with the exception of In the Woods, this was my first favorite book of the year. But when it came time to actually make this list, Wolf Winter was tied with The Good People, and in the end, Wolf Winter won out (I love Hannah Kent, but I never seem to have any room on any of my top lists for her books. In retrospect, though, I probably should have put Burial Rites on my 2016 list instead of Those Who Wish Me Dead). The reason that I went for Wolf Winter instead of The Good People is because Wolf Winter stuck with me more. For the next two months, I kept thinking about Wolf Winter and the characters and the story. I felt like a little piece of me was stuck in the Swedish Laplands, to be soap-opera-ish about it. What else can I say, except that I loved it.
5. In the Woods, The Likeness, Broken Harbor, and The Secret Place all by Tana French (8.5-9/10)
My Review: In the Woods; The Likeness; Broken Harbor; The Secret Place
For the first 5 months of the year, the thing I looked forward to the most was my monthly Tana French novel. I could never marathon the series- the books are dense mysteries that take a lot out of you- but I loved reading them. To me, 2017 was the year of Tana French- despite the fact that I read The Trespasser in December of 2016- and I can't wait for the next Dublin Murder Squad novel. Besides The Trespasser, you may notice the absence of Faithful Place, which I decided to not put on this list because I didn't really like it as much as I liked the other books. But yes, given how much I talked about them it was inevitable that they would make this list.
Reading-wise, I didn't have a very good Summer of 2017, with the exception of this book (and, well, Life: An Exploded Diagram). Graffiti Moon is now one of my favorite YA contemporaries of all time. It's just so summer-y and Australian and wonderful. I loved Ed and Lucy, I loved Crowley's sense of humor, I even loved how everything worked out in the end. This isn't an important or literary novel by any stretch of the imagination, not like some of the other books on this list, but I loved reading it. Even now, it brings me to smiles every time I think about it, and that's why it's on this list.
3. Paris in the Present Tense by Mark Helprin (9/10)
This isn't the first time the last book of the year makes the top three, and that's why I wait until after New Years to make these lists. Paris in the Present Tense is a stunning novel, writing- and character-wise. Jules is an amazing and unique main character, the two detectives were phenomenal comic relief, and it was just an amazing novel all together. It was the A Gentleman in Moscow of this year.
2. The Secret History by Donna Tartt (9-9.5/10)
The Secret History is one of those books that I can't believe I took so long to pick up. Well, actually I can, but I shouldn't have been putting it off. Look, not everyone's going to like it. I probably shouldn't have liked it nearly as much as I did, but hey, life's funny that way. I think the thing that turns people off about it is that it's not a story driven novel, and the "murder mystery" is basically over after the first part. Instead, it's a long study into the minds of a bunch of spectacularly messed up characters, with tons of gorgeous atmosphere and intrigue. The Secret History is a rich chocolate cake of a book, basically. While I don't have any real desire to read anything else by Donna Tartt, The Secret History deserves its spot as number 2 on the list, mostly for getting me through the rest of the year.
1. Marina by Carlos Ruiz Zafon (9-9.5/10)
Really, did anyone think that this book wouldn't make the top of the list? I mean, sure, The Secret History gave it some competition in the end, but it was always a sure win. Hell, I felt a little bit like an evangelical preacher with the way I was going around telling everyone to read this under-known masterpiece of a horror novel. It's creepy, it's gory, it's wonderfully written, it's endlessly amusing. Oscar and Marina and Germain and Dr Kolvenik all stayed with me throughout the year. Marina is this year's wildcard favorite, the one I never thought I would love as much as I did.
And now, some honorable mentions. I should explain: my main criteria for putting a book on my favorites list is that it has to be published, the American version at least, in the 21st century (with one notable exception), and I have to want to reread it. While I did like these books, they couldn't make the list because of one of these two things.
Running by Cara Hoffman (8-8.5/10) (my review)- I told you that I would find some way to put this book on this list and, yep, here it is.
Little Monsters by Kara Thomas (8.5/10) (my review)- The best YA mystery I read all year. Still didn't like it enough to knock any of the above off my list.
And now, some honorable mentions. I should explain: my main criteria for putting a book on my favorites list is that it has to be published, the American version at least, in the 21st century (with one notable exception), and I have to want to reread it. While I did like these books, they couldn't make the list because of one of these two things.
So, what are your favorite books of the year? I'd love to hear about what you think about any of these books/what your choices are. Make my 2018 TBR list grow, people!
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