I was on a roll when I set a goal of 35 books for 2017 and naively thought I'd be able to keep up the momentum. Spoiler alert - I was wrong. At 27 books I came in short, but I still read nine more books than last year, so we'll just call it a win, because, life. Considering I read zero books in January and February (hello, moving stress) and only 2.5 books in the last two months of the year (which I'm not at all mad about, considering a lot of that time was spent on Disney vacations), it was an overall good reading year.
I went outside my normal realm with quite a few magical books, and it was a refreshing change. I reread a book I loved the first time around (Eat, Pray, Love) only to find that while still enjoyable, it just didn't resonate as much for me this time around. I finally got around to reading several books that I'd already seen the movie version of, and while I still loved the movies, it gave a more well-rounded idea of plot and characters. Historical fiction will always hold a special place in my heart, and about a third of my books happily fell into that category.
I had a great streak of luck at the beginning of the year and the first five books I read were all five star ratings (in my humble opinion), and overall I had ten five star books this year. Not bad, if you ask me. Fair warning though, I have a hard time leaving poor reviews. I feel like if someone went to the trouble of actually writing a whole book, start to finish, they've already accomplished more than me and deserve at least three stars worth of credit, hence my average rating of 4.2 stars. If you're looking for the latest and greatest new books, then you probably won't find that here, but if you, like me, have been living under a literary rock and are just now delving into old favorites, or classics that somehow slipped through your fingers during your required reading school days, you may find a few gems.
If you scroll all the way down I share my ten five-star books, numbered in the order I read them, and based solely on how much I enjoyed reading them, how memorable they are, and how much they impacted me at the time I read them. I truly believe that a book can be fantastic and check all the boxes in terms of plot, style, and characters, but if the timing isn't right for you then it just falls flat. Maybe in different circumstances some of my four star books would've bumped up to five, or vice versa, but for now, as it stands, these are my top ten favorites.
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
- The Things They Carried
- Some Luck
- The Story Sisters
- Early Warning
- The Handmaid's Tale
- I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
- To Kill a Mockingbird
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
If you asked me to pick my number one top favorite book of the year, I'd have to say that's impossible. But I can give you my top three: Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, The Things They Carried, and To Kill a Mockingbird. They're the one that swam through my mind the longest after I'd finished reading them, and I know that I can come back to those books time and time again and I'll still find them equally amazing and relevant, which is a rare thing to find in a book.
How was your reading year? Did you step outside your normal comfort zone at all? Fill me in on your top three fave books of the year so I can add them to my list in 2018 (aka, next week - WHAT!!?) Happy reading, my friends.
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