Malinda's Top 10 Choices of 2017

New rules this year – since I’ve been doing this for a decade, I’ve started getting a lot of repeats on my list.  So, although at least half of the 144 books I read this year were rereads (did you know that in bygone days, women could be committed for “excessive reading”?), each of these 10 was a book I read for the first time this year. These are my top 10 recommendations for a general audience, not necessarily the 10 books I liked best. One of my favorites was a book on the collection of historical medical specimens – unless you have a very strong stomach and a passion for medical science, I would not recommend it to you.

So – 10 books I read for the first time in 2017 and would recommend to you.

1.       Salt to the Sea, Ruta Sepetys

I read this book because I absolutely adore Ruta Sepetys. You may remember her book Between Shades of Gray making my list before. I think Sepetys writes some of the most compelling novels of our time. For one thing, she chooses topics that are familiar and yet completely new. This book is about one of the worst maritime disasters in history. In happened during WWII but you probably never heard of it, even if you love WWII history, because it was information known to those behind the Iron Curtain and largely hidden from the West. The characters are compelling, the writing beautiful.

2.       Out of My Mind, Sharon Draper

Everyone was all about Wonder this year – so I read it. And I did not care for it. I though the end was contrived and patronizing. This book deserves all the praise – and the big budget movie deal that Wonder got. The main character is a young girl with cerebral palsy who is nonverbal. The story is brilliantly told from her point of view as she attempts to communicate, to make friends, and to navigate school. Thanks to Jennifer for lending it to me.

3.     The Master Butcher’s Singing Club, Louise Erdrich

This is my friend Lolita’s second favorite book, sandwiched between Pillars of the Earth and A Prayer for Owen Meany. Since those are two of the greatest books of all time, I figured I might as well read this one as well. If it tells you anything about how good this book is, while I had pneumonia and was too sick to read, I told myself the story of The Master Butcher’s Singing Club over and over in my mind.  Like Erdrich’s other books, the plot involves a cast of unique, often eccentric, characters whose lives magically intertwine. In this book, the characters include a German soldier turned American immigrant who owns a butcher shop, a Native American veteran who performs a balancing act in side shows, a beautiful mortician, and a mysterious scrap gatherer who searches the night for treasure.

4.     A Man Called Ove, Fredrick Backman

I’ve spoken to many people who tell me they liked this book despite the character of Ove. I loved this book because of Ove; because I am Ove. I am, at my core, a grumpy, anti-social old man who checks the neighborhood parking lot every morning to see who is parking illegally. (Okay, my neighborhood doesn’t actually have a parking lot. However, my blood pressure markedly improved when my neighbor whose friends did not understand the purpose of a driveway finally moved away.)  This is another story with a great cast of characters – not just the immensely lovable Ove but his neighbors – old and new – with their own sweet, sad, and hopeful stories. Becky  picked this book for bookclub.

5.      Ashfall, Mike Mullin

The Yellowstone super volcano both fascinates and freaks me out.  Even if you don’t geek out about volcano science, you can still enjoy this post-apocalyptic  “what if” book DH recommended to me. The worst case scenario eruption occurs at the opening of the novel, leaving much of North American in a dark, ash filled landscape where they must fight for the few remaining resources. Total edge of your seat kind of stuff.

6.       Underground Airlines, Ben H. Winters

Brian D, who is 1000x smarter than I, recommended this book to me. I enjoyed Winter’s Last Policeman, but this book is on a completely different level. Winters imagines an America where a compromise prevented the Civil War but left modern day America with slave states. Plantations are now run by big corporations and undercover policemen infiltrate abolitionist groups to recover runaway slaves. As different from reality as the premise professes to be, it is the light shed on our own society through Winter’s fiction that makes this book so enthralling.

7     The Lacuna, Barbara Kingsolver

I adore Barbrara Kingsolver from Beantrees  to Poisonwood and back again, so I chose to read The Lacuna this year. I was not disappointed. The main character is taken from the United States to Mexico at a young age. There his life becomes entangled with those of Frieda Kahlo, Diego Rivera, and Leon Trotsky. It is absolutely seamless how Kingsolver blends history with imagination, mystery and intrigue with raw reality. And the ending is golden.

8.      The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins

I listened to the audiobook version of this book because Becky told me that it had an excellent example of an unreliable narrator. It was so much fun! It’s just a really juicy, brain-candy mystery with a deliciously unreliable narrator. I adored it. Beach read for sure.

9.      I am the New Black, Tracy Morgan

When I heard an old episode of Terry Gross interviewing Tracy Morgan about his book on NPR’s Fresh Air, I knew that I wanted to read it. Yes, parts of it are as side-splittingly funny as Morgan was on SNL and 30 Rock, but it is also deeply emotional. Morgan writes about his struggles with a father who was a drug addicted Vietnam veteran who recovered from addiction only to succumb to AIDS – about Morgan’s own days selling crack on the streets – about dealing with fame when he didn’t know who to trust. It is good to learn to understand people who have had very different experiences from our own.

  10.The Cursed Child, John Tiffany and Jack Thorne.

Okay, so every other Harry Potter fan in the world  has probably already read this. But I didn’t want to read it at first because JK Rowling didn’t write it herself and despite some notable exceptions (hello, Heartless, my love) I generally hate it when a writer tries to take on another author’s characters (yes, I am referring to you Wide Sargasso Sea, Havisham, and Wicked – you suck [no, not you Wicked the musical, you’re awesome sauce – just the book by that man who likes to ruin other people’s stories]). Yet, I finally gave in and gave Cursed Child a go. And I loved it. I loved it so, so, so, so, so much! Thanks for letting me borrow your book, B.

PS A Christmas Carol is the greatest book of all time period. You should read it.