My Favorite Books of 2017

There were some wonderful books published in 2017. Here is my list of the best ones I have read, in my opinion, in the order in which I read them. After each one, I put the date of my blogpost on that book, in case you want to read more about it. 1. “Difficult Women: Stories,” by Roxane Gay (1/24/17). 2. “The Mothers,” by Brit Bennett (1/30/17) (I cheated a little in including this book, which was published in 2016 but which I read in 2017). 3. “Another Brooklyn,” by Jacqueline Woodson (2/5/17) (Like #2, this one was published in 2016 but I read it in 2017). 4. “Anything is Possible: Stories,” by Elizabeth Strout (5/28/17). 5. “Trajectory: Stories,” by Richard Russo (6/3/17). 6. “Bad Dreams: Stories,” by Tessa Hadley (6/5/17). 7. “The Leavers,” by Lisa Ko (12/3/17). 8. “Sing, Unburied, Sing,” by Jesmyn Ward (12/15/17). 9. “The Ninth Hour,” by Alice McDermott (12/19/17). A few notes: 1. Readers of this blog know that I mainly read fiction, and will not be surprised that all of the books I list here are either novels (five books) or short story collections (four books). 2. Eight of these nine books are by authors whose other books I have read and enjoyed and written about on this blog (all but Ko). 3. Eight of the nine books are written by women (all but Russo). (Sorry, male authors, but remember how I studied and read your books almost exclusively for the first 20+ years of my reading life?) (But note that I have always, and will always, read everything and anything written by -- in addition to Russo -- male authors Julian Barnes, Kent Haruf, Alan Hollinghurst, William Maxwell, Stewart O’Nan, V. S. Pritchett, Tom Rachman, Colm Toibin, and William Trevor, among others.) 4. Most of the main characters in these books are also women. 5. The authors, and the main characters, are racially diverse, with (to the best of my knowledge) four African American authors (Gay, Bennett, Woodson, Ward), one Asian American author (Ko), three white American authors (Strout, Russo, McDermott), and one white British author (Hadley). 6. Most of the books focus on family, friends, and relationships -- my favorite topics. 7. Several of the books grapple with issues of gender, race, and social class.