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[skygiants]

My other traditional New Year's post: books read, 2017!

I am even more behind on booklogging than usual; as always, I do have very virtuous intentions of writing up most of the as-yet-unblogged things up in the near future, but if you would like me to talk about anything in particular just drop me a comment here.


Books read, 2017:

1. H is for Hawk, Helen Macdonald*
2. Breadfruit, Celestine Hitiura Vaite
3. Black Sheep, Georgette Heyer
4. Memories of Ash, Intisar Khanani
5. Whose Body?, Dorothy Sayers*
6. Iron Butterflies, Andre Norton
7. Snow Shadow, Andre Norton
8. The Enchanted Castle, E. Nesbit*
9. Crazy For You, Jennifer Crusie
10. Clouds of Witness, Dorothy Sayers*
11. Summer Will Show, Sylvia Townsend Warner
12. Embassytown, China Mieville
13. The DeMaury Papers, Isabelle Holland
14. Lab Girl, Hope Jahren
15. Crimson Angel, Barbara Hambly
16. Wildfires at Midnight, Mary Stewart
17. Unnatural Death, Dorothy Sayers*
18. Baccano!: The Rolling Bootlegs, Ryohgo Narita
19. The Magic and the Healing, Nick O'Donohoe*
20. Baccano!: 1931: The Grand Punk Railroad (Local), Ryohgo Narita
21. Baccano!: 1932: The Grand Punk Railroad (Express), Ryohgo Narita
22. Marlene Dietrich's ABC: Wit, Wisdom and Recipes, Marlene Dietrich
23. Girl Waits With Gun, Amy Stewart
24. Brutus and Other Heroines: Playing Shakespeare's Roles for Women, Harriet Walter
25. Tamsin, Peter Beagle*
26. Under the Healing Sign, Nick O'Donohoe*
27. The Healing of Crossroads, Nick O'Donohoe*
28. The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, Dorothy Sayers
29. The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
30. The Way to the Lantern, Audrey Erskine Lindop
31. Strong Poison, Dorothy Sayers*
32. The Five Red Herrings, Dorothy Sayers*
33. Of Fire and Stars, Audrey Coulthurst
34. Have His Carcase, Dorothy Sayers*
35. Zami: A New Spelling of My Name, Audre Lorde
36. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
37. Murder Must Advertise, Dorothy Sayers*
38. A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers
39. Drinking Gourd, Barbara Hambly
40. Lady Cop Makes Trouble, Amy Stewart
41. The Nine Tailors, Dorothy Sayers*
42. Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway, Michael Riedel
43. Gaudy Night, Dorothy Sayers*
44. The Buried Giant, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Busman's Honeymoon, Dorothy Sayers*
46. Tender Wings of Desire, KFC
47. A Pennant for the Kremlin, Paul Molloy
48. Amberlough, Lara Elena Donnelly
49. Gambled Away, Joanna Bourne, Isabel Cooper, Rose Lerner, Jeannie Lin, Molly O'Keefe
50. The Thief, Megan Whalen Turner*
51. The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner*
52. The King of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner*
53. A Conspiracy of Kings, Megan Whalen Turner*
54. Thick as Thieves, Megan Whalen Turner
55. The Raven and the Reindeer, T. Kingfisher
56. Breadcrumbs, Anne Ursu*
57. In the Teeth of the Evidence, Dorothy Sayers
58. The Five-Minute Marriage, Joan Aiken
59. Who Fears Death, Nnedi Okorofor*
60. Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Caudwell
61. A Closed and Common Orbit, Becky Chambers
62. The Privilege of the Sword, Ellen Kushner*
63. Sorrow's Knot, Erin Bow
64. Orlando, Virginia Woolf*
65. Night Fall, Joan Aiken
66. The Blackstone Key, Rose Melikan
67. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of the Princess Bride, Cary Elwes
68. Passing Strange, Ellen Klages
69. The Shortest Way To Hades, Sarah Caudwell
70. The Counterfeit Guest, Rose Melikan
71. Low Power to the People: Pirates, Protest and Politics in FM Radio Activism, Christina Dunbar-Hester
72. Don't Look Down, Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
73. The Mistaken Wife, Rose Melikan
74. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Benjamin Alire Saenz
75. Death of a Pirate: British Radio and the Making of the Information Age, Adrian Johns
76. The Truth About Unicorns, Bonnie Jones Reynolds
77. The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Historical Romance Anthology, Kianna Alexander, Lena Hart, Piper Huguley and Alyssa Cole
78. Portrait in Jig-Saw, Fay Grissom
79. Think of England, K.J. Charles
80. The Sirens Sang of Murder, Sarah Caudwell
81. An Extraordinary Union, Alyssa Cole
82. Into the Darkness, Barbara Michaels
83. True Pretenses, Rose Lerner*
84. Wheel of the Infinite, Martha Wells
85. The Marchington Inheritance, Isabelle Holland
86. The Underground Railroad, Colson Whitehead
87. The Story Girl, L.M. Montgomery*
88. The Golden Road, L.M. Montgomery*
89. The Witch of Blackbird Pond, Elizabeth George Speare*
90. Juliet Takes a Breath, Gabby Rivera
91. Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke*
92. Patriot's Dream, Barbara Michaels
93. Cards of Grief, Jane Yolen
94. The Ladies of Grace Adieu, Susanna Clarke
95. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, Anne Bronte
96. The Witch Who Came In From The Cold, Lindsay Smith, Max Gladstone, Cassandra Rose Clarke, Ian Tregillis, Michael Swanwick
97. The Trespassers, Zilpha Keatley Snyder
98. Code Name Pauline, Pearl Witherington Cornioley and Kathryn J. Atwood
99. The Weight of Ink, Rachel Kadish
100. Buried Heart, Kate Elliott
101. The Stone Sky, N.K. Jemisin
102. All Systems Red: The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells
103. The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics, John Pollack
104. The Idylls of the Queen, Phyllis Ann Karr
105. Aphra Behn: A Secret Life, Janet Todd
106. Provenance, Ann Leckie
107. A Skinful of Shadows, Frances Hardinge
108. Nightpool, Shirley Rousseau Murphy
109. The Ivory Lyre, Shirley Rousseau Murphy
110. The Hate U Give, Angie Thomas
111. The Dragonbards, Shirley Rousseau Murphy
112. The Sibyl In Her Grave, Sarah Caudwell
113. Swing Time, Zadie Smith
114. Dragon of the Lost Sea, Laurence Yep*
115. Hamilton's Battalion, Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan and Alyssa Cole
116. Dragon Steel, Laurence Yep*
117. The Spymaster's Lady, Joanna Bourne
118. The Idiot, Elif Batuman
119. The Possessed, Elif Batuman*
120. Dragon Cauldron, Laurence Yep*
121. Dragon War, Laurence Yep*
122. This Rough Magic, Mary Stewart
123. My Lord and Spymaster, Joanna Bourne
124. Bloodline, Claudia Gray
125. Artificial Condition: The Murderbot Diaries, Martha Wells
126. Jane, Unlimited, Kristen Cashore
127. Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi
128. Clouds of Witness, Dorothy Sayers*

Technically I read more books than last year, but that's only if you don't count the 37 volumes of Skip Beat! I also read last year, while this year I apparently did not read any manga or graphic novels whatsoever. That's something I would quite like to change! (...and will, because I'm due for a big 7 Seeds read sometime soon.) I also reread way more than I did last year - 35 books were rereads, if I'm counting that up right - which is definitely a symptom of 2017.

Favorite unexpected discoveries of this year: Audrey Erskine Lindop's The Way To the Lantern, Sylvia Townsend Warner's Summer Will Show, Mieville's Embassytown, Alyssa Cole's "Let It Shine" in the Brightest Day anthology, Sarah Caudwell in her entirety, the completely forgotten fact that I really love Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.

Favorite entirely expected discoveries of this year: I still love Megan Whalen Turner, I still love Laurence Yep, I still love Frances Hardinge, the Broken Earth trilogy remains really good, I was always going to love Murderbot and Idylls of the Queen, this is all predictable to the nth extreme.

Comments

[raven]

I love all your booklogging as ever, also how have you read Artificial Condition??

[skygiants]

I have a very kind friend who is a bookseller who loaned me their advance copy! IT'S SO GOOD. I am going to have to be careful not to spoil when I write it up but I think I like it even better than the first one.

[aella_irene]

What did you think of Joanna Bourne? What about This Rough Magic?

[skygiants]

I really like Joanna Bourne's writing voice and her amazing tropetasticness, and for the most part I've been enjoying her books a lot except there's always just a few moments in there that make me wince and go 'power dynamics POWER DYNAMICS.'

This Rough Magic I'd put at the top of my Mary Stewarts Read list! Normally I'm like 'hmmmmmmm' at Gothic novel romance twists but in this case "he rescued a dolphin!!" is a totally acceptable reason to do a 180 on the Love Interest.

[kore]

ARTIFICIAL CONDITION??

Also, Sarah Cauldwell! <3

[skygiants]

IT'S SO GOOD :DDDDDD

(I mean both of these things you said are so good, but the one in allcaps, specifically, is extremely good)

[wakuchan]

I'm so jealous that you got to read Artificial Condition already! I hope it goes up on netgalley early at least.

Did you like Think of England?

[skygiants]

I did like it! It was a good fluffy book to read while traveling. I keep meaning to try more KJ Charles, but that probably won't happen until the next long stressful trip I have to take.

[rymenhild]

I have now read Murderbot vol 1 and I love that snarky serial-obsessed construct. Um. How did you acquire Vol 2?

[skygiants]

I got it on loan from a friend who works in a bookstore and has Connections. >.> The downside: now I have to wait even longer than everybody else for more Murderbot!

[venetia_sassy]

Embassytown is the only Mieville I've read so far and it fascinated me. I missed your review and it tells me it's been a few years, I must read it again (and read a few others of his that I have on my shelves.)

I loved Strange and Norrell. I have the mini-series, I must watch that ... *looks at teetering piles at piles of books and DVDs, thinks of constantly-growing wishlist, moans faintly*

[skygiants]

It's definitely my favorite Mieville! I loved his early stuff in the 2000s but I don't know how I would feel about it today -- a lot of it slides just a little grimdark for me (with the exception of Railsea, which is my second favorite and is adorable.)

I also definitely need to watch the miniseries! Maybe I will embark upon it as a snow day adventure. :D

[genarti]

I don't think I asked you much at the time because of inconvenient travel timing or something, but what did you think of The Witch Who Came In From The Cold? I was intrigued by the title and my vague impression of the genre, and I do like Max Gladstone's writing (don't know the others, really), but I don't remember hearing much about it from my usual review/rec sources.

[skygiants]

I was ambivalent about it! I thought the concept was cool -- especially I liked the notion of people sort of having to work across different sets of polar-opposite alignments (the Two Sides of the magical argument being completely unrelated to the Two Sides of the Cold War) -- but I found it hard to invest in the characters and couldn't always follow the emotional logic. Which is why I haven't written it up yet, but probably also why I should get around to writing it up to see if anyone else read it and has thoughts.

[obopolsk]

I'm going through and formatting my own annual reads list now -- I also read Homegoing, though at the other end of 2017. What did you think of it? (I loved it.)

[skygiants]

Oh, I thought Homegoing was extremely good. I have now forgotten everyone's name, but my favorite sections I think were probably the convict laborer and the schoolteacher - the "how I got my scar" classroom exercise moment was maybe my favorite scene in the book.