I read more books this year. I somewhat arbitrarily decided that this should be the year I read more sci-fi, so I read as many Isaac Asimov books as I could get my hands on until I realized that I hated the Foundation series. I love Robots, hate Foundation. I don't know what that says about me, but there you go. Here's what else I read:
Non-fiction
Mormon Feminism edited by Joanna Brooks, Rachel Hunt Steenblik, and Hannah Wheelwright
The God Who Weeps by Terryl and Fiona Givens
I Contain Multitudes by Ed Yong
An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth by Chris Hadfield
Quiet by Susan Cain
Books I Felt Bad About Not Liking That Much
Wolf Hall by Hillary Mantel
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Orphan Keeper by Camron Wright
To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf
Delightful Re-reads
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
I Went through an Asimov Phase
The Complete Robot by Isaac Asimov
The Caves of Steel by Isaac Asimov
The Naked Sun by Isaac Asimov
The Robots of Dawn by Isaac Asimov
Robots and Empire by Isaac Asimov
Prelude to Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Forward the Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Foundation by Isaac Asimov
Yay Sci-fi Short Stories!
Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang
The Paper Menagerie by Ken Liu
Yep, Still Obsessed with Brandon Sanderson
Arcanum Unbounded by Brandon Sanderson
Secret History by Brandon Sanderson
Edgedancer by Brandon Sanderson
Oathbringer by Brandon Sanderson
Odds and Ends
The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood
Chemistry by Weike Wang
The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden (this was really lovely–you should read it)
West with the Night by Beryl Markham
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Favorite Books (Series) of 2017
The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin
The Dark Forest by Liu Cixin
Death's End by Liu Cixin
I loved The Three-Body Problem et al. It's a Chinese sci-fi series that is beautiful, and haunting, and so, so creative. By far the most interesting thing I read all year (and I read Stories of Your Life and Others, so that's saying something!). Highly recommended.
My goal for 2018 is to read 37 books, raising the bar by one book. Any book suggestions to help me get there? What was the best thing you read in 2017?
Here's what I read in 2016.
8 comments:
I LOVE Asimov! My mom was a huge fan so she tons of his books in our home library growing up. I think I love his short stories most. Stories of your life is on my list as well, I LOVED Arrival (like irrationally so... I even talked about it in Sunday school and Andrew mocked me relentlessly...). Other recommendations: Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin is hefty but SO good. It’s about Lincoln and his cabinet. I learned so much about history, America, politics, war, leadership, what makes a good person truly great, and so many scary parallels with modern day...
I love that you brought up Arrival in church! I'm a HUGE fan of that movie, and I totally think it has great Mormon tie-ins. The short story has a different feel but I still really enjoyed it, and the other stories in the book are fantastic. I'll definitely add Team of Rivals to my to-read list!
I totally hated Foundation as well. I really wanted to like it (mostly because Elon Musk loves it), but I just didn’t get it. I couldn’t get myself to read any more of the series.
@Nathan so glad I'm not the only one! I had very high hopes but it fell way short of the mind-blowing creativity I was expecting. Three-Body Problem on the other hand...definitely did not disappoint.
A few recent faves: Our Short History, Funny in Farsi, anything by Kelly Corrigan (I'm reading her brand new book now), Little Fires Everywhere, Bettyville, The Boston Girl, What Was Mine)
@ellen great suggestions! Adding them to my goodreads list. :)
Thanks for sharing your faves! if there's one thing I love, it's book recs. I'm adding a few to my Goodreads to-read list. My fave book of 2017 was "Dark Matter" by Blake Crouch (I don't know if you've read that one yet)—a sci-fi adventure that I literally read in one sitting.
@kylie YES I loved Dark Matter! That was our inaugural Philly book club book a little over a year ago. Very mind-bendy and emotionally powerful at the same time.
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