Best Books I read in 2017:

I read 67 books this year.  These are the best from the list (in the order I read the books).

1.      A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2014) Atria Books

A curmudgeon is retired from his job at the railroad.  His wife was disabled and has died.  He has no reason to go on, though he’s not very good at ending his own life.  Every attempt gets interrupted by his new incompetent neighbors and the man he’s had a long-standing feud with is no longer able to talk, much less do anything.

This is a story about how people need other people.  How life is enriched by family,, including the people around you who don’t have your experience or tenacity.

2.      The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains by Neil Gaiman (2015) William Morrow

A dazzlingly tour-de-force – quite possibly the story masterpiece of one of the world's best writers.  A man wants to know what happened to his little girl and travels on foot to find a guide to take him to the Black Mountains.  What he finds out and how he deals with the knowledge will change the reader.

3.      The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (2008) HarperCollins

A toddler wanders away from his house through a door opened by a murderer and into a graveyard where the murderer cannot find him.  He is raised by the ghosts and protected by a vampire and a werewolf who are members of the Honor Guard of God.  David Copperfield in a weird universe.  Winner of the 2009 Newbery Award.

4.      Indeh: A Story of the Apache Wars by Ethan Hawke, Illustrated by Greg Ruth (2016) Grand Central Publishing

Being the true story of Goyahkla (Geronimo), whose chief, Cochise only wanted peace with the white eyes.  Indeh are the dead – from a war that decimated the Apache and their enemies.

5.      Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly (2016) Ballentine Books

Three women go through WWII with different experiences from both side - two women are in Poland, one a doctor's sister who, along with her mother and sister, becomes a POW because her mother was a Jew, one a doctor who is drafted into service at Ravensbruk, the concentration camp for women, where her sense of right and wrong is shattered, making her a war criminal, and a woman in New York who has spent a decade helping French orphans.

6.      Side Jobs by Jim Butcher (2011) Roc

A collection of short stories about Harry Dresden, proving Butcher is as skilled with a short story as he is with novels.

·         “Restoration of Faith” – from Jim-Butcher.com

·         “Publicity and Advertising” – from Jim-Butcher.com

·         “Something Borrowed” – from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding

·         “It’s My Birthday Too” – from Many Bloody Returns

·         “Heorot” – from My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding

·         “Day Off” – From Blood Lite

·         “Backup” – new

·         “The Warrior” – from Mean Streets

·         “Las Call” – from Strange Brews

·         “Love Hurts” – from Songs of Love and Death

·         “Aftermath” – new

 

7.      The Girl in the Spider's Web by David Lagercranz (2015) Knopf

A continuation of Steig Larson's series about the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  I don’t usually read a book where the writer has based it on someone else’s character, but this is so well done, it’s like reading Larson himself.

Lizbeth Salander and Michael Blonkvist join forces once more, to help him create a scoop that will save his Millennium magazine and expose a web of spies and cybercriminals.

8.      The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (2012) Random House

A North Korean orphan's life under the oppressive regime wherein the son is treated no better than the orphans in spite of his efforts to get a loving response from his father.  He gets to visit the United States and is offered a chance to defect.  Instead, he returns to his homeland to find it is no different than before.  – winner of the Pulitzer Prize.

9.      Raylan by Elmore Leonard (2012) Mariner Books

A trigger-happy U.S. Marshall finds bad guys and dates a bad girl in Harlan County, Kentucky.