Every year, I take a moment to reflect on my favorite 3 books from the prior year and to share them here. I love looking back on what I’ve read and thinking about new perspectives and ideas I’ve been exposed to through what I chose.
Below is the list of what I read in 2017. There are several titles that were on my 2017 reading list, but I also went rogue for a quite of 2017.
Although I have been mostly drawn to self-development and business non-fiction in recent years, the 2017 selections ended up a bit more eclectic than usual. You’ll easily spot my summer obsession with all things revolutionary history in there (thank you, Hamilton). As well as a visit to an old love, historical fiction, and even a straight-up novel.
2017 Books
- America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
- George Washington’s Secret Six by Brian Kilmeade
- 1776 by David McCullough
- The Hamilton Affair by Elizabeth Cobbs
- Alexander Hamilton by Ronald Chernow
- The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
- Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
- Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon
- A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
- Tools of Titans by Tim Ferriss
- The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs
- In the Company of Women by Grace Bonney
- The Four Tendencies by Gretchen Rubin
- Originals: How Non-Confirmists Move the World by Adam Grant
- Turn Right at Machu Picchu by Mark Adams
There are so many good ones on here, right?! When deciding which 3 books from the above list stuck out to me the most, I decided to judge it by how hard it was to put down.
Surprisingly, the selections from Brene Brown, Tim Ferriss and Gretchen Rubin (my heroes) didn’t make the top 3 list – this year. I thoroughly enjoyed their books, but…there were 3 books that came out of left field and landed on the top this year.
Here are my three favorites from 2017:
Best 3 Books I Read in 2017
America’s First Daughter – Because of my obsession with Hamilton, I went down a complete rabbit hole of all things Revolutionary American History for about a third of 2017. As evidenced by the list above, I read quite a few history books (both fiction and non-fiction). Anything set around the birth of our nation, I wanted to read it. My favorite of these was probably “America’s First Daughter”, a historical fiction novel about Thomas Jefferson’s daughter, which was totally engrossing. Although his daughter is the protagonist of the story, the novel is very much about Jefferson’s life and even relationship with Sally Hemings (his slave), which I was super conflicted about. I promise you will enjoy this even if you are not a revolutionary history nut like me. It’s a darn good story on its own.
A Man Called Ove – This one caught me COMPLETELY by surprise. As you can see by my 2017 reading list, and all the year’s prior, I have not been reading too much straight up fiction lately. At first, it was the cover of the book that caught my attention. Then I happened to notice that it had 15,000+ 5-star reviews on Amazon, which is rare. When I read the back cover, I liked that the protagonist was an older gentleman, which seemed different. So I picked it up. I am so glad I did, because was awesome. I was alternating between laughing out loud on one page, and then tearing up on the next page. The writing was simple and straightforward, yet the story was nuanced and not gimmicky. If I had to recommend one book right now to pretty much anyone, this is it.
A Year of Living Biblically – A.J. Jacobs is a humorist/author who is known for doing weird life experiments, then writing about it. In this book, Jacobs, a non-practicing Jewish man living in New York, decides to go back to his roots. Way back. To the Old Testament. Throughout the experiment, he tries out Old Testament laws and traditions in modern day New York City. Can you even imagine?!? He clearly has a high tolerance for being stared at. Reading about some of the customs he adopts for his experiments are cringeworthy and hilarious. What makes this an even better book is that he does come to some heartfelt realizations about the role of religion in his life. Great summer reading!
Have you read any of these? What were your favorites from last year? Please share!
In case you are looking for more recommendations:
Gail Stevens
A Gentleman in Moscow and Rules 0f Civility, both by Amor Towles. My husband , who likes mostly history read these first and enjoyed both, then I ordered in large print.
Ale Post author
Thanks for the recommendation! I will definitely look them up 🙂