Happy New Year Everyone!

I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season and that you were able to take some time to curl up with a good book and relax. I didn’t get to read as much as I wanted to during the holiday season, but I did manage to find some time to curl up with Beartown by Fredrik Backman, which was an excellent way to spend an afternoon. Did you read anything during the holiday season?

Since it’s now 2018, I figured that I should take some time to reflect on what I read in 2017. Overall, I read 33 books in 2017, which is less than I usually read. The reason for this is because in the summer I fell into a massive reading slump that I could not get out of. Fortunately, I’m no longer in a reading slump, and I’m hoping that I’ll be able to catch up on my TBR in the coming months. That being said, it’s now time to go over my 2017 did not finish list, my bottom five reads, and my top five reads.

There are two books that I started in 2017 that I did not finish. The first one was A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas and the second one was American Gods by Neil Gaiman. I plan on finishing both books sometime in 2018 because both books were victims of the reading slump and that’s why they were left unfinished.

The five worst books that I read this year (in no particular order) were:

• 1984 by George Orwell
• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee
• Come Thou Tortoise by Jessica Grant
• Dear Emma by Katie Heaney
• You’re Never Weird on the Internet by Felicia Day

1984 is on this list because I’m just not a fan of George Orwell or dystopian fiction in general. The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue was on the list because I found the premise to be too farfetched and I couldn’t suspend my disbelief enough to enjoy it. Come Thou Tortoise and Dear Emma are on this list because I found that the stories fell flat for me. Finally, You’re Never Weird on the Internet is on this list because I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would and because it wasn’t as good as some of the other celebrity memoir type books I’ve read.

The five best books that I read this year (in no particular order) were:

• A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
• Still Life by Louise Penny
• One Brother Shy by Terry Fallis
• A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro
• Theft by Finding by David Sedaris

A Man Called Ove is on this list because I loved the character Ove and I found the story to be charming and memorable; also, there was a cat. Still Life is on this list because it introduced me to Louise Penny and the character of Inspector Gamache and I can’t wait to read all her other Inspector Gamache books. One Brother Shy is on this list because I’m a big fan of Terry Fallis and I always find his books enjoyable and fun to read. A Study in Charlotte is on the list because this is the book that got me out of my reading slump. Finally, Theft by Finding is on the list because I like David Sedaris and I found that reading his diaries offer a fascinating view of what was going on with the world at the time of his writing.

So that’s my reading wrap-up for 2017! I’m hoping that in 2018 I’m able to read more books and that I’ll discover some amazing new authors and books. Happy Reading everyone!