Resolve to Read!

I'm a reader...no shock there. But I have surrounded myself with friends who are also readers. When I taught, my goal was to contribute to expanding my students' reading life. An English teacher/Reading Specialist/School Librarian married to an Academic Librarian...our home is packed with books.

I asked my friends to share with my their favorite book from 2017 -- not the best book...their favorite. My friends came through! We had a lively conversation about books. Several of my former students visited and shared their favorites

A Pew survey from late 2016 shows a quarter of American adults did not read ONE BOOK in the previous year. As one who was raised by readers, who married a reader, who spent 40 years with students and books, that makes me sad.

So I resolve to read! I resolve to share books and to work to inspire others to read. Please join me!

What follows is two lists. One is the list of books my FB friends have identified as their favorite in 2017. I've asterick-ed the books I've read. And a double asterick means that book is on my top ten list for the year, too. You see I have a lot to work on.

The second list is the countdown list from my friend Amanda Kordeliski, School Media Specialist extraordinaire. She does a countdown of the top 25 Young Adult books she's read...and she's read a bunch!!

SO, check out these lists, read a couple, and let me know what you think!

13 Reasons Why*

13 Soldiers

1984*

A Dog’s Purpose

A Girl of the Limberlost

A Man Called Ove*

A Monster Calls*

Accidental Saints
Alice and the Zombie Queens

All the Light We Cannot See*

America’s Women

American Town

As Always, Julia
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Beartown

Beautiful Miscellaneous

Behold the Dreamers

Being Mortal

Beneath the Scarlet Sky

Bite Me

Born a Crime**

Boys in the Boat

Britt-Marie Was Here*

Brothers Karamazov*
Cannibalism

Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
Commonwealth

Creatures of a Day

Dark Lover

Does Santa Exist

Dreamland Burning*

East of Eden*

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Fantasyland

From Sand and Ash

Full Cicada Moon*
Game of Thrones*

Girls and Dangerous Pie

Glass Houses

Gone
Guns, Germs, and Steel

Hamilton

Handle with Care*

Handmaid’s Tale**

Haunting the Deep

Hawthorn & Child

Hidden Figures*

Hissing Cousins

Homegoing

House of Spies*
In the Country We Love

Invisible Man*

Jude the Obscure*

Killers of the Flower Moon**

Kitchen Table Talk

Lies my Teacher Told Me*

Lilac Girls

Little Fires Everywhere

Magic Tree House

Make your Bed

Manhattan Beach

Mirror Mirror

Mitch Rapp

Moonglow

Most American

Mr. Mercedes

My Absolute Darling

My Family Divided

News of the World

Nightingale

Northern Borders

Not-quite States of America

Orbiting Jupiter

Origin of the Female

Pachinko

Patrick Moore on Mars

Pond

Post Graduate

Princess X

Purple Hibiscus

Real Thoughts for Real Teachers

Refugee

Restart

Sabriel*
Salt

Sheep

Silence

Sing Unburied Sing

Small Great Things*
Snow Crash

Still Life with Tornado

Summers at Castle Auburn

Team of Rivals

Tell the Wolves I’m Home*

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian*
The Alice Network

The Bronze Horseman

The Circle

The Dry

The Expendables

The Gentleman from Moscow**

The Girl with Seven Names

The Glass Castle*

The Hate U Give**

The Husband’s Secret

The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
The Leavers

The Long and Far Away
The Marriage Lie
The Mountain Between Us

The Name of the Wind

The Nazi Officer’s Wife

The Power
The Professor and the Madman*

The Shack

The Six of Crows

The Smell of Other People’s Houses
The Sympathizer

The Trial

The War that Saved my Live**

There But for The

Total Cat Mojo
Troublemakers

Truly Madly Guilty

Turtles All the Way Down*

Undisputed Truth

We are Completely Beside Ourselves

We Need to Talk About Kevin*

We Were the Lucky Ones

Wheel of Time

Where the Night Falls

Wonder*

Words in Deep Blue

Wrinkle in Time*

Y is for Yesterday

You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me**

Zookeeper’s Wife

Amanda's top 25 -- she has supplied authors. I was too lazy to do that with my list.

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley
The Pain Eater by Beth Goobie
(2.5) A List of Cages by Robin Roe
Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia
(3.5) Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham*
Bang by Barry Lyga
You Bring the Distant Near by Mitali Perkins
Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
American Street by Ibi Zoboi
Dear Martin by Nic Stone
Allegedly by Tiffany Jackson
Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzie Lee
Daughter of the Pirate King by Tricia Levenseller
Juan Pablo and the Butterflies by JJ Flowers
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas**
How Dare the Sun Rise by Sandra Uwiringiyimana
The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
Far From the Tree by Robin Benway
The Last Thing You Said by Sara Biren
Born a Crime by Trevor Noah*
North of Happy by Adi Alsaid
The Leaf Reader by Emily Arsenault
When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon
Devils Within by S.F. Henson
Miles Morales by Jason Reynolds
Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance*

Here in Oklahoma, it's really cold...time to curl up with a good book. 

Don't see YOUR favorite book of 2017? Add it in the comments!