generally bookish

2017 – a bookish best of

05/01/2018

Hello hello,

this should have been my first post of 2018 but oh well, better late than never. The last two years I created a “best of” photo challenge on social media, but this year I just want to remember my bookish year and float in the 74 wonderful stories I’ve read a while longer… I’ll go through my BuJo again, and browse my goodreads list. It’s all a bit nostalgic even though it was last year. I should probably shut up now and just get to the categories I selected…

  1. Best New Author
    I know, I know, I’m late to the party but I read my first book by Becky Albertalli this year. It was The Upside of Unrequited and I just loved it so damn much. I still have not read Simon (shame over me, my family and my cow) even though it’s been sitting on my shelf since it’s been out.
  2. Best female character
    Agnieszka from Uprooted by Naomi Novik. This girl is amazing. She is so kind and full of love, yet can be harsh if need be. She is strong and quite independent and understand her surroundings better than one might think. And she doesn’t need a man to be amazing and feel like it, she knows about her strengths and she knows how great she is. I just have endless love for her.
  3. Best male character
    MAGNUS CHASE! I feel we do not talk about the whole Magnus Chase series by Rick Riordan enough. Seriously. Even though I love his other books as well, Magnus Chase is by far my favourite. And part of that is of course the main character himself. He is loyal and silly and caring and strong. Can I just wrap him in a blanket and keep him safe? I don’t want him to die if Ragnarok should ever come upon us.
  4. Best friendship
    Can I just repeat: Magnus Chase! Of course I mean the friendship group Magnus is a part of. We have dwarfish fashion nerds/designers, muslim valkyries and their genderfluid siblings. We have berserkers and people who love their knives maybe too much. And that’s not even all of them. You wouldn’t think these go too well together but they do! Oh, they definitely do! Rick Riordan has produced something good there and I love this group to Asgard and back.
  5. Favourite OTP
    Lazlo and Sarai from Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor. Their romance is just so pure and new and good. I don’t know how else to describe it. They live in a cruel world and experience something so extremely beautiful and have so much hope, and love for each other. I probably think about them more than I should.
  6. Best series
    Probably this will forever be the Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian. It follows Jack Aubrey, a captain of the Royal Navy, and his best friend Stephen Maturin, doctor and spy, on their travels around the world. In 2017 I read books 3 -7 and enjoyed them immensely. Historically pretty correct paired with a great writing style and amazing characters is just the thing I love.

  7. Best stand-alone
    I double checked if this is a standalone because I always seem to think it is one but then the book is part of a series. But It Only Happens In The Movies by Holly Bourne is a standalone I think. I loved it mostly for being very realistic and for the character development the protagonist has. I also think that the problems, especially those in families were portrayed really well. Plus romantic films were seen in a bit of an ironic point of view which was quite funny.
  8. Favourite side-kick
    I really don’t want to talk about Magnus Chase again BUT IT IS NECESSARY OK. Because I just love this stupid series so much. Though I think I should probably pick one person and not name the whole friendship group again. So I’m going with Alex Fierro, a genderfluid child of Loki who knows damn well how to fight. They are a-m-a-z-i-n-g. And I really don’t talk about this series often enough. Just please, go and read it.
  9. Best villain
    Thank you, V.E. Schwab for being amazing and writing awesome villains. Because damn, Osaron from A Conjuring of Light is one kind of a villain. He truly is evil and selfish and thinks only about the power he could have. And he is SO hard to defeat. I enjoyed reading about him so much.
  10. Favourite 2017 release
    Oh my god, have I ranted about Queens of Geek yet? No? Then the time has come! It is a story written by Jen Wilde and follows three Australian friends on their trip to a convention in the US. There, drama unfolds between the film/youtube star Charlie, her ex and her new love. While her best friend Taylor seems to finally get what she has wanted for a while. The book is written so good and the characters are amazing, with their flaws and quirks and warm hearts and great friendship.
  11. Best non-fiction
    This is a book I read for uni but enjoyed so much. It’s Mrs. Naunakhte & Family by Koenraad Donker van Heel. With Naunakhte as example he follows several aspects of living ofthe people in the ancient Egyptian village of Deir el-Medina. Where I thought the book was probably going to be dry and hard to understand, it wasn’t at all. It was funny, sarcastic and unlike most books I read for uni. I’d even recommend it to people who aren’t that interested in egyptology.

While I’ve read some other fantastic books in 2017, I couldn’t put them in here because I decided to go after these categories. But what about you? What were your favourite 2017 books? Have you read some of the ones I’ve read?

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