Here’s my 2017 reading list. For years, I hardly read apart from work and school demands. In 2016, I managed to read four books, including A Slave No More by David Blight and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. The moral of my 2017 reading list: start somewhere. It builds momentum.
My 2017 list is incredibly subjective, for which books enter my journey depends on how intentional I am to read diversely. I commend these three, followed by the rest of the books I read in 2017. Send me your choices for 2018.
Between the World and Me, Ta-Nehisi Coates
A contemporary account of African-American experience in the United States and 2015 National Book Award winner.
The Return of the Prodigal Son: A Story of Homecoming, Henri Nouwen
This Dutch Catholic priest weaves Rembrandt’s painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son (1669), and the parable in Luke 15 with his own spiritual journey.
Man’s Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl
A Holocaust biography. A Jewish neurologist and psychiatrist from Austria, like his predecessor Sigmund Freud, Frankl describes a markedly different view of psychotherapy and how people thrive.
FICTION
Anne of Green Gables, L. M. Montgomery
Far from the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
Gilead, Marilynne Robinson
The Good Earth, Pearl Buck
Good Wives, Louisa May Alcott
Home, Marilynne Robinson
Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi (rated R)
To the Lighthouse, Virginia Woolf
Lila, Marilynne Robinson
Of Mice and Men, John Steinbeck
Silas Marner, George Eliot
NON-FICTION
Bonhoeffer, Eric Metaxas
Dad is Fat, Jim Gaffigan
The Fire Next Time, James Baldwin
15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management, Kevin Kruse
The 4-Hour Workweek, Timothy Ferris
Hillbilly Elegy, J. D. Vance (rated R for language)
Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: An American Slave, Frederick Douglass
Night, Elie Wiesel
On Tyranny, Timothy Snyder
The Old Testament, various
FODDER
Jumpstart your reading with these:
2017 National Book Award Finalists
Jen Michel’s Books for 2018
Fathom Mag’s Best Books 2017
