So many books, so little time. What were some of the best books of the year and what makes them the best anyway? Books may end up on best seller lists when the subject is extremely topical like current events. However, after reviewing so many booklists, the selections may seem random at first glance. How do you find gems among the thousands of books published each year? You might rely on a highly trusted source like the “100 Notable Books of the Year” by The New York Times. Or maybe you just browse Amazon’s best seller lists and hope for the best. Well, my approach was a little more involved and it took a lot of time … time most people don’t have to spend on picking a few good books to read. The books featured below were selected after reviewing major book award websites, book reviews, and a wide variety of trusted booklists to narrow down the selections to only include the “best of the best” fiction and nonfiction books from the past year. Yet, it’s really still a matter of what interests the individual reader.
Now, the challenge is to find the time to read them!
Best General Fiction Books of 2017
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Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng“Spectacular sophomore work…a magnificent, multilayered epic that’s perfect for eager readers and destined for major award lists.” ~ Library Journal (starred review)Amazon rating: 4.4
Amazon: 4.4 | Goodreads: 4.14 Winner of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Fiction Book with over 39,000 votes. #1 book of the year – BookPage and LibraryReads. Named one of the best or notable books of 2017 – Amazon (top 20), Esquire, The Guardian, NPR, and The Washington Post. Book summary: Fighting an ugly custody battle with an artistic tenant who has little regard for the strict rules of their progressive Cleveland suburb, a straitlaced family woman who is seeking to adopt a baby becomes obsessed with exposing the tenant’s past, only to trigger devastating consequences for both of their families. |
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Looking for more noteworthy fiction books from the past year?
The 17 Best Fiction Books of 2017 – Bustle
The Best Fiction Books of 2017 – Chicago Review of Books
Best of 2017: Best Fiction Books – Entropy
Best Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
The Best Fiction of 2017 – The Guardian
Best Fiction of 2017 by Category – Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of 2017: The Best Fiction – Los Angeles Times
Top 10 Novels of 2017 – Time
Best Historical Fiction Books of 2017
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Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders“Profound, funny and vital . . . the work of a great writer.” ~ Chicago TribuneAmazon: 3.6 | Goodreads: 3.89
Winner of the Man Booker Prize. Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon (top 20), BookPage, Esquire, Goodreads, The Guardian, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal (top 10), Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, O Magazine, Time (top 10), and The Washington Post (top 10). Book summary: A long-awaited first novel by the National Book Award-nominated, New York Times best-selling author of Tenth of December traces a night of solitary mourning and reflection as experienced by the 16th President after the death of his 11-year-old son at the dawn of the Civil War. |
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Looking for more noteworthy historical fiction from the past year?
22 of the Biggest Historical Fiction Books of 2017 – BookBub
Best Historical Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
Best Historical Fiction of 2017 – Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of 2017: Historical Fiction – NPR
The Best Historic Fiction of 2017 – Overdrive
Best Literary Fiction Books of 2017
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Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward“A tour de force … Ward is an attentive and precise writer who dazzles with natural and supernatural observations and lyrical details … she continues telling stories we need to hear with rare clarity and power.” ~ O, the Oprah Magazine
Amazon: 4.4 | Goodreads: 4.14 Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction. Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon, BookPage, Esquire, Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review (top 10), NPR, Publisher’s Weekly (top 10), Time (top 10), The Washington Post. Book summary: Living with his grandparents and toddler sister on a Gulf Coast farm, Jojo navigates the challenges of his tormented mother’s addictions and his grandmother’s terminal cancer before the release of his father from prison prompts a road trip of danger and hope. |
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Looking for more noteworthy literary fiction from the past year?
Anticipated or Best Literary Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads
Best Literary Fiction of 2017 – Kirkus Reviews
Fall 2017 Announcements: Literary Fiction – Publisher’s Weekly
Best Mystery / Thriller Books of 2017
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Glass Houses by Louise Penny“The tension has never been greater… A meticulously built mystery that follows a careful ascent toward a breaking point that will leave you breathless.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Amazon: 4.6 | Goodreads: 4.46 One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon, Goodreads, Library Journal, LibraryReads, LibraryReads, NPR, and The Washington Post. Starred review – Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Book summary: A suspicious figure that appears on the village green on a cold November day leaves a dead body in its wake, compelling Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec to pursue an investigation that has difficult consequences. |
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Looking for more noteworthy mysteries & thrillers from the past year?
The Year’s Best Crime Novels, 2017 – The Booklist Reader
Best Mystery & Thrillers of 2017 – Bookriot
The Best Crime and Thriller Books of 2017 – Panmacmillan
Best Books of 2017: Mystery/Thriller – Publisher’s Weekly
The 10 Best Thrillers and Mysteries of 2017 – The Washington Post
Best Science Fiction / Fantasy Books of 2017
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The Power by Naomi Alderman“I was riveted by every page. Alderman’s prose is immersive and, well, electric, and I felt a closed circuit humming between the book and me as I read.” ~ Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review
Amazon: 4 | Goodreads: 3.91 One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon, Kirkus Reviews, Los Angeles Times, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, and The Washington Post. Starred review – Booklist and Kirkus Reviews. Book summary: In a novel of speculative fiction, an award-winning author contemplates a world where teenage girls now have immense physical power—they can cause agonizing pain and even death, drastically resetting the balance of the world. |
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Looking for more noteworthy science fiction and fantasy novels from the past year?
The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy Books of 2017 – Barnes & Noble
The 9 Best Sci-Fi & Fantasy Books Written by Women in 2017 – Bustle
Best Fantasy and Science Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017 – The Guardian
Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2017 – Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of 2017: SF/Fantasy/Horror – Publisher’s Weekly
Best Short Story Collections of 2017
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The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen“The Refugees will haunt its readers, especially in these times, when refugee stories need to be told, shared, and told again, ad infinitum.” ~ A.V. Club
Amazon: 4.4 | Goodreads: 3.95 One of the best books of 2017 – BookPage, Esquire, Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, The New York Times Book Review, and NPR. Starred reviews from Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, and Publisher’s Weekly. Book summary: A collection of stories, written over a twenty-year period, examines the Vietnamese experience in America as well as questions of home, family, and identity. By the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Sympathizer. |
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Looking for more noteworthy short story collections?
7 Short Story Collections to Read in 2017 – Barnes & Noble
13 Short Story Collections Out This Fall to Help You Escape Reality for a Few Pages – Bustle
Best New Short Story Collections of Fall 2017 – The Washington Post
Best Teen / Young Adult Novels of 2017
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Far from the Tree by Robin Benway“Family issues are neither airbrushed nor oversimplified. From the first page to the last, this compassionate, funny, moving, compulsively readable novel about what makes a family gets it right.” ~ Kirkus Reviews
Amazon: 4.8 | Goodreads: 4.38 Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Named one of the best or notable books of the year by Kirkus Reviews, NPR, The New York Times Book Review, and Publisher’s Weekly. Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publisher’s Weekly, and School Library Journal. Book summary: Feeling incomplete as an adopted child after placing her own baby up for adoption, teen Grace tracks down her biological siblings and finds herself struggling with the dynamics of being a middle child between an embittered older brother and an outspoken younger sister. |
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Looking for more noteworthy teen / young adult novels from the past year?
Best Young Adult Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
Best Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
The 30 Best Young Adult Books of 2017 – Paste
The 17 Best Young Adult Novels of 2017 – POPSUGAR
25 of the Best Young Adult Books of 2017 – Seventeen
Best General Nonfiction Books of 2017
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The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston“Breezy, colloquial and sometimes very funny…A very entertaining book.” ~ The Wall Street Journal
Amazon: 4.4 | Goodreads: 3.92 One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon (top 20), Goodreads, New York Times Book Review, and Publisher’s Weekly. Book summary: Recounts how the author and a team of scientists discovered a legendary sacred city, the Lost City of the Monkey God, hidden deep in the Honduran jungle. |
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Looking for more noteworthy nonfiction from the past year?
Best Nonfiction of 2017 – Goodreads Choice Awards
Best Nonfiction of 2017 by Category – Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of 2017: The Best Nonfiction – Los Angeles Times
The 20 Best Nonfiction Books of 2017 – Paste
Best Nonfiction Books of 2017 – Publisher’s Weekly
50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2017 – The Washington Post
Best Biography / Memoir Books of 2017
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You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me by Sherman Alexie“Evident throughout are humor and rage, respect and loving irreverence.” ~ Oprah Magazine
Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Amazon: 4.5 | Goodreads: 4.36 One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon (top 20), BookPage, Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, Los Angeles Times, NPR, O Magazine, and The Washington Post. Book summary: The National Book Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian presents a literary memoir of poems, essays and intimate family photos that reflect his complicated feelings about his disadvantaged childhood on a Native American reservation with his siblings and alcoholic parents. |
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Looking for more noteworthy biographies and memoirs from the past year?
Best Biographies & Memoirs of 2017 – Amazon
Best Books of 2017: Memoir & Autobiography – Goodreads Choice Awards
Best Biographies of 2017 – Kirkus Reviews
Best Books of 2017: Biography & Memoir – NPR
Best Memoirs of 2017 – O Magazine
5 Best Memoirs of 2017 – The Washington Post
Best Business and Leadership Books of 2017
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Janesville: An American Story by Amy Goldstein“Goldstein is a talented storyteller, and we root for her characters as, moment by moment, they try their hardest.” ~ The New Yorker
Amazon: 4.4 | Goodreads: 4.25 Winner of the 2017 Financial Times and McKinsey Business Book of the Year. Best Business Book of 2017 – Business Insider, CNBC, The New York Times Book Review, and The Washington Post. Book summary: A Washington Post reporter’s intimate account of the fallout from the closing of a General Motors’ assembly plant in Janesville, Wisconsin, and a larger story of the hollowing of the American middle class. Pulitzer Prize winner Amy Goldstein has spent years immersed in Janesville, Wisconsin where the nation’s oldest operating General Motors plant shut down in the midst of the Great Recession, two days before Christmas of 2008. Now, with intelligence, sympathy, and insight into what connects and divides people in an era of economic upheaval, she makes one of America’s biggest political issues human. |
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Looking for more notable business and leadership books?
The 7 Best Lessons from the 7 Best Business Books of 2017 (so far) – Success
13 of the Best Business Books of 2017 – CNBC
The 19 Best Business Books of 2017 – Business Insider
The Best Business and Leadership Books of 2017 – Omnivoracious
Best Business Books of 2017 – Financial Times
Best History Books of 2017
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Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann“A master of the detective form…Killers is something rather deep and not easily forgotten.” ~ Wall St. Journal
Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal. Amazon: 4.6 | Goodreads: 4.14 One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon (top 20), Goodreads, Kirkus Reviews, LibraryReads, The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Paste, Publisher’s Weekly, The Smithsonian, Time, and The Washington Post. Book summary: Presents a true account of the early twentieth-century murders of dozens of wealthy Osage and law-enforcement officials, citing the contributions and missteps of a fledgling FBI that eventually uncovered one of the most chilling conspiracies in American history. |
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Looking for more noteworthy history books from the past year?
Best History Books of 2017 – Amazon
Best History Books of 2017 – History Today
Best Books of 2017: History – Financial Times
Best American History Books of 2017 – Kirkus Reviews
The Ten Best History Books of 2017 – The Smithsonian
Best Poetry Books of 2017
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Half-Light: Collected Poems 1965-2016 by Frank Bidart“Art of first order . . . Truly remarkable.” ~ Piotr Florczyk, New Orleans Review
Winner of the 2017 National Book Award for Poetry. Amazon: 5 | Goodreads: 4.5 Positive reviews from Booklist (starred review), The New York Review of Books, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, and Publisher’s Weekly (starred review). Book summary: Gathered together, the poems of Frank Bidart perform one of the most remarkable transmutations of the body into language in contemporary literature. Few writers have so willingly ventured to the dark places of the human psyche and allowed themselves to be stripped bare on the page with such candor and vulnerability. Over the past half century, Bidart has done nothing less than invent a poetics commensurate with the chaos and appetites of our experience. |
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Looking for more notable poetry collections from the past year?
The 18 Best Poetry Collections of 2017 – Bustle
The Best Poetry Books of 2017 – Chicago Review of Books
Best of 2017: Best Poetry Books & Poetry Collections – Entropy
The Best Poetry Collections of 2017 – The Washington Post
Best Science Books of 2017
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Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson“With wry humor, keen vision, and abundant humanity, Neil deGrasse Tyson distills the big questions of space, time, and reality into short, insightful chapters you can enjoy with your morning coffee.” ~ Discover
Amazon: 4.6 | Goodreads: 4.14 Winner of the 2017 Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Science & Technology Book with over 42,000 votes. One of the best books of 2017 – Amazon, Business Insider, Goodreads, and Kirkus Reviews. Book summary: Offers witty, digestible explanations of topics in cosmology, from the Big Bang and black holes to quantum mechanics and the search for life in the universe. |
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Looking for more great science books?
7 Favorite Science Books of 2017 – Brain Pickings
The Very Best Science Books of 2017 – Business Insider
The Best Science Books of 2017 – Science Friday
The Ten Best Science Books of 2017 – The Smithsonian
Best Books of 2017 – BookPage
50 Best Books of 2017 – Esquire
Best Books of 2017 – Part One and Part Two – The Guardian
19 Best Books of 2017 (so far) – Harper’s Bazaar
LibraryRead’s Favorite Books of 2017
NYT’s 100 Notable Books of 2017
NPR’s Guide To 2017’s Great Reads
Best Books of 2017 – O Magazine
Best Books of 2017 – The Washington Post
Note: Some websites may restrict access to their content after you access them multiple times (i.e., The Washington Post and similar publications).
Originally posted by Toledo Lucas County Public Library blogger and Adult Services Librarian April S. at http://www.toledolibrary.org/blog/the-best-fiction-and-nonfiction-books-of-2017.