2017: The Year in Books

The year is wearing on, so it must be time for some bookly reflection.

What are your top 10 (or if you don't have 10, top 5) books read this year? They don't have to be newly published this year, just new to you!

Mine are, in no particular order:

1. Their Brilliant Careers (Ryan O'Neill): My goodness this is a clever, clever book. It's sly and hilarious and so intelligent. I've already re-read it twice trying to figure out more of the clues!

2. Hunger (Roxane Gay): This book hurts and sears, but you should read it anyway. It is a game-changer.

3. Anything is Possible (Elizabeth Strout): I reviewed this here.

4. Exit West (Mohsin Hamad): I reviewed this here.

5. Autonomous (Annalee Newitz): Planning to do a double-header review of this and Sea of Rust, so I won't say too much here, but do yourself a favour, it's terrific.

6. Lincoln in the Bardo (George Saunders): I reviewed this here.

7. See What I Have Done (Sarah Schmidt): This is one of the genuinely creepiest books I have read in years, and it's superb. A fictional retelling of the Borden murders, full of viscera and disgust and psychological manoueverings.

8. Autumn (Ali Smith): Beautiful.

9. Sea of Rust (C. Robert Cargill): As I said above, I'm lanning to do a double-header review of this and Autonomous. This is a cracker of as story in the real old meaty sci fi vein.

10. The two newest Penric novellas, Penric and the Fox and The Prisoner of Limnos (Lois McMaster Bujold): There will never ever be a year that the Queen puts out something new and it doesn't appear on my Top 10 list, but TWO new Penric novellas was a superb treat this year.

There were other books I read and liked this year too, as well as some re-reading of old beloveds, but these 10 were the cream of the crop for me. I'd be interested to know what the literary year looked like for others.