The Best Books We’ve Read This Year
Just like last year, we asked our contributors, book clubbers, and readers to share the best books they read this year. We have 15 lists for you, consisting of 69 separate books and a whole bunch that we all loved. These are our favorite novels we read this year, but we’d love to hear about yours in the comments! And if you’re looking for more best of lists, you can find our list of 2017, 2016, 2015 and 2014 right here.
Esmée de Heer
Co-host of Bored to Death book club & YA book club + owner of this blog
Building Stories - Chris Ware
Such an amazing, experimental graphic novel that consists of a box filled with short-form comics that can be read in any order. Throughout, you'll create your own story of this building and its tenants, depending on what you'll read first. This means everyone has a different reading experience, which I'm just a sucker for. Also Chris Ware is amazing at doing sadness. I read in one sitting, which to me is the only way to do it.
The Last Samurai - Helen DeWitt
Also experimental fiction, but so smart and sharp that I felt stupid and inspired at the same time. I wrote a full review on this, but Helen DeWitt is definitely one of my new favorite authors.
The Waves - Virginia Woolf
I'm going through Woolf's work one book a year and have been loving all of it. The Waves follows a group of friends throughout their lives. We dive deep into their minds, almost immediately accessing their deepest emotions, as we see them move from birth to death, with all the anguish in between.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle - Shirley Jackson
Merricat is my new favorite literary character. Her weird darkness and imagination really resonated with me. I probably shouldn't share that, but I do promise I'll never poison anyone.
La Belle Sauvage - Philip Pullman
I was so happy to be back in the world of His Dark Materials and I can't wait for part two. Pullman's writing is so soothing and magical that I daydream of living in it.
Charlotte de Heer
Co-host of Bored to Death book club
Conversations with Friends - Sally Rooney
Pond - Claire-Louse Bennet
A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
My Year of Rest & Relaxation - Ottessa Mosfegh
Francisca Priem
YA book clubber & contributor to our blog
Girl in Pieces - Kathleen Glasgow
I read this book very quickly. It is the only book about this topic that I would actually recommend to someone else and that I hope makes it into school libraries.
The Love Letters of Abelard and Lily - Laura Creedle
One of the sweetest love stories I've read in years. It's a bit instalove between Abelard and Lily, but the book offers plenty to make up for that. One of my favorite things about this book is that the author really succeeds in showing what it's like to have ADHD and dyslexia (from her own experience), and why it should never be OK to judge a person only on their disorders.
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
When I couldn't step into a bookstore anymore without seeing this book, I decided to buy it and see for myself if it was any good. It was! I loved everything about this book and would totally read it again next year.
The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
I wanted to read this book for years, and this year I finally did. I thought beforehand that it would be a complete tearjerker and that the ending would be very, very dramatic, but actually, I thought it fitted the story very well and was also pretty hopeful. Unfortunately, I ruined my very positive feelings toward this book by watching the movie...
Outlander - Diana Gabaldon
I actually already left the Outlander-train, and ditched the series after book 4, but I'm still amazed by how much info and plot and character development the author could fit into one book. I really enjoyed this, and it will be very hard to keep myself from plowing through the other books in 2019, even though I don't like where the storyline went after book three.
Suzanne Peet
Owner of Just plain Suus & organizer of Undercover Book Club
Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
An amazing novel about trauma, depression and thinking you do not need help. It is amazingly written. It’s sad, tragic, but also funny a lot of the times.
Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
A novel about motherhood. Celeste Ng has grown a lot as a writer since her first novel ‘Everything I Never Told You’ and in this book, she combines the dilemma of adoption with the search of an ever-changing relationship between mothers and their daughters.
Hag-Seed - Margaret Atwood
By far the funniest Shakespeare adaptation I have read so far. It is based on ‘The Tempest’ and Margaret Atwood creates an amazing ‘meta’ setting where the plot of the book is ‘The Tempest’, while the inmates in the book also play their own ‘The Tempest’ modernizing it in so many ways. Just amazing.
Station Eleven - Emily St. John Mandel
A great dystopian novel that doesn’t just cover the ‘post-apocalypse’, but also the days before/just after. It gives you hope for humanity besides showing the horribleness humans can be up to when all hell breaks loose.
Dracula - Bram Stoker
I had not expected to enjoy this as much as I did, but it’s a great classic to read that’s quite easy and accessible. Also, I am convinced Lucy and Mina were actually in love and Mina is my fave heroin.
Jochem F. Melis
Book clubber & writer
Op Weg Naar het Einde - Gerard Reve
Read this in June, reread it in October. His style, his wit, and irony, his descriptions...all are brilliant. Together with Dostojevski's Notes from the Underground, I have found my writing bible.
Hersenschimmen - J. Bernleff
The saddest and most upsetting book I read this year, about a man falling fast into dementia. I felt a little crazy myself when I finished it.
Leven en Wandel´ van Mikael K. - J. M. Coetzee
A meditation on humanity, freedom, and society in such beautiful calm prose. I was surprised when reading reviews that people say his writing style is cold and distant...to me it was the exact opposite.
Reis Naar het Einde van de Nacht - Louis-Ferdinand Céline
An absolutely crazy rambling mess of a book. A stream of consciousness journey starting in Paris in world war one, to Africa, America, back to Paris. This book is a French sewer.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation - Ottessa Moshfegh
Loved the style, loved the concept. I want to sleep for a year as well.
Roy den Boer
Book clubber & contributor to our blog
My top 5 accompanied by quotes from the books:
We Have Always Lived In The Castle -Shirley Jackson
"Poor strangers,” I said. “They have so much to be afraid of.”
John - Annie Baker
"I went mad and then I was 45, which was older than I thought I'd ever be, and then I was 50, which was older than I thought I'd ever be when I was 45, and then on the night of my 57th birthday I went blind and I stood naked in the middle of my bedroom and all of a sudden I was at the center of the universe, facing out."
Train Dreams - Denis Johnson"All his life Robert Grainier would remember vividly the burned valley at sundown, the most dreamlike business he’d ever witnessed waking"
Sabrina - Nick Drnaso
"The New Face of Evil"
Don't Call Us Dead - Danez Smith
"What good is a name if no one answers back"
Maritza Dubravac
Co-host of the YA book club, instagrammer & contributor to our blog
Merel - Sarah Moon
This book made me cry, a lot. I was a total wreck after I finished it, and I loved it. It is such a beautiful, honest and hopeful story about Merel (or in English, Sparrow), a very introverted teenager who has to go to therapy after a traumatic event. Thanks to her therapist and to music, she slowly comes out of her shell. A wonderful debut.
Feminists Don't Wear Pink (and Other Lies) - Scarlett Curtis
Seriously, YES to everything in this wonderful feminist collection. but a collection of essays, thoughts, poetry, etc. on all kinds of topics by all kinds of badass women. From intersectionality, to the history of feminism, motherhood, periods, sexism, the patriarchy and so much more. I loved it very much. So yeah, Feminists Don't Wear Pink, in my humble opinion, is an amazing collection that everyone should buy and read. Especially men.
Lampje - Annet Schaap
Lampje won all the Dutch Children's Book Prizes since it was published. Just before it won the most important prize, de Gouden Griffel, I finally read the book. I was late to the game, and I feel bad about it. If you want a magical, fairytale-like, adventurous, one of a kind children's book that will make you feel like a kid again (in all the good ways), then I have one thing to say: read Lampje. You won't regret it.
Het Achtste Leven (voor Brilka) - Nino Haratischwili
I read this 1000+ page badass back in September, while I was in Bosnia. Bosnia is code for no internet/distractions and it was wonderful. I wanted to read this book for years now, and I'm so glad I finally did. It is such an epic and badass family saga about amazing women and over a hundred years of Soviet/Georgian history. The way Haratischwili manages to tell and write this story and to interweave all the storylines is really impressive. I couldn't put Het Achtste Leven down and I still think about it.
Far from the Tree - Robin Benway
A beautiful story about three adopted siblings who meet for the first time and slowly get to know each other. Every sibling deals with their own traumas and problems. Far From The Tree is a novel that asks the question what family really is. Benway is a really good storyteller, and the way she crafted the story and its separate storylines were very well done.
Jette van der Veen
YA book clubber & bookstagrammer
Poet X - Elizabeth Acevedo
Check Please! Volume 1, #Hockey - Ngozi Ukazu
Vicious - V.E. Schwab
The King's Men - Nora Sakavic
My Lady Jane - Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows.
Laura Overheul
Book clubber, contributor & bookstagrammer
Dry - Neal Shusterman
A Very Large Expanse of Sea - Tahereh Mafi
Strange the Dreamer - Laini Taylor
This Mortal Coil - Emily Suvada
My Sister the Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
Mathilde Talens
Owner of Ik Vind Lezen Leuk & YA book clubber
67 seconden - Jason Reynolds
An exciting and fascinating story that I read in a single hour. Amazing!
Girl in Pieces - Kathleen Glasgow
A sad story with a strong main character.
Spreek je Chocola? - Cas Lester
A sweet story about friendship without actually understanding each other.
Scythe - Neal Shusterman
A fascinating story about a world where people don't die, but can only be killed by a scythe.
City of Saints and Thieves - Nathalie C. Anderson
A sad and exciting novel about a girl who wants to take revenge on her mother's murderer.
Tharuka Fernando
Mythos by Stephen Fry
I have always been a fan of Greek mythology growing up, and having Stephen Fry's voice as warm and familiar as a favorite uncle recounting ancient myths like nostalgic stories from his own past truly was the best thing to fall asleep to.
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
This year has been a tentative foray into sci-fi for me, and what a happy-go-lucky introduction to any newcomer to the genre!
All Systems Red (The Murderbot Diaries series) by Martha Wells
Amazing! A series of four short novellas which had me so hooked I binged them in three days. I need to write a PROPER review eventually, so I'm going to keep this brief. Up there with Ann Leckie
Circe by Madeline Miller
ANOTHER amazing Greek mythology retelling this time from the goddess of Greek mythology retellings herself. Madeline is back and as great as ever! Fewer tears this time, but there are definitely still tears. Poignant ones of female solidarity!
I'll be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara
As a huge true crime buff, McNamara absolutely smashed it out of the ball park with her dogged investigation into the Golden State Killer/EAR-ONS.
Amanda de Souza
There There - Tommy Orange
Convenience Store Woman - Sayaka Murata
Less - Andrew Sean Greer
Anything is Possible - Elizabeth Strout
The Little Black Book of Short Stories - AS Byatt
Jasmijn Kunst
Community member
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun - Gretchen Rubin
Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom
Seven Deadly Sins: My Pursuit of Lance Armstrong - David Walsh
The Girl with Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story - Lee Hyeonseo
Obada Zaidany
The Sheltering Sky - Paul Bowles
For the top of my list, I chose this book “The Sheltering Sky” by Paul Bowles. Bowles was an American expat living most of his life in Tangier, Morocco. I enjoyed reading the book: story, prose, and spirit. Three American travelers decide to live the life of nomads in a cruel environment. An environment that strips existence to the bare bones of loneliness and struggle for survival. An environment that has made matters worse for the suffering marriage of Kit and Port. An environment and a landscape that will make sure your thoughts reach unexplored blind spots in your mind (I am attaching a photo for this one).
Heap House - Edward CareyIn Heap House, Edward Carey employs literary devices such as Assonance and Consonance which I find fun to read. He weaves a world where objects can speak and he bestows the special listening capability on his most fragile character. And how I wish I lived in that heap house of the Iremongers. You even get a depiction of how the house looks like in the book. Strange and idiosyncratic. I loved this book very much. Fun fact: the pictures in Carey’s books are drawn by Carey himself! He’s very talented. I still have to read the other two books in the series.
The Pillowman - Martin McDonagh
A play of only 100 pages but boy oh boy, does it have a lot in such small space! One of the best plays I have read. The play itself in composition and build is very clever. The subject matter is that of a trauma that led to an ambitious writer, a protective one of his stories no matter what. Katurian killed his parents for probably the right reasons and his brother for the selfish ones. Katurian was ready to do anything to save his stories in a police state.
Perfect Days - Raphael Montes
In my defense, I was really hoping for perfect days when I picked up this book. I had no idea they were going to be perfect disturbing days. Read at your own risk! Raphael Montes generally writes about crime and violence. And so one day his mother asked him: “why do you always have to write about crime and violence? Can’t you write about love?” And so he did and the result was Perfect Days.
The Straw House - Cao Wenxuan
I am lost for words when it comes to this book. I am not sure what I like about it in specific. I can’t place the feeling. The book talks about a number of snippets in Chinese rural life. These snippets are centered around different children and the simple problems they go through, problems that are told in a childish innocent way. It feels as if the one who is writing is a small kid. I just can’t wrap my mind around how the writer was able to materialize those snippets into words. I think the book just reminds me of simpler purer times.
Valerie Schulte Nordholt
Book Clubber
Half of a Yellow Sun – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Set in Nigeria in the sixties, this epic novel really makes you experience another time and place. It follows ordinary people caught up in the Biafran independence war and shows how their idealistic ideas are quickly corrupted. Adichie is really good at transporting you to this place as if you’re actually there, and I really enjoyed learning about this moment in history through all the little details about the clothing food and music of the place.
Home Fire – Kamila Shamsie
A modern-day update of the classic Greek play Antigone. Often modern-day updates of classics can be artificial, bus this just seamlessly transposes the story in the world of modern politics and jihadists, while at the same time remaining very personal. Finished it in about one day.
The Line of Beauty – Alan Hollinghurst
Very very British novel, about an upper-class family involved in politics in the eighties, seen through the eyes of a young gay man who is obsessed with aesthetics. I realize this description is abstract, but every page has at least one memorable phrase and it is just very well written.
Red Notice - Bill Browder
Autobiography of an American/British hedge fund manager who became a human rights activists after his lawyer was tortured to death in a Russian prison for discovering a $230 million tax fraud. Great inside look about both the world of finance and hedge funds, and then activism and how lobbying actually works; set against a tragic backdrop.
My Year of Rest and Relaxation – Otessa Moshfegh
It’s difficult to say what I liked so much about this book, but somehow it was very comfortable to read about someone who just wants to sleep for a year. The cynical writing style was also really enjoyable.