My Favorite Books of 2017 (Part Two)

Happy New Year!

This post is a year late, but when have I ever been good at keeping to my schedules?

Never. The answer is never.

It’s too bad though because I had plenty of holiday-slash-end-of-the-year-themed posts that I never got the chance to make. I had to at least crank out this post though since My Favorite Books of 2017 (Part One) post is floating in the cybernet already (so lonely, so cold).

I completed my Goodreads Reading Challenge by reading fifty-two books, two more than the fifty I pledged (wowow. what an over-achiever.). Here are the books from the second half of 2017 that stuck out to me: 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman

[Goodreads/My Review]

The following is from the review I made for Elanor Oliphant is Completely Fine:

Eleanor Oliphant, a thirty-year old woman, is content with the routine she has carried out for the past nine years of her life: wake up, work, crossword, work, avoid confrontation, takeout, radio or book, the weekly phone call with “mummy”, alcohol, sleep. She prefers to spend her time alone as she believes other people around her are uncultured and rude. She finds an unexpected friend in Raymond when they help an old man named Sammy after he has a fall on a sidewalk. With Raymond’s assistance, Eleanor begins to break out of her shell, discuss her “mummy” issues and past, and discover that maybe she isn’t completely fine.

If I had to describe this book in two words, I would say that it’s subtle and emotional. It had it’s fair share of surprises, and even a big plot twist at the end, but it never felt like it was trying too hard to impress.

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

[Goodreads]

My favorite trend in contemporary books this year was nerd appreciation, and Eliza and Her Monsters was one big love letter to nerds.

Goodreads Description: In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.
Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.
But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Reincarnation Blues by Michael Poore

[Goodreads]

Goodreads Description: What if you could live forever—but without your one true love? Reincarnation Blues is the story of a man who has been reincarnated nearly 10,000 times, in search of the secret to immortality so that he can be with his beloved, the incarnation of Death.

Reincarnation has always been a fascinating concept to me, and this book put an interesting spin to it. I loved how it didn’t take itself too seriously and was still able to get powerful messages about love and life across.

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

[Goodreads/My Review]

Goodreads Description: Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.
Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back. 
There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

More nerd appreciation! And diversity!

Lilac Girls by Martha Hall Kelly

[Goodreads]

Goodreads Description: New York socialite Caroline Ferriday has her hands full with her post at the French consulate and a new love on the horizon. But Caroline’s world is forever changed when Hitler’s army invades Poland in September 1939—and then sets its sights on France.
An ocean away from Caroline, Kasia Kuzmerick, a Polish teenager, senses her carefree youth disappearing as she is drawn deeper into her role as courier for the underground resistance movement. In a tense atmosphere of watchful eyes and suspecting neighbors, one false move can have dire consequences.
For the ambitious young German doctor, Herta Oberheuser, an ad for a government medical position seems her ticket out of a desolate life. Once hired, though, she finds herself trapped in a male-dominated realm of Nazi secrets and power.
The lives of these three women are set on a collision course when the unthinkable happens and Kasia is sent to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi concentration camp for women. Their stories cross continents—from New York to Paris, Germany, and Poland—as Caroline and Kasia strive to bring justice to those whom history has forgotten.

The book introduced me to another horror of WW2, Ravensbrück, a Nazi concentration camp where women were subjected to medical experiments that killed or impacted their livelihood for life. There was some light to this story though. The character, Caroline Ferriday, was based off a real woman who devoted her time and money in helping the forgotten survivors from Ravensbrück receive medical attention in the U.S.A. It was a horrifying yet empowering story that should be shared with more people.

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Thanks for reading! What were your favorite books of 2017?  Let me know if you have read any of these book or plan to pick them up ☺️.

I hope you all had a great holiday season! I’ve really missed blogging so here’s to 2018 of being the year I actually set and keep up a blog schedule 🤞.