This is my community service to book-bloggers – a list of the books that appear most frequently on all of the lists (32 of them) I listed on Best Books of 2017 – A List of Lists.
So here it is, the 2017 Commonly-Agreed-by-the-People-Who-Publish-Best-of-2017-Book-Lists-Before-December-31 top 47 books.
Books that made five lists –
01. The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst
02. Winter by Ali Smith
03. Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny
04. Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong
05. The Answers: A Novel by Catherine Lacey
06. Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz
07. The Dinner Party and Other Stories by Joshua Ferris
08. Fever Dream by Samantha Schweblin
09. The Book of Joan by Lidia Yuknavitch
10. The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
11. The Locals by Jonathan Dee
12. What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky: Stories by Lesley Nneka Arimah
13. The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
14. Five Carat Soul by James McBride
15. A Separation by Katie Kitamura
16. Hunger by Roxanne Gay
17. Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
18. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Books that made six lists –
19. Homesick for Another World by Ottessa Moshfegh
20. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
21. The Idiot by Elif Batuman
22. All Grown Up by Jami Attenberg
23. The Burning Girl by Claire Messud
24. What We Lose by Zinzi Clemmons
Books that made seven lists –
25. Conversations with Friends by Sally Rooney
26. Reservoir 13: A Novel by Jon McGregor
27. 4321 by Paul Auster
28. White Tears by Hari Kunzru
29. Ill Will by Dan Chaon
30. Borne by Jeff Vandermeer
31. The Leavers by Lisa Ko
32. The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
Books that made eight lists –
33. Autumn by Ali Smith
34. Marlena by Julie Buntin
35. The Power by Naomi Alderman
Books that made nine lists –
36. Forest Dark by Nicole Krauss
37. Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie
Books that made ten lists –
38. Her Body and Other Parties by Carmen Maria Machado
39. The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Books that made eleven lists –
40. American War by Omar El Akkad
Books that made twelve lists –
41. Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Books that made thirteen lists –
42. Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
Books that made fourteen lists –
43. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
44. Manhattan Beach by Jennifer Egan
Books that made 15 – 19 lists –
45. Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
46. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesym Ward
The book that made 23 lists (!) –
47. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
I’ve read three (Strout, Rooney and Hamid) and own a further nine (Egan, Saunders, Ward, Lee, Ko, Batuman, Attenberg, Nguyen and Adebayo).
Do you agree with the critics – will any of these titles make your ‘Best of 2017’ list?
You’re a complete star for doing this – it’s amazing!
Each year I flirt with the idea of reading the complete list from the previous year… needless to say I haven’t done it yet although I think this year’s list is far more appealing than the 2016 list.
Thank you! Obviously, I’d loved to have seen Reservoir 13 on all 23 but better seven than none.
I’m in complete agreement!! A superb book that deserves more visibility
Love this! This is a damn good place to start a reading list for next year.
Will keep you busy!
Thanks for doing this – I always love this post! I definitely did not agree with the critics this year and am doing a post on that topic with a bit of a different spin soon.
Funny, because I noticed when I was collecting the images from Goodreads that you disagreed with quite a few of the critics choices! I’ll look forward to your post.
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This is amazing! Were there any one offs – books that only appear one one list? I’d like to see those…
There were dozens and dozens of one-offs. Too many to list! Most years I’ve started at books that appear on four lists but this year there seemed to be agreement between critics and had I included the books on four lists it would have been too long – I figured 47 books was enough to keep readers busy!
Woop! I’ve read fifteen of these in total (some of the ones that made five or six lists were higher-profile in the States, I think). Borne, Reservoir 13, The Power and Lincoln In the Bardo are all going to be on my Best of 2017 list, for sure.
Wow! I’m kind of cranky at myself for not having read the nine that made it to the list that I already own – needless to say I’ll be starting 2018 with them.
A good place to start!
Thanks for tallying these up, this is really interesting – I was not a great fan of Lincoln in the Bardo which won’t be appearing in my books of the year list, but I definitely want to read Sing, Unburied, Sing which I have heard nothing but good things about. I have read 12 of the books you have listed above, although some were available in the UK earlier so I read them late last year.
I think different publishing times has a big impact on this list. For example, Swing Time was published late last year and ended up being one of the most popular books, I think because it was fresh in peoples minds.
Yes, that was on my list last year along with Autumn by Ali Smith – I read both in November last year.
Love this!! I’ve read 2: The Essex Serpent and Stay With Me, both of which are on my 2017 favorites list. I’ll also be getting Autumn, Winter, and Little Fires Everywhere for Christmas. I really want to read The Power, Exit West, Hunger, and The Hate U Give in 2018…
I haven’t read The Hate U Give but want to – rare that a YA novel makes this list (in fact, that might be the first time since I’ve done this).
Good point-it is very rare to see YA on these lists. That makes me even more excited to read THUG!
I hope you don’t mind if I link this to my blog. I think my readers would be interested in your work here! Thank you.
Of course! Share it far and wide 🙂
I haven’t read any of these (but a few are on my tbr list)
I love nothing more than adding to TBR stacks 😉
Kate, thanks so much for your work compiling these lists. I so enjoy the results each year!!
It’s good fun and there’s always a few surprises.
I love this list, thank you! I agree with the praise for Anything is Possible and The Power, but was a little mixed about Manhattan Beach. I’d have liked to see The Hate U Give on more lists. I’m planning to read a lot of these — next up, Little Fires Everywhere!
Little Fires seems to be one of those books that crept up on people – most seemed ‘surprised’ by how much they enjoyed it/ or that it wasn’t what they expected.
I’ve read six of these, and have another couple sitting waiting. I do get all panicky when I see all these fabulous books laid out like this – THERE’S NOT ENOUGH TIME! Few more Aussie books would have been good – like The Good People (and other prize winners that I’ve not read yet).
I was very disappointed that there were no Aussies on the list but interestingly, even the Australian lists I worked from were very different from each other – little consensus on ‘favourites’. A fair bit of love for Helen Garner’s True Stories, Laguna’s The Choke, and de Krester and Carey’s latest but other than that little similarity between the lists.
Lincoln in the Bardo, Home Fire, exit West & The Essex Serpent will be in my top 10 list this year for sure. If I ever get around to Pachinko & the Strout they would probably be on there too!
The Roy didn’t work for me, so won’t be on my list.
Thanks for compiling this incredible list of lists 🏆😊
My pleasure 🙂
I’m in the minority on Exit West (didn’t like it at all). But loved the Strout and enjoyed the Rooney very much at the time (although it hasn’t really ‘stayed’ with me).
This is thorough and amazing. Though my blog languishes, my reading is doing alright…
I’d second My Absolute Darling, The Essex Serpent, Her Body and Other Parties as best of books, and remove Ill Will. I really wanted to like Lincoln in the Bardo, but I didn’t even finish it… :/
Seems quite a few readers I know didn’t finish Lincoln… too many voices??
Too slight a plot – he either needed to focus down and make more of the interesting parts or be ambitious and take the surrounding stories to a greater depth. I’m 70 pages from the end, been reading for a week, but I WILL finish it!
I love this list! I have so many of these books on my TBR so I’m interested to see how I feel about them.
I love that you did this! I have a thing for lists about stats for other lists (I’m a math major, I know I am weird) But I haven’t heard of, let alone read, any of the books on the list 🙁 oh well, maybe next year haha
Well done! I own one (A.Roy) unread of course, and recognise about two others.
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Wow- way to blast through the multitude of Best Of lists! Thank you! Having said that none of these is making my list this year. Lincoln in the Bardo came the closest, but I must be an outlier because a number of these were full-on DNFs for me. Which just goes to show how subjective reading can be.
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Books I’ve read:
Winter by Ali Smith
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Autumn by Ali Smith
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders (well, currently reading)
Books I own or have borrowed but haven’t read yet:
4321 by Paul Auster
The Power by Naomi Alderman (it’s next on the pile)
Books I want to read:
Goodbye Vitamin by Rachel Khong
Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin
The Refugees by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Reservoir 13: A Novel by Jon McGregor
The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy
Anything is Possible by Elizabeth Strout
My 2017 top five:
Autumn by Ali Smith
Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry
Stay With Me by Ayobami Adebayo
Winter by Ali Smith
Bf
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