favorite reads of 2017

Of the 159 books I read in 2017, nineteen were loved enough to be copied onto this list to share with you, dear reader, or to save for myself for a year hence, when I'll look back and wonder what I read last year that was worth recommending (and re-reading). I hope this list, as the lists before and those that come after, reflect a kind of catholic taste I'd like to cultivate more: a desire to read across style and genre and voice. My other occupation, aside from teaching (and, of course, those roles that occupy my personal life, such as mother and partner and chicken-wrangler and taker-of-long-baths), is as editor of a tiny nonprofit press, and I want to create depth and breadth to my reading life so that I can serve my authors better, can read the slush with a stronger, more developed eye.

Of these nineteen books, fifteen were written by women (though one of those women appears twice on the list). Too few are writers of color (four, from what I can best tell). Nearly all are American; the two who aren't are Canadian-born English and Polish. So my wish of representation that came before? My intentions were towards the content of the books, but I can see authorial culture needs critical attention as well.

The thing is, as with many things in my life, I am a quirky reader. If I start a book, I have to finish it, no matter what. The only times I've successfully walked away from a book is when it is poetry and by flipping through the pages, I can tell more of the same slog, more or less, and let it go.

A few years ago, I began to realize my bookshelves were overflowing and my partner put the kabosh on more bookcases to stem the bulging flow. So I weeded and made these terrifying, teetring towers on my side of the bed, clacked against the wall, and this was the pile from which I pulled if I didn't have something I needed to read for teaching or book club or an interview or judging for an award. This is why, out of 159 books, only 19 are listed here.

I've given myself an ultimatum. It's not a resolution, because those are about doing something differently and better. Improvements. I've told myself this is my last year of the teetering piles: I need to get my bookish life in order. I know, too, that reading mediocre writing doesn't challenge my own writing skills, and I'm hoping to prod those awake in the coming year, so I have to nourish my reading self. It's what we tell our students: study those who do what you want to do well. I need to heed my own advice.

If you look into my reading journal for 2017, you would see a surge of poetry in the summer. I was in Montesori training for nearly all of it, and it was hard. Hard, hard, hard. Emotionally and physically especially, and in order to survive, I began reading books of poetry during our long breaks. Many people used those breaks to socialize, to speak after so much time spent with their fingers crooked over keyboards, taking dictation for the albums we must eventually turn in, but I would hide out in the material making studio and immerse myself in the quiet of the written word.

I also taught a class at the Poetry Barn called The Poet in the Science Lab, so you'll see the poetry books I knew I would love, but gave myself permission to read now below. They didn't disappoint, and a few surprised me into staying. I'm teaching another class in April on poetry and music, and I'll write about that here as the date approaches; admission has not opened yet.

I say staying, because many books from 2017 ended up in canvas bags to sell at the local bookstore. They do it a little differently: often bookstores will give you cash or, at a slightly higher number, in-store credit. This one gives you an amount, but it stays in an account, and you can use a third of it towards used books. It's a system that works for the store, and it allows them to accept more books than another store might, but it leaves me with hundreds and hundreds of dollars in credit. (So if you live nearby or are coming for a visit, let me know if you'd like to head over to the bookstore! You are welcome to help me chip away at it!)

Here are the nineteen for 2017. What about you? Do you have a book or two you read in the last year you'd recommend? A book recommendation is always such a gift. Here's mine to you:

POETRY:
1. Space, In Chains by Laura Kasischke
2. Radial Symmetry by Katherine Larson
3. The Orchard by Brigit Pegeen Kelly
4. The Opposite House by Claudia Emerson
5. The Lake Has No Saint by Stacey Waite
6. Cadaver, Speak by Marianne Boruch
7. Sleeping with the Dictionary by Harryette Mullen
8. A Daughter's Geography by Ntozake Shange


FICTION:
1. The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
2. State of Wonder by Ann Patchett
3. Wonder by RJ Palacio
4. Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George
5. Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C. O'Brien
6. Swallowing Mercury by Wioletta Greg


NON-FICTION:
1. The Best Day, the Worst Day: My Life with Jane Kenyon by Donald Hall
2. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War by Mary Roach
3. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
4. Zapata's Disciple: Essays by Martín Espada
5. A Life's Work: On Becoming a Mother by Rachel Cusk