2017 Wrap up, Top 5 Reads of the Year and Reading Resolutions
Happy New Year to you all! I hope 2017 has treated you well and you've read lots of amazing books! 2017 has been a particularly busy year for me, filled with lots of change and lots of highs and lows, but I made it to the end. 2017 was filled with so many great book releases but unfortunatly, as a result of my particularly busy and stressful year, I didn't read quite as many books as I had hoped to. I read a total of 20 books. Weirdly, I seemed to read quite a lot of amazing books but also quite a lot of not-so-good ones and not a lot of in between!
Without further or do, here are the books I read in 2017:
2) Just One Day by Gayle Foreman: 4/5 stars
3) Just One Year by Gayle Foreman: 2/5 stars
4) Just One Night by Gayle Foreman: 4/5 stars
5) A Game of Love and Death by Martha Brockenbrough: 2/5 stars
6) Lobsters by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison: 4/5 stars
7) Always and Forever, Lara Jean by Jenny Han: 4/5 stars
8) Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella: 4/5 stars
9) When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon: 5/5 stars
10) Amy and Rogers' Epic Detour by Morgan Matson: 4/5 stars
11) What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick: 3/5 stars
12) Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson: 4/5 stars
13) Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur: 5/5 stars
14) The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern: 5/5 stars
15) Neon Soul by Alexandra Elle: 4/5 stars
16) Slammed by Colleen Hoover: 3/5 stars
17) Point of Retreat by Colleen Hoover: 3/5 stars
18) This Girl by Colleen Hoover: 2/5 stars
19) The Sun and Her Flowers by Rupi Kaur: 5/5 stars
20) This Modern Love by Will Darbyshire: 4/5 stars
And now for my top 5 most favourite books I read in 2017:
#1
Weirdly, my favourite book of the year actually happens to be the first book I read in 2017: The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr. It feels like I read this book a lot longer than a year ago and yet it still has the same impact on me that it had when I finished it.
The One Memory of Flora Banks is a truly beautiful novel that follows the unique narrative of 17 year old Flora Banks, a girl with no short term memory. Flora's mind resets itself several times a day back to when she was the age of 10 when she had a tumour removed which resulted in her being incapable of making new memories. However, one day Flora kisses a boy and she remembers it the following day. Desperate to cling on to her one memory, Flora seeks to find this boy again.
I loved this book so much! I thought the narrative was so original and interesting, I felt like I was inside Flora's head and it was both frustrating and heart-breaking at times. I felt everything Flora was feeling. I thought the fact that she forgot everthing every few pages was such a unique and genius idea and I praise Emily Barr for her superb writing. It was such an interesting concept and I thought it was delivered so so well.
I also adored the icy nordic setting of this book which mostly takes place in Svalbard. I felt totally immersed in this landscape and loved experiencing it all for the first time through Flora. It made me really want to travel to Svalbard and see it all myself! I think the setting really captured the tone of the novel and reflected what was going on in Flora's head really well and was what made the writing be achieved so beautifully.
I really appreciated reading a short novel that managed to pack an interesting story into it well and also left me thinking for long after. The plot was crafted so well with twists and turns I wasn't expecting but also contained some good messages that I have clung onto since. I wish I could go into more details about this but I can't without risk of spoilers! But you should definitely pick this one up if it sounds at all interesting to you and if it doesn't sound like your thing, you should pick it up anyway because it's probably not what you think it is! But overall, a wonderful novel that I highly recommend to all!
#2
Milk and Honey has to be up here in my top 5 because I loved it so much! This was the first poetry collection I've ever picked up and I honestly fell in love with it so much. It's made me want to pick up so much more poetry since. Rupi Kaur managed to touch all my emotions so beautifully and her writing is so exquisite. I loved the themes that ran throughout, I connected to them all individually and as a whole. There are so many pages that I have marked because I just want to hold onto them forever and never let go. This collection is a piece of art and I want to frame every page and hang them up so I can always be reminded of it. For more of my thoughts and more information you can read my full book review here:
#3
Coming in at number 3 we have The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. I absolutely adored this book, it was so magical and whimsical and the writing was so beautiful. I was so immersed in this world and I didn't want to leave it. I've honestly never read anything quite like it and I just need to find something else like it because I am so in love! The world, the characters, the writing and the plot were all magnificent and I highly encourage you give it a read if you haven't already! For more of my thoughts and more about the book you can read my full book review here:
#4
I had to include When Dimple Met Rishi in my top 5 because I just enjoyed this book so so much! It's such a feel good contemporary with everything you could possibly want from a summery YA contemporary however it just had so much more! It's so bold and inspiring whilst still being funny and adorable. I also seemed to learn so much about Indian culture and about computer coding. It put a smile on my face which I loved but the story was also well constructed and surprised me which is why it's on this list. Again, for more information about the book itself and my thoughts you can read my book review here:
#5
And finally, at #5, my last favourite book of the year is Finding Aurdrey by Sophie Kinsella. Like, When Dimple Met Rishi, I loved this book because it put a smile on my face. This book made me giggle a lot, it was so light-hearted but incredibly funny. But it also managed to perfectly balance this with more serious themes such as anxiety which is what made it unique and also very powerful as a novel. I really enjoyed Sophie Kinsella's writing style, I found it quick and easy to read which are two things I love in a good book. As with the others I have mentioned, you can find out more about the book and my thoughs by reading my full book review here:
Some Reading 'Resolutions'...
And there we have it, another year, another load of fantastic books! I don't like making new year's resolutions but here are a few possible goals I have for myself and what to expect later this year!
- I like setting rigid reading goals as to how many books I should read in 2018 but I definitely want to try and read more than I did this year! I think maybe 25 books would be a good aim, I'll try and read a little more each year! But I'm also not going to stress myself out about not reading enough as for me this ruins the enjoyment of reading.
- I'm really excited as to what I'm going to read next, there seems to be a lot of amazing looking books due to be released in 2018 which I may be making a list of in a future post so stay tuned!
- I also really want to try and get my hands on some of the fantastic releases of 2017 which I didn't manage to get to this year.
- I want to read more poetry because of how much I enjoyed the collections I read in 2017.
- I want to try and pick up some classic novels, namely Pride and Prejudice, Alice and Wonderland, Peter Pan, and a few others I've been meaning to read for a very long time now.
- I still want to read lots of YA as I love YA however I want to start venturing into Adult Fiction just because I'm getting a little bored of some of the YA I usually read.
- I want to challenge myself to read more exciting books. I tend to fall into the trap of reading easy summery romance novels every time I feel too lazy to read but in actual fact, the books I tend to love the most are the ones that make me think and challenge what I think, so I want to read more of this.
Finally, I hope 2018 is your year and it is filled with lots of bookish adventures! I wish you all the best and, as always, happy reading!
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