The 10 Best Books I Read in 2017

Alright it's time for end-of-the-year reading reflection.

I don't much dig long preambles before giving top books lists so here's the ten best books I read this past year in no particular order.

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Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson

I'm going to read anything Adam Johnson writes ever. He's some kind of literary savant and I didn't even know that was a thing. Read his work (especially this book) and you'll see why. One of three short story collections on the list.










Homesick for Another World by  Ottessa Moshfegh

If I'll read anything Adam Johnson writes ever, then I will actively try to get inside Ottessa Moshfegh's mind and try to read words she intends to write before she ever writes them always. This is her short story collection but I also read her novel Eileen this year. This collection is so so much better but got a lot less attention. I mean it got a lot of attention, but a lot less than Eileen, which won some little award called the MAN BOOKER PRIZE.








Nothing but the Dead and Dying by Ryan W. Bradley

This was a re-read but it's going on the list because I didn't have a list last year. Ryan opened his chest and pulled parts of his heart muscle out and placed them on paper in this collection of stories. Each one is as hard and honest as the Alaska he writes about it in them.









Alien vs. Predator by Michael Robbins

The only poetry collection on the list. Michael Robbins is a genius, and the only poet I've ever been both able and compelled to quote. Most often quoted line: "I feel ya Ophelia, I said to my nuts."










Abandon the Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi


Comic book? Graphic short story collection? It's something but all of that's labels and doesn't matter because of that. This was a beautifully bleak and strange and exotic reading experience. I didn't put these in order but if I had this one would have been really in the running for top of the list.









Gisela by Marcus Speh

Marcus Speh was huge in the indie lit community for a long time and then he kind of went dark zero for a bit. And it was completely worth it. Among many other projects of which I'm sure we'll soon be able to enjoy, Marcus wrote during this time this addictive mosaic novel of historical fiction. It's rich and complex but wonderfully accessible. Based on the historical figure Gisela of Bavaria (ca. 985-1065 A.D.)









2666 by Roberto Bolano

Bolano is one of my favorite writers and I'd read a few other books of his but I knew this opus was lingering in the shadows. This year I took advantage of a one free book giveaway when I signed up for Audible and got 2666. It felt a little like cheating but, unlike when I read The Savage Detectives, I feel like I got this full experience listening to this being read. It's got a lot of murder and death and dead women but there's so much that Bolano is doing with that and then he's also a full-blown literary genius. Read it. Stop putting it off. Listen if you got to. There's no shame in it.





Thanks and Sorry and Good Luck: Rejection Letters from the Eyeshot Outbox by Lee Klein

One of two books by Lee I read this year. His other, a novel based on the Jersey Devil, was good, but this one is great. It's a collection of some of his intensive rejection letters from his time editing Eyeshot, one of the earliest online journals. I'm not sure there's anybody with more craft knowledge than Lee. His rejection letters read like writing workshop lectures from Iowa Writer's Workshop (which Lee is a graduate of, no surprise there). One of the best books on writing you'll ever read.





Master and Man by Leo Tolstoy

This one maybe shouldn't be on the list because it's only 57 pages long which puts it officially in the realm of short story but I'm putting it on the list because it feels like a novel. It should definitely be placed in the realm of novella because of this. But enough defending. This story is why Tolstoy, for my money, is to be remembered for all time as a genius (this word keeps popping up but it should in this kind of list). Now I've not read his great books and I'm going to remedy that this year but this story, wow, this story makes me want to be a better writer or just quit.





Michael Kimball Writes Your Life Story on a Postcard by Michael Kimball

Michael Kimball has cropped up on my best of lists many times. The first time was back in 2014 when I was blown away by his book Galaga. This book was one I'd heard about and heard about (along with Big Ray) and had really needed to get my hands on. I finally did and it was great. It ran the risk of being gimmicky but in Michael's hands there's never a worry of slipping into that kind of thing. It is his tribute to fellow writers and weirdos and it is beautiful.