Sunday, January 7, 2018

The Best Books I Read in 2017

In a mildly particular order:

  • Compass, by Matias Énard
  • Agamemnon's Daughter, by Ismail Kadare
  • Escape from Freedom, by Erich Fromm
  • Theory of the Novel, by Guido Mazzoni
  • Love as Human Freedom, by Paul A. Kottman
  • In a Lonely Place, by Dorothy B. Hughes
  • Dark Ecology, by Timothy Morton
  • Almost No Memory, by Lydia Davis
  • The Blind Owl, by Sadegh Hedayat
  • Men We Reaped, by Jesmyn Ward
  • Kingdom Cons, by Yuri Herrera
  • The Last Wolf, by Laszlo Krasznahorkai
  • Translation as Transhumance, by Mireille Gansel
  • Exit West, by Mohsin Hamid
  • The Moth Snowstorm: Nature and Joy, by Michael McCarthy
  • On Tyranny, by Timothy Snyder
  • Perfect Wave, by Dave Hickey
  • Lives Other Than My Own, by Emmanuel Carrère
  • Like Death, by Guy de Maupassant
  • Satchmo: The Genius of Louis Armstrong, by Gary Giddins

Joyous applause and a special mention for two extraordinary new translations:

  • The Odyssey, as translated by Emily Wilson
  • The Golden Ass, as translated by Sarah Ruden