2017: A great year for books

So many books, so little time. If you find yourself in this predicament, your library staff hopes to make your reading wish list even longer!

With the holiday season upon us, our annual staff favorites are back. The reference desks at Cook Park Library and Aspen Drive Library once again shared their favorite books of the year with patrons. The lists, separated by fiction and nonfiction, are longer than ever with something for everyone. I’ve compiled these staff favorites since 2011. This year’s fiction favorites offer 156 titles crossing many genres, from historical fiction to fantasy, and the nonfiction favorites lists 76 books, hitting almost all the Dewey Decimal categories. That’s a total of 232 books for patrons to consider.

The most popular novels among staff include the wonderful Louise Penny’s newest mystery, Glass Houses, which was named seven times. Penny’s Armand Gamache series set in Quebec is a perennial favorite among staff because of her outstanding character development, great writing and clever whodunits.Two other exceptional novels, Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders and Exit West by Moshin Hamid were listed six times and made many book reviewers’ best books of the year lists.

For nonfiction, six staffers enjoyed Dear Fahrenheit 451 by librarian Annie Spence, who wrote funny love letters and breakup notes to various book titles. Four staffers also really enjoyed Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Grann.

If you can’t make it to the library to pick up the booklets, never fear. You can read them here:

Our Favorite Fiction of 2017

Our Favorite Nonfiction of 2017

If you want to put any of these titles on hold, I’ve listed them below with links to our catalog. I broke down the fiction titles by category:

2017 staff favorite crime fiction

2017 staff favorite contemporary fiction and short stories

2017 staff favorite historical fiction

2017 staff favorite young adult fiction

2017 staff favorite fantasy and science fiction, paranormal/magical realism and horror

2017 staff favorite graphic novels

2017 staff favorite romances

2017 staff favorite nonfiction

Happy reading!