Impactful Reads of 2017

I read 38 books this year and successfully met my two new personal challenges to “read my age” and “read equal.”

Below are my most impactful reads of 2017, with a brief description and link to my full review. New this year is a list of impactful concepts that I encountered in my reading, followed by the full list of books I read at the bottom. Random stat: 16 of the 38 books were non-fiction (42%).

Happy reading in 2018!

Most Impactful Reads

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, 2014

“Old age isn’t a battle. Old age is a massacre.” — Philip Roth

Medicine today is on a maniacal march towards extending life — but at what cost? This book really forced me to reckon with my own mortality, reflect on what makes a life worth living, and accept that aging is a universal experience that could be almost universally improved. I immediately wanted to change things. (full review)

Being Nobody, Going Nowhere by Ayya Kheema, 1987

This book is a primer on meditation and the Buddhist Path that I will cherish and reach for always. It is extremely accessible and beautifully clarifies the way towards a nobler life. (full review)

The Idiot by Elif Batuman, 2017

This is a bildungsroman. I fell in love within the first twenty pages. If it does not do this for you, I would not proceed. But within this perfect pink book, I felt like life as a broody college girl was fully understood. I believe this is the first true romance I have ever read, at least Romance as I understand it. It is also, without irony, exceptionally smart — one of the smartest novels I’ve ever read. (full review)

I Served The King of England by Bohumil Hrabal, 1971

This year I had the opportunity to do quite a bit of travel reading, and being introduced to Hrabal while in Prague gave me such a rich appreciation for irony, humor, and the specificity of history. I laughed out loud at the most macabre things. Hrabal is an actual genius. (full review)

And Every Morning the Way Home Gets Longer and Longer by Frederik Backman, 2015

This tiny book made me question what books are for, what family is for, what memories are for. Backman is just a magician. I don’t understand anything any better; I only know now that certain things are possible. (full review)

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, 2015

I’m not sure anyone could open their heart to this book and not feel punched in the aorta by the end of it, so…impact. It may take 720 pages, but these characters become living, breathing people that I fully believe still wander around this city. I hadn’t felt this affected by characters since reading A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, 15 years ago. (full review)

Love and Trouble by Claire Dederer, 2017

Dederer gives us room to ‘forget’ she is a mother, and a wife, and to see and hear her as a fully dimensional person anyways.

I loved her honesty about the menagerie of feelings one can have as a woman passing through middle age, and the complications of always feeling partly 16, and 6, etc, inside. This book is about sex. (full review)

Impactful Concepts

You are not the voice (or ‘deejay’) inside your head; you are the person the voice is talking to.

‘Happiness’ is based purely on the release of 4 different chemicals, all tuned for your survival. Sustained happiness is essentially impossible, and sporadic happiness is essentially chemical-hacking.

Holy shit: fact and fiction can blend together in a super interesting way. Also, turns out I know nothing about Lincoln’s life.

Major religions fail to address phenomenon hidden from the naked eye. Enter: the microscope. Science: 1, Religion: 0.

Introverts and extroverts have very different needs, and it is super useful to see this as a framework that I and others operate within.

Full list (most recent first)