My goal for 2017 was to read 45 books, mostly from my own shelves, and I reached my goal with only hours to spare. 🙂 I’m calling it a good reading year – a mix of fiction and non-fiction with some standouts. My top ten in no particular order:

1. Rules of Civility – Amor Towles
2. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
3. The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ – Andrew Klavan
4. Boy’s Life – Robert R. McCammon
5. Island of the World – Michael D. O’Brien (my second time through this one and it’s still my favorite novel)
6. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
7. John – R.C. Sproul
8. Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis (a re-read)
9. The Girl With Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story – Hyeonseo Lee
10. Eleanor Elephant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

What were your favorites in 2017?

January:

1.  Cometh the Hour (Book Six of the Clifton Chronicles) – Jeffrey Archer
2. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing – Marie Kondo  (a few thoughts on this one here and here)
3. 30 Days — Change Your Habits, Change Your Life: A Couple of Simple Steps Every Day to Create the Life You Want – Marc Reklau
4. Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance – Angela Duckworth

February:

5. What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast – Laura Vanderkam
6. The Great Good Thing: A Secular Jew Comes to Faith in Christ – Andrew Klavan
7. Food Freedom Forever: Letting Go of Bad Habits, Guilt, and Anxiety Around Food – Melissa Hartwig

March:

8. Embracing Obscurity: Becoming Nothing in Light of God’s Everything – Anonymous
9. Rules of Civility – Amor Towles
10. Sweater Quest: My Year of Knitting Dangerously

April:

11. Emotional Intelligence 2.0 – Travis Bradberry & Jean Greaves
12. The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things – Courtney Elizabeth Mauk

May:

13. Hatching Twitter: A True Story of Money, Power, Friendship, and Betrayal– Nick Bilton

June:

14. American Wife – Curtis Sittenfield 
15. My Name Is Lucy Barton – Elizabeth Strout
16. Boy’s Life – Robert R. McCammon
17. Just Do Something: A Liberating Approach to Finding God’s Will – Kevin DeYoung
18. Island of the World – Michael D. O’Brien (my second time through this one and it’s still my favorite novel)
19. The Magnolia Story – Chip & Joanna Gaines

July:

20. You Will Know Me – Megan Abbott
21. A Gentleman in Moscow – Amor Towles
22. Goodbye, Vitamin: A Novel – Rachel Khong
23. Since We Fell – Dennis Lehane
24. A Woman’s Wisdom: How the Book of Proverbs Speaks to Everything – Lydia Brownback
25. Perfecting Ourselves to Death: The Pursuit of Excellence and the Perils of Perfectionism – Richard Winter
26. Commentaries on Proverbs – Matthew Henry

August:

27. The Vanishing American Adult: Our Coming-of-Age Crisis and How to Rebuild a Culture of Self-Reliance  – Ben Sasse
28. Moral Defense (Samantha Brinkman Book 2) – Marcia Clark
29. Dot Journaling – A Practical Guide: How to Start and Keep the Planner, To-Do List, and Diary That’ll Actually Help You Get Your Life Together – Rachel Wilkerson Miller
30. The Judgment of Richard Richter – Igor Štiks

September:

31. I Am Watching You – Teresa Driscoll
32. To Dance With the White Dog – Terry Kay
33. Little Fires Everywhere – Celeste Ng
34. The Woman in Cabin 10 – Ruth Ware
35. Into the Water – Paula Hawkins
36. Happier at Home: Kiss More, Jump More, Abandon Self-Control, and My Other Experiments in Everyday Life – Gretchen Rubin

October:

37. Leaving Berlin – Joseph Kanon
38. John – R.C. Sproul
39. The Touch – Randall Wallace
40. Eleanor Elephant is Completely Fine – Gail Honeyman

November:
I didn’t finish a single book this month! 😦

December:

41. The Girl With Seven Names: A North Korean Defector’s Story – Hyeonseo Lee
42. Poetic Wonder of Isaac Watts – Douglas Bond
43. Mere Christianity – C.S. Lewis
44. God at Work: Your Christian Vocation in All of Life – Gene Edward Veith, Jr.
45. God Rest Ye Merry: Why Christmas is the Foundation for Everything – Douglas Wilson

** Disclaimer: Whenever you click on a link to books around here and then make a purchase at Amazon, you’re helping me — a few pennies at a time —  feed my book habit. Many thanks!