2017 has been an amazing year for me in terms of books. At the beginning of the year, I made a commitment to myself to spend more time reading. I set a sizable but still reachable goal for myself in January. As the year went by, the more I read, the more I wanted to read. By the end of the year, I've surpassed my original goal by a lot. I ended the year with 75 books. Of all those, here’s the list of my absolute favorites from this year.

Non-fiction:

Biographies:

• The Boys in the Boat – Inspirational account of the UW rowing team that eventually went on to win the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Rowing is a punishing sport, and these boys from humble backgrounds possessed incredible mental and physical fortitude to accomplish what they did, when all odds were against them. Brown is an amazing author, and he really brought the story to life.
• Endurance – Memoir from Scott Kelly, the astronaut who spent a year in space aboard the International Space Station. He writes with the clear-eyed and straightforward voice of a scientist, and I thought everything in this book was just fascinating.

Investigative Journalism:

• Evicted – A raw and powerful look at eight families in Milwaukee as they face eviction. This book shows how eviction begets eviction, and the cycle of poverty and eviction makes it impossible for the people caught in that cycle to ever climb out. 
• The Radium Girls – When radium is mixed with paint, it had this glow-in-the-dark quality. Back when this was first discovered, hundreds of girls were employed to paint watch dials and instrument panels with this luminescent paint. The girls took no precautions and were instructed by their employers to lick the paint brushes to bring the bristles to a sharp point in order to do their jobs. Soon they started falling sick with gruesome and mysterious symptoms that no doctors could diagnose. Moore doesn’t just tell these awful tales, but also brings the girls to life in her portrayal.
• Killers of the Flower Moon – In the 1920s, countless wealthy Osage Indians started dying in suspicious circumstances. The murders detailed in the book are chilling in their ruthlessness and greed, targeting not just the Osage but also people brought in to investigate their murders.

Neuroscience/Science:

• The Unpersuadable – Why do people believe what they believe, even when faced with overwhelming evidence to the contrary? There are a lot of neuroscience books out there trying to answer this question, but I particularly enjoyed this book because the author builds his case with interesting stories and examples. He shows how the brain builds its model of the world and how that model ultimately deceives us about reality. 
• Weapons of Math Destruction – The book provides a detailed look at how algorithms based on big data doesn’t always tell the truth or lead to a more fair world, as they are purported to do. Rather, they contribute to a system that is opaque and hard to challenge, increasing the divide between the privileged and all others. Often, the outcome of the algorithms create a negative feedback loop, directly influencing the outcome they are objectively trying to determine. It’s timely and relevant, especially in our field.

Politics/Rise of Populism:

• Strangers in their Own Land – This book has gone further than any other in helping me understand the motivations and feelings of the conservative white working class. The author presents their viewpoints with empathy and kindness, and tries to work through the paradox of why it seems that they are voting against their own self-interest. 

Fiction:

• Homegoing – Stunning saga spanning eight generations, starting with two half-sisters in Ghana, one who lives a life of relative ease in Cape Coast Castle, while the other is imprisoned in the same castle and sold off as a slave. At its heart, this book shows that slavery and colonialism impacts everyone for generations, not just those who are slaves.
• Big Little Lies – There sure are a lot of mysteries in the small beach town that friends Jane, Madeline, and Celeste live in. On the surface everything seems great, but as you go deeper into the story, you realize that a lot of things are not quite what they seem. It’s dark, funny, and intriguing. HBO made a miniseries on this, but definitely better to read the book before you watch the show.
• Magpie Murders – It’s set up as a mystery within a mystery, full of twists and turns, red herrings, and long lists of suspects. It’s brilliant how the book interweaves both a throwback to the golden age of crime and a more modern take on the same genre. 
• Dark Matter – The main character is out for a walk and is knocked out by a ruffian. When he comes to, he’s surrounded by strangers who all seem to know him. He finds out the life as he knows it is gone, along with his wife and child. He goes on a pretty crazy ride as he tries to figure out what’s going on and how to get his life back.

I’m always looking for great books, so if you have suggestions, please let me know! And if you want to join me on Goodreads (you can track the books you read, set goals, rate and review books, see what your friends are reading and their reviews), you can add me.

Crooked House kept me guessing till the very end. It's got all the characteristics of a great murder mystery: twists and turns, abundance of clues, red herrings, and an interesting set of suspects. This book also has a sinister atmosphere, which was deliciously fun. And true to Agatha Christie style, once the solution is revealed to the reader, it feels amazingly simple and straightforward.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars

A Study in Scarlet Women is the first book in the Lady Sherlock series. I had previously read the second book in the series, and really enjoyed its unique twist on the Sherlock Holmes adventures. Now I get to go back to the beginning and see how Charlotte Holmes came to open a business under the assumed identity of Sherlock Holmes in a Victorian era when women were not encouraged to be anything other than a wife and mother.

What had so charmed me about the second book in the series is also present in this first book. I love the character of Charlotte, strong and independent, casting aside society's expectations and trying to make her own way in the world. It's wonderful to come across such an astute and feisty female character who doesn't whimper in the face of adversity, but rather meets it with resolve and intelligence.

The resolutions of the mysteries themselves are a bit of a weakness in this series, and this book is no different. While it's fun to see the murder take place and meet all the suspects, once the solution is supposed to be explained to the reader, I feel it doesn't quite come together. The solution is too complex, so it leaves me confused and having to go back to reread parts multiple times. It's partly because there are so many characters that it's hard to keep them straight in my mind, especially when they all have unusual ties to each other.

However, even with the weakness of the resolutions, I will continue reading this series, so I hope Thomas writes more books! Charlotte Holmes is such a fun and interesting character, and I enjoy cheering her on as she finds her success in a male-dominated society.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

White Rage is a meticulously-researched chronicle of the push-backs and barriers to progress that African Americans have faced on their journey from emancipation to present-day America. The contents of this book are powerful and eye-opening. It surprised me that there was so much history in this book that I didn't know and was never taught in school.

This book is well-written and easy to follow, though for me personally, it was very difficult to get through. It feels like every page contains yet another outrage that has been perpetrated against African Americans. It makes me frustrated and sick to my stomach to learn the injustices detailed in this book, and to see how even when progress was supposedly made against racism, what's really going on in the background was often steps back.

I urge everyone to read this book. It contains vitally important information that we all need to know, so that we may join together to have open dialogs about racism and figure out how to stop its insidious progress and reverse its harmful effects.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

The Mothers follows the lives of three teenagers, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey, as they go through their last years of high school and their subsequent lives as young adults. I'm conflicted on how I feel about this book. On the one hand, it's beautifully written and contains some incredibly poignant passages on love, loss, loneliness, and longing.

However, a few things detracted from this book for me. One, I just don't buy Nadia's hangup over her old boyfriend and vice versa, and their inability to let each other go. Not only that, but then they proceed to deny this truth to themselves, which sets off a chain of unfortunate events. It's hard for me to relate to them at all on this.

Second, I don't see why there is a focus on "the mothers", both as the title of this book and as a cast of characters. They don't add anything to this story. They are just peripheral characters and giving them such prominence seems forced and unnatural, as if the book is trying to be deeper than it really is.

In addition, the writing sometimes contains ambiguous pronouns and is unclear when it switches from reminiscing about the past to talking about the present. This takes me out of the story when I have to go back and reread parts to figure out who it's about and when things are taking place.

Still, even with the shortcomings, I enjoyed reading this book. It has deeply moving passages and evokes such strong emotions. And it deftly tackles some difficult subjects with nuance and understanding.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

When radium was first discovered, no one really knew for sure what it did. Soon, however, companies latched onto its lucrative potential when it became known that radium mixed in paint had a glow-in-the-dark quality. Hundreds of girls were employed to paint watch dials and instrument panels with this magical, luminescent paint.

The girls took no precautions. They were instructed to lick the paint brushes to bring the bristles to a sharp point in order to do their jobs effectively and to prevent waste. It wasn't long before the women started falling sick with mysterious symptoms that no doctor could correctly diagnose. The symptoms were extremely painful and gruesome, and often irreversible.

Yet when their employers were told of this, they dismissed the girls' illnesses as nothing more than fear-mongering. The companies concealed data on the effects of radium and lied with impunity to the girls and the public. What followed was a long and arduous journey for the girls to bring recognition and justice to their plight.

What makes The Radium Girls so fascinating is that Moore brings these girls to life with her meticulously-researched details. She shows that they aren't just tragic figures but also deeply sympathetic souls. They lost so much of their life to this terrible poison and it was made even more unbearable by the companies' callous reactions to their sufferings. The accounts are vivid and gut-wrenching, often leaving me in tears.

I'm glad Moore chose to tell this necessary story, so that the memories of these girls who gave so much to science and to their fight for worker's rights will live on.

Readaroo Rating: 5 stars!

Murder for Christmas is a quintessential old-fashioned English murder mystery, set during the holidays, complete with an old manor, shifty figures, secrets, and all the holiday trimmings. The story itself has a slow and delicious pace, perfect for reading while snuggling up with a blanket and a hot cup of tea. As the story went on, I started to see parts of what was going on, but it was still fun to read to the end and see how everything ties together. It's my first introduction to amateur detective Mordecai Tremaine, and I look forward to reading more from the series.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

In Behold the Dreamers, Jende is an immigrant from Cameroon who has come to America seeking asylum so that he can make a better life for himself, his wife Neni, and their son. Jende finds a job in 2007 as a chauffeur for a Lehman Brothers executive. At first, things seem to be looking up for Jende and his family. His boss Clark is nice and pays him a good wage, which enables his family to live comfortably and allows him to pay his wife's school tuition. But soon Lehman Brothers is on the verge of collapse and Jende's job is no longer secure.

This is a book of hopes and dreams, and also of the importance of family. It's beautifully written and offers an uncompromising view of the tough struggles of an immigrant's life. And yet for all that, I feel the story didn't pull together enough to catapult it from good to great.

One of the shortcomings of this book is that I found each of the adult characters to be unlikable. Jende refuses to hear his wife disagree with him on anything, and resorts to raging at her whenever that happens instead of having a conversation like a normal adult. His wife Neni schemes behind his back and seems immune to reason. The two of them both act like spoiled children, each thinking only of themselves and what they want, instead of trying to understand the other's views and sufferings.

Jende's boss Clark is a coward, hiding things from his wife instead of just coming clean. And his wife is neurotic and needy, unable to let her grown son spread his wings. It seems she has no hobbies or interests other than constantly thinking her life is miserable even though she is wealthy. I don't see what the author is trying to say with these characters other than that everyone is a terrible person, whether they are wealthy or poor.

The book is also a bit long for its content and would definitely have benefited from a tightening of its pacing. The end feels long and drawn out, even though it's clear where it's going. Often, it's better to leave the reader wanting more than to spell out everything for them, which is how the ending felt. And yet, the end of the book left me unsatisfied, like I was waiting for something but nothing happened, or I was waiting for the author to get to the point, but no point was made.

This is probably a case where I expected so much from this book based on its topic and its strong reviews, and it just didn't live up to my expectations.

Readaroo Rating: 3 stars

A Conspiracy in Belgravia is the second of the Lady Sherlock series, and my first exposure to it. Lady Sherlock is an interesting take on the Sherlock Holmes adventures. Charlotte Holmes, a disgraced lady of the Victorian era, opens a business under the assumed name of Sherlock Holmes, who she pretends is her brother at a time when women are not encouraged to have jobs or taxing mental stimulation.

To me, this bears a lot of similarities with the original Sherlock Holmes and is a good homage to it. Just like the original Sherlock Holmes, this mystery doesn't unfold due to following the clues so much as Charlotte's ability to jump to a conclusion that no one else would have. To be honest, now that I've read the ending, I'm not really sure Charlotte deduced the solution so much as she correctly guessed on a random idea, which is one reason I never found the original Sherlock Holmes to be that great either.

Speaking of the ending, I do feel that's a weakness of this book. It isn't clearly explained how Charlotte arrives at her solution, and I feel the ending doesn't tie up everything. I went away from it with a few questions still not answered, which is not ideal when reading a whodunnit.

Another thing I noticed is that this book has a lot of characters and subplots, which may or may not all tie back to the main storyline. It was a little hard for me to initially remember who all the people were. As a result, it feels often like I'm just jumping from one story to another instead of reading a cohesive narrative.

Yet for all that, I still enjoyed this book. I found the setting to be charming, with its prudishness and Victorian reticence. Recently, it feels like all the books I've been reading about a female facing adversity either portrays the heroine as a lush who needs to drink in order to find her wits or an emotional wreck who can barely keep it together. It's refreshing to have such a strong female lead, who when faced with adversity, is able to use her intelligence to find a solution. Just for that, I'm looking forward to reading more from the series.

Readaroo Rating: 4 stars