Another year, another reading list. This was actually a pretty good year for me, though as a writer, I still need to up my game. December turned out to be an especially embarrassing month. (I try not to stress about it, though. Giving myself guilt trips usually results in my reading less, not more.)

As usual, non-fiction books are in bold, while comic books are italicized.

• Three Dark Crowns – Kendare Blake
• Throne of Glass – Sarah J. Maas
• Grayson, Volume 1: Agents of Spyral – Tim Seeley & Tom King
• Hammers On Bone – Cassandra Khaw
• Sorcerer to the Crown – Zen Cho
• Batwoman: Elegy – Greg Rucka
  
• Final Girls – Mira Grant
• A Gathering of Shadows – V.E. Schwab
• Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places – Colin Dickey
  
• Six Wakes – Mur Lafferty
• The Stars Are Legion – Kameron Hurley
• The Dain Curse – Dashiell Hammett
• Ash – Malinda Lo
• Raising Stony Mayhall – Daryl Gregory
• A Conjuring of Light – V.E. Schwab
• A Closed And Common Orbit – Becky Chambers
• Ghost Talkers – Mary Robinette Kowal
• The Final Empire – Brandon Sanderson
• The Bone Witch – Rin Chupeco
• Akata Witch – Nnedi Okorafor
• A Rage in Harlem – Chester Himes
• Wake of Vultures – Lila Bowen
• Rejected Princesses: Tales of History’s Boldest Heroines, Hellions, & Heretics – Jason Porath
  
• Mapping the Interior – Stephen Graham Jones
• All Systems Red – Martha Wells
• Sorcery & Cecelia, or The Enchanted Chocolate Pot – Patricia C. Wrede & Caroline Stevermer
• Zero Sum Game – S.L. Huang
• Two Serpents Rise – Max Gladstone
• Bearly A Lady – Cassandra Khaw
• Down Among the Sticks and Bones – Seanan McGuire
• The Prey of Gods – Nicky Drayden
• Phantom Pains – Mishell Baker
• The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place – Julie Berry
• The Lie Tree – Frances Hardinge
• The Fifth Season – N.K. Jemisin
• Pasadena – Sherri L. Smith
• Double Down – Gwenda Bond
• The Shadow Cipher – Laura Ruby
• Gotham Academy, Vol. 2: Calamity – Becky Cloonan
  
• The Winter People – Jennifer McMahon
• Beauty Queens – Libba Bray
• The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
• Certain Dark Things – Silvia Moreno-Garcia
• The Murders of Molly Southborne – Tade Thompson
• Hex – Thomas Olde Heuvelt
• Injustice: Gods Among Us: Year Three, Volume 1 – Tom Taylor
  
• The Wicked + The Divine, Book 2 – Kieron Gillen
  
• Midnight Taxi Tango – Daniel José Older
• Tinseltown: Murder, Morphine, and Madness at the Dawn of Hollywood – William J. Mann
• A Face Like Glass – Frances Hardinge
• The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club – Dorothy Sayers
• And Then There Were (N-One) – Sarah Pinsker
• Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies – Lindsay Ribar
• The Backstagers, Volume One – James Tynion IV
• The Night Sister – Jennifer McMahon
• Such Sweet Sorrow – Jenny Trout
• Velvet, Vol. 1: Before the Living End – Ed Brubaker
• Injustice: Gods Among Us – Year 3, Volume 2 – Brian Buccellato
• The Rise of Renegade X – Chelsea M. Campbell

I’ll post my 2017 Book Superlatives later this week (well, hopefully) but a few things I noticed this year:

My favorite graphic novel of the year has to go to The Wicked + The Divine, Book 2 by Kieron Gillen . . . which honestly isn’t even fair, since it’s an annual collection, not a single trade. I don’t care. I love this series. The artwork is gorgeous. The mythology is fascinating.  The diversity is inclusive. The violence is EVERYWHERE. The only problem I have with this series is that it’s so damn beautiful, I must have the deluxe editions. But since I just can’t make myself buy the whole thing twice, that means I have to wait for the deluxe editions. Which means I’m at least a year behind on everything and probably won’t get an update until, like, October of 2018. The whole world is terrible.

Other comic book honorable mentions: The Backstagers, Volume One (charming), Velvet, Vol. 1: Before the Living End (badass), and Injustice: Gods Among Us – Year Three, Volume 1 (Tom Taylor, why did you leeeeeeeeave?)

I didn’t read nearly as many comic books in 2017 as I have in years past. I honestly have no idea why, but I’d definitely like to fix this in 2018.

I did, however, read a lot more novellas this year, most of them courtesy of Tor.com. I am very much enjoying the boom in novellas right now.

I don’t know if this year had a theme exactly, but noir (both classic and speculative) did pop up a lot: Hammers on Bone, The Dain Curse, A Rage in Harlem, The Long Goodbye, and Certain Dark Things. Considering I wrote a noir novel this year, I guess that’s not so surprising.

I read three non-fiction books this year! I realize that’s pretty pathetic for other people, but it’s actually a record for me. Dare I try for four next year? There’s a book about grave robbing and phrenology that I’ve had my eye on. Also, The Radium Girls.

My least favorite book of the year was a horror novel that’s been pretty wildly well-received by basically everyone else, so at least I still have that whole “geek blasphemy” thing going on strong.

Favorite New-to-Me Authors: Nnedi Okorafor, N.K. Jemisin, Kameron Hurley, Lila Bowen, Martha Wells, and Julie Berry.

Books written by women: 38
Books written by men: 13

Comic books written by women: 1
Comic books written by men: 7

Tell me about the books you read this year! I want to hear about them!