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How do you know when you’ve found a truly exceptional book? It’s in the way the narrator’s voice grips you from the first page. Or how you want to devour it in one sitting. It’s when you have the urge to dog-ear every other page because you want to remember certain phrases. Maybe it’s how you put off reading the last chapter because you don’t want it to end. Perhaps you know when you can’t stop telling people about it. Whatever it is that clues you in, when you find a great book, you just know.
We’re only a few months into 2017, but this year promises to be one of the best ever for books. These nine books stand out for their ability to embed themselves in your brain and get under your skin. Crack your spine and settle in. You’ll want to binge-read ’em.
Good Books to Read in 2017:
Good Books To Read In 2017
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Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
Consider Men Without Women, the latest from Haruki Murakami, a cautionary tale for bachelors. Over seven stories, the adored Japanese author not-so-subtly warns readers of what happens to those who refuse, or fail at, love: “Once you become Men Without Women, loneliness seeps deep down inside your body, like a red-wine stain on a pastel carpet.” From a young guy who encourages his best friend to make a move on his girlfriend because he can’t live up to her expectations to a devout bachelor who falls fatally (quite literally) in love with his married mistress to a man whose exes keep killing themselves, this emotionally raw and deep look at the male psyche in the absence of authentic connection just might scare you off of singledom forever.
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Sorry To Disrupt The Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell
Thirty-two-year-old Helen Moran is in New York, contemplating her roommate’s new Ikea sofa, when she receives the call: her adoptive brother has committed suicide. She flees to Milwaukee on a mission to uncover the reasons why. Imagine that scenario, and then imagine that every thought you had over the ensuing three days was transcribed into a book. That’s what Sorry To Disrupt The Peace reads like: full submersion into a stream-of-consciousness narrative from a slightly off-kilter brain. Though the subject matter is morbid, debut novelist Cottrell packs plenty of humor into this quirky, propulsive story. The ending (without giving anything away) is one of the most touching and compassionate takes on suicide in modern literature.
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The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
Ariel Levy’s life is in shambles. Her marriage just ended, she’s lost a baby, and she has to sell her home. In her gut-wrenching memoir The Rules Do Not Apply, Levy retraces the (mis)steps that brought her to this bereft state, from being the other woman to cheating on her spouse with a lover who hacks into her emails to choosing a baby daddy for artificial insemination to crippling grief after a horrific experience in Mongolia. Levy contends with all these troubles and more, sparing no detail. This book is for anyone who’s ever watched with horror as their life fell apart—and for everyone else, because it happens to all of us eventually.
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300 Arguments by Sarah Manguso
If you thought the length of a book was indicative of its depth, Sarah Manguso will prove you wrong. The genre-defying author is an expert at condensing meaning into tiny truth bombs. In her latest tome, 300 Arguments, Manguso bestows brutal wisdom onto readers: “Sometimes ill-formed choices have good outcomes.” “Some people love only those they can condescend to, those they can tenderly despise.” “It takes time from having run somewhere. But sometimes one just wants to run. Anywhere.” You may not consider yourself a binge reader, but Manguso will convert you into one.
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Irresistible by Adam Alter
Would you rather have a broken bone than a broken phone? If so, throw that glorified pacifier in the closest body of water and pick up Irresistible: The Rise Of Addictive Technology And The Business Of Keeping Us Hooked by Adam Alter. While the premise of writing 320 pages on internet addiction for an audience with the attention span of a gnat is laughable, the information contained therein is enlightening for anyone who's wondered why they can't quit Facebook even though there's no pleasure to be found there. Antler covers the origins of obsessions, compulsions, and addictions; how systems are more effective than goals; and why you want things that you don't even like. Though the focus of the book is all things techy, the examples, explanations, and techniques presented could be applied to curb any kind of addictive behavior. Even if you don't think you have a problem with technology, read this book and spread the gospel that old-fashioned face-to-face contact is essential to the survival of the species.
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On Tyranny by Timothy Snyder
If you're distressed by the state of the world today, Timothy Snyder isn’t going to make you feel better about that. His book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century compares current events to those that took place in Germany, Czechoslovakia, and the former Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s. But after the initial terror wears off, he will give you some concrete steps you can take to reclaim your power and resist malicious forces. Concepts like “Believe in truth”, “Contribute to good causes”, and “Remember professional ethics” may sound simple, but they’re potent tools that can make a difference in this increasingly chaotic and uncertain political climate.
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Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
Don’t write Roxane Gay’s Difficult Women as chick lit. The female characters in this short story collection are fiery, feisty, and unforgettable. They work as strippers, maids, engineers; some are wives and mothers, but they don’t dote on anybody. They are deeply conflicted and contradictory. They like to hunt and fuck and form fight clubs. This book isn’t only about women, either. Some of Gay’s most memorable characters are men—rough men, mean men, weak men, misogynistic men. They love their women tenderly—when they aren’t treating them like meat. Sex is central to almost every story, and it is written to erotic perfection.
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If You Lived Here You'd Already Be Home by John Jodzio
You may recognize John Jodzio’s name from his 2016 breakout short story collection Knockout. But this year, Soft Skull Press re-released his 2010 debut If You Lived Here, You’d Already Be Home, and, in our opinion, it’s actually the best of all his books. In addition to the kooky characters, surreal scenarios, and crude humor Jodzio is known for, these stories have an undercurrent of empathy and conclude in more satisfying ways than the author’s other stories have. Whether it’s a baby that stuns its parents by swallowing nail clippers, Post-It notes, and necklaces; a dude who steals his yoga teacher’s wallet, then uses the money in it to buy her flowers; or a recovering alcoholic who follows a female student home to make sure she gets tucked in at night, there’s something endearing about these people’s utterly misguided attempts to do right.
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The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak
When The Impossible Fortress begins, 14-year-old Billy Marvin and his pals hatch a plan to pilfer the latest issue of Playboy magazine (which features nude photos of Vanna White) from the office supplies store in their New Jersey hometown. After two unsuccessful attempts to obtain the publication, the boys concoct an elaborate heist; all they need now is the store’s alarm code. Enter Mary, the shopkeeper’s daughter, who is the same age as Billy and just as tech-obsessed as he is. As he and Mary join forces to create a video game to enter in a programmer’s contest, their relationship hits a fever pitch, and Billy finds himself torn between Mary and his loyalty to his friends’ harebrained scheme. After the relationship and the caper go awry, Marvin must make a grand gesture to get back in Mary’s good graces—and learns that she’s been harboring a big secret of her own. Jason Rekulak’s hilarious debut novel invokes the awkward yet sweet agony of adolescent love circa 1987.
