Year-End Lists
A hand-curated, browsable index
of notable year-end lists.
Movies
TV Shows
Music
Books
Poetry
Podcasts
Highlights
Mark Kermode: Best Films of 2024
Little White Lies: The 30 Best Films of 2024
Sight & Sound Poll: The 50 Best Films of 2024
more...
2017 Books
Awl: Alex Balk: Favorite Books of 2017
18 January 2018
Alex Balk
:
Favorite Books of 2017
, as published by
The Awl
Priestdaddy
Patricia Lockwood
Other Minds
The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness
Peter Godfrey-Smith
Shrinking Violets
The Secret Life of Shyness
Joe Moran
O Sing unto the Lord
A History of English Church Music
Andrew Gant
The Secret Life of the American Musical
How Broadway Shows Are Built
Jack Viertel
Border
A Journey to the Edge of Europe
Kapka Kassabova
No Friends but the Mountains
Dispatches from the World’s Violent Highlands
Judith Matloff
Pale Rider
The Spanish Flu of 1918 and How It Changed the World
Laura Spinney
Asia’s Reckoning
China, Japan, and the Fate of U.S. Power in the Pacific Century
Richard McGregor
The Future Is History
How Totalitarianism Reclaimed Russia
Masha Gessen
Istanbul
A Tale of Three Cities
Bettany Hughes
The Attention Merchants
The Epic Scramble to Get Inside Our Heads
Tim Wu
Admissions
Life as a Brain Surgeon
Henry Marsh
Behave
The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
Robert M. Sapolsky
Why Buddhism is True
The Science and Philosophy of Meditation and Enlightenment
Robert Wright
Beyond the Self
Conversations between Buddhism and Neuroscience
Matthieu Ricard and Wolf Singer
My Favorite Thing Is Monsters
Emil Ferris
Hostage
Guy Delisle
Fear City
New York’s Fiscal Crisis and the Rise of Austerity Politics
Kim Phillips-Fein
Uncommon People
The Rise and Fall of The Rock Stars
David Hepworth
The Best We Could Do
An Illustrated Memoir
Thi Bui
Bunk
The Rise of Hoaxes, Humbug, Plagiarists, Phonies, Post-Facts, and Fake News
Kevin Young
The Illustrated Dust Jacket, 1920-1970
Martin Salisbury
Peach
Emma Glass
Red Winter
Anneli Furmark
Victorious Century
The United Kingdom, 1800-1906
David Cannadine
God Save Texas
A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State
Lawrence Wright
Dancing Bears
True Stories of People Nostalgic for Life Under Tyranny
Witold Szablowski
Amiable with Big Teeth
Claude McKay