A list of the novels and biographies I read in 2017. For the most part these are the reading I do which is not related to work, though some of the biographies blur that line. A mixed bag, of which a couple of the biographies made my list of favourite academic books. Ones I particularly liked were Still Time, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street, HHhH (though The 7th Function of Language was disappointing), and His Bloody Project. I enjoyed Sher’s diaries, and am looking forward to his King Lear diary this year. I’m starting the new year with Alex Danchev’s biography of Georges Braque, having liked his Cézanne this year. For lists from previous years see here, and for some responses to questions asked about my novel reading see here.

Holiday reading

1. Haruki Murakami, Pinball, 1973
2. Salman Rushdie, Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
3. Ben Marcus, Leaving the Sea: Stories
4. Alexandre Koyré, The Astronomical Revolution: Copernicus, Kepler, Borelli (non-fiction)
5. Cecilia Ekbäck, Wolf Winter
6. Francis Hardinge, The Lie Tree
7. Robert E. Lerner, Ernst Kantorowicz: A Life (biography)
8. A.D. Miller, Snowdrops
9. Paul Griffiths, The Sea on Fire: Jean Barraqué (biography)
10. Alena Graedon, The Word Exchange
11. Stuart Jeffries, Grand Hotel Abyss: The Lives of the Frankfurt School (biography)
12. Brian Friel, Translations (play – a gift)
13. Eric Hazan, A People’s History of the French Revolution (non-fiction)
14. Tom Rob Smith, Child 44
15. Lisa McInerney, The Glorious Heresies
16. Mario Reading, The Nostradamus Prophecies
17. Graeme Simsion, The Rosie Project
18. Susanna Jones, The Earthquake Bird
19. Tess Gerritson, Bloodstream
20. Andrew Smith, Moon Dust: In Search of the Men who Fell to Earth (non-fiction)
21. Gabriella Coleman, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous (non-fiction)
22. Jean Hegland, Still Time
23. Linda Herrara, Revolution in the Age of Social Media: The Egyptian Popular Insurrection and the Internet (non-fiction)
24. Jonas Jonasson, The Girl who Saved the King of Sweden
25. Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild (non-fiction)
26. Dot Hutchinson, The Butterfly Garden
27. S.J. Watson, Before I go to Sleep
28. David Downing, Masaryk Station
29. Sarah Lotz, The Three
30. Celeste Ng, Everything I Never Told You
31. Hilary Mantel, Eight Months on Ghazzah Street
32. Catherine McKenzie, Hidden
33. Jan Rothuizen, The Soft Atlas of Amsterdam (non fiction)
34. Isabel Allende, The Japanese Lover
35. Ray Monk, Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius (biography)
36. Gabrielle Ferrières, Jean Cavaillès: A Philosopher in Time of War, 1903-1944 (biography)
37. Francoise Gilet, Life with Picasso (autobiography)
38. Jeannette Winterson, Gut Symmetries
39. Val McDermid, Splinter the Silence
40. Anne Holt, 1222
41. Julian Young, Friedrich Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography
42. Vena Cork, The Lost Ones
43. Saskia de Bodt, Children of Holland::The Image of the Netherlands in American Children’s Books (non-fiction – a gift)
44. Aoife Clifford, All These Perfect Strangers
45. Shari Lapena, The Couple Next Door
46. Emily St John Mandel, Station Eleven
47. Alex Danchev, Cézanne: A Life (biography)
48. Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (autobiography – a gift)
49. Deborah Levy, Hot Milk
50. Ali Smith, How to be Both
51. David Lagercrantz, The Girl in the Spider’s Web
52. Iris Murdoch, The Bell
53. Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl
54. Sam Baker, The Woman who Ran
55. Laurent Binet, The 7th Function of Language
56. Sibylle Lacan, Un père: Puzzle (memoir)
57. Claire Mackintosh, I See You
58. Anna Castle, Murder by Misrule
59. Antony Sher, Year of the Fat Knight: The Falstaff Diaries (non-fiction)
60. Graeme Mcrae Burnet, The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau
61. Antony Sher, Year of the King: An Actor’s Diary and Sketchbook (non-fiction)
62. Andy Weir, The Martian
63. Alison Lurie, The War Between the Tates
64. China Mièville, October: The Story of the Russian Revolution (non-fiction)
65. Fiona Barton, The Child
66. Elisabeth Roudinesco, Freud in His Time and Ours (biography)
67. David Szalay, All That Man Is
68. Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time
69. John le Carré, Call for the Dead
70. Laurent Binet, HHhH
71. Irène Némirovsky, Suite française
72. Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Sympathiser
73. Graeme Macrae Burnet, His Bloody Project: Documents relating to the case of Roderick Macrae
74. John le Carré, The Spy who Came in from the Cold
75. Anthony Mara, A Constellation of Vital Phenomena