books read in 2017

Listen, I write a lot for school and for my other blog (which my best friend and I write together and which is, imo, a v good blog. I'm proud of it.) so writing here has taken a serious backseat to the rest of my writing life. BUT new year new blogging goals, and I want to write a little bit about the books I'm reading, since it helps me remember them better. And so, in chronological order (I think), the books I read in 2017 (not including a few short picture books):

• The Happiness Project / Gretchen Rubin - this book is nice and I liked it. I feel like I was pretty late to the Gretchen Rubin train, but it's a nice train to be on. 
• What We See When We Read / Peter Mendelsund - I read this for a class in my second semester, and it's quite good. When I first read it I made a note that it was "a little monolithic", which probably gives you some insight into how much academia is seeping into my brain. What can I say, I like to read about reading. 
• Partners in Crime / Agatha Christie - whenever I'm in a reading rut Tommy and Tuppence are there to bolster me up. 
• The Life-Changing Magic of not Giving a F*ck / Sarah Knight - this was a good, quick lil book and I recommend it! I listened to the audiobook version and I feel like I could be pals with Sarah Knight. There's a new book out with a similar title which I feel a strange antipathy towards. 
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone / JK Rowling - do I need to explain Harry Potter to anyone?
• I'm Judging You / Luvvie Ajayi - HELLO EVERYONE I recommend you read this book ASAP, also the audiobook version is a PURE DELIGHT. 
• White Rapids / Pascal Blanchet - this is a great little piece of Canadiana! And it's about a bit of Quebec history that I didn't know anything about. 
• Bitch Planet, vol. 1 / Kelly Sue DeConnick, Valentine De Landro - not for everyone but I enjoyed it. 
• The Rosie Project / Greame Simsion - another book I read way after everyone else! A good pal gave me her copy and I stayed up til 4:00 am to finish it. 
• Wishful Drinking / Carrie Fisher - the audiobook is absolutely PERFECT for a three hour car ride. 
• Sunshine / Robin McKinley - I've been a Robin McKinley fan for a long time so why I didn't pick this one up is a mystery to me. Actually tbh it's probably because of a misplaced prejudice against vampires and a weird self-congratulatory attitude about having only read Dracula and no other vampire stories. Get over yourself, past Glynis. Literally no one cares about your opinions on Twilight, just let people enjoy things. 
• The Miniaturist / Jessie Burton - this was...fine. I feel like there was a lot of wasted potential in the ideas and storytelling. 
• There is no Right Way to Meditate / Yumi Sakugawa - very short, very cute. 
• Witches of East End / Melissa de la Cruz - this book was really dumb but I liked reading it. 
• My Friend Dahmer / Derf Backderf - do not, I repeat, DO NOT delve into Jeffrey Dahmer's wikipedia page directly before bed after finishing this book! It is a bad idea! The book is good though!
• The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane / Katherine Howe - more witches! Plus now I like the name Deliverance?
• Every Heart a Doorway / Seanan McGuire - a book about children who go through a door into another world and then end up back on earth and now they're dealing with it. It's good! 
• Vengeance Road / Erin Bowman - if you liked True Grit (and let's be honest, who didn't), you'll like Vengeance Road. There's revenge. There's riding horses through the desert. There's good representation of indigenous peoples (as far as I can tell! I'm white! Feel free to correct me on this one!). 
• Giant Days, vol. 4 / John Allison, Max Serin - I've said it before and I'll say it again: I will read anything John Allison writes. 
• Go Ask Alice / "Anonymous" - here's the two-sentence review I wrote on this book when I finished it, because I will not spend one more iota of mental effort on thinking about it: "Greetings friends! Not only is this book 100% fake it is also: complete shite!" 
• The Outside Circle / Patti Laboucane-Benson, Kelly Mellings - this should be required reading for all Canadians. It lays out inter-generational trauma in an understandable and immediate way. PLEASE READ IT AS SOON AS YOU CAN. 
• Queer: A Graphic History / Meg-John Barker, Julia Scheele - chock full of good, rigorous, academic work. If you find yourself saying "what the hell is queer theory" then I recommend this book! 
• Jane, the Fox & Me / Fanny Britt - delightful! lovely! poignant!
• Unquiet Past / Kelley Armstrong - oh hello, did you order one deus ex machina? 
• The Winter People / Jennifer McMahon - spooky scary! A fun read with some solid creepiness that I quite enjoyed. 
• Uprooted / Naomi Novik - another audiobook which is definitely worth the many, many hours it takes to get through it. A sort-of retelling of Beauty and the Beast. 
• How to Be a Woman / Caitlin Moran - listen, Caitlin Moran's feminism is not perfect, but then, neither is mine. I really like this book regardless. 
• Fatty Legs / Christy Jordan-Fenton, Margaret (Olemaun) Pokiak-Fenton - a true story of one girl's experience in a residential school in the north. Very short, lots of illustrations, highly recommend. 
• Lily Renee, Escape Artist / Trina Robbins - not quite what I was expecting but still good. 
• Whose Body? / Dorothy L. Sayers - I don't think I'll ever get tired of British crime writers. 
• Spill Zone, vol. 1 / Scott Westerfeld, Alex Puvilland - VERY GOOD, MUCH RECOMMEND
• Magpie Murders / Anthony Horowitz - I know this is getting rave reviews but honestly the more I think about it the more it bugs me. Motives in the story seem very........unmotivating. It's not BAD, it's just not my favorite. 
• Austenland / Shannon Hale - Shannon Hale, like Robin McKinley, has been a longtime fave and this book was just as fun and silly as I wanted it to be. 
• A Murder for Her Majesty / Beth Hilgartner - Christmas is a good time to reread faves from your youth. Shout out to this book for making young Glynis want to be in a choir.