It’s time for our Best of 2017 episode! We’ll talk about our favourite things we read for the podcast, our favourite things we read that weren’t for the podcast, and lots more! Please note, while many of the titles we recommend were published in 2017, this is our list of best of that we read in 2017, so there is some older material on the list as well.

You can download the podcast directly, find it on Libsyn, or get it through iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play or your favourite podcast delivery system.

In this episode

Anna Ferri | Meghan Whyte | Matthew Murray | Jessi

Top Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

• The Argonauts (2015) by Maggie Nelson (Episode 031 – LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Jessi

• The Witches: Salem, 1692 (2016) by Stacy Schiff (Episode 027 – Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Matthew

• Prose: The Not-Quite States of America: Dispatches from the Territories and Other Far-Flung Outposts of the USA (2017) by Doug Mack (Episode 039 – Non-Fiction Travel)
• Comic: My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (2017) by Nagata Kabi (Episode 031 – LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Meghan

• In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote, narrated by Scott Brick (Episode 027 – Non-Fiction Audiobooks)

Fiction

Anna

• Death in the Vines (2013) by M.L. Longworth (Episode 025 – Detective Fiction)
• The Snowman (2011) by Jo Nesbø (Episode 043 – Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Jessi

• Stardust (1998) by Neil Gaiman (Episode 043 – Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Matthew

• Prose: Autonomous (2017) by Annalee Newitz (Episode 041 – Dystopian Fiction)
• Comic: Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind (1982-1994) by Hayao Miyazaki (Episode 043 – Page to Screen (Books turned into movies and TV shows))

Meghan

• The City and the City (2009) by China Miéville (Episode 025 – Detective Fiction)

Top Non-Book Club Picks

Non-Fiction

Anna

• American Fire: Love, Arson, and Life in a Vanishing Land (2017) by Monica Hesse

Jessi

• Tomboy Survival Guide (2016) by Ivan Coyote (we mention this one in Episode 021 – Coming-of-Age and Episode 031 – LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)

Matthew

• Prose: Crash Override: How Gamergate (Nearly) Destroyed My Life, and How We Can Win the Fight Against Online Hate (2017) by Zoe Quinn (mentioned in Episode 032.5 – BookExpo America and the American Library Association Annual Conference)
• Comic: Lighter than my Shadow (2017) by Katie Green (Episode 040 – Precipitation in Video Games)

Meghan

• Indigenous Writes: A Guide to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Issues (2016) in Canada by Chelsea Vowel
• • Métis in Space podcast with Chelsea Vowel and Molly Swain

Fiction

Anna

• The Queen of Blood (2016) by Sarah Beth Durst (Episode 040 – Precipitation in Video Games)

Jessi

• The Bear and the Nightingale (2017) by Katherine Arden (mentioned in Episode 034 – Reading Resolutions)

Matthew

• Prose: Red Spider White Web (1990) by Misha (mentioned in Episode 034 – Reading Resolutions)
• Comic: Giant Days (2015-present) by John Allison and Max Sarin

Meghan

• Next Year for Sure (2017) by Zoey Leigh Peterson

Other recommendations

Anna

• From Here to Eternity: Traveling the World to Find the Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
• Lucky Penny (2016) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota (Episode 021 – Coming-of-Age)
• Our Cats Are More Famous Than Us: A Johnny Wander Collection (2017) by Ananth Hirsh and Yuko Ota
• Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America (2016) by Patrick Phillips
• • The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race (2016) edited by Jesmyn Ward
  • The Fire Next Time (1992) by James Baldwin
• Clean Sweep (2013) by Ilona Andrews (and the rest of that series)
• Spill Zone, vol. 1 (2017) by Scott Westerfeld and Alex Puvilland
• • Volume 2 is being serialized as a webcomic (frustratingly the site seems to be setup so that you cannot link directly to pages, so to get to the beginning of volume two hit the previous chapter link a few times)
• HiLo, vol. 1: The Boy Who Crashed to Earth (2015) by Judd Winick
• • Here’s the full panel (Read-Alikes: What to Suggest When They’ve Already Read Smile & The Walking Dead) from the Comics Conference for Educators and Librarians that Anna mentioned

Jessi

• Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner (2014) by Judy Melinek and T.J. Mitchell
• Queers Were Here: Heroes & Icons of Queer Canada (2016) edited by Robin Ganev and RJ Gilmour (Episode 031 – LGBTQ+/QUILTBAG Non-Fiction)
• Green River, Running Red (2007) by Ann Rule (Episode 027 – Non-Fiction Audiobooks)
• The Hating Game (2016) by Sally Thorne (Episode 028 – Accidental Romance)

Matthew

• Three Parts Dead (2012) by Max Gladstone (Episode 33 – Legal Thrillers)
• True Grit (1968) by Charles Portis (Episode 29 – Westerns)
• The Sisters Brothers (2011) by Patrick deWitt (Episode 29 – Westerns)
• No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee (specifically issue #9)
• Matthew’s longer list of favorite comics he read in 2017 is below

Meghan

• Turning (2017) by Jessica J. Lee (Non-fiction memoir)
• See What I Have Done (2017) by Sarah Schmidt (Fictionalized true crime)
• Dreams of Shreds and Tatters (2015) by Amanda Downum (New Weird)
• Need for the Bike (2011) by Paul Fournel, translated by Allan Stoekl (non-fic BICYCLES)
• Blue Light Yokohama (2017) by Nicolás Obregón (Mystery)

Matthew’s List of Top Comics he Read in 2017 that weren’t his top picks (Anna’s recommendations were also good!)

• Monstress vols. 1-2 by Marjorie M. Liu and Sana Takeda (2016-2017)
• • This is an insanely epic (and beautiful) fantasy. You should read it!
• No Mercy, vol. 2 (2016) by Alex de Campi, Carla Speed McNeil, and Jenn Manley Lee
• • No, I haven’t read volume 3 yet…
• Omega Men: The End is Here (2016) by Tom King, Barnaby Bagenda, Toby Cyprus, and Ig Guara
• Invincible vols. 23-24 (2017) by by Robert Kirkman, Cory Walker, Ryan Ottley, and  Nathan Fairbairn
• • It’s superheroes meet Dragonball Z, except much bloodier. It’s ending with volume 25, and I’m kind of sad about that.
• The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye (2016) by Sonny Liew
• • Despite really liking this, I don’t think it should have won the Eisner for “Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia”
• The Private Eye (2015) by Brian K. Vaughan, Marcos Martin, and Muntsa Vicente
• • As much as I enjoyed this, I don’t think the hardcover is worth $50.
• 4 Kids Walk Into a Bank (2017) by Matthew Rosenberg and Tyler Boss
• • I was supplied with a review copy by the publishers.
• Hellboy: Into the Silent Sea (2017) by Mike Mignola and Gary Gianni
• Delicious in Dungeon vol. 1 (2017) by Ryoko Kui
• Yowamushi Pedal vols. 3-4 (2016) by Wataru Watanabe
• • Bicycles!
• Demon vols. 1-4 (2016-2017) by Jason Shiga
• • The first volume is the best and, to be honest, this series is kind of gross, so be warned…
• Order of the Stick: How the Paladin Got His Scar (2017) by Rich Burlew
• • This was a reward only given to backers of the 2012 Kickstarter so you can’t actually buy or read it, but it’s really good!

Questions

• What were your favourite reads of 2017?
• What would you recommend to us?
• Is there a supernatural gardening book you could recommend to Jessi?
• What is “Clean Sweep”?
• • A curling related cozy mystery?
  • A high school hijinx sports novel?
  • A romance novel about a chimney sweep who is reforming himself after his criminal past?
  • Something else?

Check out our Pinterest board and Tumblr posts, follow us on Twitter, join our Facebook Group, or send us an email!

Join us again on January 16th for our episode on Family Sagas!

Then come back on February 6th for our episode on our Reading Resolutions for 2018!