Year-End Lists

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