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December 14, 2017

"Best Books of 2017" Lists Update - December 14th

For the tenth straight year, I am aggregating every online year-end book list I find.

As the lists appear online, I will add them to the master list, updating regularly.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a blog, magazine, newspaper, or other online media list I have missed.

See also: Largehearted Boy's List of Essential and Interesting 2017 Year-End Music Lists.

Please consider making a donation or leaving a tip to Largehearted Boy to support the website and posts like these.


Today's Update to the Online Year-end "Best of 2017" Book Lists:


Andrew Batson (best books)
Artsy (best children's books for budding art lovers)
Barrington Area Library (top books for kids and teens)
Book Riot (best biographies on audio)
Book Riot (favorite book covers)
BookPage (best romance covers)
Boston Globe (best books)
Brain Pickings (science books)
Brooklyn Based (favorite books)
The Brooklyn Rail (best books)
Chez Shanay (favourite books)
CityPulse (top gift books)
Cosmopolitan (best books)
Creative Loafing Tampa (best books for photographers)
Daily Kos (best books)
DashHouse (favorite books)
The Educator's Playbook (best books for young readers)
Fansided (favorite cookbooks)
Gardens Illustrated (best gardening books)
The Globe and Mail (cookbooks)
Irish Times (best business books)
Kaitlyn Bouchillon (best books)
Kendly Explains (top books)
Largehearted Boy (favorite poetry collections)
LatinoLA (best Latin books)
London Evening Standard (best music books)
Minneapolis Star Tribune (best wine books)
Minnesota Public Radio (best nonfiction books)
Mommy Shorts (top picture books)
MrsReadsBooks (favorite books)
Musings of Grace (most impactful books)
Notes in the Margin (favorite books)
Novels + Nonfiction (best books)
NOW (best cookbooks)
Paper & Pixels (top books)
Paste (best kids comics)
Paste (best nonfiction books)
Philadelphia Daily News (best cookbooks)
Photo-Eye (best book lists)
Quill & Quire (best "best books" lists)
Restless Books (favorite books)
Segullah (favorite books)
Spectrum Culture (favorite books)
The Spinoff (best novels)
Sports Illustrated (best sports books)
Sun Snacks Series (best books)
Tales from the Typeface (best books)
Teaching Biology (best human biology and human evolution books)
Telegraph (best books for armchair travelers)
TodayFM (best fiction)
twonightstands (best and worst books)
Vampire Book Club (best books)
Vogue (best books)


also at Largehearted Boy:

updates to the lists of "Best Books of 2017" list

Online "Best Books of 2017" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2016" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2015" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2014" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2013" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2012" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2010" Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Book Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists

2017 Online Year-end Music Lists
2016 Online Year-end Music Lists
2015 Online Year-end Music Lists
2014 Online Year-end Music Lists
2013 Online Year-end Music Lists
2012 Online Year-end Music Lists
2011 Online Year-end Music Lists
2010 Online Year-end Music Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy

Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (comics recommendations)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)






December 14, 2017

Shorties (An Interview with Mary Gaitskill, An Interview with Bjork, and more)

Poets & Writers interviewed author Mary Gaitskill.


The Creative Independent interviewed Bjork.


60 year-end book lists were added to Largehearted Boy’s master aggregation of “best books of 2017” lists yesterday (bringing the total to 825), including Entertainment Weekly's best YA books, Newsday's best cookbooks, Laura Miller's best books, and World Literature Today's best books in translation.


Largehearted Boy's list of essential and interesting 2017 music lists, updated daily.


Amazon is offering $5 off a book purchase of $15 or more today.


The Record shared the history of musician Fred "Freak" Smith.


Bookworm shared excerpts from interviews with author William H. Gass.


Iggy Pop and Jarvis Cocker covered Nick Cave's "Red Right Hand."


eBook on sale for $1.99 today: Savage Country by Robert Olmstead

eBook on sale for $4.99 today: Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin Manuel Miranda


NPR Music listed its songs of the year.


Book Riot recommended noir books.


Stream a new Thom Yorke song.


The Rumpus shared new short fiction by Laura Lippman.


LEO Weekly interviewed singer-songwriter Jason Isbell.


Entropy interviewed poet Tiana Clark.


Stream a new Madeline Kenny song.


Lynda Barry's advice column in the Paris Review is always entertaining.


Pitchfork recommended John Fahey's Christmas music.


The VICE podcast interviewed author Alena Graedon.


Stream a song by Vagabon.


Poets & Writers profiled 10 poets with outstanding debut collections this year.


BrooklynVegan shared an indie holiday music playlist.


Hazlitt interviewed author Melissa Febos.


Stream a new EMA song.


Literary Hub shared three poems on gun violence and police brutality.


The Quietus reconsidered Nirvana's Incesticide album 25 years after its release.


The Guardian recommended books about growing old.


Stream a new Shawn Colvin children's song.



also at Largehearted Boy:

Support Largehearted Boy

previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics and graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
weekly music release lists


December 13, 2017

Favorite Poetry Collections of 2017

Largehearted Boy's Favorite Novels of 2017


These are the poetry collections I have most recommended to friends, family, and anyone else who has crossed my path this year (my personal metric for "favorite").

What was your favorite poetry collection of 2017? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.


Advice from the Lights

Advice from the Lights by Stephanie Burt

Stephanie Burt's poetry collection Advice from the Lights deftly explores gender and self.


Calling a Wolf a Wolf

Calling a Wolf a Wolf by Kaveh Akbar

Kaveh Akbar's Calling a Wolf a Wolf is the most striking and moving poetry collection I have read in years.


Kingston Buttercup

Kingston Buttercup by Ann-Margaret Lim

Ann-Margaret Lim's poetry collection Kingston Buttercup is filled with unforgettable lyric poems that feature strong senses of place and identity.


Make Yourself Happy

Make Yourself Happy by Eleni Sikelianos

Eleni Sikelianos's poetry collection Make Yourself Happy is bold and observant, an arresting volume on happiness.


Nature Poem

Nature Poem by Tommy Pico

Tommy Pico's Nature Poem is a startling and thought-provoking examination of identity.


Ornament

Ornament by Anna Lena Phillips Bell

Winner of the Vassar Miller Prize in Poetry, Anna Lena Phillips Bell's impressive debut collection Ornament draws inspiration from the Appalachian landscape and its music.


also at Largehearted Boy:

list of online "best of 2017" book lists

Largehearted Boy favorite nonfiction of 2017
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2017
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2017

other lists at Largehearted Boy
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews


"Best Books of 2017" Lists Update - December 13th

For the tenth straight year, I am aggregating every online year-end book list I find.

As the lists appear online, I will add them to the master list, updating regularly.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a blog, magazine, newspaper, or other online media list I have missed.

See also: Largehearted Boy's List of Essential and Interesting 2017 Year-End Music Lists.

Please consider making a donation or leaving a tip to Largehearted Boy to support the website and posts like these.


Today's Update to the Online Year-end "Best of 2017" Book Lists:


Abyssal Librarian (favourite books)
Always & Forever Reading (YA debuts)
AlwaysOpinionatedGirl (top books)
Artsy (best photo books)
Beauty and the Bean Boots (favorite books)
Book Dwarf (favorite books)
Book Land Reviews (favorite books)
Book Riot (favorite British books)
BookPage (best YA book covers)
Brews News (best books for beer lovers)
Camillea Reads (favourite books)
Cincinnati Business Courier (favorite books)
Crux Sola (best academic books)
DAM Architectural Book Award (architecture books)
Dermatology News (best books)
Duke University Press (best books)
Education with Espresso (favourite books)
Entertainment Weekly (best YA books)
Foureyed Reader (favorite books)
Her Big Mouth Book Blog (best books)
Hidden Staircase (favorite books)
I Was a Teenage Polar Bear (favorite books)
indiecrowe (favorite books)
iNews (best music books)
Katherine Rundell (favorite children's books)
Largehearted Boy (favorite novels)
Largehearted Boy (favorite short story collections)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly - Chantale (favorite books)
Maureen Gorrigan (best books)
Melissa & Doug (best books)
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Jim Higgins (best books)
mindbodygreen (best healthy cookbooks)
Navy Times (best military books)
Newsday (best cookbooks)
Novel Cravings (favourite books)
Pirates and Pixie Dust (favorite books)
Playbill (must-read theatre books)
Quill & Quire (editors' books of the year)
Quill & Quire (reviewers' books of the year)
Rambling Writer (favorite books)
Read. Sleep. Repeat. (favorite books)
Reading Every Night (favourite books)
Reading Sanctuary (favourite books)
The Sassy Book Geek (favorite books)
Scott's Blog (favourite books)
Shelf Awareness (best adult books)
Slate - Katy Waldman (best books)
Slate - Laura Miller (best books)
The Spinoff (best nonfiction)
Star2 (best and worst comics)
Stevereads (best science fiction & fantasy)
Story and Somnomancy (best books)
The Stranger (top books)
Symmetry (physics books)
Teaching Biology (best history of science books)
Travel in Retrospect (top books)
Tricycle (top Buddhist books)
TV Addicted Bookworm (favorite books)
Wandering & Reading One Day At A Time (favorite books)
World Literature Today (notable books in translation)
YourStory (best books by women authors)


also at Largehearted Boy:

updates to the lists of "Best Books of 2017" list

Online "Best Books of 2017" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2016" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2015" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2014" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2013" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2012" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2010" Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Book Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists

2017 Online Year-end Music Lists
2016 Online Year-end Music Lists
2015 Online Year-end Music Lists
2014 Online Year-end Music Lists
2013 Online Year-end Music Lists
2012 Online Year-end Music Lists
2011 Online Year-end Music Lists
2010 Online Year-end Music Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy

Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (comics recommendations)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)


Shorties (The Browsable Archives of Gabriel García Márquez, Protest Songs That Defined 2017, and more)

The New York Times examined Gabriel García Márquez's archive, which is browsable online.


Stereogum listed protest songs that defines 2017.


48 year-end book lists were added to Largehearted Boy’s master aggregation of “best books of 2017” lists yesterday (bringing the total to 765) , including Book Riot's best books, The Dallas Morning News' favorite books, and Denver Westword's best books by Colorado authors.


Largehearted Boy's list of essential and interesting 2017 music lists, updated daily.


Amazon is offering $5 off a book purchase of $15 or more today.


Stream a new Lucy Dacus song.


Bustle previewed 2018's best books.


Paste shared an excerpt from the Archies comic featuring the band CHVRCHES.


Gorilla vs Bear's Chris Cantalini talked to Billboard about his new record label, Luminelle.

Gorilla vs Bear shared a playlist of its favorite songs of the year.


Drummer Patty Schemel discussed her memoir Hit So Hard with the OTHRPPL podcast.


Cigarettes After Sex played a Tiny Desk Concert.


The Rumpus Poetry Book Club interviewed poet Barbara Jane Reyes.


A play about legendary music critic Lester Bangs is coming to NYC.


BuzzFeed shared a new essay by Lisa Ko.


Stream a new Joan as Police Woman song.


Minneapolis is launching a new literary festival, Wordplay.


Stream a new song by Loma.


Leni Zumas talked to Publishers Weekly about her forthcoming novel Red Clocks.


NYCTaper shared a recording of a recent Hiss Golden Messenger show.


Electric Literature interviewed three independent publishers.


Aquarium Drunkard shared a couple of vintage holiday mixtapes.


JD McPherson visited World Cafe for an interview and live performance.



also at Largehearted Boy:

Support Largehearted Boy

previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics and graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
weekly music release lists


December 12, 2017

Favorite Novels of 2017

Largehearted Boy's Favorite Novels of 2017


2017 was another great year for the novel.

These are the 11 novels I have most recommended to friends, family, and anyone else who has crossed my path this year (my personal metric for "favorite").

What was your favorite novel of 2017? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.


Affections

Affections by Rodrigo Hasbún

Rodrigo Hasbún's Affections is a fascinating novel of family and revolution.


The Australian

The Australian by Emma Smith-Stevens

Emma Smith-Stevens' brilliant novel The Australian is one of the funniest (and smartest) debuts I have read in years.


The Epiphany Machine

The Epiphany Machine by David Burr Gerrard

David Burr Gerrard's ambitious alternate history The Epiphany Machine is one of the year's finest books.


Fever Dream

Fever Dream by Samanta Schweblin

Samanta Schweblin's inventive Fever Dream is the most haunting book of the year.


The Floating World

The Floating World by C. Morgan Babst

C. Morgan Babst's powerful novel The Floating World is a nuanced and lyrical debut with New Orleans at its heart.


Harmless Like You

Harmless Like You by Rowan Hisayo Buchanan

Rowan Hisayo Buchanan's novel Harmless Like You is a dazzling debut about family, home, and love. One of the best books I have read this year.


The Leavers

The Leavers by Lisa Ko

Longlisted for the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction and winner of the 2016 PEN/Bellwether Award for Socially Engaged Fiction, Lisa Ko's debut novel The Leavers is a powerful and timely look at the immigrant experience, and one of the year's most profound works of fiction.


Little Fires Everywhere

Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng

Celeste Ng's powerful novel Little Fires Everywhere is a nuanced portrait of motherhood, community, and identity.


Salt Houses

Salt Houses by Hala Alyan

Hala Alyan's novel Salt Houses is a stunning debut about the lasting impact of the Six-Day War from a Palestinian perspective.


Sorry to Disrupt the Peace

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patty Yumi Cottrell

Patty Yumi Cottrell's novel Sorry to Disrupt the Peace is a brilliant, darkly comic debut, and my favorite novel of the year.


Sympathy

Sympathy by Olivia Sudjic

Olivia Sudjic's debut Sympathy is a startlingly original novel about obsession and identity.


also at Largehearted Boy:

list of online "best of 2017" book lists

Largehearted Boy favorite nonfiction of 2017
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2017

Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2016
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2015
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2014
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2013
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2012
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2011
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2010
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2009
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2008
Largehearted Boy favorite novels of 2007

other lists at Largehearted Boy
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews


Book Notes - Kiki Petrosino "Witch Wife"

Witch Wife

In the Book Notes series, authors create and discuss a music playlist that relates in some way to their recently published book.

Previous contributors include Bret Easton Ellis, Kate Christensen, Lauren Groff, T.C. Boyle, Dana Spiotta, Amy Bloom, Aimee Bender, Jesmyn Ward, Heidi Julavits, Hari Kunzru, and many others.

The visceral poems in Kiki Petrosino's collection Witch Wife brilliantly explore themes of race, gender, and motherhood.

Publishers Weekly wrote of the book:

"Cosmic images blend with the familiar and domestic to create an all-encompassing reading experience. Petrosino situates the body as a vessel for stories of both being and becoming."


In her own words, here is Kiki Petrosino's Book Notes music playlist for her poetry collection Witch Wife:



Every playlist is about love. So is this:

In the spring of 2000, I left my country for the first time, taking with me a Discman, one pair of headphones, and a red leather CD case. Those months in Florence transformed me into someone who reveled in learning a new language while thirsting for English with a vehemence that surprised me. My memories of that time are montages-under-pop-music; I listened to CDs on my long walks to the Centro Linguistico at the University of Florence, on the autobus that delivered me to my then-boyfriend’s home in the Scandicci neighborhood, and finally on the plane ride back to Virginia, my red CD case now filled with a mixture of the '90s college rock I’d brought from Charlottesville and the Italian pop my boyfriend liked. My new book of poetry, Witch Wife, recollects some of that ecstatic and unrepeatable study abroad time, when I was twenty-turning-twenty-one, seeing my first cathedrals, and sobbing before stone fountains while songs by U2 and REM spun in my pocket.

After my breakup with the Florentine—my first broken heart—I stopped listening to Italian music, but I didn’t throw out the CDs. They lived in the red case, complete with the liner notes I’d carefully folded into the sleeves. When I revisit this music, I join the two halves of an amulet preserving that exact spring. In Witch Wife, the speaker finds herself at a turning point; she’s married and perhaps ready to have a child. That future isn’t settled yet, only imagined, though she senses the rim of possible-motherhood slipping beyond her orbit. In the early sections of the book, the speaker reflects on her youthful heart, which had to break in order to be filled with the good life she has now. If her meditation had a soundtrack, it would surely be guitar-heavy, with melodic pop vocals and the occasional violin thrown in.

"I Try" by Macy Gray
I would like, always, to dress as Macy Gray in the video for this song: the thick orange boatneck blouse, the maxi skirt. Most of all, I want the turquoise trenchcoat she never unbuttons, not even in the third minute of the video, when Gray’s longing creates a phantom of her lost beau, standing to greet her in the park. I love how Gray’s sunburst of curly hair contrasts with her lover’s neat bundle of dreads, and how the camera rotates around the two of them, three hundred and sixty degrees of imaginary reunion. At twenty, this is what I thought true love would be like: vibrant, eclectic, a little unreal.

"Wild Honey" by U2
About halfway through my semester in Florence, I got a fever. At its height, the smallest tasks, like taking a shower, required so much effort that I had to go back to sleep. This lasted for a couple of weeks, an eternity in study-abroad time. Eventually, I went alone to the English-speaking doctor in the historic center of the city. He was, literally, an English doctor, tall and narrow, with floppy brown hair like Hugh Grant. He didn’t know what was wrong with me; maybe a mild case of mono. I recuperated in the dorm as few days as I dared, finally powering through the last of my symptoms by sheer will. My greatest fear was having to go home, so I resolved, resolved, resolved—to stay. It worked, though the world got brighter, sizzled. My dreams lingered long after waking. That spring, my boyfriend burned me a copy of U2’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, drawing a suitcase on the slippery surface of the CD. I listened to "Wild Honey" on repeat, imagining doors, suitcases, and books spilling open to reveal technicolor flowers.

"50 Special" by Lunapop
Can you claim to have truly lived if you’ve never been picked up from school by a boy in a leather jacket? If you’ve never boarded the back of his motorino or worn his helmet, his oversized goggles with amber lenses? If, in front of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, you’ve never fitted his shearling gloves over your own, thumb-ringed fingers, so that, on the long, late winter ride from campus, your body divides into territories of hot and cold: your legs, wind-frozen in blue jeans, your hands, burning in their borrowed gloves? Lunapop says that riding a Vespa 50 Special is like having "wings under your feet," but it’s also like every teen movie you’ve ever seen, a kind of prom-colored joy that winks at itself while it’s still happening, already a dream, distantly-smiled-at, disappearing.

"Francesco" by Irene Grandi
The young man I dated in Florence smelled like fresh laundry. I remember how many layers of clothing he always wore: T-shirt, button-down, sweater vest, white puffer coat. All of it clean, as if it had just been taken down from the line. In "Francesco," Irene Grandi wishes for "a switch to shut off her brain," which dreams, exhaustingly, of fantastical, unattainable lovers. "I’d rather live in my ordinary dream," she sings to the boy next door. She envisions herself waking up with her very own Francesco (in Italian, a common, even humdrum name) and saying "Buongiorno, amore" as a long morning stretches before them. The familiar hand, the ordinary dream, the fragrance of clean shirts in a real home. These are just some of the things I could not have then.

"Il Mio Corpo Che Cambia" by Piero Pelù
In videos from this era, Piero Pelù is a treasure box of sartorial overstatement. He wears gold chains. And burgundy leather jackets, studded with countless zippers. On his feet: jewel-toned cowboy boots with lengthy toe boxes. Once the frontman for Litfiba, a Florence-based pop group, Pelù’s debut solo album, Né Buoni Né Cattivi (Neither Good Nor Evil) is a surreal mash-up of East-meets-West, complete with scorching guitar riffs, tribal album art, and the occasional pan flute. His lyrics are just general enough to encompass a range of philosophies—the body as a container for something more eternal is a repeated motif—without completely rejecting the Roman Catholicism of his country. The sheer multiplicity of symbols and references Pelù manages to stack into one song are enough to buy my forever fascination. His music makes me laugh in a pure, bubbling way. "I’m traveling without a ticket, no limits," he sings. I believe him.

"Otherside" by The Red Hot Chili Peppers
My Italian boyfriend had a motorino. He also drove a white convertible Peugeot, small enough to slip down the narrow cobblestoned streets of the city, and up winding traces into the mountains of Fiesole. When he picked me up for one of our first dates, this song, from Californication, spilled from the door he opened for me. I’d brought my own copy of the CD to Florence, having guessed, inaccurately, that no one in Italy would love The Red Hot Chili Peppers as much as I did. As it happens, the Chili Peppers are one of the most popular bands in Italy, and Californication became our shared soundtrack that spring. "I heard your voice through a photograph," Anthony Kiedis sings. "I thought it up and brought up the past." In Witch Wife, the poem "Europe" loops the speaker back, similarly, to the ghostly crossroads of a past love. "I’ll never be so lonely again," my speaker claims, and then: "Every night, I go back to your house."

"Babylon" by David Gray
After the plane ride, after the breakup, after my return to Charlottesville and the final slog of undergraduate classes, after winter weight, and thesis hours, and waking up in the slow, boyfriend-less world of what I thought of as my "old" life, I turned on the radio in my bedroom on University Circle and this song was playing. "The love that I was giving you was never in doubt," David Gray proclaims at the song’s zenith, and those syllables went down my throat like burning cough drops, in a way no other post-breakup song ever has, perhaps because you can have but one true breakup song in a lifetime. There’s something pure about the heartbreak of youth, and something supremely indulgent, too. It’s too much honey on the spoon. It’s "climbing on the stair, I turn around to see you smiling there in front of me," as if our loves, once lost, are nonetheless obliged to reappear forever, exhausted angels, on staircases, in memories, in dreams.

"The Great Beyond" by REM
There is a dream-Florence. I go there a few times a month to pace its streets. Sometimes, I am "permitted to return" to a certain piazza at twilight. I’ve even materialized inside a familiar apartment, "as if it were a given property of the mind/that certain bounds hold against chaos," as Robert Duncan taught us. Other times, I have to be satisfied with the outskirts of the city, places I don’t really remember visiting in real life. In these dreams, I understand, without words, that I must note the glowing bricks at sunset, or the look of a rain puddle in the middle of an empty road. Something—wind or rain—has washed the city clean and revealed an inner glow to everything. There are more bridges in my dream-Florence than the six historic ones in the real city, and though I have not yet crossed them all, I know that I will. "I’m breaking through/I’m bending spoons/I’m keeping flowers in full bloom."


Kiki Petrosino and Witch Wife links:

the author's website
audio excerpt from the book

Publishers Weekly review


also at Largehearted Boy:

Support the Largehearted Boy website

Book Notes (2015 - ) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2012 - 2014) (authors create music playlists for their book)
Book Notes (2005 - 2011) (authors create music playlists for their book)
my 11 favorite Book Notes playlist essays

Largehearted Boy's 2017 Summer Reading Suggestions

100 Online Sources for Free and Legal Music Downloads
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (weekly comics highlights)
guest book reviews
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
Shorties (daily music, literature, and pop culture links)
Soundtracked (composers and directors discuss their film's soundtracks)
weekly music release lists


"Best Books of 2017" Lists Update - December 12th

For the tenth straight year, I am aggregating every online year-end book list I find.

As the lists appear online, I will add them to the master list, updating regularly.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a blog, magazine, newspaper, or other online media list I have missed.

See also: Largehearted Boy's List of Essential and Interesting 2017 Year-End Music Lists.

Please consider making a donation or leaving a tip to Largehearted Boy to support the website and posts like these.


Today's Update to the Online Year-end "Best of 2017" Book Lists:


100 Scope Notes (top books)
Abe Books (best book covers)
The Afterword (books)
The Biblioanthropologist (favorite books)
Book Riot (best books)
BookPage (best book covers)
Books for Muse (favorite books)
Bookshelf Fantasies (top books)
Bookshelf Picks of a Librarian (best books)
The Broke and the Bookish (favorite books)
BuzzFeed (most incredible photo books)
Chasing Faerytales (best books)
Cornell Daily Sun (top books)
Dallas Morning News (favorite books)
Develop to Deploy (top books)
Fiction Fare (favorite books)
Five Books (best philosophy books)
Gospel Relevance (top books)
A Happy Little Bookworm (best books)
Homemaking for His Glory (best books)
HuffPost (best film books)
Hugo House (best-loved books)
Life Imitates Heart (favourite books)
The Listener (best cookbooks)
Minnesota Public Radio (best fiction)
Modern Mrs. Darcy (favorite books)
mommablogsalot (favorite books)
National Post (best books)
New Yorker (most-read short fiction)
One Degree to Another (favorite books)
Our First Year Here (favourite books)
Piper Punches (books)
Pretty Deadly Serious (best books)
Quill & Quire (Canadian booksellers' favorite books)
Quite the Novel Idea (favorite books)
Reading through the Night (top books)
RTE (best books)
Ryan Holiday (best books)
Sarah's Book Shelves (best books)
The Spinoff (best books for kids)
Stacy's Books (favorite books)
Strong Towns (favorite books)
Teaching Biology (best evolution books)
Today.fm (best sports books)
Westword (best books by Colorado authors)
When 140 Characters Isn't Enough (top books)
World Architecture Community (top architecture books)


also at Largehearted Boy:

updates to the lists of "Best Books of 2017" list

Online "Best Books of 2017" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2016" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2015" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2014" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2013" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2012" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2010" Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Book Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists

2017 Online Year-end Music Lists
2016 Online Year-end Music Lists
2015 Online Year-end Music Lists
2014 Online Year-end Music Lists
2013 Online Year-end Music Lists
2012 Online Year-end Music Lists
2011 Online Year-end Music Lists
2010 Online Year-end Music Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy

Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (comics recommendations)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)


Shorties (An Interview with Maggie Nelson, Pitchfork's Albums of the Year, and more)

The Fader interviewed author Maggie Nelson.


Pitchfork listed the year's best albums.


37 year-end book lists were added to Largehearted Boy’s master aggregation of “best books of 2017” lists Saturday (bringing the total to 675) , including Kirkus Reviews' best nonfiction lists, NYLON's best cookbooks, and The Birder's Library's best bird books.


Largehearted Boy's list of essential and interesting 2017 music lists, updated daily.


Amazon is offering $5 off a book purchase of $15 or more today.


Stream a new Dude York holiday song.


Maude Julien discussed her memoir The Only Girl in the World with Weekend Edition.


The Georgetown Voice recommended Sufjan Stevens Christmas songs.


VICE features a new short story by Luke B. Goebel.


Stream a new Lily Allen song.


Signature recommended books to recommend Kenya.


Joyland features new short fiction by Marcy Dermansky.


The Creative Independent interviewed Patty Yumi Cottrell, author of my favorite novel of the year Sorry to Disrupt the Peace.


Stream a new Creep Show song.


The Paris Review interviewed author Anne Garréta.


The New Yorker listed its most-read short fiction of the year.


Literary Hub features a new essay by Rebecca Solnit.


Stream a new Common Holly song.


Stranger Cat covered "All I Want for Christmas Is You."



also at Largehearted Boy:

Support Largehearted Boy

previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics and graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
weekly music release lists


December 11, 2017

Favorite Short Story Collections of 2017

Largehearted Boy's Favorite Short Story Collections of 2017


2017 was another great year for short fiction collections.

These are the short fiction collections I have recommended most to blog readers, friends, and family throughout the year.

What was your favorite short story collection of 2017?


Always Happy Hour

Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller

Always Happy Hour by Mary Miller

Mary Miller's Always Happy Hour is one of the year's finest short story collections, one filled with characters so realistically portrayed they seem personally familiar.


Calls for Submission

Calls for Submission by Selena Chambers

Selena Chambers' Calls for Submission is filled with an impressive variety of weird fiction and fully realized characters.


Kingdom of the Young

Kingdom of the Young by Edie Meidav

Kingdom of the Young is the brilliant new collection from Edie Meidav, one of the most talented prose stylists writing today.


Knots

Knots by Gunnhild Øyehaug

Gunnhild Øyehaug proves herself one of our finest stortytellers with her short fiction collection Knots, a book marvelously varied in form and theme.


The Mountain

The Mountain by Paul Yoon

Paul Yoon's The Mountain is a stunning collection of linked stories.


Wait Till You See Me Dance


Wait Till You See Me Dance by Deb Olin Unferth

Deb Olin Unferth's collection Wait Till You See Me Dance is filled with sharp, masterfully told stories that perfectly balance darkness and hope.


also at Largehearted Boy:

online "best of 2017" book lists

Largehearted Boy's favorite nonfiction of 2017
Largehearted Boy favorite novels collections of 2017

Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2016
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2015
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2014
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2013
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2012
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2011
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2010
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2009
Largehearted Boy favorite short story collections of 2008

previous lists at Largehearted Boy
Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
guest book reviews
musician/author interviews
52 Books, 52 Weeks book reviews


"Best Books of 2017" Lists Update - December 11th

For the tenth straight year, I am aggregating every online year-end book list I find.

As the lists appear online, I will add them to the master list, updating regularly.

Please feel free to e-mail me with a blog, magazine, newspaper, or other online media list I have missed.

See also: Largehearted Boy's List of Essential and Interesting 2017 Year-End Music Lists.

Please consider making a donation or leaving a tip to Largehearted Boy to support the website and posts like these.


Today's Update to the Online Year-end "Best of 2017" Book Lists:


Adventures of a Bookish Girl (favourite books)
Arkansas Online (best books)
The Birder's Library (best bird books)
Book Riot (best genre-bending nonfiction)
BookPage (best children's and young adult books)
BuzzFeed (best YA books)
Cupofpaperbacks (favorite books)
DH Hanni (regretful reads)
The Dusty Bookcase (best books)
Forbes (best business books)
Forbes (best graphic novels)
George Veletsianos (recommended books)
Helping Writers Become Authors (top books)
Hero Kids (top books)
Irish Independent (favorite books)
Irish Times (best debut fiction)
Irish Times (best graphic novels)
Jamieson Wolf (best books)
Kirkus (best American history books)
Kirkus (best biographies)
Kirkus (best books for arts and humanities lovers)
Kirkus (best books of disturbing yet necessary history)
Kirkus (best current affairs/politics books)
Kirkus (best memoirs)
Kirkus (best music and entertainment books)
Kirkus (best science and nature books)
Kirkus (most page-turning nonfiction)
M.L. Doyle (best books)
Natalie Keller Reinart (favorite books)
Navigating Worlds (best science fiction books)
Nylon (best cookbooks)
Rocketships (books)
Ross Lester (books)
Ruth F Hunt (best books)
Sara Foster (top books)
SCC English (best year-end book lists)
Sommer Reading (favorite picture books)
St. Paul Pioneer Press (best children's and middle-grade books)
Strangely Pop Cultured (worst books)
Sunday Herald (literary luminaries' best books)
Walking Talking (books)
A Word of Dreams (best books)


also at Largehearted Boy:

updates to the lists of "Best Books of 2017" list

Online "Best Books of 2017" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2016" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2015" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2014" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2013" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2012" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2011" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2010" Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Book Lists
Online "Best Books of 2009" Lists
Online "Best Books of 2008" Lists

2017 Online Year-end Music Lists
2016 Online Year-end Music Lists
2015 Online Year-end Music Lists
2014 Online Year-end Music Lists
2013 Online Year-end Music Lists
2012 Online Year-end Music Lists
2011 Online Year-end Music Lists
2010 Online Year-end Music Lists
Best of the Decade (2000-2009) Online Music Lists
2009 Online Year-end Music Lists
2008 Online Year-end Music Lists
2007 Online Year-end Music Lists
2006 Online Year-end Music Lists
other lists at Largehearted Boy

Antiheroines (interviews with up and coming female comics artists)
Atomic Books Comics Preview (comics recommendations)
Book Notes (authors create music playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)


Shorties (An Interview with Zadie Smith, A Vintage Jamaican Holiday Mixtape, and more)

The New Yorker interviewed Zadie Smith about her story in this week's issue.


Aquarium Drunkard shared a vintage Jamaican holiday mixtape.


37 year-end book lists were added to Largehearted Boy’s master aggregation of “best books of 2017” lists Saturday (bringing the total to 675) , including the Irish Times' best books, Maclean's best books, the Wall Xtreet Journal's best fiction & nonfiction, and The Vinyl Factory's best music books.


Largehearted Boy's list of essential and interesting 2017 music lists, updated daily.


D. Foy discussed his novel Absolutely Golden with the Los Angeles Review of Books.


Salon recommended the best new holiday albums and reissues.


The longlist for the Republic of Consciousness Prize (for literary works published by independent pressed with less than five employees) has been announced.


SPIN listed the weirdest Christmas songs.


James Han Mattson discussed his novel The Lost Prayers of Ricky Graves with Weekend Edition.


The Creative Independent interviewed Grizzly Bear's Daniel Rossen.


Emily Fridlund listed her favorite books about self-deception at The Week.


Stream a new Lisa Prank holiday song.


NHK interviewed author Kazuo Ishiguro.


Stream a new Bjork video.


Signature recommended books on technology run amok.


Stream a new Brandi Carlisle song.


Book Riot recommended intersectional fairy tale retellings.


NYCTaper shared a recent performance by Hiss Golden Messenger.


The Observer profiled author Mohsin Hamid.


Stream a new Guided By Voices song.


Hazlitt interviewed author Ayobami Adebayo.



also at Largehearted Boy:

Support Largehearted Boy

previous Shorties posts (daily news and links from the worlds of music, books, and pop culture)

Atomic Books Comics Preview (the week's best new comics and graphic novels)
Book Notes (authors create playlists for their book)
Librairie Drawn & Quarterly Books of the Week (recommended new books, magazines, and comics)
musician/author interviews
Note Books (musicians discuss literature)
Short Cuts (writers pair a song with their short story or essay)
weekly music release lists


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