Best Books of the Year 2017

Some heavy lifting this year, with more non-fiction than fiction, 44 books in total. Trying to understand the big picture of the world : our universe, the evolution of life on earth, its various destructions, our cognition, our psychology, our morals. Sean Carrolls' "The Big Picture" wins the race. The most enlightening book was surely Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber's "The Enigma of Reason", with the caveats mentioned.

I read less novels than last year, but they were better. Michael Cunningham's "A Wild Swan" is an absolute delight of story-telling. And Julian Barnes' "The Noise of Time" is both profound, psychologically horrifying and stylistically brilliant. For once I also added a graphic novel. Check it out.

The year's more overrated books, or at least my greatest disappointments were Yuval Noah Harari's "Sapiens", as well as John Banville, Dave Eggers, Christian Kracht and Boualem Sansal, maybe because I expected too much from them after some great books in the recent past.


Fiction 

1. Michael Cunningham - A Wild Swan *****
2. Julian Barnes - The Noise Of Time *****
3. Haruki Murakami - Men Without Women ****
4. Manu Larcenet - Le Rapport de Brodeck 1/2 & 2/2 ****
5. Carlos Castán - Bad Light ****
6. Maylis de Kerangal - Réparer Les Vivants ****
7. Michael Chabon - Moonglow ****
8. Juan Gabriel Vásquez - Reputations ****
9. Colm Tóibin - The Blackwater Lightship ***
10. Karl Ove Knausgaard - Dancing In The Dark - My Struggle 4 *** 

Non-fiction

1. Sean Carroll - The Big Picture ****
2. Barbara Tuchman - The March Of Folly ****
3. David Wootton - The Invention Of Science  ****
4. Lawrence Krauss - A Universe From Nothing ****
5. Giles Milton - Nathaniel's Nutmeg ****
6. Paul B. Wignall - The Worst Of Times ****
7. Hugo Mercier & Dan Sperber - The Enigma of Reason * & ****
8. Carlo Rovelli - Reality Is Not What It Seems ****
9. Lawrence Krauss - The Greatest Story Told ... So Far ****
10. Steven Sloman & Philip Fernbach - The Knowledge Illusion ****