Here are a few of Amazon editors’ top picks for the best books of 2017 so far:
Written by: Nanette Hamilton, Technical Services Librarian, Berkeley County Library System
The Book of Mistakes, illustrated by Corinna Luyken
“A striking debut picture book celebrates the creative process. Careful looking will be rewarded with surprising, often funny details in the art, which invites poring over…It would be a grave mistake not to pick up this picture book.” – Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
Eight Starred Reviews! #1 New York Times Bestseller!
“Absolutely riveting!” —Jason Reynolds
“Stunning.” —John Green
“This story is necessary. This story is important.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Heartbreakingly topical.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“A marvel of verisimilitude.” —Booklist (starred review)
“A powerful, in-your-face novel.” —The Horn Book (starred review)
Add a Pinch: Easier, Faster, Fresher Southern Classics by Robyn Stone
“A generation ago, home cooks may have had all day to prepare dinner, but most folks now want convenient, fast recipes that don’t rely on canned soups or other processed products. Here, fresh ingredients take center stage in slow cooker meals, casseroles and one-dish suppers, salads, soups, and desserts that have deep, satisfying flavors but are a cinch to make”—Amazon
The Stranger in the Woods: the Extraordinary Story of the Last True Hermit by Michael Finkel
“An absorbing exploration of solitude and man’s eroding relationship with the natural world. Though the ‘stranger’ in the title is Knight, one closes the book with the sense that Knight, like all seers, is the only sane person in a world gone insane—that modern civilization has made us strangers to ourselves.”—Nathaniel Rich, The Atlantic
Ginny Moon by Benjamin Ludwig
“This stunning debut novel grabs readers by the heart and doesn’t let go. Fourteen-year-old Ginny Moon chronicles her increasingly harrowing life with her Forever Parents with one of the truest voices in modern literature…. Ludwig’s triumphant achievement is born from his own experience as the adoptive parent of a teen with autism, and his gorgeous, wrenching portrayal of Ginny’s ability to communicate what she needs is perfection.”-Library Journal starred review
The Lost City of the Monkey God: A True Story by Douglas Preston
“Deadly snakes, flesh-eating parasites, and some of the most forbidding jungle terrain on earth were not enough to deter Douglas Preston from a great story.”―The Boston Globe
