Book Review, Lists

Books Reviewed in 2017

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This is a list of the books I read in 2017. It’s a fairly short list. At the beginning of the year I vowed to only read what I felt like reading and that resulted in a shorter list. I also had a few chunksters over 800 pages long which affected my numbers but really, who cares anyway?

Each link takes you directly to my review of that book. Happy New Year! I certainly hope 2018 is better than 2017 because it was a difficult year to live in.

May 2018 be filled with plenty of great books.

2017 Reviews

  1. The Turner House by Angela Flournoy
  2. The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
  3. The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
  4. The Passenger by Lisa Lutz
  5. Made to Crave by Lysa TerKeurst
  6. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
  7. My Husband’s Wife by Jane Corry
  8. A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman
  9. Ulysses by James Joyce
  10. The Lonely Hearts Hotel by Heather O’Neill
  11. The Fall of Lisa Bellow by Susan Perabo
  12. The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien
  13. The Barrowfields by Phillip Lewis
  14. Please Look After Mom by Kyung-Sook Shin
  15. Men Without Women by Haruki Murakami
  16. Summer Dance by Nan Rossiter
  17. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
  18. The Gypsy Moth Summer by Julia Fierro
  19. Perennials by Mandy Berman
  20. Do Not Become Alarmed by Maile Meloy
  21. The Thirst by Jo Nesbø
  22. The Party by Robyn Harding
  23. Strange Company by Jean Ryan
  24. Small Hours by Jennifer Kitses
  25. A House Among the Trees by Julia Glass
  26. The Breakdown by B.A. Paris
  27. A Stranger in the House by Shari Lapena
  28. Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders
  29. My Absolute Darling by Gabriel Tallent
  30. Bird Box by Josh Malerman
  31. The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin
  32. Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King & Owen King
  33. Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
  34. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
  35. Keep Her Safe by Sophie Hannah
  36. Into the Water by Paula Hawkins
  37. The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
  38. The Visitors by Catherine Burns
  39. Hunger by Roxane Gay
  40. The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov
Book Review

Review: The Master and Margarita

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The Master and Margarita

The Master and Margarita
By Mikhail Bulgakov
Grove Press, 9780802130112, (Original 1967), 402pp.

The Short of It:

This is a fantastical tale of good and evil. There’s a fast-talking cat, a witch, Satan himself and a beheading that starts the ball rolling (pun intended).

The Rest of It:

The Master and Margarita is a favorite book to many but it’s a wondrous, crazy tale that reminded me a lot of Haruki Murakami’s work, minus the everyman take.

It’s hard to describe the story but basically the Master is an author whose work about Christ is so rejected by his peers that he decides to burn the manuscript. This leaves him bitter and just a shell of his former self.

His mistress, Margarita, refuses to let this turn of events affect her so one night, she accepts an invitation to a ball which first begins by her rubbing this special cream all over her body. This act transforms her into a beautiful, younger version of herself. Along with this youth, she is given the ability to fly which she uses to fly right into Satan’s ball. There, she discovers things about herself and makes a decision which will affect her life forever.

This is a book to experience. I can’t say that I understood all of the references but it has been said that Bulgakov wrote the book in response to the blatant Atheism in Soviet Russia. It delves into good and evil and what it means to be outspoken is a world that is not free. It’s definitely a book that begs to be read more than once.

Having experienced this book now for the first time, I can see why it’s a beloved classic but I don’t believe one reading puts it in that category. I would love to take a class where all that we study is this book because it’s bursting with imagery and meaning.

Have you read it? If so, what did you think of it?

Source: Purchased
Disclosure: This post contains Indiebound affiliate links.

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