In trying to understand this current moment historically, my reading interests skewed sharply toward books on power and politics beginning in late 2016. I wonder how common that is during elections, or during a presidential transition.

I continue to track my reading activity with Goodreads. In 2017, I discovered Overdrive, an ebook and audiobook service available at my local public library. I was using Audible (the one credit every other month subscription) and the addition of this app accelerated by audiobook consumption. I also took several long car trips in 2017 and stayed entertained with some of the audio titles.

I tend to keep multiple books going at a time, reading paper during the day, an e-reader at night, and listening to audiobooks while waiting on the bus, walking the dog, or washing the dishes after dinner.

Again, not all of these books are endorsements. I did read a bunch of recent bestseller or zeitgeist-y books, but these were not necessarily my favorites. I'll use a ⭐ star emoji to denote books I thoroughly enjoyed or would recommend. I'll also use emoji to denote whether I read each item on this list as a 📖 paper book, 📱ebook, or listened as 🎧 audio.

1. The Reactionary Mind: Conservatism from Edmund Burke to Sarah Palin ⭐
   by Corey Robin
   📱 Finished on Jan. 3
    

2. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City ⭐
   by Matthew Desmond
   📖 Finished on Feb. 2
    

3. Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right
   by Jane Mayer
   🎧 Finished on Feb. 7
    

4. Between the World and Me
   by Ta-Nehisi Coates
   🎧 Finished on Feb. 7
    

5. Seinfeldia: How a Show about Nothing Changed Everything
   by Jennifer Keishin Armstrong
   🎧 Finished on Feb. 11
    

6. The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York ⭐
   by Robert A. Caro
   🎧 Finished on March 26
    

7. The Flintstones, Vol. 1
   by Mark Russell and Steve Pugh
   📖 Finished on April 5
    

8. Design: The Invention of Desire
   by Jessica Helfand
   📖 Finished on April 10
    

9. The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements
   by Eric Hoffer
   📖 Finished on April 12
    

10. On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century
    by Timothy Snyder
    📖 Finished on April 23
     

11. Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way
    by Walter Wink
    📖 Finished on April 23
     

12. Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis
    by J.D. Vance
    🎧 Finished on April 27
     

13. The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood ⭐
    by James Gleick
    Finished on April 27
     

14. The Fire Next Time ⭐
    by James Baldwin
    🎧 Finished on April 28
     

15. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics
    by Carlo Rovelli
    🎧 Finished on April 29
     

16. Blackballed: The Black and White Politics of Race on America's Campuses
    by Lawrence Ross
    📖 Finished on May 3
     

17. The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism
    by Kristin Dombek
    📖 Finished on May 13
     

18. CivilWarLand in Bad Decline ⭐
    by George Saunders
    📖 Finished on May 21
     

19. Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy ⭐
    by Tressie McMillan Cottom
    📖 Finished on May 22
     

20. Bad Feminist
    by Roxane Gay
    🎧 Finished on July 11
     

21. America's War for the Greater Middle East ⭐
    by Andrew J. Bacevich
    📖 Finished on July 22
     

22. The Money Cult: Capitalism, Christianity, and the Unmaking of the American Dream
    by Chris Lehmann
    📖 Finished on July 26
     

23. Culture as Weapon: Art and Marketing in the Age of Total Communication
    by Nato Thompson
    📖 Finished on July 30
     

24. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
    by Michael Lewis
    🎧 Finished on Aug. 13
     

25. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness ⭐
    by Michelle Alexander
    🎧 Finished on Aug. 25
     

26. Lafayette in the Somewhat United States
    by Sarah Vowell
    🎧 Finished on Sept. 2
     

27. Utopia Drive: A Road Trip Through America's Most Radical Idea
    by Erik Reece
    📖 Finished on Sept. 5
     

28. A Mother's Reckoning: Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy
    by Sue Klebold
    📖 Finished on Sept. 16
     

29. Men Explain Things to Me
    by Rebecca Solnit
    📖 Finished on Sept. 18
     

30. Lincoln in the Bardo ⭐
    by George Saunders
    🎧 Finished on Sept. 24
     

31. Al Franken: Giant of the Senate
    by Al Franken
    🎧 Finished on Sept. 29
     

32. White Lies: Race, Class, Gender and Sexuality in White Supremacist Discourse
    by Jessie Daniels
    📖 Finished on Oct. 8
     

33. What Is the Bible?: How an Ancient Library of Poems, Letters, and Stories Can Transform the Way You Think and Feel About Everything
    by Rob Bell
    📖 Finished on Oct. 11
     

34. Krazy: The Black and White World of George Herriman ⭐
    by Michael Tisserand
    📖 Finished on Nov. 6
     

35. Against Everything: Essays
    by Mark Greif
    📖 Finished on Nov. 11
     

36. Guyland: The Perilous World Where Boys Become Men
    by Michael S. Kimmel
    📖 Finished on Nov. 12
     

37. Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History
    by Kurt Andersen
    🎧 Finished on Nov. 23
     

38. Resilient Web Design
    by Jeremy Keith
    📱 Finished on Nov. 29
     

39. Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America
    by Ibram X. Kendi
    📖 Finished on Dec. 29