Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari

We of the east cannot fathom why westerners have forsaken religion. Read this book.

A History of the World in 1000 Objects [DK/Smithsonian]

The intro starts off with this line – ‘There is something magical about the survival of human-made objects from the past.’ History leaping out from the pages is the real magic of this book.

The Red House Mystery [A.A.Milne]

An Agatha-Christie-worthy whodunit from – would you believe it – the creator of Winnie the Pooh.

Two real disappointments this year were Exit West – with one of my favourite authors Mohsin Hamid [Moth Smoke/The Reluctant Fundamentalist] not quite able to pull off magical realism – and Artemis by Andy Weir [The Martian].

Note: These are my favourites among all the books I have read in 2017, not published in that year 😉