Top 10 Books Read in 2016
All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)
Inside the O'Briens (Lisa Genova)*****
Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Rachel Joyce)
Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)
Nightingale, The (Kristen Hannah)
Ordinary Grace (William Kent Krueger)
Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)
Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Rachel Joyce)
Burgess Boys (Elizabeth Strout)
Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)
I'm having a lot of trouble picking my favorite book of the year, but I think I'm going to have to go with All the Light We Cannot See. But really, all the books in my Top 10 were incredible!Book Club Review
One of the books on my Top 10 list was a book club book (The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry), and four of them were books that didn't make this year's book club list! Other book club reads this year were:
Day the World Came to Town (Jim DeFede)***
Death at Wentwater Court (Carola Dunn)*
Geography of Genius (Eric Weiner)****
Lake House (Kate Morton)****
Learning to Swim (Sarah Henry)***
Me Before You (JoJo Moyes)****
Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)**
War That Saved My Life (Kimberly Bradley(***)
Wild (Cheryl Strayed)****
World War Z (Max Brooks)**
TBR List
I apparently only crossed off 11 books on my TBR list… although I probably didn't add very many this year. I've been adding more in Goodreads and forgetting to add to my blog's TBR. I also pin a lot of new titles on my "I Cannot Live Without Books" board on Pinterest. I have a huge stack of books that I bought over Christmas break at used book stores/thrift stores, but I've mostly been reading on my Kindle whatever TBR books are available on the E-Reads program from our library.
Goals
I liked how I reviewed books each month in 2016 rather than reviewing each book. I felt less stressed about getting reviews done. I set a goal of reading 50 books this year, and I'd like to add a few more nonfiction titles in this year. I think I only read a couple of nonfiction last year.
The Whole List
Below are all the books I read this year. My star-ranking system is as follows: 5 stars--absolutely must read; 4 stars--highly recommended; 3 stars--enjoyable; 2 stars--ick; 1 star--no, no, no.
- After You (Jojo Moyes)***
- All the Light We Cannot See (Anthony Doerr)*****
- Bohemian Gospel (Dana C. Carpenter)****
- Burgess Boys (Elizabeth Strout)*****
- Chasing the North Star (Robert Morgan)***
- Commonwealth (Ann Patchett)*****
- Day the World Came to Town (Jim DeFede)***
- Death at Wentwater Court (Carola Dunn)*
- Descent (Tim Johnston)****
- Ethan Frome (Edith Wharton) -- multiple re-read
- Funny in Farsi (Firoozah Dumas) multiple re-read****
- Geography of Genius (Eric Weiner)****
- Good Earth (Pearl Buck)*****
- Good Girl (Mary Kubica)****
- Guests on Earth (Lee Smith)***
- Home Front (Kristen Hannah)**
- Husband's Secret (Liane Moriarty)
- Inside the O'Briens (Lisa Genova)*****
- Jesus, My Father, the CIA, and Me (Ian Cron)***
- Lake House (Kate Morton)****
- Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)****
- Learning to Swim (Sarah Henry)***
- Life We Bury (Allen Eskens)***
- Lost in Translation (Nicole Mones)***
- Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy (Rachel Joyce)*****
- Man Called Ove (Fredrik Backman)*****
- Me Before You (JoJo Moyes)****
- Museum of Extraordinary Things (Alice Hoffman)****
- My Grandmother Asked Me To Tell You She's Sorry (Fredrik Backman)**
- Nectar in a Sieve (K. Markandaya)****
- Nightingale, The (Kristen Hannah)*****
- One Plus One (Jojo Moyes)***
- Ordinary Grace (William Kent Krueger)*****
- Our Town (Thornton Wilder) -reread*****
- Rosie Effect (Graeme Simsion)***
- Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)*****
- Ship of Brides (Jojo Moyes)***
- Songs for the MIssing (Stewart O'Nan)***
- Spectator Bird (Wallace Stegner)****
- Summer Before the War (Helen Simonson)****
- Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)**
- Those Who Save Us (Jenna Blum)***
- To Kill a Mockingbird (multiple re-read)*****
- Train to Trieste (Domnica Radulescu)****
- Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry (Rachel Joyce)*****
- War That Saved My Life (Kimberly Bradley(***)
- We Never Asked for Wings (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)****
- We Were Liars (E. Lockhart)****
- Wild (Cheryl Strayed)****
- Wonder, The (Emma Donoghue)***
- World War Z (Max Brooks)**
We read and enjoyed many of the same books!
ReplyDeleteLight Between Oceans was one of my favourites for my 2015 reading.
My list is here:
http://seattlemomoftwo.blogspot.com/2016/12/books-read-in-2016.html
I love looking at your book reviews/list... we have very similar tastes in books! Still need to read All the Light We Cannot See, though. Too many books, too little time...
ReplyDeleteHave you heard of Litsy? It's an app that is a sort of a cross between Instagram and Goodreads. I'm not at all into most social media, but I found that there are lots of fun bookish people there to chat about books with. :)
I will have to check into Litsy, thanks!
ReplyDeleteI need to review books I read and start a blog. I've never heard of most of these authors. I plan on increasing the number of books I read in 2017. For some reason I've been reading a lot of navy books. I just love CS Forester, and game already read the African queen in 2017. One goal is to finish all the Hornblower series. I lean much stronger to non-fiction myself. Sarah didn't you read that book on smell last year?
ReplyDeleteI need to review books I read and start a blog. I've never heard of most of these authors. I plan on increasing the number of books I read in 2017. For some reason I've been reading a lot of navy books. I just love CS Forester, and have already read the African queen in 2017. One goal is to finish all the Hornblower series. I lean much stronger to non-fiction myself. Sarah didn't you read that book on smell last year?
ReplyDelete