7 Favorite Books of 2016: The Year in Review

2016 was a great year for reading. I consumed 80 books in three different formats, a personal best this century. 

To be fair, a handful were children's books, but Goodreads assures me the average length of books on my "read" shelf in 2016 was 298 pages, so I rest easy with my total (thanks, Joe Hill!).  

My Exceptional Reading Year included an inordinate (for me) number of re-reads: six books. For the most part, I credit this to catching up on original or first books before launching any sequel or companion books. However, Good Omens was re-read via Audible just for fun — and it remains one of the funniest books I have read.

Audiobooks changed my reading habits: one-fifth of the books I read this year were audiobooks, and three of those were re-reads. This format gives me an opportunity to read while I run or work out in the gym. I listened to Caitlin Moran read her immensely funny memoir, and I discovered Juliet Stevenson reading Sense and Sensibility. Audiobooks are not always the best format; I kept getting lost during The God of Small Things, and David Sedaris' essays waxed a bit too long for a listen. 

Additionally, I was surprised to discover that nearly one quarter of the books I read were on my Kindle. I own most of those in print, but I found the Kindle version more convenient; my bedside lighting is not stellar, and I have limited nightstand space. 

(Full disclosure: I recently purchased new furniture in part due to the nightstand size; however, my cats aren't keen on sharing their nightstand space with each other, let alone books that can be oh so fun to rearrange. As a result, I read my books on Kindle — and occasionally on audio — for the convenience of my cats. Do not judge my indulgences, and I shall afford you the same courtesy.)

Here are seven of my favorite books I read this year, in no particular order.

• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe — I began this book because of the narrator and finished it because it was a beautiful read. I have never been in the mind of a teenage boy, and Benjamin Alire Sáenz was a wonderful guide. There is no Big Reveal at the end of the book, but the truth still feels large, and it was gorgeously wrought.
• The Year of Yes — Shonda Rimes is an amazing person, and very wise. She hit her stride after the commencement speech and never slowed down. Would I call it a memoir, a self-help book, a feminist book, a humor read? Yes.
• The Cure for Dreaming — Cat Winters writes good books, so I recommend them all. However, this one I read in late October, and its examination of early 20th century suffrage was revolutionary.  
• The Underground Railroad — Imagine... no, don't imagine the world Colson Whitehead brought to life in his novel. Read it. It will change your perception of antebellum America. 
• Life After Life and A God in Ruins — Must be read in this order. I reviewed the first book a few years ago. Together, they command readers to re-think what life is, their own and others.
• The Invisible Library — I am a sucker for library and librarian stories, and this is a good one. I recently reviewed this book, which is the first of a trilogy. I can't wait to start the second volume. (The third book will be released in the U.S. on January 20.) Find out more about this trilogy on the author's website.

What books did I read in 2016 I would I not recommend?

• The Museum of Extraordinary Things — Weird, disappointing, and hard to follow.
• The Bookseller — The premise was intriguing, but the resolution was unsatisfying. Read my review here.
• Everything We Keep — The story stretched out so long before the second act that the resolution was singularly unsatisfying. The story coda, which attempted to bring the story full-circle, was awful.
• Big Magic — A self-help book that did not provide any new or interesting information. (Full disclosure: I avoided reading the author's chart-topping memoir, and I really disliked the movie.)

Thankfully, most of the less-than-stellar books were library loans.

Here is the complete list of books read in 2016. Most of them are good reads, so I hope you find a few to add to your nightstand (or e-reader, or listening device). I have indicated the format of each book (e-book 📲 , print book 📖 , or audio 🎧 ) and whether they were borrowed from the library (via nerd face 🤓 ).

1. Passage 📲 🤓
2. Bear Counts 📲
3. Ish 📲
4. The Roll-Away Pumpkin 📲
5. The Deep and Snowy Wood 📲
6. Plum Spooky 📖 🤓
7. Octopuppy 📲
8. Between the Plums 📲 🤓
9. 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People 📲 🤓
10. The Year of Yes 🎧 🤓
11. Thirteen Chairs 📲
12. Commonwealth 📖
13. The Invisible Library 📲
14. Good Omens 🎧
15. Thin Mint Memories 📲
16. The Forgetting Time (½) 📲 🤓
17. Lamb 🎧
18. The Cure for Dreaming 📖 🤓
19. A Mew to a Kill 📲
20. Sense and Sensibility 🎧 🤓
21. Fates and Furies 📲 🤓
22. Summer House With Pool 📲
23. Between the World and Me 🎧 🤓
24. Ghostly Echoes 📲
25. Let’s Explore Diabetes With Owls 🎧 🤓
26. The Underground Railroad 📖
27. The Uninvited 📲
28. Who Goes There? (The Thing) 📲
29. Big Magic 📖 🤓
30. Dorothy Parker Drank Here 📖
31. A Spirited Tail 📲
32. The Goodbyes 📖
33. Secondhand Souls 🎧 🤓
34. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe 🎧 🤓
35. Everything We Keep 📲
36. If Books Could Kill 📖 🤓
37. The Bookseller 📲
38. Unlikely Friendships 📲 🤓
39. Homicide in Hardcover 📖 🤓
40. Ghostly Paws 📲
41. The Sleeper and the Spindle 📖 🤓
42. The Body Reader 📲
43. Blackout 📖 🤓
44. Me and Earl and the Dying Girl 📲 🤓
45. Vacations From Hell 📖 🤓
46. 168 Hours 📖
47. Farewell, Dorothy Parker 📖
48. When Breath Becomes Air 📖
49. In the Heights 📖
50. Crenshaw 📲
51. How Do You Sleep 📲
52. In the Shadow of Blackbirds 📲 🤓
53. NOS4A2 🎧 🤓
54. The Humans (play) 📖
55. Random Harvest 📲
56. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? 📲
57. Vader’s Little Princess 📲
58. Darth Vader and Son 📲
59. Darth Vader and Friends 📲
60. Good Night, Darth Vader 📲
61. Americanah 📲 🤓
62. Winter of the World  🎧 🤓
63. A God in Ruins 📲 🤓
64. Rip Van Winkle 🎧 🤓
65. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow 🎧 🤓
66. The Fall of Giants 🎧 🤓
67. Life After Life 📲 🤓
68. How to be a Woman 🎧
69. Twenty Yawns 📲
70. True Grit 🎧 🤓
71. It All Changed in an Instant: More Six-Word Memoirs 📲 🤓
72. The Museum of Extraordinary Things  📲 🤓
73. The Luckiest Girl Alive 📖
74. Grandma Drove the Snowplow 📲
75. The Map 📲
76. Beastly Bones 📲
77. Impossible Things 📖
78. Girl Waits With Gun 📲
79. Library of Souls 📖
80. Emerald Green 📲

What did you read in 2016? Anything you can recommend? Do tell!