I'm finally posting my top ten list. I'd put it together in mid-December, but since I planned to finish eight more books before the end of the year, I decided not to post it until January. (I was thinking more like January 1, but, alas, time got away from me.)
My criteria for the best books of
the year boils down to one simple thing: the book had to touch me viscerally.
It had to demand something of me or comfort me in a profound way. It had to
teach me something about humanity. It also had to entertain me. I read a lot of
great books this year, and this list was harder to compose than most years.
Some notes: 1. I don't include children's books in my top ten because it just doesn't seem like an apples and oranges comparison. My favorite children's books of 2016 can be found here and here. 2. I don't include re-reads on my best of list. 3. Can you believe 6 of my top ten books this year are fiction?! More than half? Fiction!
End-of-year Stats
Books read: 128
Fiction: 20
Children's: 22
Picture Books: 114
Poetry: 14
Audio: 17
Re-Reads: 9
Favorite book of 2016
[published in 2016]
A Gentleman in Moscow
10 Best Books of 2016 (in the order I read them)
1. Jane Eyre
2. Dead Presidents
3. A Man Called Ove
4. The Summer before the War
5. In a Sunburned Country
6. Five Presidents
7. My Cousin Rachel
8. News of the World
9. A Gentleman in Moscow
10. Harry Truman’s Excellent
Adventure
Runner-ups*
50 Paintings You
Should Know
Delicious!
First Women
For the Love
The French Chef in
America, Alex Prud’homme
Girl Waits with Gun
How to Celebrate
Everything
Living with What You
Love
Major Pettigrew’s
Last Stand
Present over Perfect
The Road to Little
Dribbling
The Song Poet, Kao
Kalia Yang
Tarzan of the Apes
Textbook Amy Krouse
Rosenthal
*there will be a post on these later
Best Memoir
Five
Presidents
Best Nonfiction Book (non-memoir/biography)
In a
Sunburned Country
Best Biography
Adult: First Women or The French Chef in America
Kids: Grover Cleveland, Again!
Best Fiction
Contemporary:
A Gentleman in
Moscow (The Summer before the War is a close runner-up.)
Classic:
Jane Eyre
Best Parenting/Family
Book
A
Doctor in the House
Best Project or
Adventure Book
In a
Sunburned Country
Best audiobook
In a
Sunburned Country
(Delicious!
was also excellent.)
Best Poetry Book
Otherwise
(Jane Kenyon)
Best Cookbook
Tie: American Cake
How to Celebrate Everything
Best Photography/Art
Book
50
Paintings You Should Know
Best Decorating Book
Living with What You Love
Best Picture Book
Tie: Mother Bruce
I Love You Already!
Ada Twist, Scientist
Flora and the Peacocks
Best Middle Grade or YA
Book
The
Curious World of Calpurnia Tate
Best books about
presidents, first ladies, or the White House.
Presidents: Dead Presidents, Harry Truman’s
Excellent Adventure, and Killing
Lincoln
First Ladies: First Women
White House: Under This Roof
Proud to be an American
award
Five
Presidents
Best book that deals
with religion or faith
For the
Love
Best book that deals
with food or cooking or chefs (non-cookbook)
Tie: How to Celebrate Everything (maybe
you’d call this a cookbook?)
Delicious
Most inspiring,
cathartic, or (Self-)helpful
Present
over Perfect
Best books set in
another country
Jane
Eyre (England)
A
Gentleman in Moscow (Russia/USSR)
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (England)
In a
Sunburned Country (Australia)
The Latehomecomer
(Laos & Thailand)
Major
Pettigrew’s Last Stand (England)
A Man
Called Ove (Sweden)
My
Cousin Rachel (England)
The
Summer before the War (England)
Tarzan
of the Apes (someplace in Africa)
Best book based on a
blog
How to
Celebrate Everything
Best books by authors
I’ve read before
The
Curious World of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
Delicious!,
Ruth Reichl
Five
Presidents, Clint Hill
For the
Love, Jen Hatmaker
How to
Celebrate Everything, Jenny Rosenstrach
In a
Sunburned County, Bill Bryson
My
Cousin Rachel, Daphne du Maurier
Present
over Perfect, Shauna Neiquist
Best book by a
celebrity
No
Award
Best book about sports
No
Award
Funniest book
In a
Sunburned Country
Runner Up: Shake
Best covers
Felicity
Ms.
Marvel
First
Women
A Man
Called Ove
Miller’s
Valley
Death
Comes to Pemberley
Ingredienti
I Never
Had It Made
My
Cousin Rachel
News of
the World
Major
Pettigrew’s Last Stand
Lulu
Walks the Dogs
A
Gentleman in Moscow
Worst cover
Kick (chest
hair on the cover of a book—even if it’s Jack Kennedy’s chest hair—is a turn
off for me)
Also, poetry
collections almost always have the absolute worst covers:
The
Lost Neruda Poems
Mortal
Trash
Show
and Tell
Best book about books
or reading
No
Award
The “I want to write
like that” award
A
Gentleman in Moscow
Well-written books that
I did not like
The
Beekeeper’s Apprentice
Gone
with the Wind
Hidden
Figures
When
Breath Becomes Air
Book everyone should
read
Classics: Jane Eyre, My Cousin Rachel, Tarzan
of the Apes
Contemporary fiction: A Gentleman in Moscow, Major
Pettigrew’s Last Stand, A Man Called Ove, News of the World
History: Five Presidents
Art: 50 Paintings You Should Know
Religion: The Bible, Science and Health with
Key to the Scriptures
Children’s: The Curious World of Calpurnia
Tate, Grover Cleveland, Again!
Weirdest book
Textbook
Amy Krouse Rosenthal (and it was weird in a good way)
Most charming
A
Gentleman in Moscow
Most disappointing
Love
Warrior
Book I’m still not sure
how I feel about
The
Remains of the Day
Toughest read
Holy
Bible
Thickest read
Gone
with the Wind
Made me cry
I think
I cried during When Breath Becomes Air
because I’d lost my dad not long before to a neurological disorder.
And I
hate admitting that I cried during Lily
and the Octopus, because that was what the book was written to make you do.
Renewed my faith in
mankind
A Man
Called Ove
Best science book
For adults: Patient H. M. (neurological
sciences)
For kids: The Curious World of Calpurnia
Tate (natural sciences)
Book that best displays
the battle between traditionalism and progressivism
The
Remains of the Day
Most unique
Ella
Minnow Pea
Best book from a genre
I’ve never read before
Tie: Ms. Marvel (comic)
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (fantasy)
Kept me on the edge of
my seat
My
Cousin Rachel
Best book about animals
Tie: Appleblossom the Possum
Tarzan of the Apes
Number of books read that were published in 2016
42
Highly- and
widely-recommended books that lived up to the hype
Girl
Waits with Gun
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Major
Pettigrew’s Last Stand
A Man
Called Ove
Present
over Perfect
News of
the World (National Book Award finalist)
The
Summer before the War
2016 bestsellers that
disappointed
Love
Warrior (Aug.)
Raymie
Nightingale (April)
Seven
Brief Lessons on Physics (March)
Books I’m most glad I
finally got around to
The
Bible
Jane
Eyre
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
Oldest book read
The
Bible
Rereads
Coop
(as good as I remember)
The Pioneer
Woman (as mediocre as I remember)
The
Longest Trip Home (not nearly as good as I remember)
The
Duggars: 20 and Counting! (as remembered)
The
Latehomecomer (as remembered)
The
Sharper Your Knife, the Less You Cry (not as good as I remember)
Risking
Everything (as remembered)
Dancers
among Us (lost its charm the second time around)
Killing
Reagan (as remembered)
Best story (within a
book)
When
Lord Carnarvon discovered King Tutankhamun’s tomb in Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey. It really surprised me, and
I was delighted by the surprise.
Books that deserve more
praise
Dead
Presidents (witty dissertation of the presidents, how they died, and where they
rest)
The
Summer before the War (novel about England during World War I)
The
Curious World of Calpurnia Tate (my favorite children’s book of the year)
For the
Love (honest, heartfelt, and funny book about Christian women and church)
Grover
Cleveland, Again! (one of the best children’s books I’ve read in a long time)
My
Cousin Rachel (gothic suspense every bit as good as Rebecca)
How to
Celebrate Everything (memoir/cookbook about family rituals)
A
Gentleman in Moscow (my favorite book of the year, but only the very bookish
have probably heard of it)
Books that took me out
of my comfort zone (and what happened)
comic: Ms. Marvel Volume 1: No Normal
& Ms. Marvel Volume 2: Generation Why (loved them)
fantasy: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s
Stone (really liked it)
Authors added to my TBR
because of 2016 Reads
Fredrik
Backman (A Man Called Ove)
Edgar
Rice Burroghs (Tarzan of the Apes)
Luke
Dittrich (Patient H.M.)
Helen
Simonson (The Summer before the War & Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand)
Holly
Goldberg Sloan (Appleblossom the Possum)
Amy
Stewart (Girl Waits with Gun)
Amor
Towles (A Gentleman in Moscow)
Books over 30 years old
The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
And
Then There Were None
Jane
Eyre
The House at Pooh Corner
Science
and Health with Key to the Scriptures
Emma
Holy
Bible
Harriet the Spy
Gone
with the Wind
Farmer
Boy
Anne of
Avonlea
Tarzan of the Apes
I Never
Had It Made
My 21 Years in the White House
My Cousin Rachel
Book that didn’t stick
with me even until the end of the year
Anne of
Avonlea
Eighty
Days
Mortal
Trash
The
Road Not Taken
Seven
Brief Lessons on Physics
The
Story of Diva and Flea
That’s
Not English
The
Trouble with Poetry
Books I’ve already
gotten rid of
The
Bridge Ladies
Crossing
to Safety
Dear
Cary
Death
Comes to Pemberley
Florence
Foster Jenkins (did not finish)
In the
Heart of the Sea
Ingredienti
Kick
Me
(Katharine Hepburn)
Philomena
Spark
Joy
Did not finish.
Savor
Moving
to Higher Ground
Florence
Forster Jenkins
West
with the Night
Dogs
(I’ll probably finish this someday.)
The
Perfect Horse (I will finish this someday.)
Past year’s Top Ten and
Awards posts:
No comments:
Post a Comment