Of the 91 books I read in 2016, here are my top 10. (You can click on the book covers to order from Amazon)

1. The Chimes, by Anna Smaill (fiction, novel) The most interesting and unusual post-apocalypse book I've ever read.

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2. Fates and Furies, by Lauren Groff (fiction, novel) A national book award finalist last year.

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3. The Nix, by Nathan Hill (fiction, novel) Epic novel that's scarily politically relevant at the moment.

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4. America the Anxious: How Our Pursuit of Happiness Is Creating a Nation of Nervous Wrecks, by Ruth Whippman (nonfiction) One of the most sane and helpful books about happiness I've read.

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5. The Inseperables, by Stuart Nadler (fiction, novel) One of Kirkus' Best Books of 2016.

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6. Vinegar Girl, by Anne Tyler (fiction, novel) Based on Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.

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7. An Abbreviated Life, by Ariel Leve (memoir) Ariel Leve's mother was a crazy poet, which made her childhood both interesting and unstable.

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8. The Hatred of Poetry, by Ben Lerner (nonfiction). "...I, too, dislike it and have largely organized my life around it and do not experience that as a contradiction because poetry and the hatred of poetry are inextricable in ways it is my purpose to explore." -the author

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9. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, by J.K Rowling, both on audio book (fiction, novel). I enjoyed the audio version of these even more than my initial experience of reading them myself, because of the magic of Jim Dale's voice.

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10. Modern Lovers, by Emma Straub (fiction, novel) An NPR Best Book of 2016, an Entertainment Weekly Best Book of 2016, a Slate Best Book of the Year, a Washington Post Notable Fiction Pick

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