The Readers discussion

My best of 2016:
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Moonglow by Michael Chabon
Kindred by Octavia Butler
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
Swimming Home by Deborah Levy
Audio Book: The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (but read by Colin Firth!)
The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon
and my favorite "overlooked" book of 2016 - A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl

Karen wrote: "my favorite "overlooked" book of 2016 - A Hundred Thousand Worlds by Bob Proehl..."

Hi Karen,
I read A Hundred Thousand Worlds last month and it was really lovely. It also made me want to read Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, which I have owned now for years and not yet read.

I'm glad that you enjoyed AHTW. I'd love for it to find a larger audience this year.

I'm a fan girl of Michael Chabon so I would encourage you to dust off your copy of Kavalier & Clay! I also can't help but encourage you to pick up Chabon's latest novel, Moonglow. I loved it even more than Kavalier & Clay.

My favorites of 2016 (it does feel like such a long time ago now!):

To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
One of those rare books I find that feels like it was written for a reader exactly like me. I read it in a single setting and was tempted to immediately read it again.

The Castle Cross the Magnet Carter by Kia Corthron
This is my "Why was this book so criminally overlooked?" book of 2016. It's not a perfect novel but it's a WOW novel nonetheless.

Grace: A Novel by Natashia Deon
This was another "read in a single sitting" book for me. I'm glad that The Underground Railroad and Homegoing got so much love last year, but I'm sad that more people didn't find this equally powerful story about slavery.

And for fun, books I read this year because of listening to The Readers or because of Simon or Thomas mentioning them elsewhere: Ship of Fools by Katherine Anne Porter, A Place Called Winter by Patrick Gale, The Book of Memory by Petina Gappah, Rush Oh! by Shirley Barrett, Girl at War by Sara Novic, The Summer That Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel, The Essex Serpent by Sarah Perry, Angel Catbird by Margaret Atwood, The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen, The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton.

I didn't read as many books as you guys and I don't think any of them were actually published in 2016 but my favourite books of 2016 were:

Uprooted by Naomi Novak
Blood Song by Anthony Ryan
The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu
The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen

Lest favourite bookie moments:

The Man Who was Thursday by G.K Chesterton
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick

My top 2016:

The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet

Gilead

The Lions of Al-Rassan

Among my favorites for 2016 were:


Into The Dark (Alexis Carew #1) by JA Sutherland

Victoria Four-Thirty by Cecil Roberts
Thanks, Thomas, recommending it!

Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

A Prayer for Owen Meany

2016 was a good reading year. Some favorites:

The Comet Seekers

My Name Is Lucy Barton

Everything I Never Told You

A Great Reckoning

Also a few classics I particularly enjoyed:
Middlemarch

The Pursuit of Love

The Death of the Heart

My favorites that I read last year were the Neapolitan Series by Elena Ferrante. I read all 4 in a row, sitting on a beach...doesn't get any better.

My favourite book of 2016 by a long way was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.
The story spoke directly to my heart and then broke it into a million pieces. I was left sobbing on my commute but loved the characters so much I couldn't put the book down and just wiped away my tears as discreetly as possible. It was one of those books where the writing, the story telling and the characters worked together perfectly. (Big thanks to Michael from BOTNS)

Other excellent 5 star books from 2016:
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - best non-children's book about magic I have read.
Station Eleven - almost perfectly crafted.

These were my reading goals for 2016 and how I did on them:
1. Read at least 1 nonfiction book a month: I finished 10, and was halfway through an 11th at the end of the year. I also got about a third of the way through The Enigma and while I think the subject matter is interesting, the book is just not something I'm going to get through - so I'm going to give up on it (something I rarely do.) So I'll give myself an B+ on that one. I am keeping this one as a 2017 goal since I'm paring down on my book clubs and will get to choose more books for myself.
2. Keeping a reading journal of all books read during the year: I kept the journal - but it ended up being more of a list than actually writing about each book I read - so props for keeping track, but I need to work on the journaling part more. One of my goals for 2017 is to do a goodreads review for every book I read.
3. Finish a BOTNS Book bingo card and/or the Popsugar reading challenge: I was so close to a BOTNS Book bingo blackout! But alas - too much "required" reading got in the way. I did get 20 out of the 25 squares, and started books for three of the five I was missing, just ran out of time. So getting a blackout will remain a goal for 2017.

4. No buying books: This one is definitely mixed...So I only bought four actual cheat books...but I also made use of a LOT of loopholes... I wrote in a loophole originally that I could buy books for Booktopia, and I definitely took advantage of that one! I think I came home with like 12 books from Booktopia - either author books, ones I received through Yankee book swap, or ones purchased with the gift card received with my Booktopia registration (part of the loophole...) Originally I was going to eschew purchasing audiobooks, but about April I decided that was stupid; I normally listen to audiobooks in the car, which is not when I can listen to any physical books, so I allowed myself to opt back into the monthly subscription through audible. The third loophole is that there is a local book exchange store where you can take your books (and CDs and DVDs) and sell them. But they don't give you money - they give you store credit. So in order to not waste that store credit, I came home with several books - but it was always less books than I exchanged, and it was *exchanging,* not technically buying (I know, I know, that's kind of a cheat.) Oh, there was a fourth loophole - I downloaded some free ebooks on my nook - so, not buying, just obtaining - I don't count those as cheating. So, other than those loopholes I mentioned, I only bought four books otherwise - three from an utterly charming used book store in an old mill in MA (how could I resist?) and one study book for taking my PMP exam.

Highlights of my 2016 reading (not necessarily published in 2016) included A Little Life, Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch, Fates and Furies, A Man Called Ove, Shelter, Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things, and Neverwhere. It was a seriously great reading year. A few books I was disappointed in were The Girls, Second Life, and The Swans of Fifth Avenue. But by far, the good outweighed the disappointing (I won't call them bad...just didn't live up to expectations.)

Esther wrote: "My favourite book of 2016 by a long way was A Constellation of Vital Phenomena.
The story spoke directly to my heart and then broke it into a million pieces. I was left sobbing on ..."

Esther, isn't it just a wonderful book? I read it when it first came out and still consider it one of my favorite books.

Mara wrote: "My favorites of 2016 (it does feel like such a long time ago now!):

To The Bright Edge of the World by Eowyn Ivey
One of those rare books I find that feels like it was written for ..."

Mara, I'm so excited to find another reader who loves Grace: A Novel by Natashia Deon. I think it deserves as much praise as both Homegoing and Underground Railroad. Brad Listi interviews her on his Otherppl podcast if you'd like to take a listen.

1) Orlando -Virginia Woolf
2) Paradise -Toni Morrison
3) A Brief History of Seven Killings -Marlon James
4) The Master and Margarita -Mikhail Bulgakov
5) The Round House -Louise Erdrich

And already mentioned above:
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay , and A Prayer for Owen Meany

Of all of the above, I was most surprised by Orlando-- I had read To the Lighthouse, which was good, but definitely a struggle to get through. Orlando was the polar opposite--a fast paced adventure, funny, manic, and imaginative. Instant addition to my all-time favorites list. That's also true for Morrison's Paradise, which I read right after Orlando at the end of the year. A little unfair for 2017 I think- tough acts to follow.

Books I read that really stand out for me in 2016 were the Neapolitan books by Elena Ferrante, and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.

I also really loved Byzantium by Steven Lawhead and In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden.

I re-read some of the Nero Wolfe books, too. Always fun.

Kim wrote: "Books I read that really stand out for me in 2016 were the Neapolitan books by Elena Ferrante, and Ordinary Grace by William Kent Krueger.

I also really loved Byzantium by Steven Lawhead and In Th..."

Oh, I loved the Nero Wolfe books. I even watched the T.V. show.

One of my favorite books I read last year is The More They Disappear: A Novel. It's about a murder. But we know who dies and who kills him, we just don't know why. And that is the unfolding of the plot.