Your favourite books of 2016

It's almost 2017 - time to talk about your favourite books of the year, so that the rest of the group can get some good reading recommendations!

My best books of 2017:

The Enchanted by Rene Denfeld
The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
The Scarlet Pimpernel by Emmuska, Baroness Orczy
Through the Narrow Gate: A Memoir of Spiritual Discovery by Karen Armstrong
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof by Tennessee Williams

Best Reads 2016
Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson

The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey by Candice Millard

Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner by Judy Melinek

As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling by Anne Serling

The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America by John F. Kasson

Not My Father's Son by Alan Cumming

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? by Henry Farrell
Nutshell by Ian McEwen

Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn by Ken Cuthbertson

To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu by George Takei

In the order in which I finished them:

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout
Mothering Sunday by Graham Swift
The Garden Party and Other Stories by Katherine Mansfield
Miss Jane by Brad Watson
Butcher's Crossing by John Williams
Nutshell by Ian McEwan
Commonwealth by Ann Patchett
Emerson: The Mind on Fire by Robert D. Richardson
Alive Together: New and Selected Poems by Lisel Mueller
The Dressmaker by Beryl Bainbridge

In no particular order these were my favorites for the year:
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian
I know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb
The Storied Life of Aj Fikry by Gabrille Zevon
The Madwoman Ypstairs by Catherine Lowell
Life of Pi by Yann Martel
The Sandcastle Girls by Chris Bohjalian
The Lost Husband by Katherine Center
The Matchmakers of Minnow Bay by Kelly Harms
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
The Clancys of Queens by Tara Clancy
The Bookshop on the Corner by Jenny Colgan
How To Survive a Plague by David France
The Mothers by Britt Bennett
The Age of Miracles by Karen Thompson
Just Getting Started Tony Bennett

2016 Top Books:
5*
Killing the Rising Sun by Bill O'Reilly
4.5*
Doc by Mary Doria Russell
Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Birdsong by Sebastian Foulks
The Virgin Cure by Ani McKay
Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See

And because I don't think I posted for last year -
2015 Top Books:
4.5*
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
Homicide. A Year on the Killing Streets by David Simon
The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

Favorite books of 2016

Heartbreakers but wonderful – poverty, dysfunctional families, coming of age.
Prayers for the Stolen Clement. Plight of women and girls in Mexico.
Imani All Mine Porter. Struggles of a young teenage girl in the ghetto.
The Silver Star Walls. Sisters face challenges in California and small-town Virginia.

WWII Historical fiction –
Above the East China Sea Bird. Mystical, coming of age, set in Okinawa
The Garden of Letters Richman. Italy, coming of age, music theme.
Everyone Brave is Forgiven Cleave. London Blitz, Malta.
Salt to the Sea Sepetys. Germany, teenage refugees.

Series I continue to love!
Poldark saga. Graham. Historical fiction; Cornwall, England.
Bloody Jack Meyer. Spunky and fearless female buccaneer!

YA adventures with strong female protagonists –
Under a Painted Sky Lee
Hattie Big Sky Larson

Suspense/thrillers –
I Let You Go Macintosh. Set in Britain and Wales.
Before the Fall Hawley. Plane crash, survivors.

My Top Ten:
Some of them are German and not yet translated
I read a lot of good books this year, but these are the ones that kept me thinking for a long time.

Auerhaus by Bov Bjerg
Ach, diese Lücke, diese entsetzliche Lücke by Joachim Meyerhoff
Manja: The story of five Children by Anna Gmeyner
Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith
Mädchenmeute by Kirsten Fuchs
The Lost Art of Keeping Secrets by Eva Rice
My Struggle: Book One: A Death in the Family by Karl Ove Knausgård
Ein Mann namens Saulus by Gérald Messadié
Die Engel von Sidi Moumen by Mahi Binebine
Secondhand Time: The Last of the Soviets by Svetlana Alexievich

My best books have mostly turned out to be books about favourite books, periodicals and authors.

True to the Trefoil
Heroines on Horseback
The Chalet School Encyclopaedia
Dorothy L Sayers: Her Life and Soul
The Adventures of Margery Allingham
Josephine Tey: A Life
Deadlier than the Male
The History of Girls' Comics

Also, a lovely light children's book, The Vicarage Children and I'm stretching my brain with Alone of All Her Sex.

Many of my favorite books of 2016 were a bit outside my normal comfort zone:

Fiction

Under the Wide and Starry Sky by Nancy Horan
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
Everyone Brave Is Forgiven by Chris Cleave
My Grandmother Asked Me to Tell You She's Sorry by Fredrik Backman
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
This Must Be the Place by Maggie O'Farrell
The Thing Around Your Neck by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Non-Fiction

The Poisoner's Handbook, Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum
Dead Wake, the Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
The Curse of the Narrows, The Halifax Explosion 1917 by Laura M. MacDonald
The Presidents' Club, Inside the World's Most Exclusive Fraternity by Nancy Gibbs

2016 was a good year for me, for reading!

In no particular order, here are my best reads:

reads:
A Cold Red Sunrise by Stuart M. Kaminsky
Caliban's War by James S. A. Corey
Joy in the Morning by Betty Smith
Fortress in the Eye of Time by C.J. Cherryh
Fortress of Eagles by C.J. Cherryh
Fortress of Dragons by C.J. Cherryh
Leviathan Wakes by James S. A. Corey
Best Cartoons From Punch
The Murder of Mary Russell by Laurie R. King
When Eight Bells Toll by Alistair MacLean
Trump: The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump
Breed of Giants by Joyce Stranger
The People of Pern by Robin Wood
Bible Numerics by Peter S. Ruckman
Asterix the Gaul by Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo
Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman
Amberwell by D.E. Stevenson
Body, Soul, and Spirit by Peter S. Ruckman

reads:
The Book of Daniel (King James Bible)
The Everlasting Hills by Irene Hunt

Thank you everyone for sharing your lists!

My favorite fiction books in the order I read them:
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
Wonder by R. J. Palacio
Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith
In Her Shoes by Jennifer Weiner
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Illustrated Edition by J. K. Rowling
Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
The Lonely Polygamist by Brady Udall

My favorite nonfiction books in the order I read them:
Angela's Ashes: A Memoir by Frank McCourt
"Guns Don't Kill People, People Kill People": And Other Myths About Guns and Gun Control by Dennis A. Henigan - finished 8/26
A Thousand Hills to Heaven: Love, Hope, and a Restaurant in Rwanda by Josh Ruxin
We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

January to December 2016

Audio books ~
Girl Who Came Home ~ a Titanic Novel / Hazel Gaynor
Crossing (Haller/Bosch) / Michael Connelly
Memory of Violets ~ London's Flower Sellers / Hazel Gaynor
Brotherhood in Death (Eve Dallas) / Nora Roberts
No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (Rules of Scoundrels) / Sarah MacLean
Kind Worth Killing / Peter Swanson
Whistler / John Grisham
Two by Two / Nicholas Sparks

eBooks ~
Rogue Not Taken (Scandal & Scoundrel) / Sarah MacLean
Wicked Way to Win an Earl (Sutherland Scandals) /
Anna Bradley
Let's Play Make-believe (Book Shots) / James Patterson
Beatrix Potter's Gardening Life / Marta McDowell