I’m linking in to the Top Ten Tuesday post, by The Broke and the Bookish for my Best of 2016 Wrap-Up!
My Favorite Reads of 2016
The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. Read 17 January 2016
The series of short vignettes in The Interpreter of Maladies are simple on the surface, but breathtakingly beautiful. It is an extremely talented author that can take short vignettes about regular people and make it so authentic and beautiful.
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Read 22 February, 2016.
Looking back, I can’t believe that this is the book I chose to read while stuck in bed recovering from surgery. This is what I had to say on GR at the time: The narration is both poetic and dreamy, a glittering facade that barely covers a harsh critique of the 1920s American upper class society.
Part of me wonders if my medications were screwing with my mind at the time! However, I remember the story with crystal clarity. I’m still surprised how much I loved this book.
Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by Bryan Stevenson. Read 31 May, 2016
Just Mercy is a profound and important book. It is one of a series of books that I have read over the last 15 months that have helped me along the pathway of truly understanding the ongoing inequalities that underlie American society, and in particular, the criminal justice system. It helps give me a better of understanding of the importance of the BLM movement. I had started to become complacent, without even realizing it. In very many ways, 2016 became the year that I woke back up. And books like Just Mercy have helped me find my way back.
Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents by Octavia Butler. Read 15 of June and 13 July, 2016.
It was really eerie reading a sci-fi dystopian series whose first book had multiple flashbacks to 2010 . A novel that marks 2015/2016 as the beginning of the end for America. A novel that has a dictator-like President with a catchy campaign slogan: “Make America Great Again.”
Let’s all stop and think about that for a minute. It gives me chills.
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda. Read 16 July 2016. Review here.
Megan Miranda writes amazing psychological thrillers, and this one was no exception! This was a perfect summer read.
Becoming Nicole: The Transformation of an American Family by Amy Ellis Nutt. Read 3 August 2016.
The true story of a transgender girl and her identical twin brother, growing up in small town America. An excellent book to read if you want to learn more about the real-life struggles of transgender kids. I also really enjoyed Nicole’s Tedx Talk.
The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander. Read 8 September 2016. Review here.
A must-read for any and every American.
A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab. Read 26 September 2016. Review here.
I love this book! Love this series! I am on pins and needs waiting for the third book in the series to come out!
Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson. Read 10 December 2016. Review here.
This may be the very first book written in poetry form to have made one of my “Best of the Year” lists. Usually not my favorite genre, but it works amazingly well in this memoir.
LaRose by Louise Erdrich. Read 19 December 2016. Review here.
Louise Erdrich never disappoints, and LaRose may just be my favorite book by her yet! A beautiful novel of love and atonement.
What are your top books of the year? Happy New Year!
4thhouseontheleft 
I loved Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo! It’s probably my favorite read this year. Love your list! I want to read V.E. Schwab’s Darker Shade of Magic series!
Great choices! I read The Great Gatsby when I was in high school and it’s definitely one of my favorite classics. I also read and really enjoyed ADSOM this year. A couple of the others you listed are on my TBR, especially The New Jim Crow and All the Missing Girls and I REALLY want to read at least one of Octavia Butler’s books in 2017.
Here’s my TTT if you’re interested and haven’t seen it yet: https://kourtnireads.wordpress.com/2016/12/27/top-ten-books-of-2016/
I quite enjoyed Brown Girl Dreaming, too. It did work very nicely. My TTT
Oh wow, the Octavia Butler books are so powerful! Among my all-time favorites — I push them on people all the time. 🙂 I’m really looking forward to reading LaRose as well, just as soon as my library branch has a copy available.
I haven’t read much Butler (just Wild Seed and Bloodchild), but intend to. But first, V E Schwab – I’ve just picked up A Darker Shade of Magic and I’m very excited to get to it!