2016 Books - Better Late Than Never ;-P
Click on the pictures to go to the book's Goodreads page.
Click on the month headings to see my musings/book discussion. Feel free to join in here or on the monthly post for any book.
January
1. Pear Shaped by Stella Newman
2. Geekomancy (Ree Reyes #1) by Michael R. Underwood
3. Three Moments of an Explosion by China Miéville
4. Aberystwyth Mon Amour (Aberystwyth Noir #1) by Malcolm Pryce
5. You by Caroline Kepnes
6. The Light Who Shines (Bluebell Kildare #1) by Lilo Abernathy
7. Falling in Love with Hominids by Nalo Hopkinson
8. Also Known As by Robin Benway
9. Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes
10. Hex in the City edited by Kerrie L. Hughes
11. Born Under an Assumed Name: The Memoir of a Cold War Spy's Daughter by Sara Taber
February
12. The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley
13. Vita Nostra by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko
14. Powers of Detection: Stories of Mystery & Fantasy edited by Dana Stabenow
15. A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot
16. One Salt Sea (October Daye #5) by Seanan McGuire
17. Witch for Hire by N.E. Conneely
18. The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher
19. Girl's Guide to Witchcraft (Jane Madison #1) by Mindy Klasky
20. Sorcery and the Single Girl (Jane Madison #2) by Mindy Klasky
21. A History of the World in 6 Glasses by Tom Standage
March
22. D.A. by Connie Willis
23. Parable of the Sower (Earthseed #1) Octavia Butler
24. Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1) Wesley Chu
25. French Milk by Lucy Knisley
26. Six and a Half Deadly Sins (Dr. Siri Paboun #10) by Colin Cotterill
27. Revenge by Yōko Ogawa
28. Triiger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman
29. The Watchmaker of Filigree Street by Natasha Pulley
30. Battle Royale by Koushun Takami
31. Any Witch Way You Can (Wicked Witches of the Midwest #1) by Amanda M. Lee
32. Take the Monkeys and Run (Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #1) by Karen Cantwell
33. The Watcher's Daughter by C.J. Flynn
April
34. The Dig by Michael Simesen
35. Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole
36. Beautfiul People by Wendy Holden
37. Secondhand Souls (Grim Reaper #2) by Christopher Moore
38. The Ashford Affair by Lauren Willig
May
39. Miss Hargreaves by Frank Baker
40. Home Improvement: Undead Edition edited by Charlaine Harris
41. A Guide for the Perplexed by Dara Horn
42. Gretel and the Dark by Eliza Granville
43. Jana Bibi's Excellent Fortunes by Betsy Woodman
44. A Man of Character by Margaret Locke
45. A Matter of Time by Margaret Locke
46. Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld
47. Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire (see June)
48. Broken Elements by Mia Marshall
49. Chicks Kick Butt edited by Rachel Caine
June
50. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
51. Black Juice by Margo Lanagan
52. 'Tis by Frank McCourt
53. The Girl Who Leapt Through Time by Yasutaka Tsutsui
54. Hex Appeal edited by P.N. Elrod
55. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
July
56. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu
57. By The Numbers by Jen Lancaster
58. Live Fast Die Hot by Jenny Mollen
59. The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie
60. The Doll-Master and Other Stories by Joyce Carol Oates
61. Central Station by Lavie Tidhar
62. Finding Audrey by Sophie Kinsella
63. Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson
August
64. The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser
65. The Sudden Appearance of Hope by Claire North
66. The Blood of the Lamb by Peter De Vries
67. Meternity by Meghann Foye
68. Don't You Cry by Mary Kubica
September
69. What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi
70. Ways to Disappear by Idra Novey
71. Arcadia by Iain Pears
72. Killing Monica by Candace Bushnell
73. Te Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
74. Borderline by Mishell Baker
75. The Hangmed Man by P.N. Elrod
76. The Assistants by Camille Perri
77. Cancer Schmancer by Fran Drescher
78. Love, Chloe by Alessandra Torre
79. Johannes Cabal the Necromancer by Jonathan L. Howard
October
80. The O. Henry Prize Stories 2016 edited by Laura Furman
81. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton
82. Crosstalk by Connie Willis
83. The Detective (Johannes Cabal #2) by Jonathan L. Howard
84. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
85. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood
86. The Million Dollar Mermaid by Esther Williams and Digby Diehl
87. Practical Demonkeeping (Pine Cove #1) by Christopher Moore
November
88. Game of Sunken Places (Norumbegan Quartet #1) by M.T. Anderson
89. Mr. Splitfoot by Samantha Hunt
90. The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel
December (I am writing this up in March 2017, so these books are a bit fuzzy, unfortunately.)
91. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes - The Princess Bride is one of my favorite movies, so of course I loved reading Cary's memoir of the filming. He was also able to get most of the cast to participate, so it felt more like a cast memoir, in a way.
92. Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction edited by John Joseph Adams - This was a pretty long anthology, but there were a lot of new-to-me authors that I noted to remind myself to check them out further. If you want the author list, let me know and I'll see if I can dig up the paper where I wrote them down. From what I recall, the sttorie tended to fall into three camps: the world is on the verge of sucking, the world officially sucks but is not too bad yet, and Defcon Suckage - Everyone is Screwed. Needless to say, I wasn't really a fan of Defcon Suckage. I often find dystopian tales far too bleak. My favorite "genre" if you will was corporate climate fiction. XD Yes, that is a thing. One of my faves was about a company that harvested icebergs. But one of my favorite stories wasn't corporate-related but weather related...bad storms would pick up drugs somehow[Spoiler (click to open)]and if you got caught out in them, you could OD.I think that one was by Tobias Bucknell, but don't quote me on that.
93. Singletasking: Get More Done One Thing at a Time by Devora Zack - One of my goals for work (we have to do yearly goals for our performance reviews/raises) was to read/listen to a book in our online business library. I waited until the last minute, so I picked this short audiobook. I am rotten at paying attention when it comes to audiobooks, but the basic gist is that our brain is not suited to multitasking.
Goodreads said that I finished 94 books, but that doesn't match up with my LJ total. I don't feel like troubleshooting again--I accidentally counted A Long Way to a Small Angry Planet twice and it took forever to find that one, so we'll say I read 90+ books this year, which almost doubled my Goodreads 2016 goal of 50 books. I set 50 books as my goal again on Goodreads for 2017, but I think I won't be reading as many books this year due to my late start.
Favorite Book (5 stars): There are 18 that I rated with 5 stars on Goodreads in 2016, and I can't pick a favorite, so I'll stick them all behind a cut. These are not in any sort of order - it's just the order GR sorted them.
1. D.A. by Connie Willis (science fiction)
2. The Weaker Vessel by Antonia Fraser (non-fiction)
3. The Heart Goes Last by Margaret Atwood (science fiction, dystopia)
4. The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon, ursulav) (fantasy, fairy tale retelling, glbt)
5. The Princess and the Pony by Kate Beaton (beatonnabeatonna_tumblr) (children's, humor)
6. Arcadia by Iain Pears (science fiction)
7. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu (science fiction/fantasy)
8. As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales from the Making of The Princess Bride by Cary Elwes (non-fiction)
9. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie (young adult, contemporary fiction, cultural: US)
10. Crosstalk by Connie Willis (science fiction, romance)
11. Be Frank with Me by Julia Johnson Claiborne (contemporary fiction, humor)
12. Borderline (The Arcadia Project #1) by Mishell Baker (urban fantasy)
13. Time Salvager (Time Salvager #1) by Wesley Chu (science fiction, TIME TRAVEL, dystopia)
14. Every Day is for the Thief by Teju Cole (contemporary fiction, cultural: Nigeria)
15. What is Not Yours is Not Yours by Helen Oyeyemi (short stories, fantasy, magical realism)
16. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North (science fiction, TIME TRAVEL)
17. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet (Wayfarers, #1) by Becky Chambers (science fiction, space opera, glbt)
18. The Oracle Glass by Judith Merkle Riley (historical fiction, urban fantasy, cultural: France/Paris)
Least Favorite (1 or 2 stars): The High Mountains of Portugal by Yann Martel (historical fiction, magical realism, cultural: Portugal)
I rated 14 books with 2 stars in 2016 on Goodreads, but I can definitively say that Martel's book was the worst of the bunch. XD