I can’t believe it’s that time of year again, time to look back on my year of reading. I read 78 books this year–with a lot more nonfiction than previous years. I’ve also fallen in love with Audible, after years of saying I don’t like to listen to books. Turns out I like to listen to nonfiction. Who knew?
The full list of books I read is below (note: I read them all this year, but that doesn’t mean they were published this year. I tend to be a few years behind). What were some of your favorites of 2016?
Top 10 fiction:
Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
The Gods of Second Chances by Dan Berne
In Case of Emergency by Courtney Moreno
The History of Love by Nicole Krauss (audio)
The Secret History by Donna Tartt
Euphoria by Lily King
A Fall of Marigolds by Susan Meissner
The Family Fang by Kevin Wilson
What Was Mine by Helen Klein Ross
Top 10 nonfiction:
Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear by Elizabeth Gilbert
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes and Other Lessons From the Crematory by Caitlin Doughty
After This by Claire Bidwell Smith (audio)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (audio)
An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination by Elizabeth McCracken
Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness by Susannah Cahalan
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo by Amy Schumer (audio)
Land of Enchantment by Leigh Stein (audio)
You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris (audio) (NF)
The Sound of Gravel by Ruth Wariner (audio) (NF)
Other good books:
The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (F)
The Martian by Andy Weir (audio) (F)
The Life We Bury by Allen Eskens (F)
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell (audio) (NF)
Bright Before Us by Katie Arnold-Ratliff (F)
Landfall by Ellen Urbani (F)
Missoula: Rape and the Justice System in a College Town by Jon Krakauer (audio)
Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline (F)
Last Things by Jenny Offill (F)
In Some Other World, Maybe by Shari Goldhagen (F)
Shot in the Heart by Mikal Gilmore (audio) (NF)
Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead by Sheryl Sandberg (audio) (NF)
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (F)
My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinem (audio) (NF)
The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty (F)
The Newlyweds by Nell Freudenberger (F)
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ by Giulia Enders (NF)
Carry the Sky by Kate Gray (F)
The Rules of Inheritance by Claire Bidwell Smith (audio) (NF)
My Sunshine Away by M.O. Walsh (F)
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote (audio) (NF)
The Good Girl by Mary Kubica (F)
Burying the Honeysuckle Girls by Emily Carpenter (F)
Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel (F)
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion (audio) (NF)
Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty (F)
Blue Nights by Joan Didion (audio) (NF)
Running: A Love Story by Jen A. Miller (audio) (NF)
It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini (F)
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (audio) (NF)
What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami (NF)
A Small Indiscretion by Jan Ellison (F)
Sex Object: A Memoir by Jessica Valenti (audio) (NF)
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett (audio) (F)
About What Was Lost by Jessica Berger Gross (NF)
The Vacationers by Emma Straub (F)
Missing, Presumed by Susie Steiner (audio) (F)
When Bad Things Happen to Good People by Harold S. Kushner (NF) (read this years ago as well, but counting it for 2016 too)
Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler (audio) (F)
Santorini Sunsets by Anita Hughes (F)
Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach (NF)
The Weird Sisters by Eleanor Brown (F)
Before the Fall by Noah Hawley (F)
A Hologram for the King by Dave Eggers (F)
Love Warrior by Glennon Doyle Melton (audio) (NF)
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (F)
Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn (F)
Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain by David Eagleman (audio) (NF)
The Art of Waiting by Belle Boggs (NF)
Dear Almost by Matthew Thorburn (poetry)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened by Jenny Lawson (audio) (NF)
Sharp Objects by Gillian Flynn (F)
Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (audio) (NF)
The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith (aka JK Rowling) (F)
Thanks for the Money by Joel McHale (audio) (NF)
Bad Feminist: Essays by Roxane Gay (audio) (NF)
On Living by Kerry Egan (audio) (NF)
All the Missing Girls by Megan Miranda (F)
F = Fiction
NF = Nonfiction
Thanks for calling out LANDFALL, Kim. So glad you enjoyed it! Lots of other terrific books on this list — many on my still-to-be-read, but-stacked-on-my-nightstand-in-anticipation list! Dan Berne and Kate Gray are particularly talented authors, and it delights me to see them honored here as well.
Hi, Ellen. Thanks for the comment. I really liked LANDFALL! There are so many good books out there. Would love to hear your recent favorites! Thanks, again, for reaching out!