The Best Book I Read This Year
Happy New Year!
I had the unoriginal idea to do a round up of the best books of the year, so here goes. I have read 77 books so far in 2016 and my 10 best and 10 worst lists are at the bottom. If you want a little more detail, you can check out my archived newsletters here (although not all of the books in this newsletter have reviews since I only started newslettering in August). I also rated all the books I read on goodreads, which you can see here.
If you want to send this newsletter to friends, you can forward it to them and they can sign up here.
Cheers to the end of 2016 and cheers to another year of escapism through fiction!
Best Old Movie I Watched This Year:
Basic Instinct (The fashions! The beach house!)
Best New Movie I Watched This Year:
Best 5 T.V. Shows I Watched This Year:
Stranger Things (Netflix)
Transparent season 3 (Amazon)
Westworld (HBO)
Girls (HBO)
The Crown (Netflix)
The book I most want to see as a movie:
The Vegetarian by Han King
Best short story:
This is a hard one, but I’m going to have to disqualify everything in the Tsar of Love and Techno because it’s not really a book of short stories. The best short story I read this year is Redeployment, from Redeployment. It’s the first story in the book, but everything else is amazing too.
Longest book:
Museum of Innocence, hands down. That thing was huge and felt like it took weeks to finish.
Funniest book:
Saddest book:
Best love story:
Shelter in Place or Fates and Furies
Most beautiful book:
Salvage the Bones and Homegoing both have the kind of writing that makes you ache.
Best (pretty much only) nonfiction:
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Best translated read:
Best wanderlust read:
There are a few here: Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I had already wanted to go to Ghana for a couple of reasons, but the description of the landscape and history sealed the deal for me. House at the Edge of the Night takes place on a fictional island off the coast of Italy and it sounds perfect. Circling the Sun gave me so much yearning to go to Kenya. After reading it I also read Out of Africa because I couldn’t get enough. (If you’re interested in reading this book, don’t forget about West with the Night, which is the autobiography version of Circling the Sun).
Best food read:
A Gentleman in Moscow. There’s this one scene with bouillabaisse that is unforgettable. The whole book feels a little bit like food for the soul, too. It’s so indulgent. I also have to mention Kitchens of the Great Midwest. It’s a series of vignettes based on ingredients and recipes and it’s so much fun to read. I highly recommend it for anybody who likes to get chefy on the weekends.
Best historical read:
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi. I cannot overstate how educational this book was while still being beautiful, thrilling, disturbing, and magical.
Scariest book:
Hunters in the Dark or The Forgiven. Both are by Lawrence Osborne.
Sexiest book:
Maestra. This book is borderline porn but a fun vacation read if you’re looking for something trashy.
Best old (older than me) book of the year:
The Color Purple by Alice Walker. I’m so embarrassed that I never read this before and I’m so happy I finally picked it up. There is a reason this book is famous.
Most overrated book of the year:
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie. Why would anybody anywhere ever even think about thinking about considering this book for the National Book Award?
Most underrated book of the year:
Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik
10 Worst Books I Read This Year:
(none of these books are linked because you shouldn’t buy them, ever, unless you need to get a Christmas present for somebody you hate.)
Divorce is in the Air by Gonzalo Torne
Losing It by Emma Rathbone
The Long Room by Francesca Kay
Belzhar by Meg Wolitzer
The Most Dangerous Place on Earth by Lindsey Lee Johnson
The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis
Jonathan Unleashed by Meg Rosoff
The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth Mckenzie
The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
10 Best Books I Read This Year:
Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra
Shelter in Place by Alexander Maksik
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews
Redeployment by Phil Klay
Tell The Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
Dept. of Speculation by Jenny Offil
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Note: if you look at my goodreads list, it looks like I read more books in 2016, but I read some in 2015 and didn’t add them to the list until 2016. The 2016 list actually starts with Fates and Furies... otherwise Fortune Smiles would have made a much bigger appearance in this newsletter.
Are there any categories I missed? What’s the best book you read in 2016 and what are you reading in 2017?