Sunday, January 1, 2017

Review of 2016 reading with favorites listed and statistics

Happy New Year 2017!  It is time for both my favorite books read in 2016 and some statistics for last year.  First, my top 17 books!


Plainsong-Kent Haruf
The Revenant-Michael Punke
Big Magic-Elizabeth Gilbert
Eventide-Kent Haruf: very good
The Signature of All Things-Elizabeth Gilbert
Memory-Philippi Grimbert
Benediction-Kent Haruf
My Name Is Lucy Barton-Elizabeth Strout
The Green Road-Anne Enright
Always outnumbered, always outgunned-Walter Mosley
These is my Words-Nancy Turner
Fates and Furies-Lauren Groff
The Underground Railroad-Colson Whitehead
Wintering-Peter Geye
Safe From the Sea-Peter Geye
The Lighthouse Road-Peter Geye
To Kill A Mockingbird-Harper Lee


Now, of course, I need to narrow this list down First of all, I have two clumps of books by the same authors, so they will be counted as only two books, instead of six.  Also, I had re-read To Kill A Mockingbird last month, and since it is always my number one book, it is out of the running!


So now to narrow this list to my top 8:


Plainsong-Kent Haruf
Eventide-Kent Haruf
Benediction-Kent Haruf
The Signature of All Things-Elizabeth Gilbert
Memory-Philippi Grimbert
My Name Is Lucy Barton-Elizabeth Strout
The Green Road-Anne Enright
Fates and Furies-Lauren Groff
The Underground Railroad-Colson Whitehead
Wintering-Peter Geye
Safe From the Sea-Peter Geye
The Lighthouse Road-Peter Geye


As much as I really loved the six books that I have clumped together, I am taking them out for the next round.  But make no mistake, I really loved those books!


Top 6 books of 2016 that I read:


The Signature of All Things-Elizabeth Gilbert
Memory-Philippi Grimbert
My Name Is Lucy Barton-Elizabeth Strout
The Green Road-Anne Enright
Fates and Furies-Lauren Groff
The Underground Railroad-Colson Whitehead


I love that four of the six are written by women.  But now the narrowing down continues:


My top 3 books:


Memory-Philippi Grimbert
My Name Is Lucy Barton-Elizabeth Strout
The Green Road-Anne Enright


And my favorite book read in 2016:


Memory by Philippi Grimbert


It is interesting that two of the top three are older books that I came across on my bookshelf while looking for something to read.  I had read them long enough ago that I did not remember them, so it was fun to re-read them and again remember why I had kept them all this time!


Statistics: I read 72 books in 2016, and 18 of them were non-fiction.  I am sure that the non-fiction number is my highest ever, so I am pleased with that! Of course, I want to go over my 72 read this year, so I am thinking that I need more beach time for reading!!!

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