Books Read (and Listened to) in 2016

I read just about the same number of books as last year.  I read 100 this year versus 108 in 2015.  I didn’t come close to knocking out my Read-Every-Newbery-Award-Book challenge, but that’s okay.  I am reading my 19^th book on the list.  Oh, so often things take longer than I expect.  I am a time optimist like that.  Also, I kept getting distracted with other books to read.  Val and Hannah sucked me into that Girl With the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, for example. 

Same as every year it took some doing to come up with my top ten list.  When I looked back over my total record for the year some books immediately jumped to mind.  It becomes harder and hard as I narrow titles down for the last few slots.  I’ve read a lot of swell books again this year on a myriad of topics, fiction and non-fiction.  As tends to be the case, most of my top ten are non-fiction, but that kind of compelling, page-turning, narrative non-fiction—nothing dry and boring.  Cliché though it may be:  Truth really is stranger than fiction.  Thus far, none of the Newbery books are contenders for the top ten list.  Maybe next year.

Beth’s Top Ten Books of 2016 (in no particular order)

• The Big Sky Series by A.B. Guthrie (I am "cheating" and lump all these together as one)
• Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton
• Zoobiquity by Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D. & Kathryn Bowers
• The Meaning of Everything by Simon Winchester
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
• Green Metropolis by David Owen
• The Notorious Benedict Arnold Steve Sheinkin
• Newspaper Blackout by Austin Kleon
• Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything by Steven Levitt

Annual Stats

Number of young adult or children's books:   26

Number of adult books:  20

Number of audiobooks (both adult and YA/children):  54

100 Total Books (compared with 108 total books for 2015)

Below is the full list of books I read in 2016.  So many good books, so little time.  The books are listed in reverse order with the most recent at the top of the list.

Photo credit to Kris Prinzing.

Books Read (and Listened To) in 2016. * indicates an audiobook

• Freakonomics: A Rouge Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything (Steven Levitt)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander (J.K. Rowling)
• Dreams of Joy (Lisa See)
• Shanghi Girls (Lisa See)*
• Mr. Lincoln's High-Tech War: How the North Used the Telegraph, Railroads, Surveillance Balloons, Iron-Clads, High-Powered Weapons and More to Win the Civil War (Thomas B. Allen, Roger Macbride Allen)*
• Thimbleberry Summer by Elizabeth Enright
• The White Stag by Kate Seredy
• Roller Skates by Ruth Sawyer
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower (Stephen Chbosky)*
• A Confederacy of Dunces (John Kennedy Toole)*

• Confessions of a Sociopath: A Life Spent Hiding in Plain Sight (M.E. Thomas)*
• Caddie Woodlawn (Carol Ryrie Brink)
• A Crack in the Edge of the World: America and the Great California Earthquake of 1906 (Simon Winchester)*
• My Heart is an Idiot: Essays (Davy Rothbart)*
• Dobry by Monica Shannon
• The History of the Devil (Clive Barker)*
• Road Rage (Stephen King, Richard Matheson, & Joe Hill)*
• Rotters (Daniel Kraus)*
• The Autobiography of Foudini M. Cat (Susan Fromberg Schaeffer)
• Invincible Louisa: The Story of the Author of Little Women (Cornelia Meigs)

• Dog On It (Peter Abrahams)
• The Big Green Book (Robert Graves & Maurice Sendak)
• Young Fu of the Upper Yangtze (Elizabeth Foreman Lewis)
• The Book With No Pictures (B.J. Novak)
• Deadline (Mira Grant)*
• Drawn: The Art of Ascent (Jeremy Collins)
• Feed (Mira Grant)*
• Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses (Claire Dederer)*
• Fair Land, Fair Land (A.B. Guthrie, Jr.)
• These Thousand Hills (A.B. Guthrie, Jr.)*
• Waterless Mountain (Laura Adams Armer)

• Pancakes, Pancakes! (Eric Carme)
• The Berenstain Bears and Too Much Junk Food (Stan & Jan Berenstain)
• The Berenstain Bears Get the Gimmies (Stan & Jan Berenstain)
• The Way West (A.B. Guthrie, Jr.)*
• The Big Sky (A.B. Guthrie, Jr.)*
• The Cat Who Went to Heaven (Elizabeth Coatsworth)
• The Bell Jar (Sylvia Plath)
• Fasting Girls: The History of Anorexia Nervosa (Joan Jacobs Brumberg)
• Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (Tom Robins)*
• Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (Rachel Field)

• Sh*t My Dad Says (Justin Halpern)*
• Impulse (Ellen Hopkins)*
• The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life and Business (Charles Duhigg)*
• A Clearing in the Wild (Jane Kirkpatrick)*
• The Accident Season (Moira Fowley-Doyle)*
• Around the World on Two Wheels: Annie Londonderry's Extraordinary Ride (Peter Zheutlin)*
• 29 Gifts: How a Month of Giving Can Change Your Life (Cami Walker)*
• A Tendering in the Storm (Jane Kirkpatrick)*
• The Chosen One (Carol Lynch Williams)*
• The Trumpeter of Krakow (Eric Kelly & Janina Domanska)

• What Are You Hungry For?: The Chopra Solution to Permanent Weight Loss, Well-Being, and Lightness of Soul (Deepak Chopra)*
• Green Metropolis: Why Living Smaller, Living Closer, and Driving Less are the Keys to Sustainability (David Owen)*
• Flesh and Blood So Cheap: The Triangle Fire and Its Legacy (Albert Marrin)*
• Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon (Dhan Gopal Mukerji)
• Deep Down Dark: The Untold Stories of 33 Men Buried in a Chilean Mine, and the Miracle That Set Them Free (Hector Tobar)*
• Thirteen Reasons Why (Jay Asher)*
• I Have Lived a Thousand Years: Growing Up in the Holocaust (Livia Bitton-Jackson)*
• The More of Less: Finding the Life You Want Under Everything You Own (Joshua Becker)
• The Last Book in the Universe (Rodman Philbrick)*
• Loud Awake and Lost (Adele Griffin)*

• Smoky the Cowhorse (Will James)
• Cold War in a Cold Land: Fighting Communism on the Northern Plains (David Mills)
• The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary (Simon Winchester)*
• Mr. and Mrs. Doctor (Julie Iromuanya)
• Jeff Bridges: Poems (Donora Hilard & Goodloe Bryon)
• The Patron Saint of Used Cars and Second Chances: A Memoir (Mark Milhone)*
• In the Kingdom of Men (Kim Barnes)*
• Birdie (Tracey Lindberg)
• Revived (Cat Patrick)*
• Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation (Edward Deci & Richard Flaste)

• The War to End All Wars: World War I (Russell Freedman)*
• The Lucy Variations (Sara Zarr)*
• Humans of New York (Brandon Stanton)
• This is Your Brain on Sports: The Science of Underdogs, the Value of Rivalry, and What We Can Learn From the T-Shirt Cannon (L. Jon Wertheim & Sam Sommers)
• Imperfect: An Improbable Life (Jim Abbott & Tim Brown)*
• The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism, and Treachery (Steve Sheinkin)*
• Sweethearts (Sara Zarr)*
• Skinny (Donna Cooner)*
• We Should All Be Feminists (Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie)
• Zoobiquity: The Astonishing Connection Between Human and Animal Health (Barbara Natterson-Horowitz, M.D. & Kathryn Bowers)*

• Shen of the Sea (Arthur Bowie Christman)
• Newspaper Blackout (Austin Kleon)
• The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest (Stieg Larsson)*
• Tales From Silver Lands (Charles Finger)
• The Girl Who Played With Fire (Stieg Larsson)
• French Women Don't Get Fat: The Secret of Eating for Pleasure (Mireille Guiliano)*
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
• The Dark Frigate (Charles Boardman Hawes)
• The Girl on the Train (Paula Hawkins)*
• Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation (Bill Nye)*

• Revenge of the Whale: The True Story of the Whaleship Essex (Nathaniel Philbrick)*
• Milkweed (Jerry Spinelli)*
• Dear Husband,: Stories (Joyce Carol Oates)*
• The Story of Mankind (Hendrik Van Loon)
• The Voyages of Dr. Dotlittle (Hugh Lofting)*
• Hallucinations (Oliver Sacks)*
• How I Live Now (Meg Rosoff)*
• The Snow Tree (Caroline Repchuk & Josephine Martin)
• What Pet Should I Get? (Dr. Seuss)
• Horton and the Kwuggerbug and Other Lost Stories (Dr. Seuss)

For 2017 my reading objectives are to carry on with the Newbery Award winners, to participate in Summer Reading at the Public Library, and to be a preliminary judge for books nominated for the High Plains Book Awards again, if asked.

All photos from my lovely, two week, Holiday Break.  Sledding, games, parties, friends, family, music, food, music, dancing, Father Christmas, gingerbread houses, snow, and more good cheer than I could shake a stick at.