Best Reads of 2016

Though I read a lot this year – way more than I was expecting given that I spent nine months of the year studying – it seems that I didn’t end up reading a tonne of books that I really, really liked. Only five books made it onto my Favourites shelf this year, and only a few more got five-star status. Goodreads says that my average rating this year was 3.4 stars, which sounds about right – mostly threes and fours, with a few really bad ones and twos to drag the average down slightly. The handful of books that did make it into my favourites, and my memory, deserve to be talked about here! Caveat: the year isn't over yet, and I'll probably finish four or five more books in the next week or so, but for now, this is what I'm working with. 

Favourites

The View from the Cheap Seats, Neil Gaiman

I’ve read a lot of Gaiman and I always like his fiction, but it wasn’t until I made my way through this anthology, collecting essentially every essay he has written in his career, that I realized how much I enjoy his non-fiction. From introductions to the works of others to an essay written as a young reporter about wandering around London for 24 hours, his non-fiction voice is like reading a letter from a friend. I had originally planned to read one essay at a time, then work on a fiction piece for a while, but I enjoyed the writing so much I often read several in a row. If you enjoy Gaiman’s fiction or just clever writing mostly focused on pop culture, you should give it a read!

The Obelisk Gate, NK Jemisin

This was honestly probably the best book I read this year. I read The Fifth Season, book one in the series, last year, and really enjoyed it, but felt it was a little too heavy on the world-building – so naturally I wanted to see if it paid off. It absolutely did. Jemisin’s world is robust and fascinating, with enough hints to puzzle out incredible lore but an action-packed story keeping me from taking the time to really sit and explore the ideas she’s presented. I’m already dying to read the third book in the series, and can’t wait for it to come out. In the meantime, I should probably re-read both to see what I might have missed. I can’t recommend it enough, and while TFS wasn’t quite as good, it’s well worth it to bring you into this world.

Exit, Pursued by a Bear, EK Johnston

A compact, tightly-written novel about a cheerleader who is sexually assaulted while at cheer camp, Exit was gripping and tense. Hermione is a compelling protagonist and watching the way she deals with the situations she’s been put in kept me roaring through the book. I read it in a day, since I couldn’t handle waiting for resolution.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here, Patrick Ness

I’d heard a lot about this book before picking it up, but still wasn’t expecting much, let alone to be blown away like I was. A YA novel about the “normal” kids during the events of a fantasy-skewed YA novel, it’s a great coming-of-age story that manages to blend the surreal elements of this world with some of the more surreal experiences of teenagerdom. It was really evocative of those experiences, and after reading it I felt pleasantly melancholic, reminiscing about my own teenage years and high school experiences.

salt., Nayyirah Waheed

 Am I a person who reads poetry now? I might be a person who reads poetry now. I’m not sure what to make of it, but as introductions go, salt. is a great place to start. Beautiful, poignant, and thought-provoking, I would often put the reader down and just sit with Waheed’s remarkable words, rolling them around in my mind, seeing the beauty and pain of her world. I wanted to devour her poems, and I forced myself to wait, space them out, savour them, but I still keep revisiting and thinking through them again and again. If you have any interest in poetry at all, or interest in becoming interested (it’s an ongoing project for me!) you should absolutely check it out. Her other collection, Nejma, is also worth checking out.

Miscellaneous Five-Stars:

Notorious RBG: the Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Irin Carmon & Shana Knizhnik

When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun, and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes

Nimona, Noelle Stevenson

Paper Girls, Brian K. Vaughn, Cliff Chiang, & Matthew Wilson

A Little Life, Hanya Yanagihara