Skip to main content

Best Books of 2016




It's crazy to think about another year gone by. So many blessings and great memories made I can't even begin to wrap my head around! But there is one thing that I can keep track of, and that's this little hobby of mine called reading. So as if I could possibly name just a few (I tried!) here are my favorite books of 2016. Please let me know about your favorites in the comments below! 


All the Ugly and Wonderful Things by Bryn Greenwood- I have found that this year, I tried to steer towards topics that were out of the realm of my usual reads (family drama, starting over, women in their mid-thirties). And this is the book that really helped me break that mold. It's about so many things- but mostly, it's about what forms of love are acceptable and how the outside world really has an effect on our lives. Situations, lifestyles, who we love and who we hate- they all create circumstances that make every person's life something you have to be able to understand, even if you can't accept it. There's a young girl, a lost soul of a young man, parents who are lost on drugs and a murder. Not to mention the writing, which was astonishing-raw, honest but not in a showy way. It was amazing. This book was the winner of the Lottie Award from Book of the Month Club. 



Faithful by Alice Hoffman - This is about a young girl who survived a car crash that left her best friend in a coma. The guilt she feels and the literal pause the accident puts on her life is a heartbreaking tale. However, the growth in the characters and the self reflection made me feel hopeful. I really, really loved this book. 

All is Not Forgotten by Wendy Walker - I devoured this book. A high school girl is brutally attacked in the woods outside of a party. Told from the physcologist who is treating the girl after the attack, this viewpoint gives a very interesting outlook on the characters and their choices. There are many people at play here- the girl, her parents, who are both in messes of their own and many more outlying characters that make this story a thrilling page turner. My favorite part about this book is when I started to realize the narrator was not trustworthy in his storytelling, like he was lying right to my face about what happened to the girl. I felt like I was a part of it and it was thrilling. 


The Mothers by Brit Bennett -A book called “The Mothers” is automatically a book that gets my attention. As I age and especially as I make my journey through the various stages of life, I recognize that the one topic that strikes the biggest cord in my heart is the topic of motherhood. This one really hit home for me - mostly just because it dives into the sacrifices we make as mothers and how those choices will effect generations...  



Sweetbitter by Stephanie Danler - This is sort of a guilty pleasure read. It got a lot of buzz- a first time author who was discovered as she waited tables in New York- it's a modern day Cinderella story. Stephanie creates a world we often don't realize has such a strong pulse- the back waiters of the hottest restaurants in NYC. Who are these people and what drives them to work these crazy shifts,  follow insane schedules and rules- and what do they do with their knowledge of worldly cuisine and expensive wine? It's sophisticated but juicy, starved but hungry and such a good read.


Siracusia by Delia Ephron Two couples, a vacation in Italy, two secret affairs and one dead body. Lots of great scenes. A definite thumbs up from me. 

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid - If you didn't see my going gaga over this on Instagram, then I will say it over and over again: This is the best love story I have read in a very long time. Is it the best book of the year worthy? Probably not, because at the crux of it, it's fluff but really, I think the author writes romantic fluff in a way that is indulgent but still believable. It was simply wonderful. 




Honorable Mention:
The Flood Girls by Richard Fifield
Sound of Gravel by Wariner
The Woman in Cabin 10 by Ruth Ware
The Marriage of Opposites
Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

This year was a wonderful year for books. Around every corner, there was yet another one I couldn't wait to dive into. What were your favorite reads of 2016?

To check out allll the books I read this year, check out my Goodreads Challenge!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Book Review: The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware

Ruth Ware always delivers when it comes to interesting and layered characters. The Turn of the Key is a thrilling account of Rowan Caine's experience as a live-in nanny in a luxurious smart home unlike anything she has ever seen. This mystery is the epitome of the saying "if it's too good to be true, it probably is" because even though moving into the home of the Elincourts is an upgrade from her tiny apartment and dead-end job, it comes at a steep price. Every chapter, there is something suspicious that kept me wondering if anyone in this suspenseful book was telling the truth. Which, is obvious in the first page because Rowan is writing a letter to a lawyer, from jail, because she's being held for murder. Who is Rowan? Did she come into the Elincourt's lives for a reason? She should have known something was wrong on the day she interviewed, when one of the children warned her to never come back. With a house full of surveillance cameras and parents who ar

Historical Fiction Recommendations

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jennifer 📚 (@thats_what_she_read) on Jul 12, 2019 at 4:01pm PDT Raise your hand if you’re in the mood for a great  #historicalfiction  ! ⁣ randomhouse   #partner ⁣ } ⁣ The last HF I read was  # Montauk  by Nicola Harrison. It was a nice vacation! ⁣ ⁣ Here are the next two that are on my list: ⁣ TIME AFTER TIME By Lisa Grunwald (out now)⁣ A magical love story, inspired by the legend of a woman who vanished from Grand Central Terminal, sweeps readers from the 1920s to World War II and beyond. ⁣ On a clear December morning in 1937, at the famous gold clock in Grand Central Terminal, Joe Reynolds, a hardworking railroad man from Queens, meets a vibrant young woman who seems mysteriously out of place. Nora Lansing is a Manhattan socialite whose flapper clothing, pearl earrings, and talk of the Roaring Twenties don’t seem to match the bleak mood of Depression-era New York

Book Review: The Reckless Oath Me Made by Bryn Greenwood

When a young woman is facing an unsteady future, layered on top of a very troubled past, the last thing she has time for is the strange young man who speaks in Middle English and is always following her around. Zee ignores him just fine until her sister goes missing and everything in her life is uncertain and she has no choice but to trust Gentry Frank.  "Zee may not be a princess, but Gentry is an actual knight, complete with sword, armor and a code of honor. Two years ago the voices he hears in his head called him to be Zee's champion. Both shy and autistic, he's barely spoken to her since, but has kept watch, ready to come to her aid."  The layers of this book are peeled away one by one, making it a deeply emotional and transient novel. Zee's character is complicated- she is sharp, deeply scarred but unabashedly brazen and brave. What I loved about her most was how trusted her gut even when she didn't have solid ground to stand on. Her mother is a hoard