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It's that time of year folks!

Here is the thread to post your favorite reads and the ones you detested in 2016.

The book does not have to be published in 2016, only read by you in 2016.


If you could provide a link and a few words on each book that would be great.

Here are my Best & Worst of 2016

According to my GR stats

----I gave 3 books a top rating :)

Animal Farm
The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry
The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

Of those 3 I have to say The Sixth Extinction was my #1 book read by me this year by far.

-----My worst reads were: :(

Paris for One
Sugar Blues
Longevity Now: A Comprehensive Approach to Healthy Hormones, Detoxification, Super Immunity, Reversing Calcification, and Total Rejuvenation

Of my 4 stars I would give a special shout out to:

The Hiding Place
It Can't Happen Here
Go Tell It on the Mountain
The Haunted Bookshop
The Soloist
Life After Life
Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology
A Man Called Ove
Something Must Be Done About Prince Edward County: A Family, a Virginia Town, a Civil Rights Battle

Neat that you liked Animal Farm that much. I still have 6th Extinction on my TBR but haven't gotten further. And how glad am i that i don't have any of your "worst" books on my TBR.

Seeing The Haunted Bookshop on your list made me smile. I liked that story and the people in it. Some books just do that to a person.

As i hope to finish two books before the end of the year, i'll hold off on naming any. One seems most promising. :-)

Best Reads 2016

Kafka on the Shore
And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic
One Summer: America, 1927
The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey
Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner
As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling
The Little Girl Who Fought the Great Depression: Shirley Temple and 1930s America
Not My Father's Son
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking
What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?
Nutshell
Nobody Said Not to Go: The Life, Loves, and Adventures of Emily Hahn
The Night Gardener
To the Stars

As for worst reads, I really did not have any that I could say were terrible.

Nice list, Julie !

I am glad to see The River of Doubt: Theodore Roosevelt's Darkest Journey on your list. It's on my TBR list.

Nice lists! You're making my TBR list grow.

Alias, have you read The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy? I read it before Harold Fry and (probably because of this order) it's my favorite of the two. Both were nice stories.
The Sixth Extinction is still on my TBR list. I have to make sure to read it next year.

Julie, Kafka On The Shore was a favorite of mine, too. 1Q84 is my favorite (so far) by this author. Have you read it?
I'm hoping to get Nutshell for Christmas (even if I have to buy it for myself. LOL!). Ian McEwan never disappoints, I find.

My favorite reads of 2016 are:
Six Records of a Floating Life
After the Fall, Before the Fall, During the Fall
Eurydice
The Wright Brothers
Mister Pip
A Great Reckoning (I suggest reading this series in order)
Judas: The troubling history of the renegade apostle

My least favorite reads were:
The Hypnotist
Hemingway in Love: His Own Story
Valeria's Last Stand
Frog Music
The Language of Flowers
The Couple Next Door

Petra wrote: Alias, have you read The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy? I read it before Harold Fry and (probably because of this order) it's my favorite of the two. Both were nice stories.
The Sixth Extinction is still on my TBR list. I have to make sure to read it next year."

No I haven't read the Queenie book yet. Though I plan to one day. Thanks for the reminder.

Petra, I have no doubt you will find The Sixth Extinction very interesting and also alarming.

Very interesting list, Petra. Many of the books I never heard of so I enjoyed reading the reviews and the synopsis of the books.

Petra wrote: "Nice lists! You're making my TBR list grow.

Alias, have you read The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy? I read it before Harold Fry and (probably because of this order) it's my f..."

I have not read 1Q84 but I wouldn't mind reading it. I enjoy his writing. I also want to read more McEwan.

I read a lot of good books this year, so here are the ones that were particularly excellent:

Best Reads

One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon by Tim Weiner
Ghost Soldiers: The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission by Hampton Sides
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania by Erik Larson
The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism by Doris Kearns Goodwin

Worst Reads
A Dance with the Devil: A True Story of Marriage to a Psychopath by Barbara Bentley
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs

I'm adding a number of books to my TBR. Julie, i didn't know Rod Serling's daughter wrote a book but i liked him so much. Will i change my mind about him if i read it?

I see two books i recall others listing on their favorites when they first came out. (I don't have either on my TBR, though.) Petra's Frog Music and Jill's Running with Scissors. Neither called to me but i remember thinking about adding Emma Donoghue's book because i liked her Slammerkin. Ultimately, i decided against it.

Petra, i hadn't heard of the bio on Judas but have added it. Sounds like just the sort of thing i like reading. Thanks.

madrano wrote: "I'm adding a number of books to my TBR. Julie, i didn't know Rod Serling's daughter wrote a book but i liked him so much. Will i change my mind about him if i read it?

I see two books i recall oth..."

I think you will like Rod Serling even more after reading it. He was a wonderful person and dad.

Thanks, Julie.

Jill wrote:I read a lot of good books this year, so here are the ones that were particularly excellent:

Best Reads

One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon by Tim Weiner

Thank you for this new to me title, Jill. I am adding to my list for my Presidential Challenge. (I've posted the Presidential bios I've already read in the Determination Lists & Challenges Folder.)

Jill wrote: "Worst Reads
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs..."

This is one of my least favorite books ever

Julie wrote: "Jill wrote: "Worst Reads
Running with Scissors by Augusten Burroughs..."

This is one of my least favorite books ever"

I just read your review Jill and had to chuckle at how you put autobiography in quotes. My thoughts are similar, except I referred to the characters as complete wackos instead of insane. :-)

Best reads:





I just can't decide witch one I loved most...

Worst read:

I had big expectations because it was the first book I read by Patrick Modiano, but I'll have to try another one, this was really disappointing....

Andreia, i agree with you about the first, The Book Thief. I liked it very much, as i suppose readers might be expected to do. I've taken note another, hoping i'll see it in English--Piano Cemetery. It sounds like the sort of novel i would enjoy. The Yourcenar Marguerite book sounds intriguing, too. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for sharing, Andreia.

I was waiting to post this list in case I had any last-minute additions, but I highly doubt any of the three I'm currently reading will end up on it. So I'll go ahead and post:

Best reads for 2016:
When Breath Becomes Air
On Hallowed Ground: The Story of Arlington National Cemetery
Kitchens of the Great Midwest
The Post-Birthday World
The Plot Against America
Outliers: The Story of Success
The Sweet Hereafter
The Brothers K
The Tsar of Love and Techno

Worst reads for 2016:
Accelerated
The Vacationers
The Secret Chord
Unfamiliar Fishes

Two on your best of list are on mine To Read list.

I actually have When Breath Becomes Air out from the library. I have to get moving on reading it before it's due back.

I have heard great things about the Russel Banks book. It was a big hit when this group was on AOL. I own it but have not read it.

I'm glad to see I don't have any of your worst on my To Read list. :)

The J. Ryan Stradal novel sounds good. The title--Kitchens? Midwest?--meant i had to check out what the subject really was. Sounds good, so thanks for the title, Amy.

Time for my best and worst reads for 206 list.

Best reads:

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King - this one is number one on my best reads list :)
The Score by Elle Kennedy
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata
The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
Paper Princess by Erin Watt
The Goldsmith's Treasure by August Šenoa
Kći Lotrščaka by Marija Jurić Zagorka
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn
O judima, o beštijama, o guštima, o spizi by Vedran Bađun


Worst reads:

Story of O by Pauline Réage
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
History of Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt by Jacob Abbott
O Zagrebu by Gjuro Szabo
Moses, Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston

Samanta wrote: "Time for my best and worst reads for 206 list.

Best reads:

Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America by Gilbert King..."

Thank for sharing Samanta !

I am definitely putting Devil in the Grove on my TBR list. How I missed this 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction I don't know. It looks fascinating.

Devil in the Grove is the winner of the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction.

Arguably the most important American lawyer of the twentieth century, Thurgood Marshall was on the verge of bringing the landmark suit Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court when he became embroiled in an explosive and deadly case that threatened to change the course of the civil rights movement and cost him his life.

In 1949, Florida’s orange industry was booming, and citrus barons got rich on the backs of cheap Jim Crow labor. To maintain order and profits, they turned to Willis V. McCall, a violent sheriff who ruled Lake County with murderous resolve. When a white seventeen-year-old Groveland girl cried rape, McCall was fast on the trail of four young blacks who dared to envision a future for themselves beyond the citrus groves. By day’s end, the Ku Klux Klan had rolled into town, burning the homes of blacks to the ground and chasing hundreds into the swamps, hell-bent on lynching the young men who came to be known as “the Groveland Boys.��

And so began the chain of events that would bring Thurgood Marshall, the man known as “Mr. Civil Rights,�� into the deadly fray. Associates thought it was suicidal for him to wade into the “Florida Terror�� at a time when he was irreplaceable to the burgeoning civil rights movement, but the lawyer would not shrink from the fight—not after the Klan had murdered one of Marshall’s NAACP associates involved with the case and Marshall had endured continual threats that he would be next.

Drawing on a wealth of never-before-published material, including the FBI’s unredacted Groveland case files, as well as unprecedented access to the NAACP’s Legal Defense Fund files, King shines new light on this remarkable civil rights crusader, setting his rich and driving narrative against the heroic backdrop of a case that U.S. Supreme Court justice Robert Jackson decried as “one of the best examples of one of the worst menaces to American justice.��

It's a wonderful book, but one that will shock you many times before the end. Many times I had to stop reading after only one chapter.

Re:Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America

I was thinking of maybe suggesting it for my library group but I see they don't have enough copies. Oh well. I can still read it on my own and mention it to the others if they are also interested in reading it on their own.

It's odd and also sad that the book is a Pulitzer winner and my library only has 4 copies but they will have 100 copies of some pop thriller author.

It's always like that. Non-fiction is not everybody's cup of tea, while fiction generally is.

I read it for a group read, and I was surprised to find it in my local library in Croatia, in English.

Some books I liked:

This Is Your Brain on Parasites: How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society

Alfred Hitchcock

Breaking Cat News: Cats Reporting on the News that Matters to Cats (very funny)

The Whole Art of Detection: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes

The Book of Joe

Born a Crime

Cixin Liu's Sci-fi Trilogy:
The Three-Body Problem
The Dark Forest
Death's End

Star Trek Memories (because I'm a fan)
Star Trek Movie Memories (ditto above)

I didn't like too much:

RED 123

Nice list, Barbara ! Good to see you had a lot of awesome reads in 2016.

Samanta, thanks for the Marshall book title. It sounds powerful & i look forward to reading it. This is the best reason for us to share our lists--the new titles we learn. And, Alias, thanks for sharing the article about the book.

Barbara, i like seeing the Liu trilogy on your list. One of my goals is to complete the series this year.

BEST NONFICTION I READ IN 2016 are the following:

Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women's Lives by my own daughter, Autumn Whitefield-Madrano. I value learning from my nonfiction and i learned quite a bit from it, including how i don't read statistics well...or, rather, i think i take them at face value, without reading into them what additionally can be learned.

The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts byJoshua Hammer. Again, i learned quite a bit about the rich Islamic literature hidden from authorities over the centuries in Africa. And i ended up better understanding the confusion that is fundamentalism in the Muslim faith. And, let's face it, any book about books will sing to me. :-)

President James Buchanan: A Biography by Philip Shriver Klein was written the way i like biographies to be written, chronologically, and with a full discussion of events.

They Can't Kill Us All: Ferguson, Baltimore, and a New Era in America’s Racial Justice Movement by Wesley Lowery. The recent history, particularly of the Black Lives Matter movement, of racial relations was informative. It was also informative to learn how much social media plays in a reporter's life today. Welcome? I'm not sure, but they are probably grateful for it.

Cleopatra's Needles: The Lost Obelisks of Egypt by Bob Brier. Fun li'l book about what happened to all the known obelisks from ancient Egypt. The science of moving them was most fascinating.

BEST FICTION I READ IN 2016 follows:

Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee. She wrote well about the south and the sensations of living in a small, outdoor community. The story was a good one but it was her writing which excelled.

Peace Like a River by Leif Enger. Beautifully written. I am late to this one but it was incredibly well presented. My nephew (14) was the one who suggested it to me.

The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin. When i began it, i didn't know it was the first part of a trilogy. This was a wonder of a book & the translation seemed spot-on. Looking forward to the rest in the series but, for me, it took time to read & understand, so i gave myself a break from reading the others.


MY PERSONAL WORST READ BOOKS OF 2016 follow:

To be fair, i imagine the worst would be the ones i didn't finish & do not intend to (as opposed to those abandoned with the intent to read them when my mind is better-prepared). In the totally abandoned category was The Desire Map by Danielle LaPorte. It's the usual issue i have with self-help books, they spend way too much time telling me why i need it & what it will do. By the time they get around to the plan, i'm bored, rather than inspired.

THE COMPLETED WORST--
VALIS by Philip K. Dick. Possible in another time of my life i would have liked this one. However, the prose seemed mangled and the story confusing. This, too, is apparently part of a series. Pass. It includes riffs on gnostic christianity, which i find interesting usually but was boring here, and the MC by the name of Horselover Fat.

Death by Coffee by Alex Erickson. For some reason i was looking for a new and fun mystery. This was new but awful. The new-to-town main character kept admitting she was being a busy-body but her reasons were feeble. And there were inconsistencies with the plot and actions, to boot. Can't believe there was a follow-up, this time "by Tea"!

madrano wrote: "BEST NONFICTION I READ IN 2016 are the following:

Face Value: The Hidden Ways Beauty Shapes Women's Lives by my own daughter, Autumn Whitefield-Madrano. I value l..."

A BIG congratulations again to Autumn. It's an awesome accomplishment to be a publish author.

The Buchanan book will absolutely be on my presidential To Read list. Thanks for the heads up on this one as I don't have another Buchanan book in mind.

Peace Like a River was a big hit when this board was on the AOL community message boards. I read it at the time and enjoyed it.

I am going to see if my library group would like to select
The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World’s Most Precious Manuscripts byJoshua Hammer for one of our group reads.

As always, thanks for sharing and all that you do here to make BNC a success. (((deb)))

Loathed: and both god-awful books. "Eve" -- the author is having a passionate love affair with her own florid prose and has little concept of how to get to a point. "Missing" purports to be about the murder of the author's sister, a sister who actually occupied what? -- 10 percent of the book? and the rest was just so much literary omphaloskepsis, metaphorically speaking of course.

Excellent: , , , , , , and

Jennifer wrote: and the rest was just so much literary omphaloskepsis, metaphorically speaking of course

Jennifer, you are the best ! I never heard of the word omphaloskepsis. What a great word.

For those that want to see how to pronounce it


I am so glad to see Columbine on your best of list. I thought the book was excellent.

I see omphaloskepsis is in the bottom 30% of words used. Thanks for the intro to the word, Jennifer. Glad to learn that Erik Larson's most recent is a good one, too. (Or is it his latest? I see it came out in '15.)

Alias, thanks for the compliment. This group is a valued one, the only one i visit daily. Thanks for coordinating it all.

My Top Fiction

1. Everfair by Nisi Shawl (steampunk Congo)
2.The Book of Esther by Emily Barton (WWII alternate history fantasy)
3. The Eagle Tree by Ned Hayes (YA contemporary eco-fiction)
4. Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (alternate history dystopia)

Top Non-Fiction

Honorary White by E.R. Braithwaite (memoir)

omphaloskepsis ..... I love this word :)

:-)

madrano wrote: "Andreia, i agree with you about the first, The Book Thief. I liked it very much, as i suppose readers might be expected to do. I've taken note another, hoping i'll see it in English--P..."

Hello Madrano, thanks for the comment :)

I think there's an English version of José Luis Peixoto's novel: The Piano Cemetery.

Like by Ali Smith is really nice, too.

Shomeret wrote: Honorary White by E.R. Braithwaite (memoir)."

I loved the authors To Sir With Love. I have seen the movie countless times.

Alias Reader wrote: "Shomeret wrote: Honorary White by E.R. Braithwaite (memoir)."

I loved the authors To Sir With Love. I have seen the movie countless times."

In Honorary White, which is a memoir of Braithwaite's trip to apartheid South Africa, I learned that the movie version of To Sir With Love was censored so severely that you couldn't follow the plot. Some people told Braithwaite that they had seen the entire movie which was being secretly passed around.

How interesting about Braithwaite's South African fans of the film. It's curious they would even offer a censored version, imo. What an underground.

Shomeret, thanks for the title by Winters. I'm adding it to my TBR. The title is great.

omphaloskepsis - what a fun word! My dad talks about "contemplating his navel" on vacation all the time. ha. I bet he'll appreciate this one as well.

Emma wrote: "omphaloskepsis - what a fun word! My dad talks about "contemplating his navel" on vacation all the time. ha. I bet he'll appreciate this one as well."

Bet he'll be surprised to learn the practice actually has a name. :-)

True, Jennifer. I know i was...not that i contemplate my navel much.

It's interesting that Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card is in graphic novel form. It's a good book but i'm guessing that new form might make a curious difference. Jade, was Ender in Exile in graphic form? Do you think that would have made a difference in it's rating? I haven't read it.

And i see there are a number of books titled Journey to the Center of the Earth. The only one i knew before looking it up today is the one written by Jules Verne. Is that the one you read & disliked?

Ashley, i can tell you why i wouldn't start with As I Lay Dying for my first novel by William Faulkner--it's not easy to read. I read it first because it was short, so i figured it would give me a taste of his writing. Nope, it only turned me off. It must have been 5 years later that i tried another of his and really liked it. I tried yet another & another, so much did i like him. However, As I Lay is still a challenge, although i can appreciate it better now.

Jade wrote: "I completed 90 books, and abandoned 23 in 2016.
The Best 5:
-The Sandman: Prelude & Noctures Graphic Novel
-The Book Thief
-The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
-Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
-En..."

Welcome and thanks for sharing, Jade !

Ashley wrote:Side question: how do I attach a proper GR link for book titles/authors like most do in the above posts?..."

Click on Reply

Right above the box you are typing in you will see the words
Add Book/ Author
Click on that.
Type the name of the book or ISBN
on the bottom of that pop up box you will see
Link and cover
select which you want
Repeat the process for Author

Hope this helps. You will get the hang of it quickly.
Any question don't hesitate to ask.

Also our main page which lists all our folders/threads,
towards the bottom is a Folder titled--- Questions about GoodReads & BNC And a Thread titled ----Q&A about ŷ������

You can read that to also help answer some of your questions.
We started that thread years ago when we started this board
and people had a ton of questions. GoodReads doesn't really explain things you have to mostly do trial and error.

Above the comment box there is a link that says add book/author. Click on that and choose book or author. That will give you links for titles and authors.