What were your favorite books of 2016?

[bfisher]

My favourites for 2016 were:
The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt's New World - Andrea Wulf
Babette's Feast - Isak Dinesen
Empire of Cotton: A Global History by Sven Beckert
If This Is A Man by Primo Levi
The Reawakening by Primo Levi
The German War: A Nation Under Arms - Nicholas Stargardt
Ravens in Winter - Bernd Heinrich
The Valley: A Hundred Years in the Life of a Family - Richard Benson
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh
Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America - T.J. Stiles
Into the Blizzard - Michael Winter
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

[issybird]

Originally Posted by bfisher

Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
The Loved One - Evelyn Waugh

They were five-star reads for me in 2016. (I didn't include rereads on my list.)

[astrangerhere]

Originally Posted by bfisher

My favourites for 2016 were:
The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks
Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

Hooray Shepherd's Life!

Also, Bel Canto was in my top 10 the year I read it (2010).

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

They were five-star reads for me in 2016. (I didn't include rereads on my list.)

I read The Loved One when I was 13; I liked it then, but I am more impressed with Waugh 50 years on - such savage wit, but his prose is so good.

For some reason, I got this far without ever having read Heart of Darkness. Now that I have finally read it, I expect to be going back to it again.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

Hooray Shepherd's Life!

Also, Bel Canto was in my top 10 the year I read it (2010).

After reading Rebank's book, I also read A Shepherd's Life by W.H. Hudson - published in 1910, but mainly stories he got from a very old shepherd in Wiltshire, so really about pre-industrial rural life. The thing I liked best about Rebank's book was the linkage with a way of life that has vanished for most people in the developed world. Hudson's book was a reminder of the downside of that life for most people.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by astrangerhere

3. H is for Hawk - MacDonald, Helen
4. The Shepherd's Life - Rebanks, James

H is for Hawk was one of my favourites for 2015. It inspired me to read The Goshawk by T.H. White (and putting The Once and Future King on my TBR )

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

I only read one book published in 2016, The Romanovs 1613-1918, by Simon Sebag Montefiore, and it made my ten best list.

I have that on my TBR - must try to get to it this year

I read Flashman back in the day - enjoyed it tremendously. It's fairly accurate in the background, too. I read William Dalrymple's Return of A King recently, which also gives something of the Afghan view.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by bfisher

I have that on my TBR - must try to get to it this year

I read Flashman back in the day - enjoyed it tremendously. It's fairly accurate in the background, too. I read William Dalrymple's Return of A King recently, which also gives something of the Afghan view.

And that one is on my TBR. Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East was a four-star read for me in 2015.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

And that one is on my TBR. Dalrymple's From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East was a four-star read for me in 2015.

I've been meaning to read that for a while; must move it up.

[taosaur]

I started Seveneves in 2016 and finished it today, and found it a bit uneven, but with more than enough great ideas to net four stars. I thoroughly enjoyed Stephenson's Barock Cycle in 2016, though, and that was probably my best read of the year.

Some good random finds last year: the Temeraire series and We Are Legion (We Are Bob) were both great fun.

Of the new entries in series I was already reading, Bands of Mourning was the best. I hadn't much liked the previous entry in that series after loving Alloy of Steel, so it was nice to have BoM pull me back into the Mist-o-verse. Calamity didn't do much for me (a crawling city of salt? I guess it's more compelling if you're from Utah), leaving Firefight the only Reckoners book I much liked. The new Foreigner book was fine, but not a standout.

The Fifth Season was fascinating, but I think I'll need more of the series to make a call. It seemed more a long prologue than a story unto itself. Another honorable mention to Use of Weapons. I finally read a Culture novel last year, and I have Consider Phlebas queued up next on my Kindle.

On the stinkpile, The Aeronaut's Windlass fell entirely flat for me. More Dresden please, Mr. Butcher.

[sun surfer]

I didn't read much in 2016, and of what I read I had plenty mediocre books. 10 of the 13 books I read were 2 or 3 stars.

Of the three left, only one was 5 stars - The Death of Ivan Ilych by Leo Tolstoy. Highly recommended and much, much shorter than War and Peace or Anna Karenina.

The two 4 star books were Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami and The Turn of the Screw by Henry James.

[taosaur]

I suppose honorable mention to my old teacher's Pulitzer-winner, All the Light We Cannot See, too. Can I honestly give it more than three stars... I don't know, but I'm perfectly glad to have read it. "Bittersweet WWII romance with magical realist elements" seems like a cover blurb you'd find on several dozen novels, but I doubt there's a bittersweet WWII romance with magical realist elements I would have liked better. Strong echoes of Calvino's Invisible Cities (Tony introduced me to Calvino's work in college), but on the whole he's taking a light touch with the magical and leaning more heavily on the realism.

[BenG]

Player of Games by Iain M. Banks
H.M.S. Surprise by Patrick O'Brian
Ancillary Sword and Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss
All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders
The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker
Something New and Leave It to Psmith by P.G. Wodehouse

[sun surfer]

Originally Posted by issybird

Thérèse Desqueyroux, by François Mauriac
Appointment in Samarra, by John O'Hara

I'm glad you liked both of these so much; as usual you got to them before I ever did!

Originally Posted by bfisher

Babette's Feast - Isak Dinesen

We both read this so close in time, yet so far away. In a year, this one will be on my 2017 list!

Originally Posted by BenG

The Name of the Wind and Wise Man's Fear by Patrick Rothfuss

I adore The Name of the Wind but at this rate I'm starting to think Rothfuss is going to be worse than Martin at finishing his series! At least Martin's managed to put out 5+ books so far.

[BenG]

Babette's Feast - Isak Dinesen

One of my favorites.
I suppose I overlooked it because it was a re-read.