What were your favorite books of 2016?

[ElspethB]

Originally Posted by BenG

The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wecker

This was on my best of 2015 list. I didn't read it but listened to the audiobook read by George Guidall and thought it was excellent.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by BenG

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

I liked Babette's Feast so much that I've picked up Out of Africa and Winter Tales. I'm hoping to get to at least one of them this year.

[BenG]

I liked Out of Africa but was amused that she hardly mentioned her husband (who gave her syphilis ). You would think she was alone on the coffee plantation.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by BenG

I liked Out of Africa but was amused that she hardly mentioned her husband (who gave her syphilis ). You would think she was alone on the coffee plantation.

A worthwhile companion to Out of Africa is Judith Thurman's biography of Dinesen. It's well-written and interesting on its own merits and it's fascinating to find out the real story behind the tales transmuted by art and ego as rendered by Dinesen.

[bfisher]

Originally Posted by issybird

A worthwhile companion to Out of Africa is Judith Thurman's biography of Dinesen. It's well-written and interesting on its own merits and it's fascinating to find out the real story behind the tales transmuted by art and ego as rendered by Dinesen.

Thanks, issybird. I see that the Ottawa library has two paper copies, which by the hold list seem to be still popular for a 1982 publication. I'm looking forward to reading more Dinesen, and knowing the back story.

[AndrewMowere]

I think my favorite was "Thralldoms: The Soul Collectors" by Amanuesis Sharkchild. He uses long words but I was lucky to use amazon's online reader, which has a dictionary built in. Oh, but I also had the pleasure of reading "The Gunslinger" for the first time. Certainly a masterpiece, but it struck fewer of my personal buttons than the aforementioned book.

[LucyOne]

I had a couple of five-star books last year.

My favourite non-fiction books were the following:
The Cigarette Century by Allan M. Brandt, a thoroughly researched and very detailed history of the cigarette and the tobacco industry
Grunt by Mary Roach, about the science of humans at war. Not necessarily a topic I would choose to read about, but I just love Mary Roach's writing.
And my last book of 2016: The Case against Sugar by Gary Taubes, which clearly illustrates how similar the stories of tobacco and sugar are.

In fiction I especially enjoyed two books by Mary Kubica, Pretty Baby and Don't You Cry. Psychological thrillers told in different points of view with excellent twists and turns.

A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers by Xiaolu Guo was a book I discovered by accident. It's a love story between two cultures and you get a great insight into Chinese mentality.

[Eagerkid]

One of my favorite books were " Zero to One" it is a business book by one of the co founders of PayPal

[rawling]

Primo Levi - If This Is A Man