Books I read in 2016

Here's a visual of the books I read in 2016.  The covers are arranged strangely due to my lack of skill at fixing a bad cut and paste job :).  Scroll down to the bottom for my favorites.

MY 2016 BOOKS

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This is my annual blog post reviewing books I read last year.  If you're interested in learning more about any of the books pictured above, here is a link where you can click on any of the covers and get more information.  And here are the "best of" picks:

Funniest:  "One More Thing:  Stories and Other Stories" by B.J. Novak

Truest to life:  "Shattered Prayers" by Kenny Ching

Highly, highly recommended devotional:  "The Songs of Jesus" by Tim Keller

Book from my childhood that best stood the test of time:  "Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott

Most useless book of the year (so glad a potty training manual didn't take this award for the third year in a row!!!):  "Dog Training Handbook:  A 10 Week Training Course"

Best fiction:  In a nice turnaround from last year, I enjoyed every fiction book I read this year, so it was hard to narrow it down to a top 5 - but here they are (in random order):

• "A Little Life" by Hanya Yanagihara (this was my favorite book of the year)
• "The One in a Million Boy" by Monica Wood
• "Eligible" by Curtis Sittenfield
• "The Martian" by Andy Weir
• "Modern Lovers" by Emma Straub

Best nonfiction (also in random order):

• "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" by Sam Quinones
• "Amusing Ourselves to Death" by Neil Postman
• "Shattered Prayers" by Kenny Ching
• "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond
• "When Breath Becomes Air" by Paul Kalanithi

The reading theme that stuck with me this year is that books, both fiction and non-fiction, are such a good way to learn about subcultures other than your own.  Not nearly as good as friendship, or actually living the other's experience, but definitely an easy and helpful first step.  Here are books I read this year that gave me a glimpse of subcultures that have been in the news and that are different than mine:

• "LaRose" by Louise Erdrich (takes place in North Dakota, main characters are Native American, so helpful in understanding some of the dynamics with the North Dakota Access Pipeline)
• "Between the World and Me" by Ta Nehisi-Coates (helpful in understanding the perspective of a young black male and some of the motivation behind Black Lives Matter)
• "Hillbilly Elegy" by J.D. Vance (helpful in understanding white Appalachian culture, one of the groups credited with helping elect Donald Trump as president).
• "Dreamland:  The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic" by Sam Quinones (helpful in understanding the prescription pill epidemic and how it's ravaging Rust Belt and Appalachian towns - again with the Donald Trump voters)
• "Evicted" by Matthew Desmond (helpful in understanding both poor white people who struggle with keeping housing and poor people of color who struggle with housing, and goes a little bit into how their situations are different and how each group feels about that).
• "Enough:  Why the World's Poorest Starve in an Age of Plenty" by Roger Thurow and Scott Kilman (helpful for learning about world hunger)

What books have you read recently that you loved?