Monday, January 09, 2017

Some Books We Read in 2016


The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, Rachel Joyce
A Man Called Ove, Fredrik Backman
Betsy was a Junior, Maud Hart Lovelace 
The Pretend Wife, Bridget Asher
Essentialism, Greg McKeown
In This House of Brede, Rumer Godden
Yes, Please, Amy Poehler
Bossy Pants, Tina Fey
Little Men, Louisa May Alcott
Jo's Boys, Louisa May Alcott
Driving Hungry, Layne Mosler 
Between Shades of Gray, Ruta Sepetys
Still Life, Louise Penny
One Plus One, JoJo Moyes
Prisoner B-3087, Alan Gratz
Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling
Betsy and Joe, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Power of Vulnerability,  Brene Brown (Audible)
What Alice Forgot, Liane Moriarty
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller, Jr.
Hannah Coulter, Wendell Berry
Nest, Esther Erhlich
The Madwoman Upstairs, Catherine Lowell
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Jack Thorne
The Awakening of Miss Prim, Natalia San Martin Fenollera
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, J.K. Rowling
Betsy and the Great World, Maud Hart Lovelace
The Light Between Oceans, M.L. Stedman
Far From the Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
My Name is Lucy Barton, Elizabeth Strout
Betsy's Wedding, Maud Hart Lovelace
The One in a Million Boy, Monica Wood
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer 
Crosstalk, Connie Willis
Lab Girl, Hope Jahren
A Circle of Quiet, Madeleine L'Engle
84 Charing Cross Road, Helene Hanff 
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper, Phaedra Patrick

Two NaNoWriMo novels -- Betsy wrote one in July and one in November

Books I read with Ramona:

The Titan's Curse
Battle of the Labyrinth
The Last Olympian (all three are part of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series)
The Pushcart War, Jean Merrill
The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint-Exupery
The Mysterious Benedict Society and the Perilous Journey, Trenton Lee Stewart
Return to Gone Away, Elizabeth Enright 
The Candymakers and the Great Chocolate Chase, Wendy Mass
Jane of Lantern Hill, L.M. Montgomery
The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic, Jennifer Trafton
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate, Jacqueline Kelly
From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, E.L. Konigsburg
The Shadow of the Bear, Regina Doman
Black as Night, Regina Doman

~~~~~

Top three picks? (No, don't make me pick! Okay, I will): 

In This House of Brede
Hannah Coulter
Far From the Madding Crowd

Book I'm really glad I read but will probably never read again?

A Canticle for Leibowitz

Books that filled me with happiness when I needed it: 

All things Maud Hart Lovelace and L.M. Montgomery

Books I finished, but that disappointed me the most: 

Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 
The Awakening of Miss Prim 

Books I didn't finish, for a variety of reasons: 

Lab Girl (actually a really good memoir, I just wasn't in the mood for memoir. I plan to return to it.)

My Name is Lucy Barton (I felt I was reading an entirely different book than the one I'd heard described by others as lovely. Maybe it was just my frame of mind at the time? I don't know.)

Favorite read-aloud with Ramona:
Jane of Lantern Hill
The Curious World of Calpurnia Tate

~~~~~

What were your top three books of 2016? 

Photo credit: FreeImages.com

9 comments:

Lissa said...

Delicious list. I really want to be in a book club with you. Like, in person with warm beverages and cookies. ::sigh::

Tabatha said...

Have you seen the movie for Far from the Madding Crowd? I haven't read the book, so I don't know how that would affect my enjoyment, but I liked it a lot.

My daughter read the beginning of HP and the Cursed Child and put it down. I didn't bother to start it. Loved Fantastic Beasts, though!

Karen Edmisten said...

Lissa, oh, how I would love that!

Tabatha, I haven't seen any movie versions of Madding Crowd yet, but I think you would love the book. I haven't read Fantastic Beasts, but went to see the movie with my girls -- have you seen it?

Danae said...

Love this book list! What a great reading year!

Elizabeth Kay said...

Hi Karen, it's not fiction literature, but my 13yo son and I have been obsessed with William Bennett's "America: The Last Best Hope" a 2-volume American history set. We are taking 2 years to get through it (it's HUGE) (I'm -gasp- reading -gasp- aloud -gasp-) and took last semester to just explore The Great Depression, Prohibition, The RooseveltS, and WWII. Now we are on to the rest of the 20th Century and back to the big Volume II. It's such great writing, and Bennett goes into such detail with a lot of the historical figures, you will want to stop and learn more about them! It's a Must Read!! --from Elizabeth Kay

Natalia said...

I am so glad to hear of somebody else who didn't like My Name is Lucy Barton. I didn't like the story. I didn't like the characters. I didn't find any redeeming quality in it. What did you think of A Man Called Ove? I am listening to it right now and really liking it. I picked it up after reading the author's other book My Grandmother Asked me to Tell you She is Sorry. Great book!

Karen Edmisten said...

Thanks for the history recs, Elizabeth.

Natalia - yes, Lucy Barton was just surreal to me. It's described by so many people as a lovely, touching conversation/reconnection between Lucy and her mother, but the undercurrent disturbed me, and nothing about it felt real. Was the doctor even really there?

I adored A Man Called Ove! So glad you are liking it, too!

Stephanie said...

We have read so many of the same books this year!- or to be exact some are sitting beside me waiting their turn. Three I liked very much that were not on your list were: The Borrowed House by Hilda van Stockum, The Santiago Pilgrimage- Walking the Immortal Way by Jean-Christophe Rufin, and reading Twyla Tharp's The Creative Habit (and memoir Push Comes to Shove).

Karen Edmisten said...

Stephanie, I love The Borrowed House! I love everything I've ever read by Hilda van Stockum. She was absolutely wonderful.

Thanks for the other ideas, too!