Top Ten 2016 Releases I Still Want to Read

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week's topic is books published in 2016 that we intended to read but didn't get around to. Although I did make an effort to read more 2016 releases in 2016, there are plenty still sitting on my "might want to read" list. Here are the ten I'm probably most interested in reading.

1. The Book of Joy by the Dalai Lama, Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams

2. Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

3. The Gene by Siddharta Mukherjee

4. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly

5. Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

6. It Ends with Us by Colleen Hoover

7. The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork

8. The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

9. Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

10. Where Am I Now? by Mara Wilson

Which 2016 books are still on your to-read list?

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Review of 2016 Reading Resolutions

Happy New Year! I've put together some reading plans for 2017, but before I share those, I want to look back on how I did in 2016 with sticking to my New Year's resolutions for reading.

First, some hold-overs from 2015: As part of my goal to read other religious texts, I finally finished The Qur'an, the Book of Mormon, and the Bhagavad Gita in early 2016. For my goal of reading friends' recommendations, I didn't get to Dancing with God, Winter of Fire, A People's History of the United States, or Woman at Point Zero until this year.

Now, here are the goals I set for 2016, and how I did.

1. Read all the unread books on our bookshelves.
I read almost all the books from my to-read list that were still sitting on our bookshelves. I abandoned (and got rid of) Letters from a Martyred Christian, and I haven't gotten to The Discoverers yet. I ended up keeping George, Faith Unraveled, Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?, A Prayer for Owen Meany, and Adoption Parenting and passed the rest on through PaperBackSwap. However, I realized that there are a handful of other books I've gotten in hard copy that were so low priority they weren't even on my to-read list, so I still have to get to those at some point.

2. Read all the Catholic books on my to-read list.
I did end up going to World Youth Day this year (yay!) and I successfully tackled all these books before I went. I read The Church of Mercy (as well as the follow-up, The Name of God Is Mercy), Philippine Duchesne, and With Burning Hearts. I was very glad to have read them all.

3. Read a novel in French.
I did it! I read Translation Is a Love Affair in French. I kept Google Translate open on my phone the entire time, but other than not knowing a lot of the vocabulary I was able to read pretty fluently and understand (I think) everything that was happening. I'd like to try to read another book in French in the future.

4. Read some highly rated books I'd never heard of.
There are still tons of books with a 4.2 rating or above on Goodreads that I haven't read, but I got through some that were new to me. These were Ficciones, All Creatures Great and Small, and Hunger. There are still some others from the list I'd like to read, but it was nice to at least start to branch out.

5. Read some classic psychology books.
I read Will I Ever Be Good Enough? and Emotional Vampires, both of which were just OK. I still have Feeling Good on my to-read list.

6. Reread some Agatha Christie books.
I decided to start with the Hercule Poirot books and read them in order, and I've read almost a third of them at this point. It's been fun to revisit them, and I've remembered almost nothing from the first time I read them except for Murder on the Orient Express. I found that Hugh Fraser narrates a lot of the Poirot audiobooks and is very talented at doing accents, so I've listened to several that he narrated.

7. Read some World War I books.
I did listen to The Guns of August, but only just started on Good-Bye to All That. I haven't yet decided whether to take up the torch again for the publication of my great-grandfather's WWI memoir, or just let it be a story to share within my family.

8. Read more books that require waiting for hard copies.
I did OK with this. Via requests, I read Friendship at the Margins, Five on a Treasure Island, and Winter of Fire. I also got a handful of the books mentioned above (the French book and one of the Catholic books) through ILL, as well as some book club books. With so many books available on Kindle and audio from the library, it's easy to pass over the ones that require a wait.

9. Read multiple books published in 2016.
When Goodreads' 2015 awards rolled around, I'd read a measly one book in the pool, though plenty of them were on my to-read list. This year, I succeeded in reading a number of books published in 2016, including When Breath Becomes Air, Grit, Before the Fall, The Girls, Truly Madly Guilty, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and The Wonder. The bad news: When Breath Becomes Air is the only one I liked enough to vote for it, so I only ended up casting one vote again this year! At least I tried...

10. Read books published in 2014 and 2015.
I caught up on 22 different books from 2014 and 2015. I won't list them all here, but some of the ones I'd felt most behind on were Everything, Everything, More Happy Than Not, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, None of the Above, The Girl on the Train, All the Bright Places, and Lies We Tell Ourselves.

Overall, I'm happy with how I did with sticking to my reading resolutions this past year! I tackled some different parts of my to-read list thematically, which was a cool way to do it. My 2017 goals will be posted soon!

How did you do with your book-related resolutions in 2016?

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Top Ten Favorite Fiction Reads of 2016

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

This week I'm sharing my favorite fiction reads from 2016. See last week's post for my favorite nonfiction reads of the year. These are listed alphabetically.

1. All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely
This is an outstanding contribution to the national conversation about racism and police brutality. The authors manage to cover a lot of ground in a relatively short young adult novel, and I found it to be well done. Definitely recommended for everyone!

2. George by Alex Gino
I found this story of a transgender girl in elementary school heartwarming and very well done. The conflicts are realistic without being too heavy, and the ending is optimistic without being naïvely so. I enjoyed the read and would happily share the book with my kids.

3. The Giver by Lois Lowry
I read this book a long time ago, maybe in middle school, and it didn't make the impression on me that it clearly had on so many people. Rereading as an adult and a mother whose son was around Gabe's age at the end of the book, it hit me much harder. It's a deceptively quick read that contains so many lessons about history, society, and what makes life worth living, and I appreciated it so much more this time around.

4. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin
I'm not a big fan of sci-fi generally, and my first impression was that there was too much to keep track of, but once I got my head around everything the story started to come together and I really enjoyed it. There's great world-building and a good balance between expository detail and narrative action, and the characters' dilemmas felt real to me.

5. Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides
This has been a favorite since I first read it, and it still is, though I went into rereading it this time with a more critical eye this time regarding gender and intersex identity. Eugenides provides it all: complex, memorable characters; unpredictable, intriguing plot lines; and subtle lessons in history and science. The Pulitzer is well deserved.

6. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd by Agatha Christie
How to describe this classic without spoiling anything? Let's just say that I guessed the reveal and still greatly enjoyed the read.

7. Peril at End House by Agatha Christie
This may be one of my favorite Christie plot twists. I was convinced I'd figured out the mystery, and then it turned out that what I'd figured out was just a tiny piece of the puzzle — Christie fooled me again, though as usual the clues were all there.

8. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
This was the first time I'd read Irving, and I ended up really enjoying this novel, as I became entrenched in the world of the story and its colorful characters. It's rich in symbolism without being heavy-handed, making it a good choice to read, discuss, or analyze. I highly recommend the audiobook!

9. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
This was sweet, hilarious, and a pitch-perfect depiction of life in high school. Although I figured out the identity of Simon's anonymous e-mail penpal pretty early on, which took away some of the mystery driving the plot, I still enjoyed the read. I especially love Simon's family.

10. Stolen by Lucy Christopher
I spent most of this book worrying about how Christopher was going to end it, but she nailed the ending, so I can recommend the book. It's told by a girl who's kidnapped at the airport and taken to the middle of an Australian desert. The attention to detail and the descriptions of nature were fantastic.

What were your favorite fiction reads of the year?

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Top Ten Favorite Nonfiction Reads of 2016

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Like I did two years ago, I'm going to share two different top ten lists for the year, one of my top nonfiction reads and another of my top fiction reads. This week I'll share my favorite nonfiction reads in 2016. As in past years, these are alphabetical, as it's hard enough to narrow it down to ten without also trying to rank them!

1. All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
This was a truly enjoyable collection of stories from a country veterinarian in the 1930s. The stories are memorable, the characters are colorful, and the descriptions of the location were beautiful. Although the book was on the longer side, I wanted to pause after each story just to savor the writing.

2. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
This is one of those rare books that I wish I could make required reading for everyone. Gawande takes us from nursing homes to hospitals to show how modern medicine's triumphs in extending life have made it harder and harder for us to accept the true end of life when it approaches. We focus on safety and longevity over quality of life. This is an especially important book for medical professionals, but ultimately is valuable for everyone who will one day face death.

3. Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood? by Fred Rogers
This little book is now in my collection of favorite parenting books to reread. It's not a parenting book per se, but I learned a lot in seeing how Mister Rogers responded to the wide variety of letters he received over the years and reading some of his commentary on those responses. This is definitely worth picking up, whether you're a parent or not. Many of Mister Rogers' life lessons apply no matter how old you are.

4. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
This book is challenging but very, very necessary to read. It takes the statistics I already knew about the problems with our criminal justice system and illustrates them with personal stories of blatant discrimination and injustice. This should be required reading for every American.

5. Oh Crap! Potty Training by Jamie Glowacki
This was the method overwhelmingly recommended for potty training on a mothers' Facebook group I'm part of, so I decided to give it a shot. We used her method with our 22-month-old over Thanksgiving weekend, and we were able to send him back to daycare that Monday with no diapers and have had minimal accidents since. It's intense but SO worth it to get your kid on track quickly.

6. Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
This is my favorite of Evans' books to date. A blend of memoir, reflection, and church history, it uses the seven sacraments as touchstones to take the reader on a journey through what makes church wonderful and infuriating. I haven't had the ups and downs of Evans' church experience, but I still teared up with recognition more than once while listening to this one.

7. Take This Bread by Sara Miles
Miles shares about her journalistic background, her unexpected conversion to Christianity, and her journey to set up and grow a food pantry out of her new church. In between, she meditates on the mystery of the Eucharist, the way food brings people together, and the challenge of actually being as radically welcoming as Jesus. It's definitely worth a read.

8. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
This was a beautifully written memoir of Kalanithi's transition from doctor to patient as he faced his own terminal diagnosis. His meditations on time, values, and legacy were incredibly powerful. I'm glad this has gotten the attention it has.

9. With Burning Hearts by Henri Nouwen
This deceptively slim book was infinitely better than I expected. Nouwen invites the reader to revisit the parts of Mass with fresh eyes, and his straightforward and relatable writing helped me reap tons from this tiny volume.

10. The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Although I've never been in Didion's shoes (with a suddenly deceased husband and a daughter in intensive care), I found her story somehow utterly relatable. Her process of grief was a combination of logical and illogical thoughts, a search for answers among literature and research, and a constantly failed attempt to stay out of the "vortex" of memory. It was compelling and well-written.

What were your favorite nonfiction reads of the year?

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Top Ten New-To-Me Authors I Read For The First Time In 2016

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Looking back over my top-rated reads of the year, I was surprised at how many rereads were on my list! I'm notoriously bad at rereading, but this year my book clubs picked a lot of books I'd already read, plus I'm rereading Agatha Christie's complete works.

In any case, here are some of the best authors I read for the very first time in 2016.

1. Alex Gino (George)
I was impressed by Gino's ability to write a book aimed at young children that captured the experience of being transgender in grade school. The conflicts are realistic without being too heavy, and the ending is optimistic without being naïvely so. I'm glad this book exists, and I would definitely pick up another book by Gino in the future.

2. Becky Albertalli (Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda)
Although I'm thankfully more than a decade out of high school now, Albertalli's high school world felt true to me. And as someone who met one of my best friends over the Internet, I loved the way she depicted that weirdly intimate relationship, where you know someone's deepest fears and their childhood fantasies but you don't know their full name or what they look like. Glad to see Albertalli has another book coming out next year!

3. Bryan Stevenson (Just Mercy)
It took me a couple of years to pick up Stevenson's bestseller, but now I'm obsessed. The work his organization is doing is incredibly important, and the stories he tells in his book are heartbreaking and vital for Americans to hear about. He writes with a perfect mix of realism and passion. I don't know if he'll write another book, but he makes it into my top ten of the year either way.

4. Claudia Rankine (Citizen)
I hadn't read much in the "prose poetry" format before, but this book was pretty amazing. Rankine's careful choices, such as telling most stories in the second person "you," made me feel like I was immersed in the lived experience of American black women. I'm now interested in picking up her Don't Let Me Be Lonely from a decade earlier.

5. James Herriot (All Creatures Great and Small)
I'd seen Herriot's name pop up many times on lists of top-rated books, but I hadn't read one of his works until this year. Then I had to stop myself from picking up every one of the sequels immediately. Despite the many (real or fabricated) challenges he encountered as a country veterinarian, he manages to maintain a warm and humorous tone throughout his writing.

6. Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely (All American Boys)
I hadn't heard of either of these authors before this book was chosen for one of my book clubs, but I've seen several other recommendations for Reynolds' books pop up since then. I thought they did a masterful job of showing a lot of perspectives on race and police brutality in a relatively short novel.

7. John Irving (A Prayer for Owen Meany)
Both this book and The World According to Garp have been on my to-read list for years, and I finally picked up one of them. I loved the writing so much that it made me want to read all the Irving.

8. Jon Krakauer (Under the Banner of Heaven)
I learned a lot from this exploration of Mormon Fundamentalism, and I understand now why I see Krakauer's name pop up so often. It takes a good storyteller to make me interested in history, and he reminded me of Rebecca Skloot in the way he approached it. I'm definitely interested in reading Into the Wild and Into Thin Air now.

9. Shauna Niequist (Bread & Wine)
This book had been on my to-read list since I joined Goodreads almost four years ago! Although it wasn't a favorite book, I loved Niequist's beautiful writing and her relatable and honest style. I would certainly read another one of her books.

10. Timothy Beal (The Rise and Fall of the Bible)
I found this look at the history and modern-day views of the Bible compelling and well-organized, even if I didn't love Beal's writing style itself. He is an excellent researcher and took a careful approach to this important topic. I'm not rushing to pick up another of his book's, but he did write one of the better books I read all year.

Which great authors did you read for the first time this year?

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Top Ten Bookish Resolutions for 2016

I'm linking up with The Broke and the Bookish for another Top Ten Tuesday.

Last year I shared my bookish goals for 2015, and I recently shared how I did with those goals. Now it's time to think about the new year, and the folks at The Broke and the Bookish have upped the ante, so it's not just goals but resolutions for 2016! Here are mine.

1. I resolve to read all the unread books on our bookshelves.
There are a dozen books I've gotten through PaperBackSwap or as gifts that I just haven't read yet. I want to get them read this year so I can decide whether to keep them or send them on. These are Stolen, George, Faith Unraveled, Borderlands/La Frontera, The Whole Life Adoption Book, Dear Mister Rogers, Does It Ever Rain in Your Neighborhood?, East of Eden, A Prayer for Owen Meany, The Discoverers, Walking on Water, Letters from a Martyred Christian, and Adoption Parenting.

2. I resolve to read all the Catholic books on my to-read list.
I am hoping to go to World Youth Day this year, so it's a good time to get caught up on these books. I want to read The Church of Mercy by Pope Francis (particularly as he's named this "The Year of Mercy" and I'm not sure I know exactly what that means); Philippine Duchesne: A Woman with the Poor, which is about the saint I chose for my confirmation name because she was French but about whom I know very little; and With Burning Hearts: A Meditation on the Eucharistic Life, a recommendation from a friend.

3. I resolve to read a novel in French.
I spent 2015 doing daily French lessons on Duolingo to brush up my skills, and one of my personal goals for 2016 is to participate in regular French conversation groups. However, it's been a long time since I read a full book in French. My hope is to read Translation Is a Love Affair in the original French, as it's not a very long book and some reviews said it seems to have lost something in translation.

4. I resolve to read some highly rated books I'd never heard of.
The Goodreads list of books with a 4.2 rating or above introduced me to a number of books I'd never heard of before, but which have 1,000+ ratings that put them in the highest rated books on the site. These include The Way of Kings, Ficciones, The Winds of War, All Creatures Great and Small, and Imperium.

5. I resolve to read some classic psychology books.
I see these books pop up occasionally in discussions about people's behavior or therapy techniques, and I want to read them for myself rather than getting just the bare-bones summary from an article. The ones I have in mind are Feeling Good, Will I Ever Be Good Enough?, and Emotional Vampires.

6. I resolve to reread some Agatha Christie books.
It's always galled me that I tossed the list I made in middle school of the 60+ of her mysteries that I'd read, because now I can't remember which ones I've read and which I haven't (with a few notable exceptions, like And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express). I want to start over and read her books again, plus rate and review them.

7. I resolve to read some World War I books.
At one point I was trying to get my great-grandfather's WWI memoir published, but I got discouraged by the rejections, and I think to write a better query letter I need to be more familiar with what's already out there. On my list are Good-Bye to All That, which is a memoir, and The Guns of August, a highly rated, Pulitizer Prize-winning book about the war.

8. I resolve to read more books that require waiting for hard copies.
Although I organize my to-read list based on my current goals, I will often read something next just because it's currently available on OverDrive. Some books I want to read require making a request via our university's ILL system or even (gasp!) buying the book. I don't want those books to linger on my to-read list forever, especially as some are out of print and will become increasingly hard to track down. Books like Celebrating Silence, Friendship at the Margins, and Winter of Fire were recommended to me this past year but I didn't read them because I couldn't easily get a copy at the library.

9. I resolve to read multiple books published in 2016.
When Goodreads' 2015 awards rolled around, I'd read a measly one book in the pool, though plenty of them were on my to-read list. This year, I want to make it a priority to read books the same year they're published!

10. I resolve to read books published in 2014 and 2015.
See #9. There are too many books from the last two years that I never bothered to get my hands on, and I want to get caught up on the books everyone's been recommending.

What are your book-related resolutions for the next year?

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