I read 52 books in 2016, which is not as many as I read last year or the year before, but that’s OK. The break-down:<\/p>\n
Picture books for kids\/middle-grade books\/YA: 15. Highlights included Code Name Verity<\/i> by Elizabeth Wein, which was gripping and made me cry; several of Luke Pearson’s charming “Hilda” books, and Brian Selznick’s beautiful Wonderstruck<\/i>. I also listened to my first-ever audiobook, which was How to Train Your Dragon<\/i> by Cressida Cowell, narrated by David Tennant. I continued pleasantly working my way through Lois Lowry’s “Anastasia” books with Anastasia Has the Answers<\/i> and am looking forward to the next in the series.<\/p>\n
Fiction (for grown-ups): 21. I unexpectedly loved Toby Barlow’s Sharp Teeth<\/i>, a werewolf novel in verse. I had way more fun with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods<\/i> and Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age<\/i> than I thought I would. I loved Lagoon<\/i> by Nnedi Okorafor even though alien-arrival stories are not normally exciting to me. I quite enjoyed re-reading Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell<\/i>, especially because I was in England for part of it and it felt really apt. And I finished the year really strongly with the delicious writing of Danielle Dutton’s Margaret the First<\/i> and the unputdownable Today Will Be Different<\/i> by Maria Semple and The Seed Collectors<\/i> by Scarlett Thomas.<\/p>\n
Non-fiction: 16, including autobiographical comics. Hyperbole and a Half<\/i> was as amazing and funny as I expected it to be. I liked the essays in Vivian Gornick’s The Odd Woman and the City<\/i> and Teju Cole’s Known and Strange Things<\/i>, differently. And I had lots of fun with Textbook Amy Krouse Rosenthal<\/i>, not just because of the interactive\/text-messaging element, though that was pretty neat.<\/p>\n