My 2016 reading list
Per Goodreads, in 2016 I read 33 books (right now, it's 32, but I'm optimistic that my current read will be finished before midnight on 12/31!) I'm going to have to pick up the pace to bring my average back up to 35-40.
Anyway, behind the cut is what I read in 2016. Asterisk indicates I read it for book club.
This year's stand-out reads - there were a few. For those of you interested in public health, David Oshinsky's Polio: An American Story was a great historical read looking at the race to develop the polio vaccine in the US, the clash between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, and the relationship between advocacy groups and scientific funding in the 1900's. Also good was Sam Quinone's "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic". I really appreciated reading "Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman" by Lindy West, especially right after the election. "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow should really count as two books, and reading it only continued to fuel my obsession with the musical Hamilton. "The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey" by Rinker Buck was delightful (if you liked A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, you might like this one). On the fiction side of the house, I really loved Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and recommend both.
This year's "I read it so you don't have to" reads - really, there was only one on the list this year, and that would be "Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt" by Kristin Hersh. Only the true indie rocker fan who has actually heard of this guy will actually be interested in reading this - I'm sure he had a very interesting life, but the book itself was not worth reading, as it is really more about the friendship between the author (of Throwing Muses fame) and the subject, and seems to be full of inside stories that aren't really accessible to the reader, or rather, a reader who isn't already familiar with the work of these two artists.
Anyway, behind the cut is the 2016 list. What should I read in 2017?
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline*
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh*
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie*
Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk*
I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Outline by Rachel Cusk*
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate
The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky
Labor Day: Birth Stories for the Twenty-first Century: Thirty Artful, Unvarnished, Hilarious, Harrowing, Totally True Tales edited by Eleanor Henderson
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman*
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman* (provided I finish by 12/31!)
Anyway, behind the cut is what I read in 2016. Asterisk indicates I read it for book club.
This year's stand-out reads - there were a few. For those of you interested in public health, David Oshinsky's Polio: An American Story was a great historical read looking at the race to develop the polio vaccine in the US, the clash between Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin, and the relationship between advocacy groups and scientific funding in the 1900's. Also good was Sam Quinone's "Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic". I really appreciated reading "Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman" by Lindy West, especially right after the election. "Alexander Hamilton" by Ron Chernow should really count as two books, and reading it only continued to fuel my obsession with the musical Hamilton. "The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey" by Rinker Buck was delightful (if you liked A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, you might like this one). On the fiction side of the house, I really loved Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel and The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah, and recommend both.
This year's "I read it so you don't have to" reads - really, there was only one on the list this year, and that would be "Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt" by Kristin Hersh. Only the true indie rocker fan who has actually heard of this guy will actually be interested in reading this - I'm sure he had a very interesting life, but the book itself was not worth reading, as it is really more about the friendship between the author (of Throwing Muses fame) and the subject, and seems to be full of inside stories that aren't really accessible to the reader, or rather, a reader who isn't already familiar with the work of these two artists.
Anyway, behind the cut is the 2016 list. What should I read in 2017?
The Art of Asking; or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer
The Only Street in Paris: Life on the Rue des Martyrs by Elaine Sciolino
Notorious RBG: The Life and Times of Ruth Bader Ginsburg by Irin Carmon
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline*
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic by Sam Quinones
Don't Suck, Don't Die: Giving Up Vic Chesnutt by Kristin Hersh*
An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie*
Dear Mr. You by Mary-Louise Parker
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin
Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow
My Name is Red by Orhan Pamuk*
I Know How She Does It: How Successful Women Make the Most of Their Time by Laura Vanderkam
Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Outline by Rachel Cusk*
The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey by Rinker Buck
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld
The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Love Goddess' Cooking School by Melissa Senate
The City Baker's Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel Garcia Marquez*
Polio: An American Story by David Oshinsky
Labor Day: Birth Stories for the Twenty-first Century: Thirty Artful, Unvarnished, Hilarious, Harrowing, Totally True Tales edited by Eleanor Henderson
The Dinner by Herman Koch
Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman by Lindy West
Don't Let My Baby Do Rodeo by Boris Fishman*
A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman* (provided I finish by 12/31!)