Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow. Brilliant ghost story, very original setting.
Mars Evacuees by Sophia McDougall. Terrific SF, very funny.
The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente. Great ending to wonderful fantasy series.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren. Non-fiction, about science and academia, but still feels like SF.
I re-read The Unknown Ajax over the holidays. It’s one of my favorite Heyer novels - that farce at the end is such fun!
I also have the edition with Chabon’s introduction. It’s a great book.
My favorites for the year:
In this House of Brede, by Rumer Godden. A quiet novel about a community of cloistered nuns, which begins in 1954 with Philippa, a sophisticated, cosmopolitan businesswoman, giving away her possessions in preparation for entering Brede as a novice - at the age of 42. I found this mesmerizing.
Ron Chernow’s biography of Alexander Hamilton. I got excited by the musical, but this really is an excellent biography for those interested in early American history.
Luna: New Moon, by Ian McDonald. My first McDonald novel. A near-future sci-fi story about the five family dynasties which run the moon. They are practically mafia, and I don’t usually like mafia stories, but… the moon. It’s the first of a trilogy.
The Dagger and the Coin, a 5-book fantasy series by Daniel Abraham, who is the co-writer of The Expanse sci-fi series under the pen name James S.A. Corey. It’s just the sort of fantasy I like: a character-driven story in a medieval setting with a limited system of magic. Bonus points because it’s set among the ruins of a long-lost civilization.
The Sir Robert Cary historical mystery series, by P.F. Chisholm. These are lightweight mysteries, but well written and amusing, and they have a great sense of time and place: the late Tudor period, at the chaotic Anglo-Scottish border. The food and clothing and social distinctions felt right, and so did the dialog, without resorting to mayhaps or methinks. Cary was the grandson of Anne Boleyn’s sister Mary, and probably the grandson of Henry VIII. These stories are based on actual events in his colorful life.
The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller. Post-apocalyptic fiction about a guy who survived the flu that killed almost everybody nine years ago. I liked the writing very much. It’s stream of consciousness, written in a sparse style with little punctuation, and I thought it worked perfectly with this kind of story. While it’s not as cozy as that strangely cheerful post-apocalyptic book Station Eleven (also good), it’s not relentlessly bleak, either.
Sorry I wasn’t able to post in time today to start my usual Top Ten thread. Here’s last year’s: Top Ten books you read in 2015 - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board
I see from my reading journal that I read 63 books last year - ten more than the previous year, although I didn’t think I was going particularly fast. My ten favorites for 2016, in no particular order:
Washington’s Crossing by David Hackett Fischer - An excellent, detailed retelling of the battles of Trenton and Princeton, and how Washington and his tattered army helped win American independence.
Exploring Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson et al. - A thick, richly-illustrated exhibit catalog about the celebrated cartoon strip, including a long interview with the supposedly-reclusive cartoonist.
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough - A very readable dual biography of the Ohio aviators and how they overcame obstacle after obstacle to change the world forever.
What If? by Randall Munroe - A funny, interesting collection of XKCD columns on far-fetched science questions.
The Nest by Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney - Comic novel about four NYC siblings as they manuever, scheme and fight over an expected big inheritance.
Before Watchmen: Nite Owl/Dr. Manhattan, written by J. Michael Straczynski, with art by Adam Hughes et al. - A prequel to the graphic novel Watchmen; the section on the demigod-like Dr. Manhattan is a fascinating, very well-drawn exploration of free will, causality and fate.
Six Frigates by Ian W. Toll - An excellent, very readable history of the early days of the U.S. Navy through the War of 1812.
Conversations with Kennedy by Benjamin C. Bradlee - Gossipy, insider account of a journalist’s friendship with JFK.
One Hundred Days by Adm. Sandy Woodward - You-are-there memoir of the 1982 Falklands War by the top British admiral on the scene, leading his fleet to victory with a very narrow margin for error as the Argentines attack and winter closes in.
Homer & Langley by E.L. Doctorow - Novel about the secretive, hoarding, riches-to-rags Collyer brothers of Manhattan and their tragic end. The author takes major liberties with the historical record, but the book’s well worth a read.
Honorable mentions for the year: Lock In by John Scalzi, Fatherland by Robert Harris, The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett, Captain Kidd’s Cat by Robert Lawson, and Tuf Voyaging by George R.R. Martin. All quite good!
This is one of my favorite novels, certainly my favorite non-genre novel.
This book is so good, I read it a few years ago after it was recommended in a Cafe Society thread, and it is now on of my lifetime best books ever.
In past years, we’ve done a “top 10” best reads of the year, and I had been thinking that I didn’t really have a solid top 10 this year (so the new format is working for me). I read fewer books than usual, I think because I got bogged down in a few very long, epic-type novels. And, of those books I did read, there weren’t that many that stood out as AMAZING reads. At any rate, though, these were the ones I enjoyed the most:
The absolute best three were all kids/YA books. Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire, is about a boarding school for kids who have gone on adventures in other worlds, and are now stuck here in the regular, every day boring world. It seemed especially touching if you were a kid who read a lot and felt sorry for the kids in books who had to come back here after their fantasy adventures.
Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies by Lindsay Ribar is a fun modern take on having magical abilities and teenage angst.
Five Children on the Western Front by Kate Saunders is a really sweet and moving homage to the E. Nesbit characters.
In non-fiction, I was fascinated by Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite, by Suki Kim, which is about the time she spent as a report masquerading as an English teacher in North Korea. It really conveys a sense of just how bad things are in North Korea, wow. And there was some churn about the book itself – the author was not happy with how the publisher promoted it as more of a “personal memoir” instead of how the author positioned it, as investigative journalism. That was interesting, I see a little of both sides.
I also liked A Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horowitz, about the first explorations of America, and then his musings on how/why it is taught in schools and communicated in popular culture. I like him, and this book was very him, so there you go.
There are a few series that I am into that had good installments this year: the latest Tana French Dublin Murder Squad book, The Trespasser; The Creeping Shadow in the Lockwood & Co. books; and A Tangle of Gold wrapped up Jaclyn Moriarty’s Colours series in a satisfying way.
Oh gosh, I had to post again to say I LOVE THIS BOOK. All the fascinating details about the daily life in the convent, and the backstories of the sisters.
I remember when there was a lot of fuss when Demi Moore named her oldest daughter Rumer, after Rumer Godden. People thought it was a terrible name (and I recall Rumer Godden herself was apathetic about it) but it made me really happy to imagine Demi Moore as the kind of person would stay up too late reading In This House of Brede.
The Road to Little Dribbling, Bill Bryson. Followed with a short binge of Bryson I hadn’t read.
I enjoyed that on quite a lot as well. And we ALL buzzed over The Creeping Shadow on the Whacha Reading thread 
My offerings: not hugely challenging stuff, but I don’t claim to be an intellectual giant. Recent British material – that being where I live. One was Few And Far Between, by Charlie Elder – it appealed to me as a wildlife fan. Elder, a journalist, is likewise a wildlife buff; he writes humorously, taking the persona of a bumbling amateur of the subject, ill-informed but eager to learn. The book tells, in this style, of his travels over the space of about a year to many and differing parts of the island of Great Britain: hoping to encounter the rarest few British species of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, and insect – and the naturalists who try to look after them. Except for occasional slight overload of his “lovable klutz” thing, I found the book a delight – also saddening, as regards how much British wildlife is under threat.
And, as a fan of some mystery authors: the latest from my favourite British such, Peter Lovesey – who is churning these out at a great rate, but with no noticeable diminution in quality. This “whodunit”, Down Among the Dead Men, stars his nowadays principal detective hero: Peter Diamond, the curmudgeonly but intermittently humorous head of the police’s murder-solving squad in a small provincial English city. I can’t get enough of Diamond…
When I read In This House of Brede many years ago, I found it un-put-down-able; and I’m not usually much of a fan of material with a religious background. It was to me oddly comforting, that the book brings out that even in a community dedicated to leading as godly a life as possible; there are and there fester, plenty of small irritations between people / jealousies / disagreements on right approach to things / personality conflicts – in other words, nuns (and presumably also monks) are reassuringly human, after all. One gathers that the cloistered religious opine – or are supposed to – that all this is to be regretted and fought against: an indication that the Devil is omnipresent in the world, finding insidious means of leading the godly, astray; in some ways the petty stuff is harder to combat, than the big lurid Seven Deadly Sins temptations.
An interesting thing I read, in a memoir by Rumer Godden: Noel Coward, the dramatist / songwriter / performer / wit / general “beautiful person” (with whom Godden had been on friendly terms) hated religion in general; and the monastic type thereof, especially. Her choosing to write a book about nuns, was for Coward nearly a deal-breaker in the friendship – he in the end relented somewhat, but things were thereafter, never the same between them.
Forgot to mention my favorite mystery of the year (which is also SF): Lock In, by John Scalzi. Figured out a brand new means of teleportation.
The Hike by Drew Magary. Bizarre tale of a stroll through the woods turned into a wild fantasy adventure filled with profanity; imagine if “The Wizard of Oz” had been a collaboration between William Burroughs, Terry Pratchett, and Dr. Seuss. It almost reads like it was written in a single session just off the top of the author’s head and published straight away, but somehow it works.
Favorite audio book: ** A Dirty Job** by Christopher Moore. Hilarious story about a newly widowed father and his new role as a soul collector.
Favorite non-fiction: The Invention of Air A Story of Science, Faith, Revolution, and the Birth of America by Steven Johnson. The story of Joseph Priestley, inventor of soda water (which it turns out does not cure scurvy), founder of the Unitarian church in England, sometimes credited with discovering oxygen. Some interesting speculation about how scientific discoveries and innovations happen.
Best new discovery: Connie Willis. I loved the time travel books, Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog.
Most read: David Rosenfelt. Bury the Lead, First Degree, Dead Center, and Sudden Death. I love this mystery/courtroom series about NJ lawyer Andy Carpenter (and his dog).
The Girl With All the Gifts by M. R. Carey was my biggest, most pleasant surprise. Loved it!
Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett - I’m slowly reading my way through all of them, but of the ~25 that I’ve read so far, this is my favourite.
The Happiness Advantage by Shawn Achor was my most inspiring bit of non-fiction, closely followed by Spaceman by Mike Massimino. I loved it that Massimino’s path to becoming an astronaut was so full of bumps and hitches - rather the opposite of Chris Hadfield’s An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth.
My records show I read 41, but a lot of those were light mysteries.
Medusa’s Web by Tim Powers is a surprisingly different take on familiar themes for the author.
James Madison by Richard Brookhiser is a serviceable biography.
John Quincy Adams by H. G. Unger is a very nice biography indeed.
Kiss Me Like A Stranger by Gene Wilder is an autobiography that focuses more on his loves than his work, but is still worth the read.
My favorite of the year was an old one, published in 1981, Follow the River by James Alexander Thom, based on a true story of a woman kidnapped by Indians after they killed most of the people in her village (Draper’s Meadow massacre 1755). She was taken hundreds of miles away, but escaped and returned to her husband. There was a cleaned up movie version made starring Ellyn Bursten, but this book is definitely not for kids.
I also read The Girl With All the Gifts, it was really good, about a dystopian future, I recommend it too. Great characters.
I’ve been reading Bernard Cornwell’s Warrior Chronicles aka Saxon Tales, I just finished The Flamebearer. I don’t know if I’m getting tired of reading them or if he’s getting tired of writing them, but this one didn’t seem to be up to the quality of the rest of the books in the series. I’m not even sure if this is the last book or not. He leaves an opening.
More Viking stuff: James L. Nelson’s Night Wolf which is the fifth book in a series about a viking that goes with his father in law and son to raid Ireland and has lots of adventures. I really like the characteres in his books.
The Eagle and the Raven by Pauline Gedge that I thought I read years ago but none of it was familiar. Really good story of Boudicca, but I think Manda Scott’s are better.
The Long Ships sounded familiar so I checked the shelves and I have a copy, just haven’t read it yet, but it’s in my to read pile now. Unfortunately I just started The Game of Kings by Dorothy Dunnett, a six book series.
Mahaloth - My son likes the books you’ve got in your post, if he was here he’d insist you have to read Jim Butcher, either Dresden Files or Codex Alera, have you read any of those?
Yes, that got an honorable mention from me. Did you know there’s also a related Scalzi novella, Unlocked: An Oral History of Haden’s Syndrome, about the start of, and the world’s response to, the epidemic? Also worth a read.
No, but now I am curious. Hmmm…
A sequel to Lock In is promised by Scalzi, Head On (as of yesterday). The Dispatcher was fun, too.
The first one that comes to mind is the last book I read in 2016 and one I’m surprised I haven’t seen yet, Dr. Paul Kalanithi’s “When Breath Becomes Air”. The introduction is by Dr. Abraham Verghese and the epilogue is by his wife, written after his death in early 2015, and it is a beautiful book.
I also read this book, “Death In Yellowstone” after a story emerged about someone breaking the rules at Yellowstone and paying the ultimate price; I’d had the book for a while and that finally prompted me to read it. Most of the deaths were either prior to modern safety regulations, or precipitated by drug and alcohol use.
For that matter, I also read Tom Brokaw’s “A Lucky Life Interrupted”. I found a mint-condition copy at the tail end of a rummage sale, when they were selling books for $1 a bag, so it was a bargain too. Every time I see him on TV, I wonder just how heavily medicated he is, because multiple myeloma is an incredibly painful disease, and he doesn’t hesitate to say so.
I loved the earlier ones in this series – marvellous basic idea, with the (unharmonious) interplay between the hero / narrator and Alfred the Great. I also have had the impression, though, with the more recent novels in the series; that Cornwell is getting stale with it, and into mechanically-churning-out mode.