Looking back over my books from this year I was a little disappointed. I read more great books in 2015 than 2016. My favorites this year were Stilletto by Daniel O’ Malley and The Fifth Season by NK. Jemison. I loved the two John Scalzi books I read and am really looking forward to the books on my list for December.
I’ve read 50 books so far this year. I am really hoping for a new Brandon Sanderson and Ben Aaronovich in 2017.
Finally got the most recent Louse Penny Gamache book off the library waitlist. Devoured it, and liked it very much. I ended up going back and rereading the last several chapters – there were a lot of interwoven plot lines coming to fruition near the end.
Favorite reads in 2016 (I read 100 books a year - at 92 right now - on track to make it to 100) - based upon my top goodreads ratings - all novels (I don’t read a lot of non-fiction)
A man called Ove
I’ll Give you the Sun (Great YA)
The Nightingale
The Bookman’s Tale
First Impressions - Lovett
The Curious Charms of Arthur Pepper
Vinegar Girl
Character Driven - Luber (YA)
The Two-Family House
Truly, Madly, Guilty (favorite of Liane Moriarty - have read most of hers)
Where’d you go, Bernadette (best enjoyed if you have lived in Seattle)
^ kiddie - I loved Two Family House.
Currently reading my 89th book of 2016.
My favorites include:
Golden Age-Jane Smiley
Becoming Nicole- Amy Ellis Nutt
The Lake House- Kate Morton
The Swans of 5th Avenue-Melanie Benjamin
The Widow- Fiona Barton
The Whip-Karen Kondrazian
The Summer Before the War- Helen Simonson
The Nest- Cynthia D’Apix Sweeney
The Children- Ann Leary
The Expatriots- Janice Y.K. Lee
The Bridge Ladies- Betsy Lerner
Miller’s Valley- Anna Quindlan
The Two Family House- Lynda Cohen Loigman
Another Brooklyn- Jacqueline Woodson
The Perfect Neighbors- Sarah Pekkanen
A Great Reckoning- Louise Penny
Hillbilly Elegy- J.D. Vance
Everybody’s Fool- Richard Russo
Not all of these were published in 2016.
My reading favorites of 2016
Fates & Furies - Lauren Groff
A Man Called Ove - Frederik Backman
What Was Mine - Helen Klein Ross
The Defining Decade - Meg Jay
The Gilded Age - Karin Tanabe
Before The Fall - Noah Hawley
Faithful - Alice Hoffman
The Nightingale - Kristin Hannah - heartbreaking
Citizen - Claudia Rankine
How To Make Your Money Last - Jane Bryant Quinn
Currently reading -
The Crash of 2016: The Plot to Destroy America and What We Can Do to Stop It - Thom Hartmann
Swing Time
At first my reaction was the same as kiddie’s, but I have been reconsidering. I haven’t yet seen any reviews comparing it to On Beauty. I did read one comparing it to the Neapolitan novels (which I love!) and I’ve been considering that. It’s about the relationship of female friends. It’s about maternity, about the mother daughter relationship. However, fathers aren’t left out. It is also about cultural appropriation. Probably I need to read it again, as I suspect it is much more layered than I gave it credit for on first reading.
Zadie Smith is one of the younger authors I intend to follow, even if I don’t love all her books equally. Another is Megan Abbott. I read her new book, You Will Know Me (2016) but it was not my favorite book of hers, or of the year. I loved Dare Me (2012)
I read a whole lot of books published this year and wasn’t blown away by any of them. Right now I’m reading the new Anne Rice, and maybe that will be my favorite book of the year. Rice is a sentimental favorite of mine. I used to buy her novels as soon as they were released and take turns reading them with my mother and sisters.
I did read an author recommended by a friend and new to me: Elizabeth Jane Howard, the Cazelet series. Those books inspired me to re-read Nancy Mitford and then move on to Julian Fellowes. Maybe Belgravia is my favorite book of the year. I also enjoyed Snobs and Past Imperfect.
Probably the Cazelet books were the best I read that were new to me. They follow a British family for decades. The last one was written later in her life. It is an impressive accomplishment imho.
I did a lot of re-reading. Trollope is always my favorite.
Favorite books of mine this year.
Maus 1 and 2
Persepolis
I don’t actually like graphic novels, but these were both outstanding - I thought in both cases the pictures/presentation enhanced the story in interesting ways though they are very different in approach.
Far from the Madding Crowd
I’ve always had a soft spot for Hardy. Read this and saw both the new movie with Carey Mulligan and the old one with Julie Christie.
Michael Tolliver Lives
Mary Ann in Autumn
I loved the original Sex in the City books which were probably among the first depictions of gay life that I remember reading. As a monogamous heterosexual Armistead Maupin made me understand the attractions of something different. I don’t think anyone described the attractions of the bath house scene or the aftermath better. I don’t know why I wasn’t paying attention when these two books came out, but it was lovely to revisit the characters as older and (mostly) wiser men and women.
Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen
Not my favorite book in the Vorkosigan saga, but Bujold is always interesting and readable. I love the way she takes modern science (in vitro cell research) and thinks about how they could change society and relationships. In this book she goes back to a character we haven’t seen in depth for a while (Mile’s mother) as the series concentrates on the adventures of her son. She upends everything we thought we knew about her, but then what child truly knows their parents? But more than anything this is about love and what kind of a legacy we want to leave the world with.
Balance of Trade
Trade Secret
Steve Miller and Sharon Lee write fun space opera. They have been writing together for 25 years a series of books taking place in the Liaden Universe which appears to have some similarities with ours. Somehow I missed this pair.
Uprooted
I never got into Naomi Novik’s Dragons + Napoleanic War books. This is a stand alone fantasy about a young woman who apprentices with an older wizard. He must teach her to use magic, but her gifts are so different from his many problems ensue. She plays with tropes - just when you think something is totally predictable there’s a slight twist.
I liked Gentleman Jole, too. I thought it was an understated but intriguing story focused on an older woman (not often the protagonist, especially in space opera). :). I do love the Napoleonic dragon Novik books. The final one in that series was recently published.
@mathmom I’m a fan of both Carrie Bradshaw and Armistead Maupin but his books were Tales of the City, although they certainly include a good amount of sex. 
LOL, that was a good typo!
@mathmom I bought Uprooted but didn’t read it yet. I’ll have to move it up my list.
@mathmom I love all the Sharon Lee & S Miller Liadan books. LOVE.
Trollope is my favorite author - love The Eustace Diamonds and The Fixed Period and so many more - they are as relevant today as when they were written over 150 years ago. If you are a Trollope fan you must watch the dramatization of Doctor Thorne (free on amazon prime) - done by Julian Fellowes (of downton abbey fame)
Liked Uprooted very much - met Naomi Novik at a book festival this fall - she is great!
Okay I’m feeling out of step with you guys @mathmom and @kiddie. I feel ambivalent at best about Uprooted. I never quite got the whole “Wood” as evil thing. Not good as The Wood as evil is pretty much the crux of the matter.
Uprooted does seem to be a love it or hate it sort of book. Trees as living entities, good or evil doesn’t bother me. I thought of them more as infected than evil.
I was neutral on Uprooted. 
@alh I adore the Cazalet chronicles.
If you enjoyed those, you might also appreciate another favorite of mine, " China Court: The Hours of a Country House" by Rumer Godden. If you do, let me know what you think.
Yes, yes, yes! The Lymond Chronicles are uniquely wonderful. (And must be read in order.)
I used to belong to a subscription list dedicated to her work.
I love Naomi Novik. I enjoyed the Cazelet books but was not wild about them.
I can never recall which books I read when. I ought to start keeping a dated list.
I remember exactly when read the Dunnett books -I was nursing my oldest. I’ve always wanted to reread them before I forgot all the twists and turns of the plot, but never did. Too many pages! But they were wonderful.