Can I ask for the best book you've read in 2016?

[EverySongbirdSays]

It doesn't matter what genre, whether it's YA or adult or what year it was originally written in or whether it's fiction or non-fiction. Tell me what made it "best"

I used to read a lot and I just burned out of it, I realise I really miss it and want to get back into it so I'm building an Amazon wishlist to work through

All Suggestions Welcome

The Shipping News by Annie Proulx.
An old one (from the 1990s), but sooo good! I loved it. V. droll and funny.

The Neapolitan Quintet by Elena Ferrante
Possibly the most compulsive thing I've ever read. Couldn't put them down. Can't even really explain why, but really, really good.

The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert
Sobering reading. About how human actions have caused the earth to enter a new era (the Anthropocene), which is leading to a mass extinctions.

I seem to remember hating the Shipping News due to references to child sexual abuse. Am I thinking of the right book?

I do want to read those Ferrante books

Yes - you are. The main character works on a local paper and one of his colleagues writes a column on local child sexual abuse cases. The way I saw it was as a metaphor for this enclosed, isolated community full of oddballs that the book is set in. I can appreciate how others might not have the same take on it though.

Also, the local paper is a joke on the kind of crap you find in local papers everywhere - it's full of lies, gossip, fake adverts, etc. Its not supposed to be real - it's all sort of blackly funny (or not, depending on your POV).

I am so far Mermaid I was up until 130 reading

I am sure it has something to do with actually reading a book not the kindle

miss peregrine's home for peculiar children - those books are brilliant!

But the guys daughters are sex trafficked are they not and they are really young?

I had the same issue with The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseni and Until I Find You by John Irving. I do think that it's an important subject that should be tackled but I do find them hard going and distressing.

I've read and enjoyed the first Miss Peregrine but was unsure whether to continue.

I read:
A thousand splendid suns
Kite Runner
Enjoyed both.
And Paying Guests
I need to make a list of the recommendations on this thread.

The Elena Ferrante Neapolitan novels - Amazing.
Everyone should read them.
Everyone!

Orbiting Jupiter is fantastic. Short teen book which if it doesn't win the Carnegie in 2017 I will eat my trousers.

I am reading the Count of Monte Cristo. Never would have chosen it but Dd recommended. I am really enjoying it.

If you likes the Rivers of London series then this is another similar read. www.splitworlds.com/about/about-the-books/the-series-in-order/

I found them by accident and read them all in 2 days on holiday.

There is nothing better in life than finding a new author you like and discovering that they have a back catalogue of books you can plough through.

Currently reading the Trouble with Goats & Sheep which is great.

This year I have also loved Lindy West's book Shrill and also Dietland.

Madaddam and The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood - I read Oryx and Crake years ago and discovered the second and third parts of the trilogy. Really clever, dark but funny writing.

Peaches for Monsieur de Cure by Joanne Harris - a sequel to Chocolat, which I also read and loved years ago.

I just finished Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky and it is honestly the best book I have read for years. It is pretty hard SF, but bloody amazing. All I have done since finishing is tell everyone I know to read it. I still feel all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it

I reread The Remains of the Day this year - just fantastic.

Also great was In the Heart of the Sea - the real life story that inspired Melville to write Moby Dick.

I've read The Unseeing by Anna Mazzola and thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of this book and keep recommending it. Now I'm missing the excitement of getting into bed to catch up on the next instalment. Set in London at the very start of the Victorian era and based around a real murder investigation this has been a top read for me this year.

How to measure a cow by Margaret Forster. Bleak yet somehow uplifting.

This thread is BRILLIANT. I've made extensive notes.... Here are mine.

-WARNING: I'm not very highbrow-

Right now I'd recommend Naomi Alderton's 'The Power' - I'm about to finish it and putting it off as I've enjoyed it so much I don't want it to end. It's a dystopian(ish) look at what would happen if women had a power that made them stronger than men. It doesn't pull any punches, and there's some tough (but brilliant) reading in there.

I love the Rivers of London series. Paul Cornell's Shadow Police series is very similar in a lot of ways - gritty London, but with magic. Some of it is pretty hardcore and grim. I love it for its extreme London-ness.

www.paulcornell.com/category/shadow-police/

If you like urban fantasy then I'm gonna have to recommend the Dresden Files to you, though you may already be aware of them. Set in Chicago, with a wizard. I think they get better and better. Full disclosure: I listen to them as audiobooks because then James Marsters reads them too me and my teenage self is made happy.

www.jim-butcher.com/

I also like Jodi Taylor's St Mary's series. Sort of time travel. Some riotously unlikely plot twists in places, but the main character and the supporting cast are so much fun that I happily let that go. Besides, it's a book about time travel, how picky can I be about unlikely happenings?

www.jodi-taylor.com/

Straight crime fiction this year:

I really like Jane Casey's Maeve Kerrigan series - the first one is The Burning, I think. Young DC, in London, murder etc, but nicely written and plotted and she's a lovely hero.

www.penguin.co.uk/authors/jane-casey/1064362/

Sharon Bolton's Lacey Flint series, though she seems to have stopped writing them and there were a lot of unsettled arcs that I'd have liked to see tidied up.

www.sharonbolton.com/lacey-flint-series

Non fiction - I really like Sara Pascoe's 'Animal' (I listened to it, read by her, which I think might have added to it) and Jon Ronson's 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed ' which I think should be required reading before people are allowed to interact with other people on the internet.

I have more, but I'll stop now.

Oh my. So long. Sorry.

This is a great thread. I've downloaded lots of samples to my Kindle!

The best book I've read this year was the first one I read back in January and I'm surprised not to see it on here (I don't think!).

Our Endless Numbered Days

Definitely recommend and I'm pleased to see the author has a new book out next year.

Has anyone else read it? I love the cover too!

Thanks guys, glad to see this thread get more additions

Yes I've read the Jon Ronson it was very good.

I was interested about how the person who was different was Max Mosley because he simply wasn't ashamed.

Possibly because he came from a family used to public scrutiny.

I'm still struggling to find anything that will top The Goldfinch by Donna Tart. It stayed with me for ages.
I am going to try a few sample reads of suggestions on this thread and will start with The Wonder. Thanks for the recommendations.

I always prefer a book over the tv any day

I loved All the Light we Cannot see and have bought it first 2 friends since. Also really enjoyed The Secret Life of Bees.

My discovery of the year has been Kent Hanuf's Plainsong series. Everyday life where nothing much happens in incredibly beautiful, sparse prose. Not new, but new to me - loved them.

I'm going to try Eleanor Ferrante next I think.