Best (and Worst) Books of 2016 So Far

[Kylie]

Egads!   It seems like just yesterday that we were excitedly setting up our new reading logs for 2016, but now we're already halfway through the year! Seriously...did someone wind the clocks forward? Where did the past six months go, and what I have been doing all that time?! (Not reading enough, that's for sure.  )

 

Anyway...it's time for the annual 'best/worst so far' thread!

 

What are the best books you've read so far in 2016? Have there been any clunkers?  

 

And let's take it one step further...how are your personal reading challenges going? Have they fallen by the wayside, or are you making good progress?

[Kylie]

I've read 26 books so far (bang on track to my target of 52 for the year). I've only rated one book a perfect 10/10: Dead Wake by Erik Larson, which is a non-fiction book about the WWII sinking of the passenger ship, Lusitania.

 

 

I've rated nine other books 9/10, including four non-fiction books:

 

Bill Bryson The Road to Little Dribbling

John Hersey Hiroshima

Sarah Murgatroyd The Dig Tree

Jon Ronson So You've Been Publicly Shamed

 

 

and five fiction books:

 

Matt Haig The Boy Called Christmas

Patricia Highsmith Strangers on a Train

David Mitchell Slade House
Emily St John Mandel Station Eleven
PG Wodehouse Jeeves in the Offing

 

 

I haven't had any clunkers at all. Yay me!

 

 

Also, I've read 11 books from my priority reading list, which I'm pleased with, as it's on a par with how many I'd read at this time last year. I'm not actively participating in any challenges.

[Virginia]

Maybe its because its the summer, at this moment in time I cannot stay focused on one book.I pick one up and put it down. Its not the books, its me, lol!

 

I have completed three books from two different series Jan Karon and M. C. Beaton. Its my go to. If I can't focus on something, I work on a series book to keep me reading. I already know the characters so I don't have to stretch my brain trying too much. It keeps me reading so its a start.

Edited July 3, 2016 by Virginia

[Onion Budgie]

I discovered Helene Hanff earlier this year, so all of my favourite reads thus far have been hers:

The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street

Underfoot in Show Business

Letter from New York

 

Only one real clunker so far:  Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet.  The characters were all obnoxious bubblebrains, and the writing was far too flowery (no deliberate pun there!) for the mood I was in while I was reading it.

 

I've read 16 out of a modest goal of 20 for 2016.  

[beef]

I have read 24 so far, aiming for 50.

 

Best books so far of the year:

Y: The Last Man - Brian K Vaughn

A book that has been on my list of books to read since about 2003-2004, I waited until i was able to buy all 5 volumes in hardback and I am glad I waited. Probably the best written comic I have ever come across it. This is probably my favorite thing I have read all year.

5/5

How to get away with murder in America - Evan Wright

A fairly short but never the less disturbing read, from the same author as 'Generation Kill' which I read last year. This book tells the tale of organised crime, murder and the CIA in the 80's and 90's

4/5

 

The Whistleblower: Sex Trafficking, Military Contractors and One Woman's Fight for Justice -  Kathryn Bolkovac

Eye opening story from inside the world of the UN and its private security contractor and the kind of things that people get up to when they are dumped in war torn places and are above the law.

4/5

 

books that were a bit me

 

Executioner Pierrepoint - Albert Pierrepoint

An autobiography of a historically very interesting man, who came from a line of executioners. This book was equal parts interesting and tedious. Albert is clearly from a time where men did not express their feelings and really struggles to talk about his work at times.

3/5

 

Star Man - The right hand of rock'n'roll - Michael Francis

Another autobiography, this is the life story of a man who spent his adult life protecting the likes of Cher, Bon Jovi and Michael Jackson. he has a lot of wild stories but the book trundles on just a little too long and becomes, much like I imagine touring does becomes tedious.

3/5

 

 

clunkers:

Kicking the Habit - Jason Marriner

yet another autobiography, this one is of a man who was one of England's most notorious football hooligans. Shows no regret or shame in his past actions, comes across as a horrible man. and proud of it.

 

all in all the good has far outweighed the bad  

[Athena]

It seems so far people's reading is going allright .

 

Most impressive / Favourites of 2016 so far (not in order):

 

Brandon Sanderson - Warbreaker

Trudi Canavan - The Age of the Five series (I read book 1 in 2015)

John Flanagan - De Grijze Jager 6: Het Beleg van Macindaw (Ranger's Apprentice 6: The Siege of Macindaw) (I read the rest of the series in 2015)

John Flanagan - Ranger's Apprentice: The Early Years 1: The Tournament at Gorlan

James Clemens - The Banned and the Banished 1: Wit'ch Fire (re-read)

Peter F. Hamilton - Fallen Dragon

Scott Meyer - Master of Formalities

Beth Revis - Across the Universe trilogy

Michael Grant - Gone series (I read book 1 in 2015, and currently haven't read book 6 yet).

Stephen King - The Stand

Jodi Picoult - Handle with Care

Diane Chamberlain - The Lies We Told

Catherine Ryan Hyde - When I Found You

Dorothy Koomson - That Girl From Nowhere 1: That Girl From Nowhere

Jojo Moyes - Me Before You 1: Me Before You

Francine Oomen (ill. Annet Schaap) - Hoe Overleef Ik... 9: Hoe Overleef Ik (Zonder) Liefde? (I read the rest of the series in 2015)

Geronimo Stilton - Fantasia IX: De Fenomenale Reis (Grande Ritorno nel Regno della Fantasia)

Geronimo Stilton - De Grote Invasie van Rokford (La Grande Invasione di Topazia)

Thea Stilton - Heksen Van Fantasia 7: De Heks Van Al Het Kwaad (Strega Delle Streghe)

Geronimo Stilton - De Avonturen van Odysseus (Le Avventure di Ulisse)

Thea Stilton - Thea Stilton 19: De Jacht Op De Zwarte Tulp (Sulle Tracce Del Tulipano Nero)

Ann M. Martin - How to Look for a Lost Dog

Lauren Oliver - Liesl & Po (Liesl & Po)

David Walliams - Grandpa's Great Escape

Laura Ingalls Wilder - Little House series (I've read books 1-10 except book 8)

 

Biggest disappointments / Least favourites of 2016 so far:

 

Susan Hatler - Treasured Dreams 5: An Unexpected Wedding

Roddy Doyle - Dead Man Talking

Katie Davies (ill. Hannah Shaw) - Animal Antics 1: The Great Hamster Massacre

Leigh Bardugo - De Grisha 2: Dreiging en Duisternis (The Grisha 2: Siege and Storm)

 

I didn't set any challenges for myself, I feel that stresses me out too much (though I did set my GoodReads challenge to a goal I felt I'll be able to meet). I can say that in this first half of the year I read more books than in 2014, but less than in 2015 and idem dito for page numbers. I'm happy with that, I'm not going for a specific amount of books this year (last year that stressed me out, trying to get to a set amount of books. Though I am happy I achieved that.). I would like to read 100000 pages this year, and since I've read just over 50000 so far, it seems like a nice goal, to me. Hopefully it won't stress me out too much and I'll make the goal. I mainly just want to read what I feel like reading, rather than reading something because it's good for a challenge.

[Nollaig]

Ooooh I love this topic! I've had a pretty good reading year, with a lot more enjoyable reads than bad ones.

 

I'm ahead of schedule by 6 books in my goal to read 125 books this year.

 

I'm making decent progress with my Irish Counties Challenge (to read at least one book by an author, from each of the 32 counties) - I've read 11 books from 10 counties this year, which with books added from previous years totals 17 books from 13 counties.

 

New All-Time-Favourites:

 

Radiance - Catherynne Valente

A Little Life - Hanya Yanagihara

 

Notable 4-and-5-star Reads:

 

The Treatment - Mo Hayder

Beside Myself - Ann Morgan

Because You'll Never Meet Me - Leah Thomas

The Thing Itself - Adam Roberts

Year Of Wonders - Geraldine Brooks

The Man From Primrose Lane - James Renner

 

Best Irish Counties Challenge Reads:

 

The Black Snow - Paul Lynch

The Herbalist - Niamh Boyce

Solace - Belinda McKeon

 

Worst Reads:

 

Viral - Helen Fitzgerald

The Ice Twins - S. K. Tremayne

The Deadly Space Between - Patricia Duncker

The Demonologist - Andrew Pyper

[nursenblack]

My goal is 40 for the year and I've read 22 so far.  According to Goodreads I'm 2 books ahead of schedule.

 

The Best with 5/5 Rating:

 

My Friend Dahmer by Derf Backderf (graphic memoir)

The Rag and Bone Shop by Robert Cormeir (YA)

Bird Box by Josh Malerman (horror)

The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins (Fantasy/Horror)

A Mother's Reckoning:Living in the Aftermath of Tragedy by Sue Klebold (memoir)

 

Honorable Mention

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (4/5)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (4/5)

 

Books That Disappointed Me

 

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes -(2/5)

Anthropology of an American Girl by Hilary Thayer Hamann (2/5)

 

 

 

 

[chesilbeach]

I've had a much better year than I was expecting!  Despite spending more time on other hobbies, listening to audiobooks has helped me keep up with some books, and I've finished 76 books in the first half of the year.

 

There have been some absolute crackers in those, and five of them are getting my top rating at the moment:

 

Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks

The Old Wives' Tale by Arnold Bennett

Common Ground by Rob Cowen

The Shepherd's Life by James Rebanks

Coastlines by Patrick Barkham

 

Interestingly the first two are from my English Counties reading challenge and the other three are from my Wainwright Prize reading challenge!  In fact, my challenges have been going pretty well this year, and I've read 10 English Counties books, 7 Wainwright Prize books and 2 Persephone books.

 

I've also been trying to balance my male/female author ratio as last year was almost exclusively female, and so far I've read 24 books by male authors and 52 by female authors, so that's a huge improvement. I've also bumped up the non-fiction, and have read 12 non-fiction and 64 fiction books so far, so I'm pleased with those figures too.

 

There haven't really been any stinkers, but I have a few books that are way down my list in terms of enjoyment and they are:

 

Mobile Library by David Whitehouse
The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers

Tom Brown's Schooldays by Thomas Hughes

 

I'm perilously close to including The Mill on the Floss by George Eliot as well, but I think that's coloured by the fact that I loved Middlemarch so much last year.  

 

Overall, I'm very happy with my reading in the first half of the year, and I just hope the second half can match it!

[Peacefield]

Honorable Mention

The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck (4/5)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (4/5)

 

I have The Night Circus on my TBR shelf, Nursenblack, so I'm glad to hear you liked it.

 

I'll have to go back and look at which books I've read this year and how they fared specifically, but I can say without a doubt that Arcadia by Iain Pears was my most favorite read.  10 out of 10!!

[willoyd]

It's been an outstanding year for reading so far.  Numerically, I read 40 books in the first half of the year, by far the most in that period since I started logging my reading (previous best was 29 last year).  I don't have any numerical targets for the year.

 

Of those 40, I have rated five as 6-star reads to join the list of just over 100 all-time favourites.  Three of them were rereads (all for the English Counties Challenge), so just confirmed their status: 

 

Winnie-the-Pooh - AA Milne

Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf

Emma - Jane Austen

 

The other two were first time reads:

Howards Way - EM Forster

Germany, Memories of a Nation - Neil McGregor

 

Even there, Howards Way was read as part of the Counties Challenge (my alternative choice for Hertfordshire, mainly chosen because of the danger of over-familiarity with Pride and Prejudice).  So - 4 out of 5 down to this challenge!  Germany is one of only just over 30 non-fiction books to achieve this level - that's how good it was.  It will be a serious contender for my book of the year come December.  I've also given 5 stars (excellent) to 9 other books, which has to be some sort of record as well.  The best of these, and a contender for raising to 6 stars, was John Hempel-Lewis's The Running Hare, with Bruce Chatwin's On the Black Hill, Naomi Williams's Landfalls, and Anna Pavord's Landskipping coming up close behind.

 

There have been a couple of clunkers.  I've given one star to just two books this year:

 

Us - David Nicholls

A Man Called Ove - Fredrik Backman

 

I obviously just don't get on with the former - I've hated the others of his I've tried, but was compelled to at least start this as it was a selection for my book group.  I barely skimmed it to the finish. 

 

I'm working on three challenges.  The English Counties Challenge is our collectively home-grown one here.  I've read 14 of these so far this year, mostly very enjoyable, so that's nicely ticking along.  I've also developed my own US States Challenge, but have really only just got going on that, with just 2 down of the 51 since starting this earlier this year (and I'm holding fire on it for the moment with other priorities).  The third is the Popsugar Reading Challenge, which I had fun doing last year.  This year it comprises 40 different and diverse categories of books to be achieved in the year; 29 have been completed so far, so again that's going well.  Nice to record that I also hit 150 books this year on the Thousand and One Books Before You Die list, even though I'm not aiming for any particular completion there.

 

So, overall, a good first half, with hopefully a second half to match.  I usually read more in the second half of the year, especially around Christmas, so it looks promising.

Edited July 17, 2016 by willoyd

[frankie]

So far this year I've rated four books 5/5. In chronological order, the red one being my most favorite of the year so far: 

- The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster

- Dry by Augusten Burroughs (re-read)

- This Is Life by Dan Rhodes

- Far from True by Linwood Barclay 

 

These two have received 1/5 from me: 

- Edith's Diary by Patricia Highsmith

- The Vintage Springtime Club by Beatrice Meier 

 

 

 

 

[Anna Begins]

Gosh, I've read so many great books this year- it's hard to choose!

 

I guess I'd have to pick as my favorites:

 

The Time Travelers Wife by Andre Neffengger

When Paris Went Dark: The City of Light Under German Occupation (1940- 1944) by Ronald C Rosbottom

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith by Jon Krakauer

The Girl From Krakow by Alex Rosenburg

The Stepford Wives by Ira Levin

Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin

We The Living by Ayn Rand

 

And for the eh:

Fall of Giants (The Century Trilogy book 1) by Ken Follett

Winter of the World (The Century Trilogy book 2) by Ken Follett

The First Four Years (Little House on the Prairie collection book 9) by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Nine and a Half Weeks by Elizabeth McNeill

Edited July 15, 2016 by Anna Begins

[Madeleine]

Best:

 

The Marsh King's Daughter by Elizabeth Chadwick

 

Worst:

 

The Tenth Circle by Jodi Picoult

[Flip Martian]

I don't really score my books when I've read them but I would definitely say the 2 books I've read this year by Richard E Grant are both superb. Moving, hilarious, engaging, witty and descriptively written without ever being dry. With Nails is a diary of sorts from various films he worked on. Never too cruel about anyone but he certainly knows how to take you with him and make you believe you're there observing. HIs 2nd, The Wah Wah Diaries is him documenting the creation and making of his own film (loosely based on his early life in Swaziland and the various trials and tribulations involved - he certainly doesn't pull his punches when it comes to the rather useless and ego driven producer he ended up saddled with. Again, moving, engaging and very witty. He is a very good writer.

 

Other than that, my other favourite has been Blessings In Disguise by Sir Alec Guinness. Occasionally a bit "lovey" but an entertaining series of incidents and character sketches from his life - from so long ago now that it feels like he's talking about another country altogether.

 

As for the worst...well, it wasn't the worst but apparently was apparently all made up, which for a non fiction book was rather disappointing - The Nemesis File, which purports to tell the harrowing tale of an SAS execution squad operating in Northern Ireland many years ago - their role to covertly execute known IRA terrorists crossing the border before they could do any damage. And it was, very harrowing and moving, reading about how it affected them over the time they were doing it. But then I researched it afterwards and found out it was apparently made up! So a fairly decent work of fiction but annoying that I believed any of it!
 

As for targets - I don't set myself any; I just read what book I feel like reading, when I feel like it. If I set targets it would get to be a chore (but that's just me).

Edited July 25, 2016 by Flip Martian

[Little Pixie]

Favourite books so far :

 

The impossible lives of greta wells - as greer

 

The black honeymoon - Constance and gwenyth little

 

Death and the dancing footman - ngaio marsh

 

Spirit trilogy - ee holmes

 

Dead beat - Jim butcher

 

 

And the disappointing one - death lights a candle-pa Taylor. Far, far too much local cape cod dialect, which made it difficult to read.

[Lau_Lou]

The worst for me this year was Fangirl

It's not really the story I didn't like that was fine it was the constant going back to Cather's fanfiction.

(I can not skip pages or paragraphs) It's my own fault really as it comes under some of my least favourite genres.

 

Other books I didn't like One Day by David Nicholls

Lord Of The Flies by WillIam Golding that really was a disappointment

[Anna Begins]

I didn't like Lord of the Flies either. I even read it twice, just to give it another shot.

[Lau_Lou]

I really wanted to like it ^ I thought the writing was good. It was a shame for me

 

I read Charlotte's Web a few weeks ago. That book makes my heart feel warm! Such a beautiful story. I would give it more than 5stars if I could. I also wish I had read it in my childhood.

 

I have read so many books I've enjoyed this year I have been very lucky for that.

[setgoblen]

Best book I've read that was published in 2016 was Presence by Amy Cuddy.