I don’t know what the weather’s
like in your part of the country, but here in central North Carolina, it’s
gloomy and bitterly cold. Up to a foot of snow was predicted; what we got
instead was sleet and treacherously icy roads. Our governor, Roy Cooper,
exhorted us to keep off the roads, and stay home. He could have added the
welcome advice (and it would have been novel, too, coming from a politician) to
stay home with a good book.
No complaints from me: I have
a stack of TBR books—plus enough coffee to get me through the next day or so.
For the next “weather event,” though, I’m planning to stock up on one or more
books from “best of 2016” lists. In particular, I am happily highlighting
several books recommended in “The Year in Reading,” the December 25 issue of
The New York Times Book Review. http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/12/19/books/review/25year-in-reading.html
Forty seven “avid readers” contributed. They are a diverse lot:
writers, politicians, scientists, historians, song writers, artists, actors,
humorists. I’m hanging on to my print version of that issue for future reference.
I was pleased to see some of my favorite books among those listed by writers I
admire, such as Anthony Doerr’s All the
Light We Cannot See (Mary Oliver).
As important, I came away with a list to explore in 2017: Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad (Ann Patchett,
among others): Sara Baum’s Spill Simmer
Falter Wither (Anne Tyler) and M.J.
Carter’s The Strangler Vine ( Michael
Lewis), to name just a few.
I developed my own list of
favorites for 2016 and included it in my Christmas cards this year (see below).
I also invited friends to share books they read and liked in the past year. Here’s their response:
q Barbara D: News
of the World by Paulette Jiles; A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles; Hillbilly
Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture
by J. P Vance
q Carol B: Between
the World and Me by Ta-Nahisi Coates; Just
Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption by
Bryan Stevenson
q Dan and Sue M: Hillbilly
Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture by J.P. Vance; Healing the Heart of Democracy by Parker J. Palmer
q Dean F: Before
the Fall by Noah Hawley; All Things
Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage; Hunters
in the Dark by Lawrence Osborne
q Katherine B: The Boys in the Boat by Daniel Brown
q Marjorie W: Being
Mortal by Atul Gawande
q Mary Ann F: Some Luck by Jane Smiley; Mayflower
by Nathaniel Philbrick; My Weeds by
Sara Stein
q Nancy A: All the Living by C.E. Morgan
q Pat T: Evicted:
Poverty and Profit in the American City by Michael Stevenson
q Paula B: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles
Rachel B: Station
Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
q Ruffin B: The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber
q Ruth G: Our Souls At Night by Kent Haruf
q Shannon R: Dimestore
by Lee Smith; Commonwealth by Ann
Patchett; The Voice at the Back Door by
Elizabeth Spencer
q Steve S: Her
Again: Becoming Meryl Streep by Michael Schulman
And here’s my 2016
Book List: A Baker’s Dozen
q Victoria the
Queen by Julia Baird
q Moonglow by Michael Chabon
q LaRose by Louise Erdrich
q The Spirit
Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne
Fadiman
q The Past by Tess Hadley
q March (graphic trilogy) by John Lewis
q H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
q Nutshell by Ian McEwan
q A Great
Reckoning by Louise Penney
q Pax by Sara Pennypacker
q Dig by John Preston
q SwingTime by Zadie Smith
q Collected
Stories of Peter Taylor
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