I usually have a goal of reading 52 books a year – a book a week. Most years I have accomplished that goal and have even surpassed it a few times. However, there were also many years when my children were very little that I did not reach that goal, despite my love for reading.
This year, the year where all the children have slept through the night and the master’s degree has been completed, I have read more than 100 books. Just by reading about every night before bed, with my older children, during road trips and on relaxing Sunday afternoons, I doubled my goal.
Not every book was good. In fact, I came across several that seemed to have been published too quickly and needed more editing. I won’t mention them by name here, but I do note that in my reviews. (For a list of books I’ve reviewed, visit the complete list here.)
I came across several wonderful books, too. Here are my 25 top reads from 2016 (links will take you to the book review post:
Fiction
America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray
A Dog’s Purpose and A Dog’s Journey by W. Bruce Cameron
The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
The Mistletoe Secret by Richard Paul Evans
Non-Fiction
The Wright Brothers by David McCullough
How to Raise an Adult by Julie Lythcott-Haims
The Next 100 Years: A Forecast for the 21st Century by George Friedman
Killing Reagan by Bill O’Reilly
Frozen in Time by Mitchell Zuckoff
The Made-From-Scratch Life by Melissa K. Norris
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
Youth
Flora and Ulysses by Kate DiCamillo
The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster
The Magician’s Elephant by Kate DiCamillo
The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane by Kate DiCamillo
Because of Winn-Dixie by Kate DiCamillo
Inspirational
The Abundant Mama’s Guide to Savoring Slow by Shawn L. Fink
Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
7: An Experimental Mutiny Against Excess by Jen Hatmaker
Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis
What are your top reads from 2016?