I know not all of you are friends with me on Goodreads (and you should be!) but I’m getting close to closing out 2016 for the year and writing my Best Books I Read post. Just in case you were wondering, this is the competition:
| And the Walls Came Tumbling Down | Abernathy, Ralph David |
| Throne of the Crescent Moon (The Crescent Moon Kingdoms, #1) | Ahmed, Saladin |
| All the Birds in the Sky | Anders, Charlie Jane |
| Karen Memory | Bear, Elizabeth |
| Twelve Kings in Sharakhai (The Song of the Shattered Sands, #1) | Beaulieu, Bradley P. |
| Jessica Jones: Alias Vol. 3 (Alias (Alias (2001-2003)) | Bendis, Brian Michael |
| Jessica Jones: Alias, Vol. 2 | Bendis, Brian Michael |
| Jessica Jones: Alias, Vol. 4 (Alias, #4) | Bendis, Brian Michael |
| City of Blades (The Divine Cities, #2) | Bennett, Robert Jackson |
| Crystal Rain (Xenowealth, #1) | Buckell, Tobias S. |
| Ink and Bone (The Great Library, #1) | Caine, Rachel |
| The Girl with All the Gifts | Carey, M.R. |
| Alexander Hamilton | Chernow, Ron |
| The Tale of Yin | Chng, Joyce |
| The Terracotta Bride | Cho, Zen |
| Black Panther: A Nation Under Our Feet, Book 1 | Coates, Ta-Nehisi |
| Nemesis Games (Expanse, #5) | Corey, James S.A. |
| Labyrinth Lost (Brooklyn Brujas, #1) | Córdova, Zoraida |
| The Devourers | Das, Indra |
| Are Prisons Obsolete? | Davis, Angela Y. |
| The Wizard Killer – Season One | Dreece, Adam |
| My Soul to Keep (African Immortals, #1) | Due, Tananarive |
| An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States | Dunbar-Ortiz, Roxanne |
| Black Wolves (Black Wolves, #1) | Elliott, Kate |
| Dead Souls: A Novel | Fenn, J. Lincoln |
| A Book of Tongues (Hexslinger, #1) | Files, Gemma |
| The Force Awakens | Foster, Alan Dean |
| The Drowning Eyes | Foster, Emily |
| The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad, #5) | French, Tana |
| Kenyatta’s Escape | Goines, Donald |
| Kenyatta’s Last Hit | Goines, Donald |
| Crime Partners | Goines, Donald |
| Death List | Goines, Donald |
| Bloodline | Gray, Claudia |
| Ten Thousand Skies Above You (Firebird, #2) | Gray, Claudia |
| A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird, #1) | Gray, Claudia |
| Three Slices (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #7.5; Blud, #3.5; Miriam Black, #3.5) | Hearne, Kevin |
| Staked (The Iron Druid Chronicles, #8) | Hearne, Kevin |
| The Destruction of the European Jews | Hilberg, Raul |
| A Rage in Harlem (Harlem Cycle, #1) | Himes, Chester |
| Brown Girl in the Ring | Hopkinson, Nalo |
| God’s War (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #1) | Hurley, Kameron |
| The Geek Feminist Revolution | Hurley, Kameron |
| Infidel (Bel Dame Apocrypha, #2) | Hurley, Kameron |
| A Brief History of Seven Killings | James, Marlon |
| The Children of Men | James, P.D. |
| The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth, #2) | Jemisin, N.K. |
| The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe | Johnson, Kij |
| Ahsoka | Johnston, E.K. |
| The Unquiet Dead (Rachel Getty & Esa Khattak #1) | Khan, Ausma Zehanat |
| Hammers on Bone | Khaw, Cassandra |
| The Ballad of Black Tom | LaValle, Victor |
| Moth and Spark | Leonard, Anne |
| The Wall of Storms (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2) | Liu, Ken |
| The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories | Liu, Ken |
| Monstress, Volume 1: Awakening | Liu, Marjorie |
| MJ-12: Inception (MAJESTIC-12 #1) | Martinez, Michael J. |
| Chaos Choreography (InCryptid, #5) | McGuire, Seanan |
| Pocket Apocalypse (InCryptid, #4) | McGuire, Seanan |
| This Census-Taker | Miéville, China |
| Lagoon | Okorafor, Nnedi |
| Akata Witch (Akata Witch, #1) | Okorafor, Nnedi |
| Binti (Binti, #1) | Okorafor, Nnedi |
| Midnight Taxi Tango (Bone Street Rumba, #2) | Older, Daniel José |
| Infomocracy (The Centenal Cycle, #1) | Older, Malka Ann |
| Midnighter, Vol. 1: Out | Orlando, Steve |
| Mr. Fox | Oyeyemi, Helen |
| Too Like the Lightning (Terra Ignota, #1) | Palmer, Ada |
| The Family Plot | Priest, Cherie |
| Chapelwood (The Borden Dispatches, #2) | Priest, Cherie |
| Concrete Park Volume 2: R-E-S-P-E-C-T | Puryear, Tony |
| Concrete Park Volume 1 | Puryear, Tony |
| The Female Man | Russ, Joanna |
| A Stranger in Olondria | Samatar, Sofia |
| Calamity (Reckoners, #3) | Sanderson, Brandon |
| The Quest for Cush (Imaro #2) | Saunders, Charles R. |
| Imaro | Saunders, Charles R. |
| Fire Boy – Book 1 of the Djinn-Son duology | Shah, Sami |
| Hoodoo | Smith, Ronald L. |
| A.D. After Death, Book One | Snyder, Scott |
| Scale-Bright | Sriduangkaew, Benjanun |
| An Ember in the Ashes (An Ember in the Ashes, #1) | Tahir, Sabaa |
| The Root (Wrath & Athenaeum #1) | Tilahun, Na’amen Gobert |
| The Rising (The Alchemy Wars, #2) | Tregillis, Ian |
| Pride’s Spell (Sin du Jour, #3) | Wallace, Matt |
| Lustlocked (Sin du Jour, #2) | Wallace, Matt |
| Fluency (Confluence, #1) | Wells, Jennifer Foehner |
| Aftermath – Life Debt | Wendig, Chuck |
| The Hellsblood Bride (Mookie Pearl, #2) | Wendig, Chuck |
| Invasive | Wendig, Chuck |
| Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman | West, Lindy |
| Masterminds and Wingmen: Helping Our Boys Cope with Schoolyard Power, Locker-Room Tests, Girlfriends, and the New Rules of Boy World | Wiseman, Rosalind |
| Hope Rising | Witter, Pamela H. |
For reasons that aren’t quite clear to me, that list (which I just pulled off of Goodreads) doesn’t match the number of books that GR says are on my 2016 shelf, but screw it, it’s close enough. I should pass 100 books read in the year rather easily by the end of the month, which means I read a bit less this year than I usually do– which kind of surprises me. I’ve read 97 books this year, only a very few of which were rereads– not enough, honestly. 45 of them were by authors who were new to me and 74 were by women or authors of color. I’m going to keep up this plan next year, too, although I’m going to toss sexuality into the mix– I’m going to keep books by straight white men to no more than about a quarter of what I read. I liked what that did for my reading choices this year so I don’t see any reason to not keep it going.
Anything on the list you particularly liked? Anything I should make sure to get to next year?
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I like the way you’ve included groups other than white male authors. I’m trying to do that with my students and have to look back at the books that I’ve read. I’ve been focusing on reading books from specific countries. Like who would have guessed that my knowledge of Canadian literature would be so limited? Thanks for sharing this list.
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I thought about trying to diversify by nationality but decided it meant too much research. 🙂
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I also burned out on white guy SFF this year so I’ve been reading NK Jemisin, Nalo Hopkinson, Ken Liu, et al. Loved Karen Memory, Obelisk Gate, Monstress. I really wanted to like The Root – the concept & characters are great – but the execution was so poor, it made for an unpleasant reading experience.
I would add Yoon Ha Lee to your author list. 🙂
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here’s where I admit that the gender, orientation, race, religion, age, politics, nationality, philosophy, insert status of your choice here, has never once factored into my decision to read a book or not. as far as your list, I’ve read one of those, and have been picking up/putting down another one for years. at this point it’s almost a game.
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Which two?
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