Hey everyone! Last week I did my Beauty Favorites, so now I’m following up with my favorite books of 2016. I was originally going to do my favorite life moments in this post as well but it was going to be a super long post so I’m going to split them up and that post will be up tomorrow.

I have chosen the top 10 books I enjoyed in 2016 so here we go!

2016 Favorite Books

In no particular order my favorite books of 2016 have been:

1. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
   I wanted to read more classic books at the beginning of the year, particularly as I was still finding my footing in the book world again after a few years of not reading as much. I was really impressed with this story and the message that the book conveyed. I know it’s not for everyone but I was happy to have read it.
2. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
   I normally hate books that I was forced to read in school, and I had read this one in high school. But I figured I’d give it a try. As the sequel had been released and Harper Lee had passed, this book had been super hyped up again and I wanted to reread it. While not my favorite book ever I included this on the list because of the message of this book as well and how important it turned out to be for the entire year.
3. I am Malala by Malala Yousafzai
   Malala’s story is one that I’m familiar with, having seen coverage of her on the news, but I wanted to know more. Her book is full of her experiences as she tried to get a quality education in a world where most of her community didn’t see it as important to educate females. Malala was fortunate to have been born into a family where her father regarded her equally as important as her brothers and who emphasized educating her and her peers. The book does cover her life through the day she was shot in the head by the Taliban, and her escape, which was just remarkable to read.
4. Hamilton the Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
   Of course, I had to include the Hamiltome in the list! My obsession with Hamilton has stayed strong through the entire year. I listened the the recording countless times and read through the details in the book, watched the #Ham4Ham recordings, searched for cast interviews, stayed up to see the documentary, and so on. My book is signed by Jeremy McCarter, as I went back to my alma mater, Elmhurst College, for a lecture by McCarter and he did a book signing afterwards. I’ve seen the musical once and want to see it again someday. Fingers crossed!
5. A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas
   What 2016 book favorites list would be complete without ACOMAF on it? I also read the first book in the series, A Court of Thorns and Roses this year, but I loved ACOMAF so much more. I can’t wait for ACOWAR later this year and I’m looking forward to spending more time in that world.
6. Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas
   Another Maas book, I picked EoS not just because it was the latest book in the series, but because it was my favorite. I also read all of the Throne of Glass series books this year, and I felt that EoS really pulled everything together very well. I can’t wait for the next book of this series too!
7. Ms. Marvel Series by G. Willow Wilson
   It’s a little weird for me to include a comic series in my favorites list but the Ms. Marvel series has been so much fun to read and I love it! I don’t really like comics, although I have tried to like them. Ms. Marvel’s story has been the one that I like the most and I actually look forward to reading the next one.
8. Buffering: Unshared Tales of a Life Fully Loaded by Hannah Hart
   Another autobiography, Buffering was an amazing, deep, and honest view of Hannah’s life. I’ve followed Hannah’s youtube channel (youtube.com/myharto) for years, since her My Drunk Cooking videos started becoming viral, and so most people would think they know the creator pretty well by then. And while I did know the overview, there was so much more that Hannah had to share and I was truly happy that she did write it all out and release it to the world to read.
9. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them: The Original Screenplay by J.K. Rowling
   I was so happy that I took the time to read this script after watching the movie. After Cursed Child we Potter fans needed something new to reinvigorate our love for the wizarding world. Newt is such a great new character and I’m excited to follow his story as we did Harry’s. I particularly love it because while I grew up with Harry, who guided me through Hogwarts and the school life of a young wizard, I’m an adult now and now there’s Newt to guide me through the larger wizarding world which is open to explore!

Goodreads Challenge 2016

So I started the year with a goal of 20something books and quickly and frequently had to increase my goal throughout the year. I stopped updating my goal at 75 and met that in November. As of today I have read 88 books! With that number, I met my goal by 117%. 🙂

In total, I read 29,944 pages, the shortest book was 62 pages for To Be a Princess by Hugh Brewster and the longest was Winter with 832 pages. The average length of pages was 344.

The most popular book I read this year was To Kill a Mockingbird and the least was the Kid’s Survival Handbook by Scholastic Inc. (no specific author). Oh, and the highest rated on Goodreads was ACOMAF with an average of 4.74 stars out of 5.

Goodreads Challenge 2017

For 2017 I think I’m going to decrease my goal to 50 books. I want to start school at some point and I have a few other hobbies I want to put more time into. I could very easily meet a higher goal, as I could have read a lot more in the beginning of the year of 2016, but I do want to leave time to do other things without feeling bad about not reading or having to risk lowering my reading goal!

Honorable Mentions

And now for some Honorable Mentions! Not my favorites but really enjoyable and good reads overall.

1. Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff
   Of course, Gemina had to make the list! It very nearly almost made it into the favorites, but ultimately just didn’t quite get there. Like other series, I read this one and Illuminae this year and I really enjoyed them both! I actually liked Gemina more than I did the first book and I want to see where book 3 goes.
2. Winter by Marissa Meyer
   I read all of the Lunar Chronicles this year but Winter was my favorite. Winter ended up being my favorite of the characters, so her book was my favorite of the series as well.
3. Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard
   While I didn’t like the sequel as much, Red Queen was so much fun to read! Watching Mare’s story unfold as she tried her best to navigate through the world of the Silver Bloods and survive.
4. Divergent by Veronica Roth
   I reread Divergent and the rest of the series this year as well. I really enjoyed immersing myself back into the factions and exploring this Chicago through Tris’ eyes. I think I would have been born a Candor but switched to Erudite. Either that or just plain Erudite!
5. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
   For all it’s faults, this play brought be back to the wizarding world and was such a nice visit home. I hope to someday get to see the play myself but for now, the script was amazing and a lot of fun.
6. Fun Home by Allison Bechdel
   Speaking of fun, another comic has made it into my list. This is another autobiography and the author lends her name to the famous Bechdel test which is used to determine if a movie or other work of fiction is portraying females in an acceptable manner. Her story was so interesting and a journey of self-discovery.
7. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs
   I read the three Miss Peregrine’s books this year but the first was my favorite. Learning about the Peculiars with Jacob and exploring the loops for the first time was such a magical moment. I didn’t particularly enjoy the rest of the series as much as I thought I would but the first book is great!
8. The Diary of Frida Kahlo by Frida Kahlo
   After learning about Frida for years in Spanish classes and then finally visiting her home in Mexico, this book was a nice read and very fun to discover.
9. The Mirror King by Jodi Meadows (photo from Goodreads)
   The second book in The Orphan Queen series, I loved the sequel much more. After reading so many trilogies or longer series, I really appreciated the end of this duology a lot. It was a great wrap up to the story and while some parts of the story were a little too fantastical for me, the overall story was amazing and fun to read.

2016 Monthly Wrap-Ups

Oh and I thought I’d put in links to all my monthly wrap-ups as well!

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December – Will be up next Monday!

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So that’s my favorite books! I know today isn’t my usual upload day but I wanted to have it up by the new year so I hope you don’t mind an extra post from me.

Let me know what your favorite books have been for 2016!

Thanks for reading!