2016 books

Guys, I failed at my reading challenge last year. I got about six of the twelve and then mostly forgot about it for five or six months. (Not that I wasn't reading, I just wasn't reading books that fit these categories.) Here are the ones I did complete:

1. a book published this year (A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas)
2. a book you can finish in a day (Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon)
3. a book you've been meaning to read (Children of God by Mary Doria Russell)
4. a book chosen for you by your spouse, partner, sibling, child, or BFF (The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale, recommended by Anali)
5. a book published before you were born (Sorcery and Cecelia by Patricia Wrede and Caroline Stevermer)
6. a book you've already read at least once (The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell)

Nevertheless, I did meet my Goodreads challenge: I set my yearly goal at 40 books and read 44. Here are some favorites, in no particular order, which I would recommend to just about anybody.

• Uprooted by Naomi Novic: A lush, gorgeous, Polish-fairy-tale-inspired fantasy. The magic in this story is among the most poetic and vividly imagined I've ever read.
• Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates: Essential reading for anyone aspiring toward racial justice. The beginning pages are rather heady, possibly to the point of being off-putting, but it gets easier and is absolutely worth it. I can't say much else about it except that this one should probably be required for everybody.
• Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson: The first novel in the Gold Seer trilogy takes place during the 1849 gold rush and follows a gutsy, smart, anti-stereotype heroine and her diverse cadre of pioneering adopted family members. I loved so many things about this book, but most of all I loved the author's adept tackling of marginalization and bias, set during a time when anti-bias sentiment was decidedly unpopular.
• Attachments by Rainbow Rowell: An adorable and hilarious novel taking place in a newspaper office at the turn of the millennium. I couldn't get enough of these characters and their witty, endearing, compulsively readable interactions.
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card: I'm a few decades late to this one, but it's timeless enough to be appreciated anytime. I adored its handling of cultural and social anthropology, which made it much more engaging to me than the battle school setting of its predecessor, Ender's Game. It's also surprisingly relevant to the current political and social climate of the United States.

If you have read or plan to read any of these books, I'd love to talk about them with you! I'm always open to new book recommendations, too. Happy bookish new year!