With 2016 (finally) coming to an end, I wanted to look back at some of my favorite books of the year. I chose the categories randomly so that I could feature some of my favorite books. There is no distinction between books released in 2016 or from before. Reviews are linked to in the ratings.
Favorite Fantasy
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
Favorite Historical Fiction
Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez
Honorable Mentions: The Walled City by Ryan Graudin, Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys
Favorite Contemporary
The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson
Favorite Book From A Genre I Don’t Usually Read
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Favorite Reread
Uprooted by Naomi Novik
Honorable Mention: The Wrath and the Dawn by Rene Ahdieh, The Sweet Far Thing (Gemma Doyle #3) by Libba Bray
Favorite Standalone
The Walled City by Ryan Graudin
Favorite Series
The Starbound Trilogy by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner
Book I Can’t Believe I Didn’t Read Sooner
His Majesty’s Dragon (Temeraire #1) by Naomi Novik
Favorite Book That Opened My Eyes
Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
Favorite Book That Made Me Cry
The Raven King (TRC #4) by Maggie Stiefvater
Honorable Mention: Empire of Storms (TOG #5) by Sarah J. Maas, A Court of Mist and Fury (ACO #2) by Sarah J. Maas
Favorite Book That Surprised Me
The Darkest Part of the Forest by Holly Black
What were your favorite books in 2016? Do we share any favorites? Do you have any recommendations for 2017?
52 Letters in the Alphabet 
I’ve seen so many good reviews about Ready Player One by Ernest Cline:-)
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It is amazing! You should read it, even if you don’t think you would relate. I understood almost none of the references, but it still gave me nostalgic feels and was an incredible story 🙂
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Ready Player One is one of those books I love to listen to on audiobook. Not only is Will Wheton’s narration sensational, but that book is just pure nostalgia and very easy to walk in and out of. You don’t really find books like that often.
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Oooh, I had never considered listening to it on audio book. I feel like it would be incredible. RPO really impressed me because I have literally never played a video game but it STILL made me feel nostalgic.
Have you read his other book, Armada? I saw it in a bookstore yesterday and was seriously considering buying it for myself…
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Yes, I read it and I wasn’t a huge fan. There are lots of similarities between it and RPO. So much so that I feel like it was a sequel. Overall it fell kind of flat with me. But maybe you’ll like it more than I did. 🙂
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That’s lame. I feel like I would only like it if it were SUPER different and unique in the way that RPO was. Oh well, maybe I’ll read it sometime…
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I was really disappointed too. 😦
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[…] as a blogger and as a writer this year. To see my favorite books of 2016, you can see my reading recap from […]
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I’ve decided that I want to be you. I always look at your reading lists and go THIS IS EVERYTHING I’VE BEEN MEANING TO READ FOR 92817 YEARS. Sigh. I’m really curious to read Out of Darkness seeing as you’ve put that quite high – I haven’t really seen it talked about anywhere else (but then I also haven’t really looked).
Also! I gave my brother Elantris for Christmas this year so fingers crossed he enjoys it as much as you did!
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AHH thank you!!! But it’s totally the same for me, like every book you read looks like something I’d love to read. The classic problem: too many books, not enough time…
Out of Darkness is incredible–but VERY dark, so be warned. Trigger warning for basically everything, but also one of the most incredible tacklings of racism that I’ve ever read.
YAY! I hope he likes Elantris! It’s one of my favorite Brandon Sanderson books 🙂
Happy 2017!!!
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