Ah nuts. It's been a whole year without a single post here. Anyways, at least you get one post a year from me. That's more than some blogs I suppose.
Only 21 books this year! That's a grave offense. I must do better this year. Go 2017!
By far, the most terrifying (and timely) was "In the Garden of Beasts." Imagine watching the rise of Hitler, screaming about it and no one does anything. Imagine. It was much scarier than the Sarah Pinborough books.
Colson Whitehead's book was amazing. Heartbreaking and powerful all in one tiny book. Go read it now. I'll wait here until you get back.
And I cannot recommend reading "Weapons of Math Destruction" after watching "Black Mirror." That will drive you towards a life of digital minimalism where you'll be handing pieces of paper to people to securely deliver messages.
Without further ado, the books I read in 2016. See you next year (unless "Black Mirror" sets you off):
- In the Garden of Beasts: Love, Terror, and an American Family in Hitler's Berlin by Erik Larson (5 stars)
- Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy by Cathy O'Neil (4 stars)
- Binti (Binti, #1) by Nnedi Okorafor (4 stars)
- The Sellout by Paul Beatty (4 stars)
- Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind (2 stars)
- The Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi (4 stars)
- The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (5 stars)
- The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi (5 stars)
- The Water Knife by Paolo Bacigalupi (3 stars)
- The Story of My Teeth by Valeria Luiselli (4 stars)
- Heroine Complex (Heroine Complex, #1) by Sarah Kuhn (4 stars)
- Furiously Happy: A Funny Book About Horrible Things by Jenny Lawson (3 stars)
- Freedom™ (Daemon, #2) by Daniel Suarez (5 stars)
- Daemon by Daniel Suarez (3 stars)
- The Chosen Seed (The Dog-Faced Gods, #3) by Sarah Pinborough (3 stars)
- Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (5 stars)
- The Shadow of the Soul (The Dog-Faced Gods, #2) by Sarah Pinborough (3 stars)
- A Matter of Blood (The Dog-Faced Gods, #1) by Sarah Pinborough (4 stars)
- The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick (3 stars)
- Metal Cowboy: Tales from the Road Less Pedaled by Joe Kurmaskie (3 stars)
- Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything by Joshua Foer (4 stars)
If you are curious, I use a python script to generate the list of books. (You'll need your Goodreads key in order to use it.) Then I just paste it into GNU Emacs.
You can see the other years here. I've managed to do this for 7 years running. Hooray for narcissistic me!