Blog

Best Books of 2016

30th Dec 2016 in Books

This year I read 250 books. 250! No idea how that happened. I did travel a lot for book events and festivals, which meant many hours on trains and evenings in hotel rooms. I get sent a lot of books for review and blurbs. I volunteer in an Oxfam Books and usually buy at least one book per shift. I love the library – I’m a member of four, and my local library now refers to me as a “heavy user”. Also, my job is reading and writing books, and I really fucking like books.

Anyway! Books!

Here is a highly personal, not-very-scientifically-chosen list of my 50 favourites of 2016.

Books out in 2016:

 

• Best Apocalyptic Magical Realism: The Sunlight Pilgrims, Jenni Fagan
• Best Addictive, Beautifully-Written Thriller: The Trespasser, Tana French
• Best Science-Inspired Novel: The Comet Seekers, Helen Sedgwick
• Best Literary Horror: We Eat Our Own, Kea Wilson
• Best Unputdownable Novel: The Last One, Alexandra Oliva
• Best Feminist, Murderous Retelling of a Classic: Jane Steele, Lyndsay Faye

 

 

 

• Best Atmospheric, Sinister Wartime Mystery: The Amber Shadows, Lucy Ribchester
• Best Romance About a Writer: Tell Me a Story, Tamara Lush
• Best Funny Feminism: The Trouble With Women, Jacky Fleming
• Best Book About Pop Culture: But What If We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman
• Best Book to Read While Travelling Alone: The Lonely City, Olivia Laing
• Best One-Sitting Read That Made Me Cry: Avalanche, Julia Leigh

• Best Novella About Hydropathy & Feminism: Bodies of Water, V.H. Leslie
• Best Hard-To-Describe Book Written as Tiny Vignettes About Love: Trysting, Emmanuelle Pagano
• Best Best Poetry Collection To Read Aloud to Someone You Care About: Dirt, William Letford
• Best Debut Poetry Collection That Made Me Do a Mini Fist-Pump: This Changes Things, Claire Askew
• Best Poetry Pamphlet That I Can’t Stop Telling People About: Still, Nadine Aisha
• Best Ongoing Children’s Horror Series: Lockwood & Co – The Creeping Shadow, Jonathan Stroud

 

Books Out Before 2016:

• Best Dark, Magical Book I’d Never Heard Of Before: Cobwebwalking, Sara Banerji
• Best Book Under 100 Pages: Coyote, Colin Winnette
• Best Book to Read By the Pool: The Lemon Grove, Helen Walsh
• Best Magical Realism About Mothers and Daughters: The Blue Girl, Laurie Foos
• Best Deep-Sea Horror: The Deep, Nick Cutter
• Best Novella About Death: Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, Max Porter

• Best Queer Gothic: Grab Bag, Derek McCormack
• Best YA Magical Realism: The Accident Season, Moïra Fowley-Doyle
• Best Bizarre, Dreamy Horror Novella: The Paradise Motel, Eric McCormack
• Best Beautifully-Illustrated Fairytale Retellings: A Wild Swan, Michael Cunningham
• Best Creepy Novel About a Stranger Coming into Your House: A Pleasure and a Calling, Phil Hogan
• Best Fiction By an Author Who I Previously Only Knew as a Non-Fiction Writer: Fly Away Home, Marina Warner

• Best Changeling Story: Some Kind of Fairy Tale, Graham Joyce
• Best Halloween Read: The Night Country, Stewart O’Nan
• Best Retelling of Welsh Folktales: Dark Tales From the Woods, Daniel Morden
• Best Fairytale-esque Quest Featuring Bees: The Beekeeper, Maxence Fermine
• Best Multiple-Parallel-Narrative-Strand Novel: The Versions of Us, Laura Barnett
• Best Horror Anthology: Skin Of The Soul – New Horror Stories By Women, Lisa Tuttle (ed.)

• Best Surreal and Beautiful Children’s Horror Stories: A Whisper in the Night, Joan Aiken
• Best Cute and Weird Graphic Novel: Nimona, Noelle Stevenson
• Best Graphic Novel Re-Read: Saga, Brian K. Vaughan
• Best Graphic Novel About Antarctic Exploration: Shackleton’s Journey, William Grill
• Best Merging of Fiction and Non-Fiction: The Woman Warrior, Maxine Hong Kingston
• Best Change-Your-Life Book That Actually My Life: The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a Fuck, Sarah Knight

 

• Best Tender, Thoughtful, Intelligent True Crime: Lost Girls, Robert Kolker
• Best Non-Fiction Book About a Misunderstood Holiday: Trick or Treat – A History of Halloween, Lisa Morton
• Best Book About a Topic I Didn’t Realise I Was Interested In: The Great Beanie Baby Bubble, Zac Bissonnette
• Best Surprisingly Readable Academic Book About Horror Films: Gender and the Nuclear Family in Twenty-First-Century Horror, Kimberly Jackson
• Best Beautifully-Written, Rambling Book About Ghosts: A Natural History of Ghosts, Roger Clarke
• Best Book About Writing: Zen in the Art of Writing, Ray Bradbury
• Best Book About the Complicated Love of Pro-Wrestling: Wrestlecrap – The Very Worst of Professional Wrestling, R.D. Reynolds & Randy Baer
• Best Book About the History of Food: Consuming Passions, Philippa Pullar