2016 in Review

1. The World of Downton Abbey by Jessica Fellows

2. Nest by Esther Ehrlich

3. The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North

4. The Haunting of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie

5. The Birth House by Ami McKay

6. Lost and Found by Emily Parkhurst

7. Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

8. Nightfall by Jake Halpern and Peter Kujawinski

9. Slated by Teri Terry

10. The Lemoncholy Life of Annie Aster by Scott Wilbanks

11. The Readers of Broken Wheel Recommend by Katarina Bivald

12. Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

13. The Story Sisters by Alice Hoffman

14. Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan

15. Such a Pretty Fat by Jen Lancaster

16. Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent

17. The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell

18. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray

19. I Am Sophie Tucker by Susan and Lloyd Ecker

20. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel

21. Talk to Me by Sonia Ellis

22. The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

23. Girls, Drums and Dangerous Pie by Jordan Sonnenblick

24. Repeat by Neal Pollack

25. The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton

26. Stuffocation by James Wallman

27. Did You Ever Have a Family by Bill Clegg

28. The Sound of Glass by Karen White

29. When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

30. Scary Mommy's Guide to Surviving the Holidays by Jill Smokler

31. The Doctors Are In by Graeme Burk and Robert Smith?

32. The Thing About Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

33. The Dead House by Dawn Kurtagich

34. This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

35. Reading the Sweet Oak by Jan Stites

36. The League of Unexceptional Children by Gitty Daneshvari

37. Smoke by Catherine McKenzie

Well, what a year it has been! I read some books I really liked and some that didn't really speak to me as much. I had stretches of heavy reading and other times when I languished with a book for far too long. Personally, it was a bit of an upside down year with an unexpected move so that hampered my reading with busyness and feelings of distraction. I would still say that 37 books is a perfectly respectable number. Perhaps I will improve on it a bit in 2017, but I refuse to allow my reading to become about the number of books I complete.

In addition to the books I completed, I was also very proud of my success at my first reading challenge. Since the challenge was about tackling my TBR pile, I was able to count books that I read and also that I removed from the pile completely. I was able to remove FIFTY-NINE books from my TBR list. I was especially grateful for this when it came time for that move across the country. I enjoyed the challenge to stop ignoring the books I've had for so long and, as a bonus, I didn't purchase ANY books for myself in 2016. Between that and the fact that I only purchased one book in 2015, I have come to realize that I really don't need to own nearly as many books as I used to think that I did. I still love receiving them as gifts, but I find that I am less interested in buying them for myself. I have so many still to read and I have access to a wonderful library system, so perhaps I won't buy many in 2017, but I'm not making any promises.

Speaking of 2017, I am making a goal to read 45 books, but I won't stress about it too much. I will be more flexible about what I read and the source of those books. I will continue to only read what I enjoy and any books that aren't holding my attention will be quickly put aside. There are too many good books out there to read to waste any time with stinkers.

How was your reading year? Did you participate in any challenges? Do you have any goals for the year ahead? I'd love to hear all about it!