Best of 2016

Let's be honest, 2016 was not the best year. It was full of extra-sad celebrity deaths; horrible news about war, viruses, and weather disasters; and, yeah, the election. (Let's not talk about that.) Thank goodness for books. Whenever the world made me sad, I could at least turn to the books on my nightstand for a few good moments (cause even hate reading a bad book is better than what was airing on CNN.

I'm on top of my game this year, so this post actually comes to you on New Year's Eve... and not several days (or weeks) into the new year.  In 2016, I managed to finished reading 37 books totaling 10,951 pages.

The year in ratings. Most of the year seemed to be graded on a curve, but a few clunkers were in the mix.

1 = 10/10 [Best. Book. Ever.]
3 = 9/10 [Excellent!] 
8 = 8/10 [Terrific]
10 = 7/10 [Very Good]
9 = 6/10 [Good]
4 = 5/10 [Meh.]
0 = 4/10 [An "Okay" Book]
1 = 3/10 [Poor, Lost Interest]
0 = 2/10 [Awful]
1 = 1/10 [Don't Waste Your Time]

And here is the year in genres (totals more than 37 due to some books fitting multiple categories).

9 Fiction
7 Cookbook
5 Non-Fiction
4 Memoir
3 Library Science
3 Young Adult
1 Food
1 Juvenile
1 Romance
1 Short Stories
1 Photography
1 Science
1 Books-About-Books
1 Literature
1 Graphic Novel

Lastly, here are my top 5 reads for 2016.

5. The Hundred-Foot Journey by Richard C. Morais
4. Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mount Everest Disaster by Jon Krakauer
3. Orchard House: How a Neglected Garden Taught One Family to Grow by Tara Austen Weaver
2. Voracious: A Hungry Reader Cooks Her Way Through Great Books by Cara Nicoletti
1. Preservation by Blake Little