As we near the end of 2016, we’re proud to see many of our speakers on this year’s “best of” lists. Below you will find a compilation of some of the best books of 2016 according to Amazon, NPR, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and the Goodreads Choice Awards. We hope you have the chance to discover some of these great books and if you’d like to learn more about these amazing storytellers both on and off the page, please contact us.
Best Books of the Year
The Underground Railroad (Pulitzer Prize Winner) (National Book Award Winner) (Oprah's Book Club) - Colson Whitehead
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times Book Review 10 Best Books, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post 10 Best Books, Goodreads
“… essential to our understanding of the American past and the American present.” —Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Fiction
“Gyasi’s characters are so fully realized, so elegantly carved… Homegoing is an inspiration.” —Ta-Nehisi Coates
Behold the Dreamers - Imbolo Mbue
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Fiction
“As a dissection of the American Dream, Imbolo Mbue’s first novel is savage and compassionate in all the right places.”—The New York Times
Hero of the Empire - Candice Millard
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Nonfiction
“A gripping story…It’s a thrilling journey and Millard tells it with gusto.” —The Guardian
My Name Is Lucy Barton - Elizabeth Strout
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Fiction
“A quiet, sublimely merciful contemporary novel about love, yearning, and resilience…”—The Boston Globe
Another Brooklyn - Jacqueline Woodson
Amazon Top 100, NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Fiction
“Woodson manages to remember what cannot be documented, to suggest what cannot be said. Another Brooklyn is another name for poetry.” —The Washington Post
- Nancy Isenberg
NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books, The Washington Post Notable Nonfiction
“Formidable and truth-dealing…necessary.” —The New York Times
Everybody's Fool - Richard Russo
NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The New York Times 100 Notable Books
“Profound and wise. . . . [Russo is] a writer of great comedy and warmth.” —USA Today
- Simon Sebag Montefiore
NPR’s Best Books of the Year, The Washington Post Notable Nonfiction
“…a marvelous read… Thanks to the talents of Simon Sebag Montefiore, Romanov rule will hereafter appear still more improbable and haunted.” —The Wall Street Journal
Morning Star - Pierce Brown
Amazon Top 100, Goodreads Choice Awards: Science Fiction
“Multilayered and seething with characters who exist in a shadow world between history and myth… an ambitious and satisfying conclusion to a monumental saga.” —Kirkus
The Inquisitor's Tale - Adam Gidwitz
The New York Times Notable Children’s Books, The Washington Post Best Children’s and Young Adult Books
“What Gidwitz accomplishes here is staggering…. equal parts swashbuckling epic, medieval morality play, religious polemic and bawdy burlesque…” —The New York Times Book Review
Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys
Goodreads Choice Awards: Young Adult Fiction, The New York Times Notable Children’s Books
“Ruta Sepetys’s riveting novel is a haunting reminder of an almost-forgotten disaster and the resilience of the human spirit.” —The Washington Post
- Luke Dittrich
The Washington Post Notable Nonfiction
“An exciting, artful blend of family and medical history.”—The New York Times
The High Mountains of Portugal - Yann Martel
NPR’s Best Books of the Year
“A rich and rewarding experience . . . [Martel] spins his magic thread of hope and despair, comedy and pathos.” —USA Today
- Helen Simonson
The Washington Post Notable Fiction
“Simonson is like a Jane Austen for our day and age—she is that good… The Summer Before the War is nothing short of a treasure.” —Paula McLain