Reflecting on 2016 in Books: Part Two--Best of the Best

For part one of this year-end reflection, in which I look at all my data (and I do mean ALL; brace yourself), see here.

I didn't participate in the top ten link-up around this topic, partly because I was doing Christmasy things with my family--like eating and sleeping and reading and baking and visiting and playing Scrabble--but partly because ten? Are you kidding me?

Then I saw that some people did 16, for 2016, or did "best of" in various categories, and I thought, oh yeah right.  I DON'T HAVE TO FOLLOW THE RULES!

So here are my favorite books I read in 2016, in different groups and categories.

Favorite Books that are on Everyone Else's List Too, Probably, Unless They Were On Their List Last Year, Because I'm Kind of Late to the Party

Six of Crows

More Happy Than Not

The Serpent King

Salt to the Sea

A Darker Shade of Magic

The Crossover

I'll Give You the Sun

We Were Liars

Favorite Books that I Read as a Cybils Judge of YA Fiction

Every Last Word

The Truth Commission

How It Went Down

Favorite Middle Grade Books, Since I Teach Middle School and Might Want to Stop Shoving PG-13 Books at my Seventh Graders

Rain, Reign

A Night Divided

Stella by Starlight

Death by Toilet Paper

Orbiting Jupiter

Snow White: A Graphic Novel

Goodbye, Stranger

All the Broken Pieces

The Seventh Wish

Favorite Nonfiction

H is for Hawk

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant

Symphony for the City of the Dead

Favorite Books for Grown-Ups

The Trespasser

Furiously Happy

Columbine

Favorite Authors to Binge on This Year

V. E. Schwab

Chris Crutcher

Brian K. Vaughan

Best Surprises, Because I Went in with Low Expectations, But They Were As Great As People Said They Would Be

Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Boy 21

Marcelo in the Real World

Porcupine of Truth

The Girl With All the Gifts

Code Name Verity

Carry On

Books That I Gave Four Stars To, But I Have No Idea Why I Didn't Give Them Five, Because I Remember Loving Them

One Plus One

We Were Liars

Wild Things

Since You'll Never Meet Me

The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes

Antsy Does Time

Lockdown

King of the Mild Frontier

Made Me Cry

I'll Meet You There

The Serpent King

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Code Name Verity

Made Me Laugh

Carry On

The Haters

King of the Mild Frontier

Furiously Happy

Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman

Play Me Backwards

Six of Crows

Since You've Been Gone

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?

Can't We Talk About Something More Pleasant?

Antsy Does Time

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

Diversity Done Right

Highly Illogical Behavior

The Unlikely Hero of Room 13-B

The Less Than Epic Adventures of TJ and Amal (Um, NOT YA.  Just to warn you.)

Home At Last

No Crystal Stair

Fatty Legs

When I Was the Greatest

My Seneca Village

The Shadow Hero

Picture Books I Adore

This is Sadie

They All Saw a Cat

The Black Dog