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Best Books of the Year2016
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Compiled from Best of the Year lists. Fiction titles are listed on at least 5 lists, Nonfiction on 3. This list can also be found on our Pinterest board.
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The girls : a novel
by Emma Cline
Mesmerized by a band of girls in the park she perceives as enjoying a life of free and careless abandon, 1960s teen Evie Boyd becomes obsessed with gaining acceptance into their circle, only to find herself drawn into a cult and seduced by its charismatic leader. Reading-group guide available. Goodreads, Huffington Post, People, Publishers Weekly, Readings.
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LaRose
by Louise Erdrich
Horrified when he accidentally kills his best friend's 5-year-old son while hunting, Landreaux Iron gives away his own young son to his friend's family according to ancient tradition, a decision that helps both families reach a tenuous peace that is threatened by a vengeful adversary. Booklist, Boston Globe, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Readings, St. Louis Post Dispatch.
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Homegoing
by Yaa Gyasi
Two half-sisters, unknown to each other, are born into different villages in 18th-century Ghana and experience profoundly different lives and legacies throughout subsequent generations marked by wealth, slavery, war, coal mining, the Great Migration and the realities of 20th-century Harlem. Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time
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The nix
by Nathan Hill
Astonished to see the mother who abandoned him in childhood throwing rocks at a presidential candidate, a bored college professor struggles to reconcile the radical media depictions of his mother with his small-town memories and decides to draw her out by penning a tell-all biography. Reading-group guide available. Amazon, Booklist, Goodreads, Huffington Post, Kirkus, Library Journal, People.
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News of the world : a novel
by Paulette Jiles
A live news reader traveling the antebellum south is offered $50 to bring an orphan girl, who was kidnapped and raised by Kiowa raiders, back to her family in San Antonio in this new novel from the author of Enemy Women. Amazon, Booklist, Globe&Mail, Goodreads, Kirkus, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Post.
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The vegetarian : a novel
by Kang Han
Deciding to go vegetarian in the wake of violent thoughts, Yeong-hye, a woman from an Asian culture of strict societal mores, is denounced as a subversive as she spirals into extreme rebelliousness that causes her to splinter from her true nature and risk her life. Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch.
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Commonwealth : a novel
by Ann Patchett
A five-decade saga tracing the impact of an act of infidelity on the parents and children of two Southern California families traces their shared summers in Virginia and the disillusionment that shapes their lasting bond. Goodreads, Hudson Booksellers, Kirkus, Oprah, People St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time, Washington Post.
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A great reckoning
by Louise Penny
Receiving a mysterious old map that has been found stuffed in the walls of a bistro, former Quebec homicide investigator Armand Gamache follows clues to the site of a dead Sûreté academy professor and an unlikely cadet with whom he is implicated in a murder case. Bookpage, Goodreads, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch..
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Swing time
by Zadie Smith
Two dark-skinned dancers with very different talents share a complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in early adulthood in a story that transitions from northwest London to West Africa. Amazon, Booklist, Buzzfeed, Huffington Post, Kirkus, Minn. Star Tribune, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time, Washington Post.
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My name is Lucy Barton : a novel
by Elizabeth Strout
After an appendix operation puts her in the hospital, New York writer Lucy Barton reconnects with her estranged mother as the pair reminisce about the past. Boston Globe, Goodreads, Kirkus, Readings, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time.
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A gentleman in Moscow : A Novel
by Amor Towles
Deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal in 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is sentenced to house arrest in a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin, where he endures life in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history unfold. Amazon, Goodreads, Hudson Booksellers, Kirkus, Readings, St. Louis Post Dispatch..
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The Underground Railroad : a novel
by Colson Whitehead
The award-winning author of The Noble Hustle chronicles the daring survival story of a cotton plantation slave in Georgia, who, after suffering at the hands of both her owners and fellow slaves, races through the Underground Railroad with a relentless slave-catcher close behind. Amazon, Booklist, Boston Globe, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Hudson Booksellers, Huffington Post, Kirkus, Library Journal, Minn. Star Tribune, New York Times, Oprah, People, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time, Washington Post.
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Another Brooklyn : a novel
by Jacqueline Woodson
Torn between the fantasies of her youth and the realities of a life marked by violence and abandonment, August reunites with a beloved old friend who challenges her to reconcile past inconsistencies and come to terms with the difficulties that forced her to grow up too quickly. Reading-group guide available. By a National Book Award-winning author. Booklist, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Huffington Post, Time
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Evicted : poverty and profit in the American city
by Matthew Desmond
A Harvard sociologist examines the under-represented challenge of eviction as a formidable cause of poverty in America, revealing how millions of people are wrongly forced from their homes and reduced to cycles of extreme disadvantage that are reinforced by dysfunctional legal systems. Amazon, Booklist, Boston Globe, Library Journal, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Post.
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Shirley Jackson : a rather haunted life
by Ruth Franklin
This long-awaited biography establishes Shirley Jackson as a towering figure in American literature and revives the life and work of a neglected master. Still known to millions only as the author of the "The Lottery," Shirley Jackson (1916-1965) remains curiously absent from the American literary canon. A genius of literary suspense, Jackson plumbed the cultural anxiety of postwar America better than anyone. Now, biographer Ruth Franklin reveals the tumultuous life and inner darkness of the author behind such classics as The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Booklist, Boston Globe, Goodreads, Minn. Star Tribune, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Time
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When breath becomes air
by Paul Kalanithi
A Ivy League-trained, award-winning young neurosurgeon describes his how after receiving a terminal diagnosis with lung cancer he explored the dynamics of his roles as a patient and care provider, the philosophical conundrums about a meaningful life and how he wanted to spend his final days. Amazon, Economist, Globe&Mail, Hudson, Oprah, People, Publishers Weekly.
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Kill 'em and leave : searching for James Brown and the American soul
by James McBride
Traces how the author acted on a tip from a family member and embarked on a cultural journey in search of the man behind the legend of James Brown, discovering his rich musical legacy and the ongoing disputes surrounding his will as well as the complicated race, music and cultural factors that shaped his story. Booklist, Boston Globe, and Time.
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Hero of the empire : the Boer War, a daring escape and the making of Winston Churchill
by Candice Millard
The best-selling author of Destiny of the Republic presents a narrative account of Churchill's lesser-known heroics during the Boer War, describing his daring escape from rebel captors, trek through hundreds of miles with virtually no supplies and eventual return to South Africa to liberate the soldiers captured with him. Amazon, Goodreads, and St. Louis Post Dispatch
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The gene : an intimate history
by Siddhartha Mukherjee
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies presents a history of gene science that examines current debates about gene resequencing, tracing the author's family experiences with mental illness and the contributions of key scientists and philosophers. Amazon, Globe&Mail, Goodreads, Library Journal, St. Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Post
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Blood at the root : a racial cleansing in America
by Patrick Phillips
A harrowing testament to the deep roots of racial violence in America chronicles acts of racial cleansing in early 20th-century Forsyth County, Georgia, where the murder of a young girl led to mob lynchings, acts of terror against black workers and violent protests by night riders who would enforce whites-only citizenship. Boston Globe, Goodreads, Hudson Booksellers, Library Journal, Publishers Weekly.
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Grunt : the curious science of humans at war
by Mary Roach
The best-selling author of Gulp and Stiff explores the science of keeping humans healthy and focused in the extreme environments of war, drawing on interviews with doctors, uniform designers, trainers and weapons testers to illuminate how soldiers are conditioned to survive traumas ranging from heat and panic to exhaustion and noise. Amazon, Goodreads, Hudson Booksellers.
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Born to run
by Bruce Springsteen
In a personal account inspired by the remarkable 2009 Super Bowl halftime show, a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer traces his life from his childhood in a Catholic New Jersey family and the musical experiences that prompted his career to the rise of the E Street Band and the stories behind some of his most famous songs. Amazon, Economist, Oprah, People, Publishers Weekly, St. Louis Post Dispatch.
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All the single ladies : unmarried women and the rise of an independent nation
by Rebecca Traister
A National Magazine Award-finalist and outspoken feminist reveals that the concept of a powerful single woman, often perceived as a modern phenomenon, is not a new idea and explores the options, besides traditional marriage, that were historically available to women. Amazon, Boston Globe, Globe&Mail, Goodreads, Library Journal.
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Hillbilly elegy : a memoir of a family and culture in crisis
by J. D. Vance
Shares the poignant story of the author's family and upbringing, describing how they moved from poverty to an upwardly mobile clan that included the author, a Yale Law School graduate, while navigating the demands of middle-class life and the collective demons of the past. Amazon, Economist, Hudson, People, Time.
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