I realized when I was gathering up the 2016 numbers, that I failed to post the 2015 numbers, so here they are.
Total Number: 147*. 2 of those were novellas**. Falling in the middle again. Other year tallies have been higher and lower.
I read 114 different authors***. 57 of those were new to me. Jill Shalvis and Maisey Yates tied as authors I read the most at 5 each.
I tracked books with diverse characters, ie characters of color, with neurodiversity, and/or differently abled again. I read 57 of those this year, and it is just coincidence that that's the same number of new to me authors, although certainly there was some overlap.
60 were part of a series****.
The oldest book was from 2003. 65 of them were from 2014. At least one had been lingering in the TBR since 2007. May was the banner reading month with 21, with November close behind at 20. YA highest read category with 60. Romance was next highest with 54.
I read 22 paper books and 14 audio, everything else was ebook.
And some faves from the 2015 reads are:
Marjorie M. Liu's Monstress which was delightful and beautiful. (You know for a dark story about a world filled with evils.)
Shannon Hale's Dangerous was a fascinating tale of teens chosen for a space camp and then drawn into a large conspiracy.
Sherry Thomas's The One in My Heart was a contemporary (unusual for Thomas) that was both heartbreaking and heartwarming. Two people, loosely connected, who hook up, and then for various reason decide to fake engagement while trying to remain unattached.
Dahlia Adler's Under The Lights was a fun peek behind the scenes at Hollywood as well as a realistic portrayal of the challenges of having friends who have different opportunities and roadblocks than you.
Katherine Locke's Second Position starts in a DC coffee shop which is where I (metaphorically) cracked it open. The story of reunited lovers gripped me.
Kat Yeh's The Truth About Twinkie Pie caught my eye, even though I tend not to read much middle grade, and it was just as cute as the title suggests. A tween and her big sister move to a new place after winning prize money so that she can go to a better school. Adjustment to the new place and new circumstances has some bumps and reveals some family secrets.
Sarina Bowen's The Year We Fell Down about two injured college students who get adjacent rooms and, well, discover some chemistry, was great.
Kasie West's Pivot Point operates on kind of a "Sliding Doors" principle, in which a teen stretches her ability to foresee the results of two options when her parents split up.
Julie Murphy's Side Effects May Vary made use of a shifting timeline to explore what happens when a teen gets a fatal cancer diagnosis, and then miraculously survives it.
Alaya Dawn Johnson's Love is the Drug blew me away. It was the tale of a DC teen navigating a pandemic and the equally tricky politics of a fancy DC prep school. I listened to it in library audio and then got myself an e-copy so I could re-read at will.
*I counted re-reads if I re-read the whole thing a didn't just skip to my favorite parts.
**My rule has been that things I can buy separately count as a book, so a book that was released with three novellas, or a collection of short stories counts as one read. With the rise of electronic publishing the number of novellas that are released all by their lonesome has gone up, but hey, if it was a separate payment (or borrowing) transaction, I'm counting it.
***I counted authors, not pen names, where possible.
****Series is based on the book being part of a series, whether or not I read any others.
**My rule has been that things I can buy separately count as a book, so a book that was released with three novellas, or a collection of short stories counts as one read. With the rise of electronic publishing the number of novellas that are released all by their lonesome has gone up, but hey, if it was a separate payment (or borrowing) transaction, I'm counting it.
***I counted authors, not pen names, where possible.
****Series is based on the book being part of a series, whether or not I read any others.