2016 Reading Tally

Total Number: 171*.  12 of those were novellas. Falling in the middle again.  Other year tallies have been higher and lower. 

I read 123 different authors**. 65 of those were new to me. Technically Maisey Yates and Patricia Briggs tied as the author I read the most, with 7, but all but one of the Briggs was a re-read, so that honor goes again to Yates. (Prolific authors for the win.) Next highest was Zoraida Cordova who had two series for me to work on and the start to another.  

I have seen discussion that diverse books should primarily be counted if they are own voices, or at least by authors of color, and I totally understand that thinking. However it requires me to know a lot about an author and I don't always, and in some cases an author may choose to not share their full identity online.  All of this is to say, I'm counting by characters again. I had 62 this year, and some of them were even intersectional, as in characters of color who were also bisexual, and/or neuro-diverse, and/or having a mental illness.

99 were part of a series***. 

The oldest book was from 1822 (a reread for book club of L. M. Montgomery's Emily of New Moon).  Next oldest was from 2004.  63 were from 2015. Two of them had been lingering in the TBR since 2011. September was the banner reading month with 21 (some of which were rereads). Romance was the highest read category with 88. YA was next highest with 52. 

I read 14 paper books and 15 audio, everything else was ebook. 

And some faves from the 2016 haul are: 

Alexis Hall's Waiting for the Flood was a wonderful story of two men who met and fell in love due to a flood. 

Katie McGarry's Chasing Impossible, as many of her books do, broke my heart and then patched it back together.  Some teens don't know if they deserve happiness. Abby and Logan are two of them. 

Jason Reynolds' Boy in the Black Suit was a touching story of processing grief when the person left in charge of you is doing worse than you are. 

Jaye Robin Brown's Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit is a story that looked at big city vs. small town approaches to sexuality, and religion, and figuring out new families and had me so worried it was going to do something cliche and didn't.  

Robin Talley's What We Left Behind captured so much of the angst and growth that comes with that first year of college that I had flashbacks reading it. 

Tracey Livesay's Love on My Mind was a story that took the tropes of heroine must engineer a meeting with hero for a job promotion and then oops, falls in love with him and managed to ground it and make me worry and root for them. 

Amber Belldene's Not a Mistake is a story of a seminarial ethics professor and the newly graduated minister who discover their one night stand has long term consequences. 

L.A. Witt's Running With Scissors is the story of a musician who bailed on his band before they got signed after he torched his relationship with the lead singer getting a second shot if only he can keep his hands off the new drummer. 

M. L. Buchman's Target Engaged was a great story about two elite military folks that does a thing that I cannot talk about without spoilers, but I cheered.  I literally cheered.  So if military romance is your jam, you might want to try this. 

Sarah Kuhn's Heroine Complex ended up being one of four superhero stories I read this year (unusually high for me).  I adored the exploding cupcakes, and found it the perfect airplane entertainment. 

Kaia Danielle's Calling Her Bluff I found through a twitter call and oh my, if the story of a gambling addict turned romance author who has to attend a reader convention in Vegas and the hot guy assigned to keep her straight speaks to you, then I recommend you grab this. 

*I counted re-reads if I re-read the whole thing a didn't just skip to my favorite parts. 

**I counted authors, not pen names, where possible.  I counted anthologies as one author, because it was just too unwieldy otherwise. 
***Series is based on the book being part of a series, whether or not I read any others.