2016: The Year in Books

The brevity of this list is embarrassing. Was I so distracted by the election that I barely read in 2016? Yes. Yes, I was. Goal for 2017: 52 books. And I'm going to start with all of the in-progress reads at the bottom of this list. Right, because I don't have a huge stack of books that I haven't even started.

Non-fiction: 

• Gyles Brandreth, Philip & Elizabeth: Portrait of a Royal Marriage
• Carolyn Jessop, Escape
• Carolyn Jessop, Triumph: Life After the Cult
• Ron Miscavige, Ruthless: Scientology, My Son David, & Me
• Rebecca Traister, Big Girls Don't Cry: The Election that Changed Everything for American Women -- My favorite non-fiction read of the year. 

Fiction: 

• Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic to the Stars
• Sophie Kinsella, Shopaholic to the Rescue
• J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child 
• I read the entire Harry Potter series. Again. 
• Richard Taylor Pearson, The Role
  
  Full disclosure: I cried when I got this one in the mail because I've known the author for thirty years, and I'm so damn proud of him. This one deserves its very own post. Also, Kindle version for $0.99 and Audible for $1.99? It's a steal. Go buy it.  
• Curtis Sittenfeld, Eligible

Travel: 
Oh, do you not read travel guides cover to cover so you don't miss anything? These shouldn't really count? 

• Rick Steves Pocket Amsterdam
• Rick Steves Scotland
• Rick Steves Ireland (link is to the 2017 edition. We used 2016)

Cooking/Canning/Gardening: 

• Neela Paniz, The New Indian Slow Cooker
• America's Test Kitchen, Foolproof Preserving
  I just started canning this summer, so I mostly focused on pickles. We have so many pickles. Please take some. 
• The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving
• The Backyard Homestead Book of Kitchen Know-How
  I'm going to be honest here -- this book (and my husband's homesteading dreams) scare me. 
• America's Test Kitchen, Master of the Grill
  This was our first summer in our house, and my husband took a broken grill off the hands of some neighbors who wanted to be rid of it, procured the necessary parts, and got it back to working order. He has consulted this book more often than I have. I did, however, use it's recommendation to purchase grill utensils.  
• Steven Solomon & Marina McShane, Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades
  Because we knew we were going to be gone at the end of the summer, this was our throw things in the ground and see how they turn out year. That's not the attitude of this book (nor any successful gardeners?). 

Started, but need to finish:  

• Rinker Buck, The Oregon Trail: A New American Journey 
• Rabia Chaudry, Adnan's Story 
  This isn't going to happen until I'm caught up on this season of Undisclosed. I was better at regular podcast listening when I had a commute. 
• Cohen, Karol, Noel, & Zaller, The Party Decides: Presidential Nominations Before and After Reform 
• Mary Roach, Grunt I made the mistake of starting this audiobook with my husband and now feel obligated to wait for him to finish. It's never going to happen. 
• Rebecca Traister, All the Single Ladies: Unmarried Women and the Rise of an Independent Nation 
  I feel bad about this one. It's really good. I would have convinced my NYC book club read this one ... I even have the hardback and audio versions. 
• Kenji Yoshino, Speak Now: Marriage Equality

This list doesn't even include Mormon research stuff. Yikes. I have a lot of books to finish.