2016 was a year of great joy and promise dotted with the specter and the results of the most poisonous news cycle in my entire memory. My family and I moved to Oxford, Miss., so I could begin my appointment as the Grisham Writer-in-Residence at the University of Mississippi. With that came the gift of time to write and read in a town so steeped in an almost mythic love for writing and literature — so that, in times of despair, I often felt buoyed by books.
This year also marked the first time in more than a decade where I lived in the same town as an independent bookstore — the mighty and marvelous Square Books (and Square Books Jr. for kids) — and never before have I been so perfectly happy to make my wallet just a bit lighter these days. Here then, is a sampling of the books I turned to and marveled over, often in more than one read-through, and thoroughly dog-eared to bits:
The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with Nature by J. Drew Lanham
Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future by Lauren Redniss
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
A Bestiary by Lily Hoang
The Art of Waiting: On Fertility, Medicine, and Motherhood by Belle Boggs
Bukowski in a Sundress: Confessions from a Writing Life by Kim Addonizio
Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead
Bestiary by Donika Kelly
Four Reincarnations by Max Ritvo
The Halo by C. Dale Young
Brooklyn Antediluvian by Patrick Rosal
Look by Solmaz Sharif
Third Voice by Ruth Ellen Kocher
No More Milk by Karen Craigo
ShallCross by C.D. Wright
Cannibal by Safiya Sinclair
Ropes by Derrick Harriell
Eternity & Oranges by Christopher Bakken
Field Guide to the End of the World by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Chord by Rick Barot
play dead by francine j. harris
The Ladder by Alan Michael Parker
The Bees Make Money in the Lion by Lo Kwa Mei-en
The Crown Ain’t Worth Much by Hanif Willis-Abdurraqib
Family Resemblance: An Anthology and Exploration of 8 Hybrid Literary Genres edited by Marcela Sulak and Jacqueline Kolosov
Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda
Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
Ada Twist, Scientist by Andrea Beaty
And finally, very much in the spirit of how I gifted Matt de la Peña’s Last Stop on Market Street for its music and ebullient spirit to every parent I knew with young children, my favorite picture book of the year (resoundingly endorsed by my six- and nine-year-old boys): We Found a Hat by Jon Klassen. You will simply, never forget this wily pair of turtles. I promise you. The sparse storyline and hilariously evocative illustrations showcase more empathy and kindness in a few pages than many grown-ups have these days. The sheer beauty of this picture book will leave you clutching your heart.
More from A Year in Reading 2016
Don’t miss: A Year in Reading 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005
