I thought 2016 had a bit of a slow start when it came to books, but some of the books I've read this year are among the best I've ever read, and I'll be talking about my 10 favourite for years to come.
I made a conscious effort to try and read more books by writers of colour this year, something which bears out in my best of 2016 list (even though I still read more books by white writers, could the fact that the majority of my list is books by non-white people possibly show the really high quality of writing by writers of colour who do get published? Discuss).
There were some notable gaps in my reading this year - I failed to get round to Sarah Perry's much-lauded The Essex Serpent, which I'm now saving for a time when I can savour it, and I skipped most of the Man Booker Prize shortlist because it just didn't capture me this year, plus I've not read as much YA as I did in previous years.
Now, without further ado, here are my 10 favourite books of 2016...
My
week in books is a feature where I share
things I've found interesting from the past week that concern books,
literature and all things book blogging.
Firs up, I saw a new trailer and a clip from the upcoming film about American poet Allen Ginsberg, Kill Your Darlings. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe as Ginsberg. You can see the trailer here, and the first clip here.
A lot of people are heading back to school this week, and to mark the occasion Penguin have done a list of literary teacher and pupil mash-ups, which is here.
Penguin was inspired to do its list by Roald Dahl Day, which is on September 13. You can find out more here about a live webcast hosted by Michael Rosen to celebrate the occasion.
If you're looking for a literary inspired/pop culture gift for someone, then there's an artist on Etsy, Karen Hallion, who has done some gorgeous notecards where she puts the TARDIS from Doctor Who into various fairytale scenarios. Here's the Snow White one, and you can see the full collection here.
Who best to give advice on how to write than a group of professional writers? Instead of asking writers to give a lecture, Wolford College asked a bunch of authors to write their advice on their hands. I adore this, and you can see all the images here.
The February 2014 Quick Reads list has been announced, and you can find it here. Quick Reads is a project to reach adults who don't usually read by introducing them to short, sharp fiction.
And finally, this Vine shows how anitcipated Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam has been. It made me laugh. Don't worry, no one was hurt in the making of the video.
What have you found this week? Let me know in the comments.
The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer, and Showcase Sunday is hosted by Books, Biscuits and Tea
and inspired by Pop Culture Junkie and the Story Siren. They're a chance to share news, a post to recap the past week on your
blog,
highlight our newest books and see what everyone else received for
review, borrowed from libraries, or bought.
Book stuff this week on Girl!Reporter
Review - Notorious Nineteen by Janet Evanovich
Top 10 Tuesday (#12) - things that make life as a reader/blogger easier
Elmore Leonard's 10 rules of writing
Review - Noble Conflict by Malorie Blackman
My week in books (#6) - a Roald Dahl competition, Margaret Atwood and how to get children reading
Books I added to my shelves
It's been a quiet week, which is no bad thing considering the amount of unread books I already own.
I won a copy of Hetty Feather by Jacqueline Wilson from Random House (thanks!) through a Goodreads competition. This will be the first Wilson book I'll ever read - I think I was a bit too old for her novels so missed the boat, and have never got into them. I will say that I know how popular she is from when I worked at Cheltenham Festival of Literature - the queue for her book signing was longer than anyone else's!
My brother lent me A Fort of Nine Towers by Qais Akbar Omar, which is a true story. It looks pretty good.
What have you been up to this week?
My
week in books is a feature where I share
things I've found interesting from the past week that concern books,
literature and all things book blogging.
It's a bank holiday weekend here in England, and for once the weather's going to be good apparently. At the moment, it's a bit grey and drizzly (although not cold), which is great reading weather, so I'll be immersing myself in some good books this weekend. What's your preferred reading weather?
If you want to test yourself a bit over the next few days, Buzzfeed has a quiz here on opening lines from books. Some are very obvious, others not so much. Let me know how you get on.
I'm a massive advocate for getting children reading as early as possible, since I read lots as a child and firmly believe it helped me academically, as well as just expanded my world and gave me an escape. Schoolrun.com has a piece here on how to get children to read.
For those who love Roald Dahl, TruffleShuffleBlog has teamed up with the Roald Dahl Literary Estate for a fantastic competition here. You've only got until August 28 to enter, so get going!
A couple of things to help you get inside the minds of authors:
- I meant to link to this ages ago, but New York Magazine did a good piece on Samantha Shannon a while back, which you can find here.
- There's a great interview on Goodreads here with Matthew Quick, who answers questions from members of the site.
- MaddAddam by Margaret Atwood is released soon. To tide you over until it's out you can buy a t-shirt here, or watch this video interview with Atwood.
Kirsty Gunn at The Guardian has done a piece here about ultra long books coming back, and what that says about us as readers.
And finally, an amusing little amusing gossip piece here from Axegrinder about Harper Collins future office move.
Have you found anything interesting you want to share? Let me know in the comments.
