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Peg Cheng

Author + Blogger + Teacher

December 31, 2016 By Peg Cheng

Books I Read in 2016 (and My Top 11)

reading-books-friendsTo me, reading is as essential as breathing, eating, and sleeping. If I didn’t do it, I’d be miserable.

What disturbs me is that I spent years reading what I was required to read, and hardly any time reading what I wanted to read.

I read for pleasure from age five to eighteen, but after I started college, my pleasure reading dropped like an anvil from a cliff. From about age 18 until my early 30s, I read mostly textbooks, books, newspapers, case studies, and articles related to my studies and work, but hardly any marvelous novels or great works of non-fiction. I’m extremely bummed that I will never get that time back to read. And I have no one to blame but myself.

To make up for lost time, this first year of being a full-time writer has also been my year of being a full-time reader. Here are the 67 books I read in 2016. They are listed in the order in which I read them.

I decided to challenge myself and pick the Top 11 Books (I tried to pick ten but it was too hard) that I really enjoyed and/or changed me for the better. These books are in bold. While I enjoyed many of the books I read this year, these eleven hold a special place in my heart, and I highly recommend them.

  1. Better Than Before by Gretchen Rubin
  2. Cracked Pomegranate by Fae Bidgoli
  3. Swimming in the American: A Memoir and Selected Writings by Hiroshi Kashiwagi
  4. Eat, Pray, Love: One Woman’s Search for Everything Across Italy, India and Indonesia by Elizabeth Gilbert
  5. Blood, Bones & Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton
  6. Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert
  7. Writing the Heart of Your Story: The Secret to Crafting an Unforgettable Novel by C.S. Lakin
  8. 30-Day Author: Develop a Daily Writing Habit and Write Your Book in 30 Days by Kevin Tumlinson
  9. Creepy Carrots by Aaron Reynolds and Peter Brown
  10. Kaline Klattermaster’s Tree House by Haven Kimmel
  11. Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang and Mike Holmes
  12. Cartwheeling in Thunderstorms by Katherine Rundell
  13. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
  14. I’d Know You Anywhere by Laura Lippman
  15. Rules by Cynthia Lord
  16. The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma
  17. The Xenophobe’s Guide to the Icelanders by Richard Sale
  18. Humans of New York Stories by Brandon Stanton
  19. Post-Dated: The Schooling of an Irreverent Bonsai Monk by Michael Hagedorn
  20. Little Kunoichi: The Ninja Girl by Sanae Ishida
  21. Sewing Happiness: A Year of Simple Projects for Living Well by Sanae Ishida
  22. Figgs & Phantoms by Ellen Raskin *
  23. As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling by Anne Serling
  24. Invisible Ink by Brian McDonald *
  25. The Art of Slow Writing: Reflections on Time, Craft, and Creativity by Louise DeSalvo
  26. Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell
  27. Dani Noir by Nova Ren Suma
  28. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
  29. This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
  30. The Good Times Are Killing Me by Lynda Barry
  31. The Face: A Time Code by Ruth Ozeki
  32. Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo and Me: A Graphic Memoir by Ellen Forney
  33. Cruddy by Lynda Barry
  34. At a Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parents’ Place by Kate T. Williamson
  35. My Town by David Lee
  36. The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye by Sonny Liew
  37. Porcelain by Moby
  38. The Miniaturist by Jessie Burton
  39. I Will Teach You to Be Rich by Ramit Sethi
  40. Involuntary Turnover by Cheri Baker
  41. Monstress by Marjorie Liu & Sana Takeda
  42. Rock Paper Tiger by Lisa Brackmann
  43. Matthew Looney’s Voyage to the Earth by Jerome Beatty *
  44. Art & Fear by David Bayles & Ted Orland
  45. Writer’s Doubt: The #1 Enemy of Writing (and What You Can Do About It) by Bryan Hutchinson
  46. Ramona Quimby, Age 8 by Beverly Cleary *
  47. Clementine by Sara Pennypacker *
  48. Roller Girl by Victoria Jamieson
  49. Anya’s Ghost by Vera Brosgol
  50. Amulet, Book One: The Stonekeeper by Kazu Kibuishi
  51. Amulet, Book Two: The Stonekeeper’s Curse by Kazu Kibuishi
  52. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams
  53. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
  54. Wool by Hugh Howey
  55. This is Not a Werewolf Story by Sandra Evans
  56. A Little Yellow Dog by Walter Mosley
  57. Double Cup Love: On the Trail of Family, Food, and Broken Hearts in China by Eddie Huang
  58. The Underneath by Kathi Appelt
  59. Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys by Bob Raczka
  60. Raymie Nightingale by Kate DiCamillo
  61. Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes
  62. Zek: An American Prison Story by Arthur Longworth
  63. The INFJ Writer by Lauren Sapala
  64. Robot Dreams by Sara Varon
  65. Friends With Boys by Faith Erin Hicks
  66. Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Anthony Bourdain
  67. The Education of Kevin Powell: A Boy’s Journey into Manhood by Kevin Powell

* indicates that I read this book in a previous year and read it again this year

Hope this list gives you good ideas for books to read in 2017. And if you’ve read any of these already, please let me know what you thought of them in the comments box. Happy New Year and happy reading!

Peg Cheng is the author of The Contenders, a middle-grade novel centered on the question, can enemies become friends? She is currently writing another novel that is a re-imagining of the Snow White fairy tale set in 1980s Seattle.

Filed Under: Reading Recs

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Caroline says

    December 31, 2016 at 8:11 PM

    Fun! Love to see what other people are reading. I started keeping an annual list of books read in 2001 – I learned that I read a lot more adult nonfiction than I thought I did and nearly no nonfiction for kids.

    • Peg Cheng says

      January 1, 2017 at 10:48 AM

      That’s great that you’ve been keeping a list for the past 15 years! I’ve tried in the past but never got past jotting down a few titles before it felt too much like homework and I’d stop. But this year, keeping an electronic list on my blog and updating it every month felt painless and useful and enlightening by the time I got to the end of the year. Like you, I learned what I like to read the most and what I don’t read much.

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What people are saying…

Lizz Zitron, College Professor

The Contenders is the middle grade novel you’ve been waiting for: diverse characters who are funny and real. Eunice and her friends and family feel so real–they are flawed, kind, complex, a little mean at times, and just wanting to find their place in the world. Highly recommended for every middle school collection.

Jas Hothi, Author + Entrepreneur

I’ve done my fair share of personal finance reading and, well, Rebel Millionaire is probably the single best thing I’ve read. Why? So effortlessly simple and effective. As I’m about to turn 31, this is just the nudge I needed to start saving and investing for my future. Thank you, Peg, and Plaid Frog Press!

Laila Atallah, Career Coach

What I love so much about your writing is how personal it is. It gives me permission to accept and love my own humanity, while also giving really helpful tips and mindset shifts, and next steps too.

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