Wednesday, January 24, 2018

Reading 2016 and 2017: Two Years in Review

I never did a post on my 2016 reading, but I did start one and had most of it done, so I decided to just combine it with my 2017 favorite books. Looking over my posts on books for 2017, I see an awful lot of pre-reading I did for First Son before he started Level 4, and a great many of those ended up being books I decided not to assign. So not perhaps the best year of books and therefore a good year to be combined with another.

The book covers below are affiliate links to Amazon. Underneath, I've linked to my book reviews or monthly book report where I mention the book (which also usually has Amazon links). So, you've been warned. However, my selections here are my honest opinions. You can trust me, because I have a blog.

Favorite Books

2017: The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

2016: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson 

Best Fiction


2017: The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier


2017: Mansfield Park by Jane Austen, because it's wonderful, too, and on my blog I can choose two favorite fiction books


2016: The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene

Best Non-Fiction




Best New-to-Me-Authors

2017: Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol


2016: The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare by G. K. Chesterton

Best Classic Books I'd Never Read Before

2017: To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

2016: Ivanhoe: A Romance by Sir Walter Scott

Best Books I Pre-Read for School

2017: Years of Dust by Albert Marrin
This was a harder category to fill because so many of the pre-reads for Level 4 ended up topping out their respective categories in memoir, humor, non-fiction, etc.

2016: String, Straight-Edge, and Shadow by Julia E. Diggins

Books that Made Me Laugh


2017: My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell

2016: Pegeen by Hilda van Stockum

Best Homeschooling or Education Books

Apparently, I didn't read any books I could honestly put in the homeschooling or education category. I guess I know an area I need to address in 2018!


2016: Let's Play Math by Denise Gaskins

Most Challenging


2016: Humility of Heart by F. Cajetan Mary da Bergamo

Best Books I Read Aloud


2017: The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (specifically on Audible)
This is a cheat since we bought the Audible version, but it was the best read aloud we had all year, and it has the bonus of being enjoyable for every member of the family, including Kansas Dad.

2016: The Bat-Poet by Randall Jarrell

Best Memoirs

2016: A Traveller in Rome by H. V. Morton

Best Biographies

2017: The Long-Legged House by Wendell Berry
This isn't really a biography, but it does contain some essays that incorporate Berry's personal experiences, so this is where it's going.


2016: Lincoln in His Own Words by Abraham Lincoln, edited by Milton Meltzer

Best Sports-Related Book

I totally invented this category in 2015 to mention a book I really loved. Now I have nothing to say about it.


Most Surprising Book (in a Good Way)

2017: The Shepherd Who Didn't Run by Maria Ruiz Scaperlanda

Nothing fit this category in 2016. Apparently, all the books I found surprising were unpleasantly surprising.

Best Books on Faith

2017: Prayer and the Will of God by Dom Hubert van Zeller

2016: The Little Flowers of Saint Francis by Brother Ugolino

My Other Favorite Books
(alphabetical order by title)

Anne of Green Gables, Anne of Avonlea, and Anne of the Island by L. M. Montgomery - I started to read the Anne novels again in 2017 and am loving them.

Beowulf, in various forms - my post in 2017.

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