Best Books of 2016

Our 2016 Best Books of the Year

We compiled our Best Books of 2016 list surprisingly quickly this year, high-fived, and then... "But what about...?" The "what about" took longer, but no tears were shed and friendships are still intact. See our reviews in today's Shelf Awareness for Readers.

FICTIONThe Angel of History by Rabih Alameddine (Atlantic Monthly Press)
The Chimes by Anna Smaill (Quercus)
Dodgers by Bill Beverly (Crown)
Eligible: A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)
Four Reincarnations: Poems by Max Ritvo (Milkweed Editions)
A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles (Viking)
Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton (Random House)
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (Knopf)
Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett (Little, Brown)
The Kindness of Enemies by Leila Aboulela (Grove Press)
Lily and the Octopus by Steven Rowley (Simon & Schuster)
Smoke by Dan Vyleta (Doubleday)
Underground Airlines by Ben H. Winters (Mulholland Books)
The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead (Doubleday)
The Vegetarian by Han Kang, trans. by Deborah Smith (Hogarth)

NONFICTIONAmerican Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant by Ronald C. White (Random House)
Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives by Gary Younge (Nation Books)
Balls: It Takes Some to Get Some by Chris Edwards (Greenleaf Book Group)
Being a Beast: Adventures Across the Species Divide by Charles Foster (Metropolitan/Holt)
Boy, Erased: A Memoir by Garrard Conley (Riverhead Books)
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond  (Crown)
Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey  (Viking)
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (Knopf)
Mincemeat: The Education of an Italian Chef by Leonardo Lucarelli (Other Press)
The Narrow Door: A Memoir of Friendship by Paul Lisicky (Graywolf Press)
The Selfishness of Others: An Essay on the Fear of Narcissism by Kristin Dombek (FSG Originals)
The Singing Bones by Shaun Tan (Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic)
Tetris: The Games People Play by Box Brown (First Second)
The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond by Christophe Galfard (Flatiron Books)
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi (Random House)