My Fav Reads of 2016

In the spirit of looking back on the past year (and in putting off writing reviews a bit longer), as well as on the suggestion of a friend, I've decided to put together a BEST BOOKS of 2016 post.

These are the best books I read in 2016. I thought about looking through my spreadsheet (NERD!) and thinking long and hard about each of the books I read and what they mean to me at the end of the year and determined what are the best books.

Then I remembered that Goodreads does that for me, and shows me which books I marked as 5 stars and I am lazy so let's look at those! In order of when I read them, here are the 5 star books

1. Hamilton by Ron Chernow
I read this with a group at the beginning of the year when a bunch of us realized we all got it. This is a big book and had the possibility of being a very dry read so we needed the moral support. Luckily, Chernow has written an engaging biography, even if he lets his fanboyness come through a few times.

2. Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter
Let's keep the Hamilton good times rolling. Because really, the whole reason I read the first book is because of this show. It shouldn't be too much of a surprise that this book, which is a history of the play, annotated lyrics, and beautiful photos, would also be a favorite.

3. My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix
This book was so much fun. It's campy and scary and ALL ABOUT female friendship. There are high school insecurities and class insecurities and it's all bundled up in a neon '80s package. Thinking about the book makes me smile.

4. Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
I love me some pop science, especially when it's a topic that maybe we don't think too much about and it's explained by an amateur whose enthusiasm is infectious. If anyone's going to make me want to learn more about spit, it's Roach. I feel like I should give an honorable mention to Grunt her book about military technologies, which I gave 4 stars yet loved as much and should perhaps re-evaluate the rating. This is why I hate rating systems.

5. Difficult Women by Roxane Gay
This book. I was blown away by Gay's take on so many different women, focusing on themes of sex and race and assault and family and love. These were difficult women, because they were complex, because they dealt with difficult situations.

6. Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
Family and secrets and the things we don't tell each other. It's excellent and you should read it.

7. Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran
This was just a great book for the end of the year. The end of this year. It's a collection of her columns, some light hearted and ridiculous, the sort of thing that is great when you just want to escape. And then others are serious and make you realize some things are shit and you better get off your ass and do something to make it right.

Here's to even more 5 star reads in 2017.

Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?

HAMILTOME!!

I'm sorry did, you think I was going to say I didn't love this book? Because that is ridiculous.

I am so far behind on reviews. So far behind. I probably should have thought about reviewing this closer to when I finished it and when the internet was freaking out about it. But that would have required some planning and forethought and hahaha, that's not going to happen.

For those that don't yet know (and you probably do, because of all the time that has passed since it came out), the Hamiltome (aka Hamilton The Revolution) is about the making of the show as well as annotated lyrics. And lots of pictures, from the show, behind the scenes (including Daveed and Oak in their underwear getting ready for the show, which is swell), during the creation. Just lots of pictures.

Are you already in love with Hamilton? Excellent, then you should read this, it is great.

Do you not love Hamilton? Then this is probably not going to be all that exciting for you.

If I had a criticism to make, it's that the book makes no criticism of itself. It gets a bit self-congratulatory at times. Everything is great, everyone is a genius, everyone is beautiful. It doesn't necessarily come off as bragging, or at least I kept thinking of LMM and he is SO DAMN POSITIVE so yes, let's say that is why.

A second criticism would be that the book is definitely a tome, but that is a fake criticism and I make it because I just dropped the book on my leg and the corner cut me, so I'm looking for something to blame that isn't clumsy me.

But really, I thought this book was not going to be nearly as large or complete as it was. I thought it would be something small, or maybe just annotated lyrics. Something that would make me go "Yeah, I'm gonna buy this, but I prob can just get these annotations online or something like that." But that would assume that LMM would half-ass something, which does not appear to be something he is capable of. And really, the book is beautiful. Don't believe me?

Yeah, it's pretty great.

Gif rating:

Miranda, Lin-Manuel and Jeremy McCarter. Hamilton the Revolution: Being the Complete Libretto of the Broadway Musical with a True Account of Its Creation, and Concise Remarks on Hip-Hop, the Power of Stories, and the New America. Grand Central Publishing. 2016