6 Books I Loved Reading in 2016

Confession: I’m super picky about books. I used to feel guilty about not finishing one. After awhile, I realized life’s too short to do anything you don’t want to do in your spare time. Reading is for leisure, dude.

Earlier this year, I found that I was often falling down the rabbit hole of aimless Internet browsing. This made me feel like I was wasting my own time, so I tried to reshift my focus to real, physical books (before they become a thing of the past).

Here are 6 that stand out in my memory.

The Joy Luck Club, Amy Tan
You know that book you spend fifteen years “meaning to read”? This was it for me. I went to high school with Amy Tan’s niece. I saw the movie. 90% of the characters in this book remind me of my mother, to a tee. Thank God I finally read The Joy Luck Club.

Amy Tan seriously tests how many sad stories you can pack into one book here, but I have to know why this isn’t on more high school reading lists. It’s a thorough explanation of so many topics: Chinese culture, immigration, mixed culture clash, family dynamics, loss, and oh hey, San Francisco.

What I Know For Sure, Oprah Winfrey
If I could give every woman in my life a gift basket, this would be in it. One of the most influential women of our time was once as lost and uncertain as the rest of us. This is the definitive proof, in her own words. So many of us let people push us around at some point or another. She really speaks to this with a level of retrospective understanding and wisdom.

Often it’s the setbacks in life that prepare us for our greatest moments. Oprah touches on this, and shares her favorite past times from her life today. Really, you’ll feel tempted to sit in a hammock and quietly ponder life while sipping hibiscus sweet tea in the shade on a summer day, when you turn the last page in this book.

Big Little Lies, Liane Moriarty
Big Little Lies, like the upcoming HBO film starring Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley. At first, it seems like a catty PTA mom drama set in Australia, but naturally there’s more to it – a lot more. This one is the kind of page turner that’s great to have on the nightstand waiting to carry you through the last twenty minutes of your day. It has a very Desperate Housewives feel to it.

Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person, Shonda Rhimes
Shonda Rhimes has pretty much been the queen of American primetime TV since Grey’s Anatomy made its debut in 60 B.C. In this book, she takes a break from making up stories about horny doctors and shares some real lessons from her own life.

Turns out it’s not all Grammys and burritos. Once you’ve got a hit show on the air, all you do is worry about not getting canceled. Once you’ve got two hit shows on the air, the worry doubles. Isn’t life a bowl of cherries?

I was inspired to read this book after seeing the outstanding commencement speech she gave at Dartmouth. Also, I used to dream of writing the next O.C. This book has some fabulous quotes, like this zinger.

How To Win Friends And Influence People, Dale Carnegie
This is the kind of book a boring uncle would advise you to read. Likewise, you might see it on a distinguished list somewhere and assume that you should read it. Though a lot of it might come off as common knowledge…you should read it.

How often do we really take a step back and consider the tone we take when admonishing someone, and how it might make them feel?

Break out your highlighter and mark up your own copy for maximum effectiveness. Make sure you don’t skip the inspirational story of Dale Carnegie’s rise to the top in the notes at the end.

Lilac Girls, Martha Hall Kelly
Okay, I wouldn’t exactly say I loved reading this one. Sometimes it was uncomfortable, sickening, and dare I say it, creepy. But at all times, it was eye-opening. This is a work of fiction based on the lives of three very different women: one Polish, one German, one American.

It’s a more realistic look at World War II than I’m used to reading or seeing in film, particularly the chapters told from a Polish perspective. Often we fixate so much on the D-Day victory and relish of concentration camp liberation that we forget how unpleasant life continued to be for those on the Eastern side of the Berlin Wall. It also elucidates the bittersweetness of life in the decades that followed the war’s ending.

Yay Also Good in 2016
Why Not Me? Mindy Kaling
The Girl With The Lower Back Tattoo, Amy Schumer
Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain
The Gifts of Imperfection, Brené Brown