Meredith Shayne

Books I enjoyed in 2016

April 23, 2017 at 4:04 pm | Posted in Books of the year, Reading | Leave a comment
Tags: books I enjoyed, reading

Well, hi everyone! Trust me when I say I know how ridiculous it is to post a recap of last year’s reading highlights when it’ll be May in a week, but that’s how my life is these days, apparently.

I really want my first (and possibly only, let’s be real) post of the year to be the books I enjoyed in 2016, because that’s been my first post for years now, but I’ll just sum up the last 18 months of my life like this: the beginning of that time period sucked more than any other time in my life, so much so that I had to seek help to cope with it. Over time, things have gotten better, to the point where a couple of months ago it started to feel like I could cope without help, and that has turned out to be true. So I’m here, mostly back to normal, and very relieved about it.

I didn’t write anything substantial during that time, but I don’t particularly regret that – I enjoy writing, but I’m never going to do it for a living, because it’s not possible for me to write enough while working full time in a high-stress, mentally intense profession to make that happen. And anyway, if it comes down to a choice between publishing books regularly and my mental health and happiness, it’s not publishing that I’m going to choose. Having said that, I do feel more like writing these days, so we’ll see if I can get something finished before the end of the world, shall we? 😉

Anyway, onto 2016’s books. If you look at my 2016 Goodreads shelf, you’ll see it was the year of the series. Audiobooks help a lot with that, because there is no easier way to glom an entire series than to have someone else reading it to you. The series’ I read in 2016 that I loved, in no particular order, were:

The THIRDS series, by Charlie Cochet (audio)

Everyone knows about these books, I realise that, but if you haven’t tried any of the audiobooks, RUN, don’t walk, and get them immediately. Mark Westfield does the most incredible job. He is amazing.

The Peter Grant series, by Ben Aaronovitch (audio)

I mentioned the first book in this series in my books post last year, but now I’m up to date and they are still amazing. This is another series where the narrator, Kobna Holdbrook-Smith, is fantastic. I LOVE the way he narrates these books, it’s so good that the story is almost secondary to the way he reads it. He’s SO good. I would pay him to read me some Peter/Nightingale fanfic, in fact. I would pay him A LOT.

The Psycop series, by Jordan Castillo Price (audio)

This is another series that seems absurd to rec, because you’d have to have been living under a rock for a thousand years not to have heard of it, and to not have heard how fantastic Gomez Pugh is at narrating it. But I had to include it, even if just for how Gomez has Vic say “Fawn Windsong”. Even now I literally LOL every time I think of that.

The Infected series by Andrea Speed

By mentioning this series I turn the corner where I can no longer hide that 2016 was the year I caught up on series that everyone else has already read. Some of these are heavy going, which I think is why it took me so long to finish the series, but fuck they’re great, to put it bluntly. As a person who regularly experiences significant levels of physical pain, I can identify a lot with Roan’s relationship with both the pain itself and the drugs he takes for it, and the way he deals with people’s attitudes towards both those things. I want these in audio really badly. The fact that they’re not in audio is a fricken travesty.

The Scoring Chances series, by Avon Gale

I read the first one of this series in 2015, and it made my books I enjoyed list last year, but the rest are great too. I know absolutely fuck all about hockey but these are incredibly enjoyable.

The October Daye series, by Seanan McGuire (audio)

These are just the kind of urban fantasy that I love, and are incredibly engrossing in audio.  So much so that I bought the last three on mp3 discs because they’re not available in Audible audiobook outside of the US (WHY AMAZON? FFS). There are so many characters to love here, and Seanan writes a lot of shorts to fill in the gaps in very enjoyable ways (TYBALT 😍💗😍💗😍 The Luidaeg 😍💗😍💗😍)

OK, now if you’ve read this far it’s almost over, I promise! Just a few non-series books that deserve a special mention:

Mark Cooper versus America, by Lisa Henry and JA Rock

I love a fish out of water story and having lived there for a little while myself, there is nothing more fish out of water than an Australian in America, let me tell you. Mark is hilarious and this was delightful.

rock, by Anyta Sunday

I like Anyta Sunday’s books a lot, especially if they’re set in New Zealand. This one has a twist that some might not be keen on, but it’s set in Wellington and I really enjoyed it.

Never Sweeter, by Charlotte Stein

This book is about a girl falling for a guy who used to bully her in high school, so fair warning. Personally I think it was adequately explained, but YMMV. I like Charlotte’s books in general and I loved this one. Sweet and hot.

Fool’s Gold, by Sarah Madison

I love a good second chance story, and this was a great one. So glad Sarah expanded it from the short it originally was.

So This is Christmas, by Josh Lanyon

ADRIEN AND JAKE!! 😍💗😍💗😍 They’re back in a short about their first Christmas together. I love them to pieces and I loved this. I need it in audio, stat.