As 2016 draws to a close, why not spend the next two-and-a-half weeks catching up on some of this year’s literary highlights. The Chicago Public Library has released its annual list of the best books published in the past year and taken the guess work out of what should be next on your reading list.
Each year, CPL librarians go through the catalog of the year’s new books and narrow down the best selections for Chicago readers. This year, 80 titles are among the libraries top choices for adults, and a top 10 list goes one step further to highlight the cream of the crop.
Additionally, librarians selected the top reads for kids and teens in a number of different categories, including fiction, nonfiction and graphic novels. Each list, along with short descriptions of the included selections, is available on the library’s website.
So don’t let the words escape you this coming year, and checkout the Chicago Public Library's top 10 books of 2016.
Blood at the Root: A Racial Cleansing in America
By Patrick Phillips
National Book Award finalist Patrick Phillips tells the tragic story of racial cleansing in Forsyth County, Georgia. Beginning with the removal of the Cherokee in the 1830s and stretching into the 1990s, this harrowing American tale uncovers a history of racial violence that continues to shape 21st-century America.
Commonwealth
By Ann Patchett
Best-selling author and winner of the PEN/Faulkner Award Ann Patchett tells a tale of how an unexpected romance permanently changed two families. Commonwealth explores how this fateful encounter echoed across five decades and affected the lives of the six children and four parents involved.
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City
By Matthew Desmond
The story of eight families in Milwaukee's poorest neighborhoods are told in this fascinating, yet tragic study. Matthew Desmond explores the effects of eviction on poor renting families through vivid, intimate prose.
The Girls
By Emma Cline
This debut novel by Emma Cline paints an unforgettable picture of girls, who they become and the moments when things go horribly wrong. A New York Times Best Seller, The Girls has been praised for its surprising psychological insight.
Lab Girl
By Hope Jahren
"Lab Girl" is an insightful debut memoir from acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren. Through the story of her work and love, Jahren presents a moving portrait of friendship and a fresh perspect the natural world.
News of the World
By Paulette Jiles
This superb piece of historical fiction tells the story of Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd and his journey to deliver a young orphan, Johanna, to her relatives in San Antonio. Set in Northern Texas circa 1870, News of the World explores the boundaries of family, honor, responsibility and trust.
Swing Time
By Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith's ambitious new novel follows two girls from their childhood friendship in London to a philanthropic mission in West Africa.
The Underground Railroad
By Colson Whitehead
This National Book Award winning novel tells the story of a young slave, Cora, and her escape from captivity in the American South. Whitehead's Underground Railroad is no metaphor, as the author imagines a secret network of underground tracks and tunnels operated by engineers and conductors.
The Vegetarian
By Kang Han
Winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, The Vegetarian is an unsettling story about rebellion, taboo, violence, eroticism and the transformation of the soul. Kang Han presents a dark allegory of obsession, power and one woman's fight to escape violence.
Weapons of Math Destruction: How Big Data Increases Inequality and Threatens Democracy
By Cathy O'Neil
Cathy O’Neil's urgent and necessary book sounds an alarm on the mathematical models that permeate modern life and threaten to unravel our social fabric. Weapons of Math Destruction exposes the black box models that shape our future (both as individuals and as a society), and urges modelers to take more responsibility for their algorithms and policymakers to enact more regulations.
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