Our Books for 2016

This is our sixth year of committing to reading books from our To Be Read (TBR) piles and talking about them on this here blog. (Our lists from 2011-2015 can be found over in the sidebar.)

Last year, we picked four books to read and discuss at the same time. We enjoyed that, so we're doing it again. This year's joint selections were semi-random, but ended up being two re-reads (Garp and Beloved) and two "How have we missed these?" reads (Five Children and Housekeeping).
 
Here is the schedule for our shared reads:

• January: The World According to Garp  by John Irving
• April:  Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit
• July: Beloved by Toni Morrison
• December: Housekeeping  by Marilynne Robinson

Additionally, we each have each chosen 10 other books from our TBR piles all with copyright dates prior to 2015 (forcing us to dig deep on the shelf). Here are our complete lists for 2016... 

Jenny's Books

Here is a screen cap from Shelfari of the books Jenny has chosen:

(click to see that bigger)

In alphabetical order, they are:

1. About a Mountain by John D'Agata
2. Beloved by Toni Morrison (July)
3. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko (December)
4. The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
5. Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of the American Elite & The Way to a Meaningful Life by William Deresiewicz
6. The Fall of Rome by Martha Southgate 
7. Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit (April)
8. Housekeeping  by Marilynne Robinson (December)
9. Master of the Senate by Robert Caro
10. The Most Dangerous Book: The Battle of James Joyce's Ulysses by Kevin Birmingham
11. Prayers for the Stolen by Jennifer Clement
12. Snow Flower and the Secret Fan by Lisa See
13. Transatlantic by Colum McCann
14. The World According to Garp  by John Irving (January)

Kelly's Books

Here is a screen cap from Shelfari of the books Kelly has chosen:

(click to see that bigger)

In alphabetical order, they are:

1. Beloved by Toni Morrison (July)
2. Detroit: A Biography by Scott Martelle 
3. F. Scott Fitzgerald On Writing by F. Scott Fitzgerald
4. Five Children and It by Edith Nesbit (April)
5. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
6. Housekeeping  by Marilynne Robinson (December) 
7. Life After Life by Jill McCorkle [in progress]
8. Lincoln on Leadership by Donald T. Phillips 
9. Stones from the River by Ursula Hegi 
10. Traffic by Tom Vanderbilt
11. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot by David Shafer 
12. Wolf in White Van by John Darnielle
13. Women in Clothes by Sheila Heti, Heidi Julavits, Leanne Shapton 
14. The World According to Garp  by John Irving (January)

We each have a total of 14 books on our lists -- 12 for 12 months, plus two alternates, just in case we cannot stand a couple of them. Again, four of them are shared books that we will both read in our designated months, as noted above.

As we finish them, we write about them here (Spoiler warning: we are spoiler-iffic with the spoilers) and then we cross 'em off of this list by linking to our reviews/reports.

Credit where it's due: We originally started this project in 2011 by participating in the TBR challenge hosted by Roof Beam Reader -- Adam is no longer hosting these challenges, but we still thank him for inspiring us to start this thing up.

Here's to 2016!