Summer reading list 2016
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Imagine a picture. You, lying on a deck chair at a terrace facing the sea, clear blue sky above, a book in one hand, a cold drink in the other.
Basic Kindle 11th generation (2022) specs and comparisons
– October 13, 2022
Kindle Scribe – 5 reasons you should buy it and 4 you should not
– September 29, 2022
What book will it be? Have you already completed your summer book reading list? If not, you’ll find below the most interesting titles published in 2016. Plus a couple of titles with release dates in June and July.
The list includes books from different genres: romance, mystery, fantasy, crime, memoirs, or nonfiction.
Fans of Terry Pratchett are impatiently waiting for The Long Cosmos, the closing book of the Long Earth series.
There is the new Harry Potter book, the 8th in a series, and the first one to be presented on stage (London’s West End – July 31st, 2016).
You will find new novels from Emily Giffin (First Comes Love), Liane Moriarty (Truly Madly Guilty), and Stephen King (End of Watch).
As we love short-form reading, we also included a couple of titles from our list of the best short stories and novellas to read in 2016. The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories by Ken Liu is our favorite book.
Hungry for more book recommendations? Make sure to check out book bestseller lists from major online stores:
Amazon Top 100 Book Best Sellers – a list of books that are currently top selling. This list is being updated a few times a day. From here you can switch to hot new releases, top rated books, or find books that are this year’s top sellers so far.
Barnes & Noble’s Top 100 Book Bestsellers – a bestseller list on Barnes & Noble’s website comes with handy filter features. You can limit your search to a specific category, or filter the results by price, age group, and format (so that you can find a corresponding Nook edition).
Top 50 Kobo Ebooks – the list of best selling books in the Kobo ebookstore. It’s refreshed every hour. You can browse here for top sellers in six most popular categories.
We show the books together with short descriptions and links to both a Kindle and print edition. The list is accompanied by a summer reading list 2016 infographic. Feel free to share it with your friends!
Summer reading list 2016
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, Jack Thorne
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the 8th story in the Harry Potter series and the first one to be presented on stage. It’s based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne.
The world premiere of the play will take place in London’s West End on 30th July 2016.
Harry Potter is now an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children. His youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror
Joyce Carol Oates
From one of our most important contemporary writers, The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror is a bold, haunting collection of six stories.
In the title story, a young boy becomes obsessed with his cousin’s doll after she tragically passes away from leukemia.
In “Equatorial,” an affluent American wife experiences disorienting assaults upon her sense of who her charismatic husband really is, and what his plans may be for her.
In “Gun Accident,” a teenage girl is thrilled when her favorite teacher asks her to house-sit, even on short notice.
The Nest
Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney
A wickedly smart, funny and deeply felt debut novel about four adult siblings and the fate of their long depended-upon family inheritance.
On a wintry afternoon in New York City, Melody, Beatrice and Jack Plumb gather to confront their charismatic and reckless older brother, Leo, who has just been released from rehab.
Can Leo get the Plumbs out of this mess, as he’s always been able to do for himself before? Or will the Plumb siblings have to do without the money and the future lives they’ve envisioned?
Tender, funny and deftly written, The Nest explores what money does to relationships.
Out of Sorts
Aurélie Valognes
Ferdinand Brun hasn’t always been a grumpy old man. Many years ago, he was a grumpy young man. Now he’d much rather spend time with his canine companion, Daisy, than any of his nosy neighbors.
But as his behavior becomes increasingly peculiar, his daughter grows concerned and begins to consider moving him into a retirement home.
In order to maintain his freedom, Ferdinand must submit to an apartment inspection by his longtime enemy, the iron-fisted concierge, Mrs. Suarez. Unfortunately, he’s never tidied up a day in his life. His neighbors, precocious ten-year-old Juliette, and vivacious ninety-two-year-old Beatrice, come to the rescue.
The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future
Kevin Kelly
Kevin Kelly is one of the most influential technology thinkers and writers. In his new book, he guides us through the twelve technological imperatives that will shape the next thirty years and transform our lives.
Kelly both describes these deep trends—interacting, cognifying, flowing, screening, accessing, sharing, filtering, remixing, tracking, and questioning—and demonstrates how they overlap and are codependent on one another.
This bright, hopeful book will be indispensable to anyone who seeks guidance on where their business, industry, or life is heading.
The Association of Small Bombs
Karan Mahajan
Recommended by the New York Times Editors, this is a smart and unpredictable novel from one of the most provocative and dynamic novelists of his generation.
When brothers Tushar and Nakul Khurana, two Delhi schoolboys, pick up their family’s television set at a repair shop with their friend Mansoor Ahmed one day in 1996, disaster strikes without warning.
A bomb — one of the many “small” bombs that go off seemingly unheralded across the world — detonates in the Delhi marketplace, instantly claiming the lives of the Khurana boys, to the devastation of their parents.
The Long Cosmos
Terry Pratchett, Stephen Baxter
The thrilling conclusion to the internationally bestselling Long Earth series explores the greatest question of all: What is the meaning of life?
It’s the year 2070. Six decades after Step Day, a new society continues to evolve in the Long Earth. Now, a message has been received: “Join us.”
The Next – the hyper-intelligent post-humans – realize that the missive contains instructions for kick-starting the development of an immense artificial intelligence known as The Machine. But to build this computer the size of an Earth continent, they must obtain help from the more populous and still industrious worlds of mankind.
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
Ken Liu
Bestselling author Ken Liu selects his award-winning science fiction and fantasy tales for a groundbreaking collection.
You’ll find here insightful and stunning stories that plumb the struggle against history and betrayal of relationships in pivotal moments, this collection showcases one of our greatest and original voices.
The collection features many of Ken Liu’s award-winning stories, including Mono No Aware, The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species, and The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary.
Jimmy Stewart: The Truth Behind the Legend
Michael Munn
James Stewart was known as the underdog fighter in many of his films and in real life.
This definitive reveals many unknown sides of the famous actor: his explosive temper, his complex love affairs, his service as a secret agent for the FBI, his innate shyness, and his passionate patriotism.
Munn’s personal touch shines through his writing, as he was a friend of Stewart and his wife, Gloria, and interviewed them as well as their colleagues and friends.
Fool Me Once
Harlan Coben
The next impossible-to-put-down thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Harlan Coben.
Former special ops pilot Maya sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe — who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier.
Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to?
To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband — and herself.
First Comes Love
Emily Giffin
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Giffin comes a dazzling new novel about family, friendship, and the courage to follow your own heart.
Growing up, Josie and Meredith Garland shared a loving, if sometimes contentious, relationship. Josie was impulsive, spirited, and outgoing, Meredith hardworking, thoughtful, and reserved.
Fifteen years later, Josie and Meredith are in their late thirties, following very different paths. Painful secrets from the past begin to surface.
They must not only confront the issues that divide them but also come to terms with their own choices.
It Gets Worse: A Collection of Essays
Shane Dawson
New York Times bestselling author Shane Dawson returns with another highly entertaining and uproariously funny essay collection.
The essays chronicle a mix of real life moments both extraordinary and mortifying, yet always full of heart.
Dawson shares never-before-revealed stories from his life, giving readers a no-holds-barred look at moments both bizarre and relatable, from cult-like Christian after-school activities, dressing in drag, and losing his virginity, to hiring a psychic, clashes with celebrities, and coming to terms with his bisexuality.
The High Mountains of Portugal
Yann Martel
From the author of Life of Pi comes the story of a quest for a lost relic. The journey takes us from Africa in the 1600s through Portugal at the turn of the last century to contemporary North America.
Showcasing Martel’s trademark delight in the fundamental stories that unite us, the novel unfolds with a dazzling lightness of touch. With its intricately woven layers of meaning and all the pleasures and surprises of a good yarn, it is also a beautiful, tender, clear-eyed and heartfelt exploration of love, suffering, faith and evolution.
By turns funny, tragic and sublime, The High Mountains of Portugal reminds us that it is our ability to weave remarkable stories out of our spiritual and philosophical concerns that makes us – and keeps us – human.
Interior Darkness: Selected Stories
Peter Straub
Sixteen short stories by the New York Times bestselling author Peter Straub, the celebrated master of horror.
In this collection, Peter Straub consistently changes the boundaries of genre, transcending horror and suspense to unlock the dark, unsettling, and troubling dissonances that exist on the edges of our perception.
“It is a thrilling, highly entertaining, and terrifying testament to the prodigious talent of Peter Straub.”
Truly Madly Guilty
Liane Moriarty
Liane Moriarty is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Husband’s Secret, and Big Little Lies.
In her new novel, Moriarty turns her unique, razor-sharp eye towards three seemingly happy families.
Sam and Clementine have a wonderful, busy life. Sam has just started a new dream job and Clementine, a cellist, is busy preparing for the audition of a lifetime. If there’s anything they can count on, it’s each other.
Clementine and Erika are each other’s oldest friends. One day Erika invites Clementine to a barbecue with her neighbors, Tiffany and Vid.
It will be a normal weekend. What could possibly go wrong?
Three Sisters, Three Queens
Philippa Gregory
The next novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory.
When Katherine of Aragon is brought to the Tudor court as a young bride, the oldest princess, Margaret, takes her measure. With one look, each knows the other for a rival, an ally, a pawn, destined – with Margaret’s younger sister Mary – to a sisterhood unique in all the world.
The three sisters will become the queens of England, Scotland, and France.
As they experience betrayals, dangers, loss, and passion, the three sisters find that the only constant in their perilous lives is their special bond, more powerful than any man, even a king.
The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo
Amy Schumer
The Emmy Award-winning comedian, actress, and writer has taken the entertainment world by storm with her winning blend of smart, satirical humor.
Now, Amy Schumer has written a refreshingly candid and uproariously funny collection of (extremely) personal and observational essays.
Amy mines her past for stories about her teenage years, her family, relationships, and sex and shares the experiences that have shaped who she is.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth
In this must-read book for anyone striving to succeed, pioneering psychologist Angela Duckworth shows parents, educators, athletes, students, and business people—both seasoned and new—that the secret to outstanding achievement is not talent but a focused persistence called “grit.”
Why do some people succeed and others fail? Sharing new insights from her landmark research on grit, MacArthur “genius” Angela Duckworth explains why talent is hardly a guarantor of success. Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.
Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that—not talent or luck—makes all the difference.
End of Watch
Stephen King
Retired Detective Bill Hodges now runs a two-person firm called Finders Keepers with his partner Holly Gibney. They met in the wake of the ‘Mercedes Massacre’ when a queue of people was run down by the diabolical killer Brady Hartsfield.
Brady is now confined to Room 217 of the Lakes Region Traumatic Brain Injury Clinic, in an unresponsive state. But all is not what it seems: the evidence suggests that Brady is somehow awake, and in possession of deadly new powers that allow him to wreak unimaginable havoc without ever leaving his hospital room.
When Bill and Holly are called to a suicide scene with ties to the Mercedes Massacre, they find themselves pulled into their most dangerous case yet…
Fall of Poppies
Various Authors
An unforgettable collection of short stories set in the aftermath of World War I.
The world has changed forever. For soldiers, survivors, and their families, the years ahead are the hope in the midst of uncertainty.
Edited by Heather Webb, the collection includes stories from the bestselling authors such as Hazel Gaynor, Jennifer Robson, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig.
Curious Minds: A Knight and Moon Novel
Janet Evanovich, Phoef Sutton
Janet Evanovich teams up with Emmy-winning writer Phoef Sutton for a new series of thrillers featuring the invincible and incompatible pairing of Knight and Moon.
In the first book, we follow Emerson Knight. He is introverted, eccentric, and has little to no sense of social etiquette.
What starts off as an inquiry about missing bank funds in the Knight account leads to inquiries about a missing man, missing gold, and a life-and-death race across the country.
Summer reading list 2016 – infographic
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Here are more lists to explore:
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Gifts for modern book lovers in 2022
Based on recommendations from top tech sites and customer reviews.

Breathable 3D sleep headphones – great for audiobooks
This cozy and breathable sleeping mask has a special 3D shape which will not put pressure on your eyeballs and face. It features built-in Bluetooth earbuds with a playback time reaching 10 hours.

Cute book sleeve – great for print books and e-readers
From The Great Oak comes a large zippered book sleeve with a cozy and bright pattern. The soft middle layer is designed to keep your books safe and comfy. It will protect not only your paperbacks, but also an e-reader.

Hands-free pillow stand – great for e-readers and print books
An improved version of a popular Lamicall tablet pillow comes now with a side pocket for a pen or small accessories. The grooves are deep enough to hold a print book. It’s made of durable materials and is available in five fashionable colors.






