2016 may have sucked ass for the world in general, but it was actually a great year for me in terms of reading. And isn't my happiness the really important thing? 
 The usual suspects delivered in all the ways that I've come to expect from them. John Sandford provided new Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers thrillers with Extreme Prey and Escape Clause. My other two book a year guy is Ace Atkins, and he added to his trend with Slow Burn and The Innocents. The authors who make up the James S.A. Corey name also continued to pay off the gamble I took by starting an unfinished series by once again keeping to their established schedule and publishing a new Expanse novel Babylon's Ashes. Megan Abbott showed off her unique brand of suburban noir in You Will Know Me, and Richard Russo cooked up a great sequel to an earlier book of his I loved with Everybody's Fool. Joe R. Lansdale's creations Hap & Leonard got their own TV show as well as the fun new adventure Honky Tonk Samurai. 
 I also had good luck in trying out new authors. Good Morning, Midnight was a fantastic end of the world tale with heart by Lilly Brooks-Dalton. The Poison Artist from Jonathan Moore was one of the most trippy and atmospheric thrillers I've ever read. We got a new modern version of Sherlock Holmes with IQ by Joe Ide. J. Kent Messum was nice enough to hook me up with copies of his sharks-vs.-junkies novel Bait as well as his sci-fi thriller Husk which I'm in the middle of at year's end. I knew Noah Hawley from his work writing and producing the excellent TV version of Fargo, but he proved to also be a great novelist in Before the Fall. 
 Thanks to the inspiration of Netflix and the movies I put my Marvel Unlimited subscription to good use by finishing up Mark Waid's run on Daredevil as well as reading others like Jessica Jones in Brian Michael-Bendis'Alias, Doctor Strange in The Oath, and Daniel Way's Deadpool. I also also enjoyed some of the that Marvel/Disney synergy with a bunch of the new Star Wars comics. In non-Marvel funny books I also kept up with the latest Saga trades from Brian K. Vaughan. 
 On the non-fiction side of things I got swept up in Hamilton-mania (Thanks, Sesana!) and read the excellent biography by Ron Chernow that inspired the musical. Two critics used the hook of trying to compile a list of the greatest 100 shows of all time in TV - The Book which helps explain why I can't keep up with this golden age of television. One of the first books I read this year was The Confidence Game which examined the psychology of why people are such complete suckers for bullshit artists, and that turned out to be really helpful when I was trying to figure out what happened when November rolled around. 
 If I was handing out a MVP trophy for my reading year it'd go to Lawrence Block, and I'd probably throw in a lifetime achievement award, too . He continues to make excellent use of e-books to release old pulp novels like Cinderella Sims and new short stories like Keller's Fedora. Hard Case Crime published the long lost Sinner Man that Block discovered by accident, and he's got the excellent novella Resume Speed coming out soon. Plus, I checked out another one of his Bernie Rhodenbarr books, and I've got a new collection of short stories he edited on deck. 
 The best read of the year came in the form of two books that made up one historical fiction which added a lot of humanity to legendary figures of the Old West. Doc and Epitaph from Mary Doria Russell were not only entertaining stories but had me thinking a lot about fact vs. fiction when it comes to American myths. 
 The biggest disappointments came from the King family. Stephen finally gave up trying to make his underwhelming Bill Hodges trilogy work as just mystery thrillers and added a supernatural element to the final book End of Watch, but it was too little too late. His son Joe Hill showed that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree by producing The Fireman which was as bloated, unfocused, and generally messy as his dad's worst books. But of course, both of those books won Goodreads Choice Awards so they were among the many pieces of evidence we got this year that proves once and for all that democracy doesn't work. 
 However, it wasn't all bad on the King front. I started re-reading a bunch of his older work and rediscovered gems like Misery and The Long Walk. I also reinforced my opinion that The Tommyknockers shows that it's a good thing Uncle Stevie got off the nose candy. I also worked in a re-read James Ellroy's LA Quartet which held up as one of my favorite works of crime fiction. 
 Finally, I hit a big personal Goodreads milestone with my 1000th review, and to mark the occasion I re-read No Country For Old Men which was just as good as I remembered. That ended up being bittersweet because I actually used the site far less than usual this year. The update feed changes made keeping up a hassle, and I had some new demands in my personal life that cut into my interwebs time so I wasn't as active as I've been in the past. 
 So I'm not sure what the 2017 schedule will be like, but thanks to all of you that took the time to like a review, make a non-trollish comment, and/or send me a message. It's always very much appreciated.