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The Wall Street Journal

The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year 2016

The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year 2016 names 20 books across 2 categories. 8 of them also won or were shortlisted for an award.

Fiction

  1. Heat & Light by Jennifer Haighsource (opens in a new tab)
  2. High Dive by Jonathan Leesource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslettsource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Moonglow by Michael Chabonsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Oblivion by Sergei Lebedevsource (opens in a new tab)
  6. Spill Simmer Falter Wither by Sara Baumesource (opens in a new tab)
  7. The Heart by Maylis de Kerangalsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Sport of Kings by C. E. Morgansource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasamsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whiteheadsource (opens in a new tab)

Nonfiction

  1. Abigail Adams: Letters by Abigail Adamssource (opens in a new tab)
  2. Black Hole Blues by Janna Levinsource (opens in a new tab)
  3. Code Warriors by Stephen Budianskysource (opens in a new tab)
  4. Eccentric Orbits by John Bloomsource (opens in a new tab)
  5. Harry & Arthur by Lawrence J. Haassource (opens in a new tab)
  6. In a Different Way by John Donvan and Caren Zuckersource (opens in a new tab)
  7. Secondhand Time by Svetlana Alexievichsource (opens in a new tab)
  8. The Genius of Birds by Jennifer Ackermansource (opens in a new tab)
  9. The Rise and Fall of American Growth by Robert J. Gordonsource (opens in a new tab)
  10. The Vanishing Velazquez by Laura Cummingsource (opens in a new tab)

About the The Wall Street Journal Best Books of the Year

WSJ books editors' year-end picks. 2012-2016: the Best Fiction and Best Nonfiction lists, ten books each. 2018-2025: the 10 Best Books, one list across fiction and nonfiction. Left out: the Review section's Books of the Year picks by outside contributors, the genre lists (mysteries, science fiction, children's, politics, business, aging) and gift guides. No list is ranked. wsj.com's robots.txt bars Claude crawlers and forbids automated collection, so WSJ pages were read only through the Wayback Machine. wsj.com is also paywalled and its Wayback copies after 2012 show only the first item, so most years come from secondary copies: 2012 fiction from the free 2012 WSJ page; 2012-2015 nonfiction, 2013-2015 fiction and 2023 from Barnes & Noble's WSJ collections (read through Wayback); 2016 from a Lower Providence Community Library reprint; 2018-2021, 2024 and 2025 from yearendlists.com; 2022 from Booklisti. 2016 spellings of de Kerangal, Jonathan Lee and C. E. Morgan were corrected against Wikipedia. Missing: 2013 nonfiction and 2017 (no readable copy; the 2017 WSJ page names the books only in cover images); 2006-2011 (no clean editors' list found).

Organization: The Wall Street Journal. Official site (opens in a new tab)

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