Entertainment

The 40 best books of 2016 you must read immediately

The Post’s books team on the titles they most loved — and some that, curiously, escaped notice.

Maureen Callahan

When Breath Becomes Air

by Paul Kalanithi (Random House)

On page one, this brilliant young neurosurgeon is looking at X-rays of a stage IV lung cancer patient. It is clear this patient has very little time left. And he, Kalinithi tells us, is the diagnosed. What unfolds is a ruthless and beautiful exploration of what it is for a healer, who works at a necessary emotional remove from his patients, to die. Everyone who works in the medical field should read this remarkable memoir.

Nutshell

by Ian McEwan (Nan A. Talese)

Our narrator is a fetus who overhears his adulterous mother plot to kill his father — with her new lover, who happens to be his father’s brother. McEwan’s fetus is as appalled by this plan as by his uncle’s complete dullness, a man “whose repeated remarks are a witless, thrustless dribble.” Merciless and hilarious, it’s impossible to imagine our fetus without an arch British accent, a martini and a cigarette.

The Girl Who Escaped Isis: This is My Story

by Farida Khalaf and Andrea C. Hoffman (Atria)

This is what it’s like when you hear ISIS is near your town. This is what it’s like when they overpower you and everyone you know, savagely murdering all the men, including your father and brother. This is what it’s like to be a 19-year-old girl ripped from your mother’s arms and boarded on to a school bus, driven to a warehouse and made a sex slave. A brutal, vital memoir that gives human voice to what we increasingly regard as policy.

You’ll Grow Out of It

by Jessi Klein (Grand Central)

“No one ever asks a man if he’s having a ‘natural root canal.’ No one ever asks a man if he’s having a ‘natural vasectomy.'” This is but one of the sharp, hilarious observations in an essay Klein calls “Get the Epidural.” Get this book.

*Loner

by Teddy Wayne (S&S)

Wayne is one of the most insightful, talented, criminally unknown writers of his generation. His David Feldman is a social misfit at Harvard, and when David falls in love with a campus queen, we think we know where the story’s going. Not only is the ending impossible to predict — it feels inexorable.

*Also chosen by Susannah Cahalan


Mackenzie Dawson

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers

by Nancy Jo Sales (Knopf)

From 14-year-old boys demanding nude photos of female classmates to fake Instagram accounts where tweens post risqué photos of themselves to anonymous messaging forums where anything goes, this is a chilling inside look at how American teenage girls are affected by social media. Sales spoke to teens who said that social media was ruining their lives — “but we can’t go off it, because then we’d have no life.” A must-read for parents especially.

Eligible

by Curtis Sittenfeld (Random House)

This modern retelling of Jane Austen’s “Pride and Prejudice” is totally charming and doesn’t feel forced. Set in Cincinnati, it’s a funny, poignant tale about grown kids returning to their family home after their father has a health scare. That’s when they find out that everything is falling apart.

Everyone Brave is Forgiven

by Chris Cleave (Simon & Schuster)

Set against the backdrop of the London Blitz, this novel follows three characters as they navigate a half-ruined city. Many authors would have been content with a love triangle as the main theme, but Cleave pushes the story further into territory that is as moving as it is disturbing.

America the Anxious

by Ruth Whippman (St. Martin’s)

If you’ve ever suspected that our national obsession with obtaining maximum happiness is actually making everyone more miserable and stressed out, this book is for you. From corporate culture and its appointed “Happiness Officers” to Provo, Utah — supposedly the happiest town in the country — Whippman’s research is thorough and lively.

The Travelers

by Chris Pavone (Crown)

Pavone’s books (“The Expats,” “The Accident”) tend to be three parts thriller, one part travelogue, as they always involve exotic locales, and “The Travelers” is no exception, taking readers to Capri, Bordeaux, Paris, London, Argentina, Stockholm, Dublin, Edinburgh, Luxembourg and Iceland. It tells the story of a travel writer who gets caught up in a web of international intrigue. Sophisticated fun.

Irena’s Children

by Tilar Mazzeo (Gallery Books)

The incredible, little-known story of Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic woman who risked certain death to save 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw Ghetto by placing them with gentile families and giving them new names.


Larry Getlen

They Call Me Supermensch: A Backstage Pass to the Amazing Worlds of Film, Food, and Rock ’n’ Roll

by Shep Gordon (Anthony Bourdain)

Talent manager Gordon helped popularize phenomena as disparate as Alice Cooper’s shock horror rock show and Emeril Lagasse’s culinary career. Gordon’s story is a fascinating look at a man who has spent his life in the right place at the right time with the right ideas.

Seoul Man: A Memoir of Cars, Culture, Crisis, and Unexpected Hilarity Inside a Korean Corporate Titan

by Frank Ahrens (Harper Business)

PR exec Ahrens moved to Seoul, South Korea to work for Hyundai, and found a highly competitive, appearance-based, hard-drinking culture that at times seemed a funhouse mirror version of our own. With a sharp eye for details, Ahrens regales us with hilarious tales of cultural cognitive dissonance, as he attempts to shed his American instincts to make it in a society with vastly different norms for success.

John Lennon vs. the U.S.A.: The Inside Story of the Most Bitterly Contested and Influential Deportation Case in United States History

by Leon Wildes (ABA Publishing)

The Nixon administration’s vendetta against the musical icon, spurred on by Sen. Strom Thurmond, is laid out here in great detail, as the Beatle’s friend and lawyer shares the extraordinary amount of effort the federal government put into trying to banish Lennon from the US. A fascinating and, at times, infuriating read.

Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy

by Heather Ann Thompson (Pantheon Books)

A remarkable and harrowing full account of the tragedy at Attica — how it came about, how horribly it was handled and the cover-up that followed. Thoroughly researched and dramatically crafted, save this one for when you can stomach a full-on rage read.

Ali vs. Inoki: The Forgotten Fight That Inspired Mixed Martial Arts and Launched Sports Entertainment

by Josh Gross (BenBella Books)

A funny, juicy, at times unbelievable tale of a mostly forgotten match between Muhammad Ali and Japanese wrestling champion Antonio Inoki, the book brings us the real-life drama and utter ridiculousness of this ill-advised, ego- and money-driven attempt to combine two sports that had no business interacting in the same ring (in this form, at least).

Seeing the Real You at Last: Life and Love on the Road with Bob Dylan

by Britta Lee Shain (Jawbone Press)

A finely detailed look at life with the legend, “Seeing The Real You at Last” helps ground Dylan, presenting him as both pampered rock star and everyday quirk machine.

Delta Lady: A Memoir

by Rita Coolidge (Harper)

Many male rock stars of the Sixties and Seventies have released memoirs, presenting their version of the time as one of debauchery, pleasure and sexual privilege. When the era’s women tell their stories, though, a darker side emerges. Coolidge tells of her musical success but also the indignities she and others suffered at the hands of some of the era’s greatest talents. Also intriguing — her claim that she was denied credit for writing one of the most recognizable musical passages in rock history, the piano coda to “Layla.”

Suck and Blow: And Other Stories I’m Not Supposed to Tell

by John Popper (Da Capo Press)

A slew of crazy tales show Blues Traveler frontman Popper to be the ultimate outsider in the land of musical fame — and a natural storyteller. Here, his natural awkwardness casts a sardonic shadow over his decades of musical and celebrity experience.


Kyle Smith

The Kingdom of Speech

by Tom Wolfe (Little, Brown)

If you thought every question pertaining to evolution has been solved, think again: More than 50 years after he first started turning conventional wisdom on its head, Wolfe explains in his typically high-energy prose how the development of speech is still an area in which science has far more questions than answers. Along the way Wolfe explores heady concepts of what it means to be human.

A Torch Kept Lit: Great Lives of the Twentieth Century

by William F. Buckley Jr. (Crown Forum)

Journalist James Rosen, remembering that the hyperkinetic magazine editor, who died in 2008, did some of his best work when remembering fallen friends, enemies and newsmakers, painstakingly combed through Buckley’s enormous output to assemble this engaging and enlightening collection of obituaries, acclaimed by no less an authority than Buckley’s only child, Christopher, as perhaps his father’s finest volume ever.

*Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis

by J.D. Vance (Harper)

A graduate of Yale Law School and a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who grew up under hair-raising circumstances of social dysfunction (not just poverty) on the edge of Appalachia in Kentucky and Ohio, Vance proves the perfect messenger from a world most of us can scarcely imagine. As it became clear that Vance’s proud people — working-class whites who feel they’ve been left behind by globalization — were Donald Trump’s strongest supporters, the book took on an extra layer of importance in a year of political upheaval.

*Also chosen by Maureen Callahan

The Iran Wars: Spy Games, Bank Battles, and the Secret Deals That Reshaped the Middle East

by Jay Solomon (Random House)

The Wall Street Journal’s indefatigable foreign-policy reporter takes you behind the scenes to explore the secret communications and back-door maneuverings that yielded John Kerry and President Obama’s shocking deal to end sanctions on Iran, which got the green light to restart its nuclear programs in only 10 years. What did the US get out of the deal? Read the book and you’ll be even more disturbed by the answer.

Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion

by Paul Bloom (Ecco)

Everyone knows that empathy is the key to being a decent human being, right? Bloom, a Yale psychologist, explains how that notion is not only misguided but dangerous.

The Intimidation Game: How the Left Is Silencing Free Speech

by Kimberly Strassel (Twelve)

We should never forget how an arm of the US government — the IRS — systematically harassed and intimidated conservatives in the Obama years. But Strassel’s brilliantly argued, thoroughly researched book documents how much worse it is, reviewing the many instances of ruthlessness in the government blob when it comes to shutting up viewpoints it doesn’t like.

Disrupted: My Misadventures in the Start-Up Bubble

by Dan Lyons (Hachette)

Lyons, a middle-aged journalist hired by the Boston startup HubSpot, found himself in a hilarious yet alarming new world equal parts kindergarten and “Logan’s Run.” Cosseted with toys, games and snacks, smiling, naive young people are nevertheless crushed into dust by the ever-churning corporate wheels in an industry where everyone is expendable on the way to an IPO.


Susannah Cahalan

Patient H.M.: A Story of Memory, Madness, and Family Secrets

By Luke Dittrich (Random House)

The spellbinding tale of the most famous patient in medical history is far and away my favorite book published this year. Journalist Dittrich is a gifted storyteller and researcher, but it’s his personal connection to H.M. that makes this story unique and troubling.

Hungry Heart: Adventures in Life, Love, and Writing

By Jennifer Weiner (Atria)

Bestselling novelist Weiner has hit it out of the park with this moving collection of autobiographical essays. This might be a cliché, but it’s true: I laughed, I cried, and when I finished I flipped back to my favorite parts.

Dinner with Edward: A Story of an Unexpected Friendship

By Isabel Vincent (Algonquin)

The true story of an odd couple in friendship, a recently divorced New York Post journalist and a nonagenarian widower, who connect over a deep and abiding love of food, is the year’s most warm and sumptuous memoir. The story unfolds over 18 dinners, and even includes recipes to try in your own home.

The Gene: An Intimate History

By Siddhartha Mukherjee (Scribner)

Dr. Mukherjee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning history of cancer “The Emperor of all Maladies,” tackles genomics here. Though it’s not quite as special as his first (the bar was set high), this dense medical history is as captivating as it is thorough. You’ll finish this book with a deeper understanding of how far we’ve come with the science and how thrilling and frightening the future of genomics is.

Witness to the Revolution: Radicals, Resisters, Vets, Hippies, and the Year America Lost Its Mind and Found Its Soul

By Clara Bingham (Random House)

This 600-page oral history about the end of the Sixties has no right to be as addictive as it is. Haven’t we said all there is to say about that era? Bingham proves that it’s all in the way we tell it, as she expertly pieces together narratives from names big and small, creating a story that is surprisingly nail-biting.

Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind Over Body

by Jo Marchant (Crown)

Did you know that people respond to the placebo effect even when they are told they are taking a placebo? I didn’t before reading this compulsively readable and deftly reported book about the mind’s ability to heal the body, and now I can’t stop talking about it. This book is a talker and everyone within earshot will either thank you or want to kill you after you read it.


Billy Heller

Moonglow

by Michael Chabon (Harper)

As far as I’m concerned, any year that includes another Chabon novel is a good one — at least for literature. In this autobiographical novel, Chabon mines his grandfather’s deathbed confessions. The fictionalized Grandpa starts out in gritty South Philly. He joins the Army, marries a survivor, works in the space program and even does prison time. As the narrator, a fictional Michael Chabon, says, “It is a pretty good story.”

The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye

by Sonny Liew (Pantheon)

This graphic novel about a Singapore artist, which also tells the story of that nation’s social and political development, has an interesting twist. Charlie Chan Hock Chye is a product of Liew’s imagination. But the comics, clippings and photo collages make him seem real. In a year in which fake news made such a splash, this story stands out — in a good way.

Sailor and Fiddler: Reflections of a 100-Year-Old Author

by Herman Wouk (S&S)

Wouk (“The Caine Mutiny,” “Marjorie Morningstar,” “The Winds of War” and many more) certainly has earned the right to look back. The New York native talks about his Bronx boyhood, stint as a radio gag writer and time in the Navy. He offers insight into his books, discusses his deep love for Israel and, for the first time, writes about the death of his 5-year-old son Abe. After this easy, conversational read about his century of life, I felt like I’d like to hang out with him.

Sunny’s Nights: Lost and Found at a Bar on the Edge of the World

by Tim Sultan (Random House)

Sometime before the old waterfront Brooklyn neighborhood of Red Hook became trendy, Sultan took a wrong turn and found himself in Sunny’s Bar. That wrong turned out all right when he met Sunny Balzano, the bar’s owner. Sunny’s one of those great old New York characters — a poet, cinefile, philosopher, bluegrass maestro and dispenser of Rheingold beer — and it’s a pleasure to read about. Sadly, Sunny died not long after this book was published, but he lives on in these pages.

The Letter Writer

by Dan Fesperman (Knopf)

We get a fascinating look at World War II-era New York City in Fesperman’s novel, in which the title character pens notes for people who can’t read or write to their families back in Europe. Apparently that was a real thing. Also featured in this page-turner: New York cops of varying honesty and local mobsters who help in the fight against the Nazis.

The Morning They Came for Us: Dispatches from Syria

by Janine di Giovanni (Liveright)

Syria is still a humanitarian disaster — and this important work by journalist di Giovanni skips the grand geopolitical machinations to focus on the people suffering. This is a tough but important read that includes real stories of kidnapping, rape, torture and murder of innocents.

Mango & Bambang: The Not-a-Pig

by Polly Faber ( Candlewick Press)

This story of a little girl (Mango) who finds what turns out to be a tapir (a large herbivore that looks like, but is not, a pig) blocking traffic in the middle of a Manhattan street is aimed at readers ages 6 to 9, but this grown-up loves it.

Another Day in the Death of America: A Chronicle of Ten Short Lives

by Gary Younge (Nation Books)

I’d like to send a copy of this book to all the members of Congress who blindly follow the dictates of the NRA. British journalist Younge follows 10 kids, ages 9 to 19, who fell victim to gun violence on Nov. 22, 2013. Nine-year-old Jaden Dixon of Grove City, Ohio, was getting ready for school when his doorbell rang. When he answered it, he was shot in the head — one more example of a tough but necessary read in 2016.