Amazon Reveals 2016’s Best Books: ‘Underground Railroad’ is #1

Amazon 2016 Best Books

The editors at Amazon have put together their annual list of the best books in categories including Young Adult, Literary Fiction, and Children’s Books. Topping the list of 2016’s 100 best books is The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead. The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon was named the best young adult release and Anthony Bourdain’s Appetites took the top spot on the list of best cookbooks. J. D. Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis was selected by Amazon’s editors as the best 2016 release in the nonfiction category.

According to Amazon, their team of editors reads hundreds of thousands of pages each year. “The editorial team had a handful of books that we seriously considered for the top pick but in the end our choice of The Underground Railroad was unanimous,” stated Chris Schluep, Amazon Senior Book Editor. “Colson Whitehead’s novel is timely, important, and a great work of literature.”

Amazon’s Top 10 Books of 2016:

1. The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead: A brilliant, wise, fantastical yet grounded portrayal of a young slave seeking her freedom on a real underground railroad.
2. The Wolf Road by Beth Lewis: Part literary thriller, part western, this is a debut novel about a young tomboy trying to survive a post-apocalyptic wilderness as she searches for her parents.
3. Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance: A very personal tour of a segment of our culture that’s losing its way in modern America.
4. The Nix by Nathan Hill: A big, smart novel about so many things: family, politics, revolution and the things we choose to remember (and forget).
5. Mischling by Affinity Konar: Affinity Konar’s beautiful novel about twin sisters who survive Auschwitz is precisely crafted, acutely sensitive and ultimately uplifting and hopeful.
6. Lab Girl by Hope Jahren: An inspiring and entertaining memoir about work, life and love from a plant scientist who is just as adept at analyzing the natural world as she is at illuminating human relationships.
7. Another Brooklyn by Jacqueline Woodson: A poetic, breathtaking novel about growing up female and black in the 1970s–a time of conflicting pressures and sometimes crushing assumptions.
8. Pumpkinflowers by Matti Friedman: An unforgettable nonfiction account of men changed by war, told in a voice that is both straight forward and undeniably literary.
9. Before the Fall by Noah Hawley: From the award-winning creator of Fargo, a thrilling page-turner about an airplane crash and its seemingly heroic survivors.
10. Swing Time by Zadie Smith: A masterful novel that tackles big issues–race, class and the ups and downs of long term friendship–told with a dancer’s grace and ease.

Three of the authors on Amazon’s list have earned their spots in the top 20 for the first time. Amazon also said two entertainers authored Top 100 books this year and memoirs take up 26 of the spots on the Top 100 list.