![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/loveliesspies-1.jpg?resize=133%2C200&ssl=1\")
<\/a>As mentioned earlier, Stephanie cheated and sent me a list of nine<\/em> favorite titles. I picked two that looked especially interesting. The first is Love Lies and Spies<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Cindy Anstey. Stephanie says “This young adult book takes place in the 19th<\/sup> century, but what appealed to me was that the main character, Juliana Telford, is not your typical \u201cbow to the men and let them control my life\u201d type of person. She is determined to get her scientific research published and if that meant she has to suffer through the London season, she\u2019ll suck it up, but not form any attachments. Enter in Spencer Northam, a spy for the War Office and a gentleman who stumbles into Juliana\u2019s company. He is more worried about his first mission than he is about meeting ladies to find a wife. This book cracked me up and had me wondering how Juliana and Spencer\u2019s relationship with each other and their surrounding family and friends would really turn out.”\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\nSo there you have it – some really excellent books, verified by our own in-house experts! What about you? What book did you read this year that stood above the rest? Please share in the comments – everyone loves a good book recommendation!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" OK folks, here’s the last installment of our bloggers favorite reads in 2016. As mentioned earlier, Stephanie cheated and sent me a list of nine favorite titles. I picked two that looked especially interesting. The first is Love Lies and Spies by Cindy Anstey. Stephanie says “This young adult book[Read more]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[10,8],"tags":[1464,1463],"class_list":["post-29918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-staff-picks","tag-best-books","tag-favorite-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd0CXx-7My","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29918"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29928,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29918\/revisions\/29928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/worriers.jpg?resize=162%2C200&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Stephanie’s second choice is The Worrier’s Guide to Life<\/strong><\/em><\/a> by Gemma Correll which she blogged about earlier this year<\/a>. Stephanie found that this book really hit home with her and did it with a lot of humor.\u00a0“I am a perpetual worrier. If there\u2019s a thing happening around me, I\u2019m worrying about it. Gemma Correll\u2019s graphic novel gave me advice and information (most-to-all of it ridiculous and frustrating, but incredibly funny) on how to deal with the many situations that leave me up all night worrying. Check this out to laugh your way through any horrifying situation.” <\/em>Both titles sound intriguing, don’t they?<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/news.jpg?resize=147%2C200&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Finally, my 2016 pick is News of the World<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Paulette Jiles which I blogged about last month<\/a>. A compelling story line, dramatic landscape and vivid characters made this a story that is hard to forget. I loved Captain Kidd, his hard won wisdom, his unwavering belief in sticking to\u00a0his principals and his compassion. I also loved the emphasis on education and knowledge. The books is based on real people and I found this slice of relatively unknown Western history fascinating.<\/p>\n