【Watch Friends】

If there is Watch Friendsone big winner from 2016, it's books.

From ambitious new literary fiction to moving YA novels to great new comics, 2016 has been a year filled with phenomenal book releases.

In honor of 2016 coming to a close, this week on the MashReads Podcastwe reflect on our favorite books of 2016. Join us as we talk about the best new books from 2016, the favorite things we've read this year, books that surprised us and more.

Then, as always we close the show with recommendations, this time from the year at large.

• Aliza recommends rereadingHarry Potter. "Rereading it as an adult, I got so much out of it. I love that community."

• Peter recommends BoJack Horseman. "It's so poignant and fraught and existentially despairing at the same time as being really ludicrously funny. It deserves a lot more credit than it's been given."

• MJ has a bunch of micro recommendations including Chance the Rapper and Michelle Obama. "[Obama] is beautiful, so smart, she's friends with Beyonce, she's inspiring. She got me through 2016." MJ also recommends the Longform Podcast from Longformand the Still Processing podcast from the New York Times.

Join us next week when we kick off the New Year with Lisa Lucas, the executive director of National Book Foundation, to talk about celebrating books and setting reading resolutions for 2017.

And if you're looking for more book news, don't forget to follow MashReads on Facebook and Twitter. 

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