2016 Books I'm Thankful For

Like most other bookworms, great books make their way onto my "things I'm thankful for" list every year. It's hard to choose favorites, but I went ahead and picked five books I read in 2016 and am thankful for.

1. Samara's Peril, by Jaye L. Knight: It's the Ilyon Chronicles...and I suppose I'll be picking Ilyon as books I'm thankful to have read until there aren't any more. They just keep getting better and better. And there's so much depth of meaning. Ilyon really impacts me.
2. Lady Dragon, Tela Du, by Kendra E. Ardnek: Because like WPFP last year, it's brought people together and strengthened my friendship with Kendra. Plus it's just a great book. Reuben's the brother I never had.
3. Before You Meet Prince Charming, by Sarah Mally: I've wanted to read this book since I was probably about 15 or 16, but I never tried very hard to get a copy. However, when I saw it for sale at the Creation Museum and realized I still had a Visa gift card from Christmas, I took the plunge and bought it. And I'm glad I did. While it pretty much fit with the beliefs I already held on relationships and purity, it helped solidify and explain them. I can better understand the "why" now. And I did learn things from it.
4. Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen: Because it taught me that I'm now old enough to appreciate Jane Austen. And because I discovered I'm Elinor Dashwood. And because it was good to listen to while sewing, vacuuming, formatting, riding to Charleston, and to read on the beach.
5. Princess Academy: Palace of Stone, by Shannon Hale: It was just so deep. I love deep children's books, and this one really made me think. About ethics, about politics, about friendship, about how difficult it can be to do the right thing--even to know what the right thing is--but how important it is. It, and the whole series, meant a lot to me.

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to another great year of reading!

Speaking of more reading, here's one more thing to be grateful for. Books on sale! In honor of Thanksgiving and Black Friday, a group of independent Christian authors banded together to offer over seventy discounted books on Nov 25-28. There's literally something for everyone. Every single book listed on Indie Christian Books is on sale in one or more ways. Find discounted paperbacks, dozens of books offered with free shipping, $0.99 ebooks, package deals and more. Even if you have a budget of $0, new reading material awaits you. Don't know what to pick? The fearless Indie Christian Books team created a quiz that will generate a book list perfect for you! Check it out!

What awesome reads of 2016 are you grateful for? What books are you looking forward to reading in 2017?

A note on the Ebooks Only page. All books are listed as "Sold Out." This only refers to paperback copies of these titles. Please click onto the product pages to find descriptions and links to discounted or free ebooks. Also, some of the authors this year chose to not sell their paperbacks directly through the site. Those books are also marked "Sold Out" but if you click them open, you'll find a link to the site where they are on sale and a discount code for you to use at check out.

Acknowledgements: Thanks to Leah E. Good and Kendra E. Ardnek for their work organizing this sale, and Hannah Mills for her fantastic design work on the website graphics. Hannah can be contacted at hmills(at)omorecollege(dot)edu for more information about her design services.