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As usual in December, Amazon has just announced best-selling books of 2016.
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The status of this annual report has evolved from the list based on sales only to a catalog of books picked according to multiple factors, including:
- books enjoying biggest sales,
- books with highest customer ratings,
- books most often added to wish lists,
- books that were gifted most often.
As this list is no longer based only on sales, we present in this overview the Kindle titles from the ongoing ranking of Amazon bestsellers in Kindle ebooks. This directory features the titles with the biggest number of paid downloads. So, you’ll find here titles that were published not only in 2016 but also in previous years.
We believe this ranking is better than the curated Amazon list as it shows books chosen by wallets.
When you take a closer look, you’ll see that Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the biggest top seller among the books published in 2016, gives place to two other books.
No. 1 Kindle bestseller of 2016 is The Girl on the Train. Released at the beginning of 2015, this debut psychological thriller by Paula Hawkins was the top Kindle bestseller already a year ago.
The second book on the list is a serial killer novel by Robert Bryndza, The Girl in the Ice. The sales were driven by low price ($0.99) and high customer reviews.
What’s interesting about this list is that is shows which books are available via Kindle Unlimited ebook subscription.
We’ll put together a detailed post about Kindle Unlimited bestsellers, soon. Now, it’s enough to highlight that in the Top 20 Kindle bestsellers of 2016, five titles are Kindle Unlimited eligible.
Below, you’ll find the Top 10 titles, together with simplified and shortened blurbs. You can also check out our Best-selling Kindle books of 2016 infographic.
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Top 10 best selling Kindle books of 2016
1. The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck.
She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life — as she sees it — is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next.
Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.
2. The Girl in the Ice
Robert Bryndza
When a young boy discovers the body of a woman beneath a thick sheet of ice in a South London park, Detective Erika Foster is called in to lead the murder investigation.
The victim, a beautiful young socialite, appeared to have a perfect life. Yet, when Erika begins to dig deeper, she starts to connect the dots between the murder and the killings of three prostitutes, all found strangled, hands bound and dumped in the water around London.
As Erika inches closer to uncovering the truth, the killer is closing in on Erika.
3. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child
J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, John Tiffany
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is the 8th story in the Harry Potter series and the first one to be presented on stage. It’s based on an original new story by J.K. Rowling, John Tiffany, and Jack Thorne.
The world premiere of the play will take place in London’s West End on 30th July 2016.
Harry Potter is now an overworked employee of the Ministry of Magic, a husband and father of three school-age children. His youngest son Albus must struggle with the weight of a family legacy he never wanted. As past and present fuse ominously, both father and son learn the uncomfortable truth: sometimes, darkness comes from unexpected places.
4. The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
It’s 1939. In a small French village, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front.
Soon Germans invade France, and a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home. She and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything.
Without food or money or hope, as the danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive…
Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with atrocities, but also humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah’s novel will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they finish reading.
5. Me Before You
Jojo Moyes
The New York Times No. 1 bestselling novel that is loved around the world, now a major film starring Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin.
Louisa Clark is an ordinary girl living an exceedingly ordinary life – steady boyfriend, close family – who has never been farther afield than their tiny village.
She takes a badly needed job working for ex–Master of the Universe Will Traynor, who is wheelchair-bound after an accident.
A love story for this generation, Me Before You brings to life two people who couldn’t have less in common – a heartbreakingly romantic novel that asks: What do you do when making the person you love happy also means breaking your own heart?
6. Walk Into Silence
Susan McBride
A woman vanishes from a Texas town. Did she simply run off, or is something darker at play?
When Patrick Dielman shows up at Detective Jo Larsen’s desk insisting that his wife, Jenny, is missing, Jo wonders if it’s a case of a bored housewife running away.
But as she digs deeper into Jenny’s life, Jo learns that Dielman keeps a stranglehold on the family finances, down to the last nickel and that Jenny’s first marriage dissolved following the death of her young son.
For Jo, whose own demons are shadowing her every step, finding Jenny becomes more than the typical protect-and-serve.
7. Follow You Home
Mark Edwards
The page-turning psychological thriller from the author of #1 bestsellers and Because She Loves Me.
It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime, a final adventure before settling down. But after a perfect start, an encounter with a young couple on a night train forces Daniel and Laura to cut their dream trip short and flee home.
Back in London, Daniel and Laura vow never to talk about what happened that night. But as they try to fit into their old lives again, they realize they are in terrible danger—and that their nightmare is just beginning.
8. A Man Called Ove
Fredrik Backman
Fredrik Backman’s heartwarming debut is a funny, moving, uplifting tale of love and community that will leave you with a spring in your step.
At first sight, Ove is almost certainly the grumpiest man you will ever meet. He thinks himself surrounded by idiots.
But isn’t it rare, these days, to find such old-fashioned clarity of belief and deed? Such unswerving conviction about what the world should be, and a lifelong dedication to making it just so?
In the end, you will see, there is something about Ove that is quite irresistible.
9. War Brides
Helen Bryan
With war threatening to spread from Europe to England, the sleepy village of Crowmarsh Priors settles into a new normal: Evacuees from London are billeted in local homes.
As the war and its relentless hardships intensify around them, the same struggles that threaten to rip apart their lives also bring the five closer together.
They draw strength from one another to defeat formidable enemies—hunger, falling bombs, the looming threat of a Nazi invasion, and a traitor in their midst.
10. The Whistler
John Grisham
From John Grisham, America’s No. 1 bestselling author, comes the most electrifying novel of the year, a high-stakes thrill ride through the darkest corners of the Sunshine State.
We expect our judges to be honest and wise. Their integrity and impartiality are the bedrock of the entire judicial system. We trust them to ensure fair trials, to protect the rights of all litigants, to punish those who do wrong, and to oversee the orderly and efficient flow of justice.
But what happens when a judge bends the law or takes a bribe?
Best Kindle books of 2016 infographic
Here is a visual with the biggest Kindle bestsellers of 2016. Feel free to share it with your friends and followers!
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