2015 book list

  

2016's book list off to a good start

2015 books:
(with my very favorites of the year marked with asterisks)

  The Dream of a Common Language, Adrienne Rich

  The Art Forger, B.A. Shapiro
  The Orphan Train, Christina Baker Kline
*Cold Mountain, Charles Frazier
  Living Treasures, Yang Huang
  The Baker's Daughter, Sarah McCoy
  The Miniaturist, Jessie Burton
  Poisoned Nation, Loretta Schwartz-Nobel
  The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up, Marie Kondo
  Free to Play, Peter Gray
*The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck
  March, Geraldine Brooks
  Glass, Paper, Beans, Leah Hager Cohen
*Life from Scratch, Sasha Martin
*People of the Book, Geraldine Brooks
  A Tale for the Time Being, Ruth Ozeki
*The Bees, Laline Paul
*The Nourishing Homestead, Ben Hewitt
  The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
  The Undertaker's Daughter, Kate Mayfield
*All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
  Mudbound, Hillary Jordan
  Harvest,
  The Memory Keeper's Daughter, Kim Edwards
  Buddhism for Couples, Sarah Napthali


and, with Claire: Little House in the Big Woods
                            Little House on the Prairie
                            Farmer Boy
                            On the Banks of Plum Creek
                            By the Shores of Silver Lake
                            The Long Winter
                            Little Town on the Prairie
                            These Happy Golden Years
                            The First Four Years
                           (again)


here are the lists from 2013, 2014


looking back over these lists from the last three years, it seems I average 25 books a year.  so I suppose a book every two weeks, roughly.  I go in spurts.  there are times that I inhale a book in a couple days, only to start another immediately after.  there are also times that I can't quite pick the right one and go weeks without a book in my hand.  I've found another kind of stall as well- the stall after an incredibly moving book where I'm just not ready to get the taste of it out of my mouth yet, just don't want to invite anything new in just yet.  as was the case after finishing Cold Mountain, The Grapes of Wrath, and All the Light We Cannot See (in the past I know I've felt that way with The Snow Child, Me Before You, The Poisonwood Bible, The Invention of Wings, and others...).

I'm starting the year off strong and recently finished my first two books of 2016, The Telling- by Jo Baker, and Little Woman in Blue, by Jeannine Atkins.  I've got a thing for books that tell more than one story at the same time (as in The Telling), and if the stories are about women and one of them lived long ago, I'm likely to get hooked pretty quickly. 18th and 19th century historical fiction with strong female characters seems to be my cup of tea these last few years.  today I started Miss Emily by Nuala O'Connor and so far, so good.

which brings me to the obvious question, which is...... what are your favorites? what are you reading now?