Top Books of 2015

This insanely busy, exciting, dramatic year has finally drawn to a close.

It brought with it a new job where I can travel the country to my heart’s content.

New book ideas that have filled my hard drive with endless stories and dialogue.

Amazing new friends I’ve met online and in person.

My first year participating in NaNo.

And a whole slew of new authors I read because of different posts and tweets and comments from all my online buddies.

Here are some of my top picks of the books I’ve read this year. I’m including new reads only, since we all know I’m a huge advocate of re-reading.

These are in no particular order.

1. The Lunar Chronicles – A Cinderella cyborg surrounded by her equally enchanting and bedeviled fairy tale partners? Umm… yes, please! The first book, Cinder, is actually my least favorite of the four, and I’m currently reading Winter, the last book. But these books are amazing. Once I got into the 2nd book, I devoured the rest of them. So good!
2. The Throne of Glass series – I adore this series. Partly for the plot, which is insanely in-depth with twists and turns at every corner, but probably more because of her writing style. Sarah J. Maas is brilliant with words. And I mean an absolutely insane master of language. I sometimes have to stop after a sentence or paragraph and say – “Man, that’s good.”
3. The Invention of Hugo Cabret – This one I snagged from a little free library when I was in Washington state and was totally enamored of this book. I couldn’t get enough of it, and it opened me up into the world of mixed media books. Which I bravely ventured into more after reading Hugo. A great read.
4. The Grisha Trilogy – Leigh Bardugo’s first book in this series was utter perfection. And I truly mean that. I read it I think in one day. Or possibly two, because I was on a train trip. But I was hooked from chapter one and couldn’t put it down. It’s dark, fantastical, edgy, and she, also, is a master of words.
5. Jackaby – The tagline, Sherlock Holmes meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is spot-on. This first book in the series combines two things I adore: Sherlock Holmes, and fantasy.
6. The Penderwicks – While my first love is YA and MG fantasy, The Penderwicks was a refreshing read about four sisters and their adventures on summer vacation with a young boy they meet. Also a read-in-one-sitting book. Highly recommended.
7. Demon’s Heart – Of the more than 200 books I read this year, this book deserves more than other to be on my favorite’s list. Emily H. Bates is one of my writing buddies, and her blog is one of my favorites. I’m privileged to be a critique partner with her and am obsessed with pretty much everything she writes. Demon’s Heart is the first in a fantasy series and I adore it. You can ask her. I finished her second book in four hours. Four. Hours.

 

So there it is! My list of my favorite books this past year. I lost sleep on each and every one of them. Literally.

I can’t wait to see what 2016 holds for new authors and opportunities to write and read.

What books were your favorites this year?

Happy New Year!!

 

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

“Tomorrow, is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.”
― Brad Paisley

“We spend January 1st walking through our lives, room by room, drawing up a list of work to be done, cracks to be patched. Maybe this year, to balance the list, we ought to walk through the rooms of our lives…not looking for flaws, but for potential.”
― Ellen Goodman