Best Reads of 2015

This year I'm taking the easy route. I'm simply identifying the eight books I labelled as Highly Recommended. There were four tween/YA books:

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry
The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen
Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson
Wonder by RJ Palacio

I highly recommended three non-fiction titles and one fiction title in the adult category:

Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown
Thirty Million Words by Dana Suskind, M.D.

Here's the list (with links) of all the books I read in 2015 (although I'm sad because I usually publish this blog post for my mother, so she can write down book suggestions from the lengthy list, and this year she is dealing with dementia and unable to jot down book suggestions or focus long enough to consume a book):

• Twice Loved by Wanda Brunstetter
• The Time Keeper by Mitch Albom
• The First Miracle by Jeffrey Archer
• Journey Into Christmas by Bess Streeter Aldrich
• Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate
• The Cat's Table by Michael Ondaatje
• Beyond Blue by Therese J. Borchard
• Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
• Best Boy by Eli Gottlieb
• Serafina and the Black Cloak by Robert Beatty
• Wish I Could Be There by Allen Shawn
• The Human Blueprint by Robert Shapiro
• We Never Asked for Wings by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• The Lake House by Kate Morton
• War Against the Weak by Edwin Black
• Brain Maker by David Perlmutter, M.D.
• Doll Bones by Holly Black
• The Carnival at Bray by Jessie Ann Foley
• The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh
• El Deafo by Cece Bell
• Thirty Million Words by Dana Suskind, M.D. - HR
• Head Case by Cole Cohen
• Bright Beginnings for Boys by Debby Zambo & William G. Brozo
• The End of the Sentence by Maria Dahvana Headley & Kat Howard
• On Becoming a Novelist by John Gardner
• Before We Get Started by Bret Lott
• Every Fifteen Minutes by Lisa Scottoline
• Naptime with Theo & Beau by Jessica Shyba
• The Patient's Playbook by Leslie D. Michelson
• The Sound of Glass by Karen White
• The Frugal Book Promoter by Carolyn Howard-Johnson
• Gilbert & Sullivan Set Me Free by Kathleen Karr
• The Show Must Go On by Kate & M. Sarah Klise
• A Girl Named Zippy by Haven Kimmel
• The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessy by Rachel Joyce
• The Victorian City by Judith Flanders
• An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
• A Lifelong Love by Gary Thomas
• A Metropolitan Murder by Lee Jackson
• Rain Reign by Ann M. Martin
• In a Dark, Dark Wood by Ruth Ware
• She Got Up Off the Couch by Haven Kimmel
• Wonder by R.J. Palacio - HR
• Dirty Old London by Lee Jackson
• The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
• Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson - HR
• The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion
• The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan
• Searching for Sunday by Rachel Held Evans
• Six Months Later by Natalie D. Richards
• Storyline by Donald Miller
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Sisters by Raina Telgemeier
• Vanishing Girls by Lauren Oliver
• Hallowed Halls by Hannah Alexander
• The Shallows by Nicholas Carr
• The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken
• The Rooftop Inventor by Nooce Miller
• Smile by Raina Telgemeier
• Last One Home by Debbie Macomber
• In the Unlikely Event by Judy Blume
• 100 Christian Quotes by 10 Great Christians by Pastor Duke Tabor
• The Five Money Conversations by Scott and Bethany Palmer
• Dicey's Song by Cynthia Voigt
• The Furious Longing of God by Brennan Manning
• Kidnapped by River Rats by Dave and Neta Jackson
• Bizarre World by Bill Bryson
• The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown - HR
• Mr. Terupt Falls Again by Rob Buyea
• The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
• Maeve's Times by Maeve Binchy
• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven
• Book Proposals That Sell by W. Terry Whalin
• Mosquitoland by David Arnold
• Revolution by Deborah Wiles
• Dead Wake by Erik Larson - HR
• King of the Mild Frontier by Chris Crutcher
• My Emily by Matt Patterson
• Expectation Hangover by Christine Hassler
• Countdown by Deborah Wiles
• The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
• Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein
• Criss Cross by Lynne Rae Perkins
• Dangerous Deception by Peg Kehret
• Lily's Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff
• Among the Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix
• Mind Change by Susan Greenfield
• Rotters by Daniel Kraus
• Here's to You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume
• Just As Long As We're Together by Judy Blume
• The Opposite of Spoiled by Ron Lieber
• Mightier Than the Sword by Jeffrey Archer
• So Much to Tell You by John Marsden
• The Seat Beside Me by Nancy Moser
• Balancing Act by Kimberly Stuart
• The Running Dream by Wendelin Van Draanen - HR
• The Teenage Brain by Frances E. Jensen MD & Amy Ellis Nutt
• I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith
• Number the Stars by Lois Lowry - HR
• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng
• Walking on Water by Richard Paul Evans
• The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin
• The Hangman's Daughter by Oliver Potzsch
• A Step of Faith by Richard Paul Evans
• As Chimney Sweepers Come to Dust by Alan Bradley
• The Road to Grace by Richard Paul Evans
• Harmless by Dana Reinhardt
• Seven Letters from Paris by Samantha Verant
• Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
• Paper Covers Rock by Jenny Hubbard
• Small Victories by Anne Lamott
• The Language of Hoofbeats by Catherine Ryan Hyde
• Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
• Looking Back by Lois Lowry
• Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
• Songs of Willow Frost by Jamie Ford - HR
• A Constellation of Vital Phenomena by Anthony Marra
• Her by Harriet Lane
• It Starts With Food by Dallas and Melissa Hartwig
• Miles to Go by Richard Paul Evans
• Learning to Love Myself by Viga Boland
• Bittersweet by Shauna Niequist
• Four by Veronica Roth
• Ghost Boy by Martin Pistorius
• The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins
• Both of Me by Jonathan Friesen
• Shopaholic to the Stars by Sophie Kinsella
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Raising Boys by Steve Biddulph
• A Northern Light by Jennifer Donnelly
• The Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson
• Love Walked In by Marisa de Los Santos
• The Walk by Richard Paul Evans
• The Story Hour by Thrity Umrigar
• Little Mercies by Heather Gudenkauf
• Alice Alone by Amanda Brookfield

My goals for 2016 may seem surprising. I hope to read less, blog less, journal more, and find some project or job to work on outside the home to provide me with more stimulation. I want to continue to pursue publication of one of my novels and I'm desperate to edit and prepare my most recent novel to send out into the world of publishing for consideration. I hope that with fewer titles, I will be more selective and choose more books to highly recommend. I hope that with less blog writing, I will spend more time in personal writing. We shall see what 2016 brings for my reading and writing goals.