books

2015 is almost over and it has been a good book year for me. I have read 55 books this year which is up from previous years. I read a lot of fiction this year. I love to lose myself in a good book. As I look back over all the books I read this last year, I wanted to talk about my top 5 and encourage you to add these books to your list if you haven’t read them yet yourself. I think you will enjoy them.

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

This book takes place in WW2 France. Vianne has to say goodbye to her husband as he goes off to war. Her sister Isabelle is a young 18-year-old looking for her purpose. She is sent to stay with her sister when the Nazis invade France. The book goes back and forth between the sisters and what they are dealing with during the war. This is one of those books that really gets to you. Even though it is fiction, you know that a lot of what the sisters experience really happened to people during the war. This was such an emotional book, but even weeks later I can’t stop thinking about the characters and how their lives were changed because of what they went through. Purchase on Amazon.

Me Before You by Jojo Moyes

This one was a pretty quick read for me. I have never read a book like this before and I found it hard to put down. Louisa Clark takes a job working as a caregiver for Will Traynor. He is wheelchair bound after an accident. Up until that time he lived a pretty amazing life and he is having a very difficult time with the way life is after the accident. The book is about their relationship and how Lou grows as a person. I really liked her character and you just didn’t know how the book was going to go. The other characters, like her family also play a role and add a little bit of humor to the book as well. Purchase on Amazon.

Fall of Giants by Ken Follett

If you are a fan of historical fiction you will love this book. It is the first book in a three book series about five families. This books has them going through WW1, the Russian Revolution and the struggle for women’s suffrage. There are the stories of a Welsh working class family, an American law student, the aristocratic family, a German spy and two Russian brothers. It is so interesting to watch all these characters interact and go through their lives interacting with real events and people. The story starts in 1911 and ends in 1925. It is a long book but worth it, even if it takes you a long time to read it. Purchase on Amazon. 

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty

Alice is 29, in love with her husband and expecting their first child. Then she comes to on the floor of a gym to find out that she is 39, getting divorced and has three kids. She can’t remember any of the time in-between. The book is all about her learning about her “new” life and trying to adjust, but it isn’t always easy. I can’t imagine what it would be like to wake up from something like that and hear that you hated your husband or that you had kids you didn’t remember. This book is a mix of humor and relationships as Alice tries to remember what she forgot. I plan to read all of Liane Moriarty’s books as I love each one of them. I have also read The Husband’s Secret and have started Big Little Lies.  Purchase on Amazon.

The Forgotten Garden By Kate Morton

A little girl has been left abandoned in 1913 Australia. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised along with their own children. When she is 21, she finds out how she ended up in her family but doesn’t know much more then that. Years later her granddaughter Cassandra follows up on the searching she did during her life in hopes of finding out the truth. I loved how this book went back and forth between the time periods, revealing a little more of the story the more you read. I had heard about Kate Morton a few years ago, but 2015 was the first time I read one of her books. Purchase on Amazon. 

What were your favorite books of 2015? What do you want to add to your reading list in 2016???

How To Read More Than One Book At A Time

There are differnet ways to read a book. You have the people who can only read one book at a time. You also have the people who are always reading more than one book. Which one are you?

I am one who can read more than one book at a time. I have always been that way. Before Kindles I had a book by my nightstand, a book in the car, one in my purse, one in my backpack, one in the bathroom, etc. When I got my Kindle I thought it was perfect because I could now carry most of my books with me. I still read regular books too and still have books everywhere. You never know when you will get 5 minutes to read.

I have found that if I want to read more than one book at a time they have to be different. I can’t read Discovery of Witches and Twilight at the same time. They both include vampires and I would get really confused. It really only works for different genres. I read almost every type of book. I read fiction and non-fiction so for me, this is pretty easy to do. I can read Outlander and a Chicklit book because they are so different.

Usually what happens is that I will have a few books I am reading and waiting for one to grab me. One will, then I just focus on that book. And these days I have really been looking for books I just won’t want to put down. I also get a lot of books from the library so some of them I have to “give back” and wait in order to check them out again. This usually happens with non fiction books. Like The Fringe Hours. I am in the middle of reading that one but it is on pause until I get it again from the library.

People who only read one book at a time can’t understand this process but it is just how I roll. I feel like there are just so many books out there that I want to read that I have a hard time picking. I have tried to just read one book at a time and I can’t do it. I might spend 2-3 days reading one book because it is amazing but then I go back to all my other books until another one catches me like that.

I do feel like the older I get, the less jumping around I do. It could be that I have been picking more popular books to begin with or that I just don’t have as much patience for books that don’t draw me in right away anymore.

If you only read one book at a time, I think you are fine. There is no reason to change the way you read. It is probably less overwhelming for you anyways.

If you read more than one book at a time, join the club.

How do you like to read? Have things changed for you over time?

This post does contain affiliate links! 

This post contains affiliate links!

In case you haven’t noticed. I love to read. I always have. This year I read 39 books. Not my best year since I started tracking. I don’t really have a goal for books but I find the numbers interesting.

Out of the 39 books I read, here is a list of my top 10! My 10 favorite books from the year 🙂

1) The Fault in Our Stars by John Green-I started reading this one way before the movie. I was just going to read a few pages and before I knew it I was almost halfway through. It is a quick read and an interesting story about two teens with cancer who fall in love. Read the book, then see the movie.

2) The Wednesday Sisters by Meg Waite Clayton-I heard about this from another blogger and it sounded really interesting to me. It was the story of best friends who started meeting at the park when their kids were little in the late 60s. It takes place in the Bay Area and I was hooked right away. There is a sequel I still need to read.

3) The Longest Ride– I haven’t read too many of Nicholas Sparks books but I heard good things about this one. The story goes between an older man who is stuck in the snow and a young couple. I hear they are making a movie in 2015 and I hope it turned out to be good. It really is a great story.

4) Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs- I had seen this book before and it looked interesting to me. I started reading it a few weeks ago and it drew me in. It is the story of a 16 year old boy who grew up with a Grandfather who told him the most interesting stories. They always assumed he was making them up until the boy finds out that he really wasn’t. I also finished the 2nd book in the series but liked the first one a lot better.

5) Matched by Ally Condie- I love dystopian fiction. Ever since the Hunger Games I have found other series that are similar and this is one of them. In this world everything is controlled. People are only allowed to list to 100 songs or read from a list of 100 books. They also don’t get to pick who they marry. They are matched. This story is about a girl who gets matched with her best friend. This rarely happens and was a very interesting book. The other two in the series were not quite the same but overall I really enjoy this series.

6) Witches of East End by Melissa De LaCruz- I wanted to read this one once I saw the show. It has most of the same characters as the show but things are very different. It is about a mom and her two daughters that happen to be witches living in a small town called North Hampton.  I am on the waiting list for the next one.

7)Written in my Own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon- As a fan of the Outlander series, I couldn’t wait for this book to come out. I was waiting about two years for the book since I finished the last one. This book continues the story of Jamie and Claire as well as their daughter Brianna and her husband Roger.

8)Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter- I bought this book because of the cover and took it with me camping. It was a great story about an island near Italy, an American movie star and it takes place in the 1960s as well as present day. I would love to read more by the author in the future.

9) Full Measures– I love it when Military spouses write fiction books. This book is a love story between the daughter of a Military man who is killed in action and a local Hockey star. Their relationship is emotional and enjoyable. It was written by Rebecca Yarros who blogs at The Only Girl Among Boys.

10) Wedding Night By Sophie Kinsella- I loved the shopaholic series and as I wait for the next book to come out I decided I wanted to read the author’s other books. Wedding Night is the story about a crushed girl who runs into an old flame and decides to marry him right away. It’s funny and takes them to a romantic island.

What were your favorite books this year?