28 January 2016

write. read. repeat.

Five posts in 2015?!

Man, I had SO much more to say than was said in five posts. I haven't written any resolutions yet for 2016 (16, my favorite number!!), but if I did, this would be one of them: I intend to blog more this year. 

Writing for me is like exercise. I come alive when I make the time, and it just feels so darn good once I finally get going. I just need to get going. Like my dear friend Leah said to me way back when: just start. So noted -- again. 

I actually have a thought stewing, which will likely find its way here. Right now it's chicken scratch in a notebook, but I hope to turn that jumble of thoughts into something  someday soon. I'm going to turn that jumble of thoughts into something here. I'm writing this down and I'm going to hit publish in a bit so that I'm now accountable to making that happen. 

In the meantime... I have had a lot on my mind for so long, and today, not so much. To me this is something to smile about. Please hold while I pause to smile... 

Back. 

Shortly after the year began, I started a new book (reading, not writing... sigh). In the wee hours of this morning, I woke up to read a bit more before the day began, and that reminded me that I never wrote out my book list from 2015. Well, three days remain in January, so technically, I'm not late. Yay!! 

So without further ado... 

The Books I Read in 2015 by Abi T. 

  1. One Plus One (J. Moyes) -- 1/2
  2. **Unbroken (L. Hillenbrand) -- 1/21**
  3. Wild (C. Strayed) -- 2/6
  4. **All Joy and No Fun ( J. Senior) -- 3/8**
  5. All the Light We Cannot See (A. Doerr) -- 4/7
  6. The Girl on the Train (P. Hawkins) -- 4/13
  7. Writing Begins with the Breath (L. Herring) -- 4/26
  8. The Goldfinch (D. Tartt) -- 6/15
  9. Station Eleven -- (E. Mandel) 7/10
  10. 2 a.m. at the Cat's Pajama ( M. Bertino) -- 8/19
  11. Last Night in Montreal (E. Mandel) -- 9/8
  12. Me, Earl and the Dying Girl (J. Andrews) --9/10
  13. Paper Towns (J. Green) -- 9/18
  14. **Big Magic (E. Gilbert) -- 9/30**
  15. In the Unlikely Event (J. Blume) -- 10/27
  16. Looking for Alaska (J. Greene) -- 10/31
  17. **The Biology of Desire (M. Lewis) -- 12/6**
When I look back at this list -- unlike most years -- there are no hands-down, stand-out favorites for me at first glance. This was an odd year, and frankly this was an odd collection of books. I can much more easily identify the books that didn't do it for me this year over those that grabbed hold of my heart and didn't let go. 

But after sitting with the list a while, remembering the stories and my feelings that accompanied them, two books undoubtedly rise to the top -- one for its well-researched and inspiring tale of an extraordinary man and the second, not as much for the story, but for the writing (oh, the writing).

My 2015 Non-Fiction Book of the Year is...



And My 2015 Fiction Book of the Year is...


Happy Reading!