Your favorite book of 2015

[Betsy]

We're coming to the end of the year and all the "Best of" lists are being published. So what was your favorite book of 2015? It doesn't have to have been published in 2015, just read during this year.

[Betsy]

I suspect my favorite would be A Little Life, but because it is so long, and I've been a slow reader of late, I don't think I'll have it finished by the end of the month (I'm waiting for my third round of borrowing from the downloadable library. I should have just bought it, but now it's a matter of principal).

I only had 2 books I gave 5 stars to this year and they are very different books. A Dog's Purpose packs an emotional punch because I am such a huge dog lover. It was sweet and funny and I just loved it even though I know from a "quality" perspective it doesn't really deserve 5 stars. The other was An Untamed State which also is emotionally evocative, but this one because of its visceral and raw storytelling. I read it early in 2015 and it has really stuck with me.

[Sera]

My favorite fiction book of the year was War and Peace. In my opinion, it's the best book ever written. If W&P wasn't in the mix, my favorite book of the year would be Embers, which is a timeless classic in the same vein as W&P.

For non-fiction, my favorite book was The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, which makes a definitive statement on the damage that human beings are doing to floral, fauna and species of the world. What's most disturbing about the book is that we are doing this damage at such a rapid pace.

[Nancy]

Definitely The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah. Powerful, poignant, heartbreaking. I also loved the Storied Life of A. J. Fikry. How could you not like a book about the love of books!

[Linda]

Finding Nouf

[Gisela]

My Brilliant Friend This is the first of four books which is absolutely and totally amazing and outclasses all others for me this year.

[Nancy]

Gisela wrote: "My Brilliant Friend This is the first of four books which is absolutely and totally amazing and outclasses all others for me this year."

A lot of other people must agree with you because when I went to reserve a copy from library, every copy in the system was out. My name's on the list.

[Sue]

I have been reading more about the Neopolitan novels than any other book in all of the many year end round-ups I've read and listened to. I'm happy to have all four books, signed by the translator who I met in Brooklyn this summer, waiting for me on my bookshelf. It's going to be the Winter of Ferrante for me.

Nancy wrote: "Gisela wrote: "My Brilliant Friend This is the first of four books which is absolutely and totally amazing and outclasses all others for me this year."

A lot of other people must a..."

[Kate]

So jealous of you meeting the translator. Gave them last year as a gift, but I have only read the first one.

[Betsy]

Gisela wrote: "My Brilliant Friend This is the first of four books which is absolutely and totally amazing and outclasses all others for me this year."

I read it and I'm in the minority - I didn't love it. I know I'll keep reading them, if only to keep trying to figure out why everyone loves them so much!

[Gisela]

Betsy wrote: "Gisela wrote: "My Brilliant Friend This is the first of four books which is absolutely and totally amazing and outclasses all others for me this year."

I read it and I'm in the min..."
I loved it so much because it portrait the real life of the two girls/women, warts and all. The books brilliantly depicts who relationship between people change when they grow up and life happens and this was such a time of huge change both politically in Italy as well as for women (and therefore also men) this is, in my opinion, one of the most honest books I've read on this. I didn't always like the life chances the girls/women made for sure, but mia culpa, who of us ALWAYS does the right thing, but the brilliance of Ferante is that she shows how those choices affected their lives and how they coped/prospert/survived them. I would love to know what happens to their children, who will have such different lives from their mothers. I am of an age where my children are going to fly the nest soon and I meet up with some of my childhood friends and we all have made different life choices, but there is still a bond, which made me relate to Lila and Lila.