The best books you read in 2015?

[southeastdweller]

So as another year is coming to an end, I've been thinking about all the books I've read in 2015. I absolutely loved these books:

1. Reasons to Stay Alive - Matt Haig
   
2. A God in Ruins - Kate Atkinson
   
3. 84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
   
4. A Life Like Other People's - Alan Bennett
   
5. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
   
6. And When Did You Last See Your Father? - Blake Morrison
   

What have been your favourite books this year?

[Optimist1]

The best one for me was A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman. A wonderful mixture of laugh-out-loud moments and lump-in-my-throat ones. Four friends are getting a copy from me for their Christmas presents!

[TheGirlOnTheLanding]

A tie for me between Burial Rites by Hannah Kent, The Book of Strange New Things by Michel Faber and Bodies of Light by Sarah Moss. All in the first quarter of the year, oddly, noting I've read since has come close.

[Quogwinkle]

So many good books this year that it's been hard to narrow down.

1. The Wild Places by Robert Macfarlane
   
2. H is for Hawk by Helen MacDonald
   
3. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke
   
4. A God In Ruins by Kate Atkinson
   
5. Fingersmith by Sarah Waters
   
6. The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
   
7. Emma by Jane Austen
   
8. Meadowland by John Lewis Stempel
   
9. Waterlog by Roger Deakin
   

Author discoveries for me this year have been E M Forster, David Mitchell, C J Sansom.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

I was very pleased indeed to discover Philip Kerr.

And '84 Charing Cross Road' was absolutely sublime.

And for non-fiction, I read a fascinating book about the Berlin Wall and another called, 'Inside Hitler's Bunker' both of which I thoroughly enjoyed, although they were pretty depressing reading.

[Sonnet]

The one that stands out without trawling through my list is The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver although I was less impressed with The Laguna.

Also really enjoyed 3 Sarah Waters books - The Paying Guests, Nightwatch, The Little Stranger. She was my new author of the year!

[Sonnet]

Currently reading A Secret History now SouthEast and am loving it

[kelda]

I've discovered Tana French. In the Woods was excellent. Now on her third book and she hasn't disappointed yet.

[SkaterGrrrrl]

The Bone Clocks by David Mitchell
The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August by Claire North
Ghosts in the Forest by Corinne Purtill
The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Uncommon Reader by Alan Bennett

[LuciaInFurs]

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I cried on the bus while reading it.

[tripfiction]

Three of our top reads this year were:

The Killing of Bobbi Lomax by Cal Moriarty

The Bamboo Stalk by Saud Alsanousi (winner of the International Prize for Arabic Fiction)

And if you haven't come across this tiny rising star: How To Be Brave by Louise Beech

[RhuBarbarella]

Gerard Russel's Heirs to forgotten kingdoms was sublime, really excellent. Non fiction about the sadly disappearing religious minorities in the Middle East. Old religions, such as the yazidis and manicheans.
Fiction wise I loved the Perer Grant series, Elena Ferrante and I finally read and loved the Stand.

[tumbletumble]

My top five for 2015:

The Children's Book by AS Byatt
The Martian by Andy Weir
The Hours by Michael Cunningham
Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman
Dead Babies and Seaside Towns by Alice Jolly

[JimmyGreavesMoustache]

The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton
Elizabeth is Missing - Emma Healey
The Fifth Child - Doris Lessing
Us - David Nicholls
The Paying Guests - Sarah Waters
The Children Act - Iain McEwan
The Boys from Brazil - Ira Levin

[BestIsWest]

My top 8.

Why Be Happy When You Can Be Normal - Jeanette Winterson
Meadowland - John Stempel
H is for Hawk - Helen MacDonald
Blacklands - Belinda Bauer
The People's Songs - Stuart Maconie
The Moth Catcher - Ann Cleeves
Career of Evil - Rober Galbraith
Into Thin Air - John Krakauer
Bits of Cloud Atlas

[CoteDAzur]

Cool thread topic

My best reads in 2015 were:

Spares - Michael Marshall Smith
Last Man Standing: Tales From Tinseltown - Sir Roger Moore
The Martian - Andy Weir
A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal by Ben Macintyre
Alan Turing: The Enigma - Andrew Hodges
Into Thin Air - Jon Krakauer
Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke
The Three-Body Problem - Liu Cixin (author) and Ken Liu (translator)
Red Rising - Pierce Brown
Golden Son - Pierce Brown
The King In Yellow - Robert W Chambers
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World - Jack Weatherford
A Scanner Darkly - Philip K Dick
The Complete Short Stories. Vol 1 - J G Ballard
Fight Club - Chuck Palahniuk
Ghostwritten - David Mitchell
Afterparty - Daryl Gregory
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - Hunter S Thompson
The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet - David Mitchell
The Flood - Stephen Baxter
Double Cross: The True Story of The D-Day Spies - Ben Macintyre
The Man Who Couldn't Stop: OCD And The True Story Of A Life Lost In Thought - David Adam

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Yes to, 'Into Thin Air.'

[TrappedInAWitchesCurse]

Some of my favourites this year:
Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel
The Story of Before by Susan Stairs
Hausfrau by Jill Alexander Essbaum
Villa America by Liza Klaussman

[mmack]

I read some great books this year. I'm listing the ones I know I'll never forget.
Brick Lane by Monica Ali
My Family and other Animals by Gerald Durrell
The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan
Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa
Bel Canto by Ann Patchett
The Thing About December by Donal Ryan
Some Luck by Jane Smiley
The Makioka Sisters by Junichiro Tanizaki
Rabbit, Run by John Updike
The Wallcreeper and Mislaid by Nell Zink

Nell Zink is the only one on the list I hadn't heard of before this year so she is my discovery of 2015.

[SelfRaisingFlour]

I've just finished reading The Country Girls Trilogy by Edna O'Brien. What a wonderful writer.

I'd never read any of her books before. I just finished Girls in their Married Bliss (the last book in the trilogy) and I've been blubbering away on Christmas Day.

Fantastic and highly recommended.

[Theknacktoflying]

We Are Not Ourselves
God in Ruins
Narrow Road to the Deep North

[TopazRocks]

Santa gave me A God in Ruins. I suggested it thanks to MN! and I will read it soon.

Ones I have read - got into a VG series of crime/historical fiction a few months ago. The Bernie Gunther series by Philip Kerr. They are funny, quirky, depsite beng seriously grim at times - story begins in 1930s Berlin and the stories bob about a bit form then to during WW2, and post-war period. Current one in 1950s Cuba. I've read others good things too, but sieve-like memory lets me down when it comes to sharing.

[TripTrapTripTrapOverTheBridge]

The Book of Strange New Things - Michel Faber (love,love,love this book!)
Under the Skin - Michel Faber
The Bone Clocks - David Mitchell
The Silent History - has 3 authors whose names I can't remember!

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

Just bought that on Kindle, Trip. Thanks for the rec.