2015 A year in Books

31 December 2015




Today is the last day of 2015 and instead of reviewing what happened to me this past year, I thought I would highlight the books I have read since the beginning of 2015.

I love browsing other people's bookcases or knowing what they are reading at the moment. It always ends up being a discovery so I thought I would share my own reading as well!

2015 | A year in Books


A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens | It took me ages to read this one because of the complicated sentences but it was an interesting story and a lovely tale after all.

A Bear called Paddington by Michael Bond | I love Paddington and I plan on adding a few more of his books to my collection. It feels so homey to read about his funny adventures. I love his British style and it's very very easy to read. The chapters are organized so that there's no particular order for which to start and I found myself reading one (or a few) chapter(s) at a time in between reading other books.

The Preacher & The Stonecutter by Camilla Läckberg | I think thrillers, mysteries and crime books are my favourite genre. I absolutely loved the Millenium series from Larsson and I discovered (late in comparison with the rest of the world) a passion for the nordic crime writers. As I said in an old post, I'm reading the Camilla Läckberg books in the order they were published. So I only read her books when I randomly find them in my secondhand bookstore. The crime investigations are thrilling, I like Erika and I am eager to see what's in store for her in the sequels. 

Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh | I loved, loved this book! I love all children and young adult literature in general and I saw the movie when it came out in the 90's. I loved it back then. I didn't even know it was adapted from this book. It is not very popular in Europe because I guess we have some other very good French literature heroes of our own so I was thrilled to find it one day in the shop. I have to say it was brilliant. Especially because Harriet is a very strong and smart girl! I loooove her! I think I was a bit like her when I was a kid so I immensely enjoyed this read.

Yes Please by Amy Poelher | Poelher's memoir was quite funny but also interesting and inspirational. I learned a lot about her career and I liked the agencement of the topics! My favourite part was reading about her first jobs (that weren't acting) and it really did struck a cord with me: it doesn't happen overnight, baby!

The Casual Vacancy by J. K. Rowling | I'm a Harry Potter fan like 90% of the population so I'm keen on reading everything J.K. Rowling writes. It took me a while to find this book (and I know I have some others to find as she also wrote two other books under another name) but I finally succeeded. The characters were so attaching and the story very interesting. It all starts when a council man dies and his  become vacant. The whole village fights for his spot but what will the community become? While sometimes feeling a bit cliche, I loved the way the book was written. The ending is quite surprising!

Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling | I extensively reviewed this book in this post so do go back to it. I now saw that Mindy wrote a new one and I would really be interested to read it too even if, for the record, I am still not watching either The Office US nor Mindy's own show... 

Notting Hell by Rachel Johnson | What a rubbish read! The story was not interesting. It was boring as hell to read about the rich residents of a communal garden having affairs with one  another...

Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie |  I haven't seen any movie adaptation prior to reading this book so it was a total surprise to discover the ending. Now, I totally get why Christie is so good: she's a genius. The title resumes the plot by itself, it's pretty self explanatory. It was amazing to read about an investigation that is led without having to use hard evidence: Poirot worked his brain and with pure logic (and a good general knowledge) found who was guilty of the murder!

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn | I picked up this title for my (now defunct) Book-Club. I read it very fast because it was so thrilling!!! It was brilliant and really well written: I enjoyed the diary entries. I now totally understand what all the fuss was about this pretty girl gone missing.. BUT the movie, not so much. I thought it wasn't well executed and it changed how Amy is in the book. I thought the actress was wrong for her character. I know I'm the only one here, but she really was a wrong choice for the part. 

Where'd you go Bernadette by Maria Semple | Another woman is found missing in this book (I sensed a theme this last couple of years) and it's written as a diary as well. However, it's a mama who disappeared and her daughter compiled all the documents relating to her mum's disappearance to try to understand where she might have been. It's a different search than in Gone Girl but while having been at some point a bit boring, it was a refreshing and very cute read about a woman who lost herself. 

Snobs by Julian Fellowes | I picked this book up because it was written by the scenarist of Downton Abbey. A guy, who is not named even once, tells us a story of a poor girl who wants to marry rich. When she does and finally evolves in the upper class circles she gets bored and... I won't tell you anything more. It is a description of the classes in England I think but, really, it was boring (and a bit hard for my English level). Pass. 

Coming Home for Christmas by Patricia Scalan | A cute, easy, and very light read that I had a hard time finishing over December. An Irish woman who has it all in NYC looses her job and comes back home to her loving family to celebrate her mum's birthday and Christmas. This is absolutely not revolutionary and it's supposed to be a feel-good book. It wasn't really the case for me. That is all, because, really, there's not much to it. 

Harry Potter 1, 2 & 3 by J.K. Rowling | Those were the last books of 2015, I read them all in December. I think they are perfect. It's funny to read them again knowing already how it ended and remembering how I felt when I was young and discovered it all for the first time. It does make me feel so good and comfy to read the series again as I loved HP so much back in the day. I still do.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett | Such an awesome book! It was brilliant, beautiful, sad, amazing, full of awesome characters, I loved it to bits!! I am in love with this book actually, Skeeter was my favourite! It's even better than the movie (that I saw first and cried over for hours). 

The Only Way is Up by Carol Matthews | I enjoyed this book on my summer holiday. A family looses everything and has to go start a new life in a council house. It's an easy story and all, a bit cheesy and very light and cliche BUT it made me think that we have it to easy sometimes and we don't appreciate it enough. The family is locked outside of their former home without any clothes, without any furniture, without cutlery etc. It's amazing to see them having to start from total scratch. Amazing.

Shopaholic to the Stars by Sophie Kinsella | It seems that I forgot to add it to the picture.. but I did read it in 2015. I love Becky Bloomwood and her very fresh, funny and crazy adventures. This book wasn't the best of the series but I simply enjoyed being back in Becky's exciting life.

The Importance of Being a Bachelor by Mike Gayle | A chick lit that's not really worth it. I like Mike Gayle in general but this book was a disappointment. Three brothers, three boring love stories.

Well, that's it for now, lovelies. Have a great time celebrating the new year and I'll see you in a few weeks. I'm planning to be more focused in 2016 and I want to to do monthly goals and review them  so I might share a bit of that with you. We'll see. 

Thank you all for reading Ravacholle and all my best wishes for the new year! 

Find my book reviews and what I'm reading at the moment on Goodreads.
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