2015 Year in Review

Another year of books over!  Considering how busy my life became in August through early November, when my father went into the hospital and subsequently needed to go to inpatient rehab to regain his strength and ability to live independently, I am surprised at the number of books that I read.  39!  I made a concerted effort in the last 4 weeks of the year to try to get that number up to 40 but I just couldn't squeak out that last book in time.

It was a good year in books. I read quite a few from favorite authors, revisiting several older ones to get in the right frame of mind for the next in a favorite series. I cleared quite a few off of my nook bookshelves and my living room shelves as well. My book club made it back to our recent average of four books per year, too (I hope that this year we are able to make more time for each other and our favorite pastime together). I also discovered that I really enjoy reading memoirs. Guess you are never too old to add to your reading genre repertoire. Standouts this year include An Echo in the Bone, Defending Jacob (one of my favorites), The Rockin' Chair, Thirteen Reasons Why, Tricky Twenty Two, and The Girl on the Train.

Here's the breakdown of my reading list in 2015:

1. An Echo in the Bone
2. The Practice Proposal
3. Chasing Darkness
4. The Giver
5. A Discovery of Witches (book club)
6. The Mermaid Chair
7. Resisting the Bad Boy
8. Defending Jacob
9. It Ain't All About the Cookin'
10. Up from the Grave
11. Bound by Flames
12. The Job
13. Monarch Beach
14. Crossfire #1
15. Crossfire #2
16. Trial by Fire
17. The Mysterious Death of Miss Jane Austen (book club)
18. Chasing Fire
19. Wicked Appetite
20. Wicked Business
21. Wicked Charms
22. The Rockin' Chair
23. Thirteen Reasons Why (book club)
24. 77 Shadow Street
25. With or Without You
26. Summers at Blue Lake
27. 13 Little Blue Envelopes
28. The Racketeer
29. First Frost (book club)
30. Islanders box set #1
31. Islanders box set #2
32. Islanders box set #3
33. Islanders box set #4
34. Unbearable Lightness
35. The Scam
36. My Grandfather Would Have Shot Me
37. Top Secret Twenty One
38. Tricky Twenty Two
39. The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins was one of the most talked about books of 2015. In my opinion, the novel lived up to the hype. Fast paced, intriguing and sometimes cringe worthy, this book kept my rapt attention long past my bedtime. The book was such a page turner that I finished just two days after I started it.

The book centers around Rachel, who rides the commuter train into London every day.  As she rides, she pays attention to the houses that the train passes, particularly a certain row of homes. Over time, she has made up stories for the people she sees in one of the houses. As the story unfolds, the reader learns more about Rachel's circumstances and then the story is interwoven between her point of view and the point of view of other characters.

I found (and in discussions with others who have read the book, I am not alone) that none of the characters was likable. The decisions Rachel makes made me cringe and shake my head.  But even though I didn't like her or the other characters her life is composed of, the book was fascinating and kept me turning the pages as fast as I could.  I believe that is a testament to the author's ability to weave an intricate plot, when you don't like the characters but still need to keep turning the pages.

This novel has been compared to Gone Girl, and while there are similarities in the genre (psychological thriller), the unlikable characters and the twists and turns, I found that the characters in this novel was not quite as shocking in their depravity and dysfunction as Gone Girl. That doesn't mean this one wasn't good.  Oh, it absolutely was, but it was a little more predictable than Gone Girl. If you have this one on your shelf, make sure you have the time to devote to reading it, because you won't want to put it down.

Happy Reading!