2015 Reading Update: December

As 2015 is waning, I'm finishing up the reading challenge I've been doing this year. Here's a recap:

January: All the Light We Cannot See (currently on the bestseller list)
February: July, July (had been meaning to read)
March: Love in the Time of Cholera (originally written in another language)
April: Single, Carefree, Mellow (published this year)
May: Song of the Lioness Quartet (re-reading books from my childhood)
June: Will Grayson, Will Grayson (by a favorite author)
July: Fangirl (recommended by someone with great taste)
August: An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth (a genre I don't typically read)
September: Eleanor & Park (a book "everyone" has read but you)
October: Beloved (should have read in high school)
November: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves (a book my mom likes)
December: The Shadow of the Crescent Moon (chosen because of the cover)

Thanks to my sister-in-law April, who recommended Fangirl and all of Rainbow Rowell's books. I have now become a huge RR fan. I still haven't read Attachments or her newest book, Carry On, Simon, but I've read three of her five and absolutely love them.

Beloved is not strictly speaking a book that I should have read in high school. I don't think I ever blatantly neglected to read something I was assigned. (Well, not until college.) But I certainly had the option of reading Beloved to fulfill one of my many high school reading requirements. Until October, I had never read anything of Toni Morrison's, and that seemed like a shame. So I suppose I modified this category to something like "should have read before now."

I liked all twelve of these books. But my highest, most glowing recommendations go to....

All the Light We Cannot See: I can't say enough about this book. Beautiful on many levels. Completely deserving of its fame. Haunting in the best possible way.
Fangirl: Utterly winning in its believable characters and fresh, un-cliche writing style. One of those stories that will always make me deliriously happy.
We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves: I have to hand it to Karen Joy Fowler. This book is brilliant. Totally unlike anything I've ever read before, and yet it resounded deeply with my life and thoughts. It's best not to know too much about it before you read it, so just go read it.

I chose The Shadow of the Crescent Moon from the "New Books" shelf at my library (which, by the way, was definitely the most difficult part of this 12-book challenge. I tend to obsessively research authors and read lots of reviews before actually reading a book, so there's a reason I waited until December to choose a book solely by the cover.) This is the cover I chose.

Gorgeous, right?

But just now, in looking for a picture of the cover to show you, I discovered two alternate editions.

                  

Both of which I also love.

Well done, Penguin.

In other bookish news, I also accomplished my Goodreads goal to read 40 books this year. Goodreads made a cute little summary page with some interesting stats:

Total pages: 14,006
Average book length: 350 pages
Shortest book: 182 pages
Longest book: 562 pages

But here's my favorite one.
Average rating: 4.1 out of 5 stars

Now, I was probably more generous than I should have been with a few of my ratings, but I try to reserve 5-star ratings for books that I really love. So if my average is 4.1, I clearly read a lot of good books this year.

What were the best books you read in 2015? Send me your recommendations to add to my list for next year!