On the first day of 2016, it’s clearly time to look back at my reading for the past year, with lots of cheers and just one or two jeers.  My total count for the year was 194 books…if I had realized I was that close to 200 sooner, I might have tried to fit a few more in!  I’ve been listening to more audiobooks, and also trying to watch less TV and read more–and apparently that’s working out.  They weren’t all winners, but here are some of the best and worst of the year…

1) Best of…
I’ve been having fun splitting my “Best of” books for the past couple of years—it lets me highlight more of the excellent books I read during the past year. So here are a few of my best reads of the past year!

1A) Best Villain: Fairest by Marissa Meyer
Much as I hated waiting extra time for the final book in the Lunar Chronicles Quartet, I did very much enjoy this prequel novella from the point of view of the villain of the series, the horrible Queen Levana. Meyer did a wonderful job explaining how Levana became who she is…while not really making her any more sympathetic despite her hideous background. Meyer gives us much more insight into Levana and how she sees her actions, making her a far more complex character…but still definitely, incontrovertibly villainous.

1B) Best Romance(s): Winter by Marissa Meyer
Well-worth the wait, the final book (review forthcoming) in the Lunar Chronicles Quartet had not one, not two, not three, but four really lovely romances and delightful romantic couples. My favorite is probably still my favorite romantic couple of last year, Cress and Thorne, but there are wonderful moments with Wolf and Scarlet, and with Winter and Jacin. Cinder and Kai too, but they never quite did it for me as much. But still—a lovely bunch of romances, lots of balls in the air, and somehow satisfying for everyone involved.

1C) Best Hero(ine): Loose Changeling by A. G. Stewart
I have to love a heroine who is suddenly plunged into a world of magic and monsters and, while struggling to learn her new abilities, also manages to notice that dead hobgoblins are staining her carpet. Nicole is so real and so marvelously unlike most fantasy characters I’ve read.

1D) Best Series: Heroes of Olympus by Rick Riordan
I started this series early in the year and read the final book (review forthcoming!) in December. The continuing adventures of Percy Jackson and a variety of Greek and Roman demigods, it was exciting, funny and even explored some deeper themes too—often all at once. Slightly more mature than the Percy Jackson series (but still very safely YA), I preferred it to the original series for the more extensive character developments. And we got to be in Annabeth’s head. That’s a win.

1E) Best Nonfiction: The Year of Living Biblically by A. J. Jacobs and Daring Greatly by Brene Brown
I had a strangely good year in nonfiction when I have to give this one a tie. The Year of Living Biblically chronicles an agnostic Jew’s journey through a literal interpretation of the Bible and is astonishingly insightful, respectful and even meaningful in places. It would have won this category easily…until I read Daring Greatly, which had me highlighting extensively and then telling all my friends to read it too. All about vulnerability, why we need it and how we avoid it, it’s brilliant and probably has something of value for everyone. So probably this should go to Daring Greatly—but I really liked The Year of Living Biblically too.

2) Worst Book: Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang
I’ve read worst books in other years, and this one didn’t have the appalling writing of, say, Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians (good title, terrible book) or How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend (ditto), but this one still fell very, very far short of what it attempted to do—and didn’t appear to notice that fact either. So if this category is really “book that irritated me the most,” hands-down winner for the year.

3) Most Disappointing: Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee
Rejection Proof could have landed here too, but I’m going to give this one to Go Set a Watchman. I’ve never seen a book with higher expectations fall faster, and it’s honestly all rather sad. I had relatively modest hopes myself, but the book didn’t even meet those. In my own personal view of the world, just as there were only three (now four) Star Wars movies, Harper Lee only wrote one book.

4) Most Surprising (in a Good Way): The Help by Kathryn Stockett
I picked this audiobook up on an impulse because I had just read Go Set a Watchman and saw it at the library—and then it was wonderful. If I could think of the right category, I would have put it under “Best of” up there too. A wonderful story of women working together, finding their power and fighting injustice in their society.

5) Can’t Believe I Waited Until 2015 To Read It: Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
I don’t usually double-list books, but this one is too obvious a choice to ignore. I always vaguely meant to read this series when the first book came out. Five books later, I finally did!

6) Most Hilarious Read
To be perfectly honest, this is basically my Terry Pratchett category. I don’t even look for other books anymore, I just check to see what I read by Sir Terry this year. There were three (well, four, but Raising Steam just wasn’t very funny) and none were break-out new Discworld favorites—so we have a split between Moving Pictures and Unseen Academicals, while my final Pratchett read comes in for my next category…

7) Most Satisfying Read: The Shepherd’s Crown by Terry Pratchett
This is the final Discworld book (review, yes, forthcoming!), published posthumously, and I was somewhat nervous after the unfunny Raising Steam—which just made me so very, very sad. So it was immensely satisfying to read one last new Discworld book—and it was good. Not a new favorite, but a good, funny final adventure with Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegles and that makes me feel so much better about everything.

8) Surprisingly Great Reread: The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
I don’t usually put rereads on my “best of” post because it sort of feels like cheating–I already knew they were really good when I picked them up.  But I did a lot of rereading this year and wanted to get that on the list somehow…so this is my “didn’t realize how good it was” category.  I knew that Smekday was good–that’s why I reread it, and wanted to read the sequel, but this one jumped from “great book” to “new favorite” on a reread.  Sadly, neither the sequel nor the movie adaptation, while both good in their ways, could equal the original.  But that’s okay–because the original is excellent.

9) Most Looking Forward To in 2016: The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home by Catherynne M. Valente
Like my most hilarious read belonging to Terry Pratchett, this category has pretty much belonged to Valente’s Fairyland series for several years.  I don’t know what I’ll have to look forward to next year when this series is over!  The fifth and final book will be out March 1st, and I already have it pre-ordered.  I’ll have a post on my other anticipated reads of 2015 up soon.

And that’s the story for another year!  What was your best read in 2015?  Or do you have a book to fit any of the other categories?  I’d love to hear about it!

At the end of the year, it’s time for a final report on how reading challenges went!

I wanted to do more rereading, and have definitely done that…  In the last quarter of the year, I finished rereading the Betsy-Tacy series, and reread a few beloved favorites like If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland, A Solitary Blue by Cynthia Voigt and The Mischief of the Mistletoe by Lauren Willig.  I also reread Andre Norton’s wonderful Gryphon trilogy, and started into A Series of Unfortunate Events on audiobook.  It’s been a fun time revisiting some old friends this year!

Then we have the random-criteria-challenge…

Out of 50, I had 15 left for the final quarter of the year.  Here are the results:

• A book written by someone under 30: Y Negative by Kelly Haworth
• A Pulitzer Prize-winning book: Tales of the South Pacific by James A. Michener
• A book based on a true story: I tried not to put rereads on this challenge, but I’ll make an exception here and list both the Little House series and the Betsy-Tacy series…each one modeled after the author’s childhood.
• A book based entirely on its cover: The Sixty-Eight Rooms by Marianne Malone
• A memoir: Home by Julie Andrews
• A book that came out the year you were born: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe by Frannie Flagg
• A book with bad reviews: Rejection Proof by Jia Jiang
• A trilogy: His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman
• A book that takes place in your hometown: Loose Changeling by A. G. Stewart…I think.  It’s a little vague, but there’s a reference to a local freeway, and the author is local, so…
• A book that was originally written in a different language: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke
• A book set during Christmas: The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien
• A book written by an author with your same initials: The Boy Who Spoke Dog by Clay Morgan

That leaves just three I didn’t complete, and those were consciously skipped.  One is a book I was supposed to read in school but didn’t and, well, there aren’t any like that…I was a conscientious student!  Second, a book that scares me–part of what I like about being out of school is that I don’t have to read books that scare me!  And finally, a book that made me cry…no book has ever made me actually shed tears.  Books have been sad or heart-wrenching, but I mostly only cry when I’m frustrated or feeling misunderstood–and that’s one of the things I love about books.  They never make me feel that way.

I don’t know that this challenge really pushed me to read a lot of books different from what I’d normally read…but it was fun to look at my reading differently, and it was a good laid-back challenge for a busy year. 🙂

Let me know if you’re curious to know more about any of these books…and I’d love to hear if you have any reading challenges going on for the year too.  I’ll have an update about my 2016 reading challenges soon!

Continuing my brief updates on some challenge-read books, today I have a seasonal book, and a book I always meant to get around to–but might not have if it hadn’t happened to be written in German.

A book that was originally written in a different language: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

I had heard of this one, but never actually picked it up–and I don’t think I ever realized it was originally written in German until I was looking at a list of books written, well, not in English, in order to fulfill this item.  So it seemed like the perfect opportunity!  And it turned out to be a pretty good book too.

The premise centers around a fascinating magical idea–certain people, including 12-year-old Meggie’s father, Mo, can read things out of books.  When they read aloud, objects and even people can appear from within the text, emerging in the reader’s world.  But there’s a cost, as something must be taken into the book to replace what comes out–and the magic is all the more dangerous because the reader has very little control over what comes out.  Mo accidentally read the terrible villain Capricorn out of the book Inkheart, and now, years later, Capricorn wants Mo to read for him again.

This was a fun book that I liked and probably would have loved if not for two things that weren’t at all the book’s fault.  For one, this is just close enough to the magic system in Libriomancer, which I love, to feel, well, not quite as cool by comparison.  For two, the book-within-the-book, the fictional Inkheart, seemed even more my kind of story than the actual Inkheart…if that’s not getting too meta!  But considering Meggie and other characters go into the fictional Inkheart in the sequel, I’m definitely planning to read that one.

So how about that translation element?  I don’t know if it’s a sign of good translation or not that I…couldn’t really tell it was a translation.  Apart from one moment when the characters spoke of Italy as a few hours drive away and I remembered, right, this is in Germany…it didn’t actually feel significantly different than an English-written book!

A book set during Christmas: The Father Christmas Letters by J.R.R. Tolkien

I stumbled on the existence of this book while looking at a list of Christmas-themed books for this item–and how could I resist that author? Tolkien wrote letters for his children each Christmas from Father Christmas, spanning from 1925 to 1939, relating the latest events at the North Pole that year.  Mostly it’s the unfortunate escapades of the North Polar Bear, but there were also some pitched battles with Goblins, and occasionally a word chimed in from Father Christmas’ elvish secretary.

These are quite adorable, almost a picture book considering each letter comes illustrated as well, and very charming.  The edition I got includes the Goblin alphabet at the back–which is just so Tolkien to have created it.  And one line in a letter written in Elvish does look a bit familiar…

This is a much, much faster read than Lord of the Rings, rather more character-focused but not nearly as deep or complex.  🙂  A fun read for the Christmas season!

I’ll have a complete challenge update at the end of the month…only a few days away now!