{"id":4679,"date":"2015-12-24T23:31:47","date_gmt":"2015-12-24T12:31:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/?p=4679"},"modified":"2020-12-23T22:11:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-23T11:11:11","slug":"my-favourite-books-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/2015\/12\/my-favourite-books-of-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favourite Books of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not quite the end of the year, but here are the books I read in 2015 (so far) that I loved the most. But first, some statistics.<\/p>\n

I finished reading 81 books this year, which doesn’t include the two terrible books I didn\u2019t finish, the novel I\u2019m currently halfway through, or the small pile of books I brought home from the library for the holidays.<\/p>\n

\"Types<\/p>\n

I read lots of non-fiction books this year, because I was researching 1960s England for a series I\u2019m planning to write. This would also explain the following information:<\/p>\n

\"Writer<\/p>\n

\"Gender<\/p>\n

Women writers dominate, yet again.<\/p>\n

Now for my favourites.<\/p>\n

My Favourite Adult Fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

My favourite novels this year included The Leopard<\/em><\/a> by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont<\/em><\/a> by Elizabeth Taylor, The Two Faces of January<\/em><\/a> by Patricia Highsmith, A Spool of Blue Thread<\/em><\/a> by Anne Tyler, The Watch Tower<\/em><\/a> by Elizabeth Harrower and A Far Cry from Kensington<\/em><\/a> by Muriel Spark. I also became hooked on Ben Aaronovitch\u2019s Rivers of London<\/em><\/a> series.<\/p>\n

My Favourite Non-Fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

I found myself engrossed in Sylvia Townsend Warner\u2019s biography of T.H. White<\/a>, Rebecca West\u2019s The Meaning of Treason<\/em><\/a>, and Susan Cain\u2019s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can\u2019t Stop Talking<\/em>.<\/a> I also liked Coming of Age: Growing Up Muslim in Australia<\/em><\/a>, edited by Amra Pajalic and Demet Divaroren, a collection of autobiographical stories by twelve Australian Muslims. And for sheer entertainment value, I can\u2019t leave out The Years of Grace: A Book for Girls<\/em><\/a>, edited by Noel Streatfeild.<\/p>\n

My Favourite Books for Children and Teenagers<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mysterious Benedict Society<\/em><\/a> by Trenton Lee Stewart was an exciting middle-grade novel in which four gifted children foil the plans of an Evil Genius. It reminded me of the early Harry Potter novels, except it was science fiction rather than fantasy and had fewer jokes (although it did contain lots of fun puzzles, codes and riddles). I also enjoyed Goodbye Stranger<\/em><\/a> by Rebecca Stead and Friday\u2019s Tunnel<\/em><\/a> by John Verney.<\/p>\n

My Favourite Picture Books and Graphic Novels<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"'TheShaun Tan\u2019s The Arrival<\/em><\/a> was a beautiful wordless story about a refugee starting a new life in a strange, confusing country, with a message particularly relevant to the world right now. On a lighter note, I enjoyed Kate Beaton\u2019s The Princess and the Pony<\/em><\/a>, about a young warrior princess who hopes to receive a noble steed for her birthday but instead finds herself stuck with a small, round pony with some unfortunate traits.<\/p>\n

Thanks for being part of Memoranda in 2015. I hope you all had a good reading year and that 2016 brings you lots of great books. Happy holidays!<\/p>\n

More favourite books:<\/p>\n

Favourite Books of 2010<\/a>
\nFavourite Books of 2011<\/a>
\nFavourite Books of 2012<\/a>
\nFavourite Books of 2013<\/a>
\nFavourite Books of 2014<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s not quite the end of the year, but here are the books I read in 2015 (so far) that I loved the most. But first, some statistics. I finished reading 81 books this year, which doesn’t include the two terrible books I didn\u2019t finish, the novel I\u2019m currently halfway through, or the small pile … Continue reading My Favourite Books of 2015<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,293,18],"tags":[52,24,23,53,47,44,46,57,59,40,54,45,56,50,58,51,48,49,55],"class_list":["post-4679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-childrens-books","category-my-favourite-books","tag-amra-pajalic","tag-anne-tyler","tag-ben-aaronovitch","tag-demet-divaroren","tag-elizabeth-harrower","tag-elizabeth-taylor","tag-giuseppe-tomasi-di-lampedusa","tag-john-verney","tag-kate-beaton","tag-muriel-spark","tag-noel-streatfeild","tag-patricia-highsmith","tag-rebecca-stead","tag-rebecca-west","tag-shaun-tan","tag-susan-cain","tag-sylvia-townsend-warner","tag-t-h-white","tag-trenton-lee-stewart"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4679"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6181,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4679\/revisions\/6181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michellecooper-writer.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}