mission accomplished: i read some books last year.

Last year was a bit of a flop in terms of number of books I read.  Often, I only finished one book in a month.  I didn't finish any in May.  But I reassure myself that I'm not a lazy bimbo by remembering that, for a full four months in 2015, I was early-pregnant and sicker than a dog, and for two months, I had a newborn.  It was a full year.

However, even though I didn't read tons of books last year, I did read some pretty good ones.  And some extraordinarily great ones, as indicated in the list below by bolded font.

So, without further ado, my reading accomplishments of 2015:

1.  The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty (1/2)

2.  A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini (1/9)

3.  Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause by Izabella Wentz (1/25)

4.  The Secret History by Donna Tartt (1/30)

5.  All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr (2/5)

6.  Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver (2/15)

7. The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger (2/22)

8.  Light in August by William Faulkner (3/06)

9.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling (4/09)

10.  A Family Collection by Laura Ingalls Wilder, ed. Richard Marshall (4/21)

11.  A Sane Woman’s Guide to Raising a Large Family by Mary Ostyn (6/16)

12. The Big Tiny: A Built-It-Myself-Memoir by Dee Williams (6/23)

13.  Large Family Logistics: The Art and Science of Managing a Large Family by Kim Brenneman (7/08)

14.  The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio: How My Mother Raised 10 Kids on 25 Words or Less by Terry Ryan (7/19)

15.  The American Plate: A Culinary History in 100 Bites by Libby O’Connell (8/13)

16.  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J.K. Rowling (9/2)

17. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban by J.K. Rowling (9/15)

18. In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan (9/18)

19.  Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual by Michael Pollan (9/21)

20.  The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler (10/27)

21.  Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire by J.K. Rowling (11/25)

22.  Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (12/28)

Okay, as for the bolded books, they are ones I read for the first time this year, loved, and fully intend to read again one day:

All the Light We Cannot See: I don't really feel the need to justify this one, as everyone has read it and everyone has loved it.  I am no exception.  I'm looking forward to reading this again sometime.  Interestingly, it is the only fiction I truly loved this year.  (Other than that perennial favorite, my dear Harry Potter.)

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: This is just fascinating.  Half first-hand account, half journalistic report on the current culture, quality, and political climate of what we eat and where it comes from - with plenty of farming/gardening thrown in.  If you know me at all, you know at once why I loved this book.

A Family Collection: By Laura Ingalls Wilder, before she was Laura Ingalls Wilder.  How-to articles and opinion pieces written for local farm magazines, long before she wrote and published the Little House books.  She was, apparently, an orchardist and prize-winning chicken breeder, among many, many other things.

The Big Tiny: This, surprisingly, was probably my favorite read of the year.  It's the story of a woman who built and lived in a truly tiny house (84 square feet! On wheels! That could be pulled behind a pickup!) in her friend's backyard, with her dog.  Her writing is incredible, the story is inspiring, and even the insights on how she determines what to keep and how to store it were helpful.  I HIGHLY recommend you read this book.  And that was in all-caps, and in bolded and italicized font.  I think you can see I mean business.

The Prize-Winner of Defiance, Ohio: I found out about this story because the movie was on Netflix (which I admittedly watched first, and loved, too).  A funny, inspiring, pretty unbelievable memoir written by the daughter of a woman who nearly single-handedly supported a family of twelve by winning marketing contests in the fifties and sixties.  This is another highly recommended book.

Have you read any of the books on this list?  What did you think of them?  I clearly LOVE talking books, so please do leave your thoughts!

(For previous years' lists and favorite books, check out these posts from 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014.)