2015 in books

I love mornings like this. It's Saturday, I don't have a lot to do and so I can be a bit lazy and read in bed.

Also, I just finished a good book, and that's always a nice feeling.

Going into my Goodreads folders (to update the book from 'currently reading' to 'read'), I looked back at what I had read this year and realised I had been quite busy. So I decided to do a '2015 in review' post, inspired by fellow writer Catherine (who by the way was a finalist at the 2016 Undiscovered Voices competition, so check her out!).

Books are in the order I read them and I will use the Goodreads star system. My personalisation of it is this: I only give 1 star to books I actively dislike (I think the Alchemist is the only one I would give this to, but I read it a while ago), so 2 stars is the lowest I tend to give. It doesn't mean it's a bad book, but just that it wasn't for me. It either annoyed me or I didn't enjoy it - or I enjoyed bits of it but the annoying parts were sooooo off-putting that overall I didn't like the book. 3 and 4 stars I enjoyed. 5 stars I obsess about (and I don't care about the bad bits, I love those books flaw and all!).

The difference between 3 and 4 will be dependent on how much I enjoyed the voice, the pace, the characters and the extent to which the bits that annoyed me could be trumped by the bits I loved. 

So, without further ado, I give you...

2015 in review!

Fiction:

Providence Unveiled (Memory's Wake trilogy #3) by Selina Fenech - 4*

14-14 by Silène Edgar and Paul Beorn (French) - 4*

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld - 4*

Pretties (Uglies #2) by Scott Westerfeld - 4*

Specials (Uglies #3) by Scott Westerfeld - 4*

Throne of Glass (Throne of Glass #1) by Sarah J. Maas - 2*

The Dragon Keeper (Rain Wild Chronicles #1) by Robin Hobb - 4*

Dragon Haven (Rain Wild Chronicles #2) by Robin Hobb - 5*

City of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #3) by Robin Hobb - 3*

Blood of Dragons (Rain Wild Chronicles #4) by Robin Hobb - 3*

Blackfin Sky by Kat Ellis - 4*

The Territory by Sarah Govett - 2*

Half Bad (Hald Bad trilogy #1) by Sally Green - 3*

The Potion Diaries by Amy Alward - 4*

Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (Noughts & Crosses #1) - 3*

Daughter of Smoke & Bone (Daughter of Smoke & Bone #1) by Laini Taylor - 2*

The Knife of Never Letting Go (Chaos Walking #1) by Patrick Ness - 4*

Am I Normal Yet? by Holly Bourne - 5* (Yes, I am now obsessed!)

Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho - 3*

The Sin-Eater's Daughter (The Sin-Eater's Daughter #1) by Melinda Salisbury - 3*

Non-Fiction

How Children Succeed: Grit, Curiosity an the Hidden Power of Character by Paul Tough - 4*

Dear Agent - Write the Letter that Sells Your Book by Nicoa Morgan - 4*

Creative Schools: The Grassroots Revolution that's Transforming Education by Ken Robinson and Lou Aronica - 5*

I'm not very good at finishing books I don't enjoy, which I think is why my ratings tend to lean towards the positive - I don't rate books I didn't finish. I also don't read a lot of non-fiction (as you can see), so for me to finish it, I must really enjoy it!

So there! 23 books read in 12 months. Not bad going, huh? I have to admit, apart from non-fiction they are all either YA or fantasy, and most are both. I also didn't put all the picture books I read (you know, for school, not *just* because I like picture books). In fact I haven't added any books I read at school. Maybe I'll edit the post some time to add them too.