Books I read in 2015

This is my annual year end book blog!  I like to mix it up by posting the year end list in January.  And by mix it up, I mean post it when I finally get around to writing it.  Here's a picture of the books I read last year, courtesy of Goodreads, and I will list my Top Fives below.  (I'm sorry some of the books overlap - I'm not sure how to fix that.  Here is the link to Goodreads if you would like to click on any of the books to get a summary, reviews, etc.)

it was amazing

it was amazing

really liked it

it was amazing

really liked it

Top 5 fiction books (in random order):
Me Before You  by Jojo Moyes
Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J. Ryan Stradal
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff
All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
Mambo in Chinatown by Jean Kwok

Top 10 non-fiction (in random order):
Being Mortal by Atul Gawande
The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison
To the End of June by Chris Beam
Deep Down Dark by Hector Tobar
Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson
All Joy and No Fun by Jennifer Senior
Girl in Glass by Deanna Fei
Dead Wake by Erik Larson
At Home by Bill Bryson

Please send me your fiction recommendations:  This was a year where I enjoyed non-fiction much more than fiction, which might have just been the selection I read.  It is usually the other way around - I read fiction because I love it and (mostly) read non-fiction to try to learn something or broaden my horizons.  I'm going to be SO SAD if my love of fiction doesn't come back with a vengeance.  Please send me your best recommendations of fiction books you absolutely loved and help me love fiction again!

This year's fun coincidences:  When you read a fiction book and non-fiction book on similar topics at the same time, they complement nicely.  This year's two pairings like this: First, I read Orphan Train (a historical fiction book about orphans / adoption of older children) and To the End of June (a non-fiction book about the American foster care system).  Second, I read Me Before You (a fiction book about a man making end of life decisions) and Being Mortal (a non-fiction book that discusses issues related to end of life care).  The non-fiction book educates you about the facts, gives a fuller picture of all the most important points to be made in the given topic, and just generally gives you knowledge and piques your interest in the topic.  The fiction book humanizes a topic and helps you empathize with the characters who are going through the real thing.  When you get both of these at the same time, it creates a really rich, powerful experience of the topic.  Both of the times it happened for me this last year were coincidental, but I'm going to try to plan to read like this more often.  (And I would welcome recommendations of good fiction - non-fiction pairings.)  (If any of you read To the End of June, which is excellent, and want a great fiction book to pair with it, I would recommend either The Language of Flowers or White Oleander.)