Books Read in 2015

Another year in the books (hahaha)! I managed to finish 60* this year—2 fewer than 2014, but, as in 2014, several of them were Very Easy Reading, so that 60 deserves an asterisk.

I was lucky enough to meet a couple of great authors this year—Rainbow Rowell and Lois Lowry;  read a great author for the first time this year—Kurt Vonnegut; and "discover" some new-to-me authors I look forward to reading again—Sarah Vowell, Andy Weir, and Paula Hawkins.

These are the books I finished in 2015. You can follow the links to their journal entries on BookCrossing; those books without a link were either borrowed, or are in my permanent collection for the moment. (E) indicates they were read on my Kindle/Nook/iPod Touch; (A) means they were audiobooks; (L) means I borrowed them from my local library; (R) means I re-read some old friends.

My favorites this year? "Grave Surprise," "An Ice Cold Grave," and "Grave Secret," by Charlaine Harris; The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein; The Martian, by Andy Weir; and Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell.

January
1. Forgive Me, Leonard Peacock, by Matthew Quick (A)
2. One Summer: America, 1927, by Bill Bryson (E) (L)
3. Peter and the Starcatchers, by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson (A)
4. The Art of Asking, by Amanda Palmer
5. Top Secret Twenty-One, by Janet Evanovich (E) (L)
6. The Velveteen Rabbit, by Margery Williams (R)
7. How to Care for Your Monster, by Norman Bridwell (R)  

February
8. Looking for Alaska, by John Green (E) (L)
9. Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins (E) (L)
10. Journey Into Narnia, by Kathryn Lindskoog
11. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? (And Other Concerns), by Mindy Kaling (E) (L)
12. Dark Summer, by Iris Johansen  

March
13. Misery, by Stephen King
14. Why We Broke Up, by Daniel Handler and Maira Kalman
15. Not That Kind of Girl, by Lena Dunham (E) (L)
16. Grave Surprise, by Charlaine Harris
17. The Kalahari Typing School for Men, by Alexander McCall Smith
18. Orange Is The New Black, by Piper Kerman
19. Pete's A Pizza, by William Steig  

April
20. The Great Train Robbery, by Michael Crichton
21. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, by Rachel Joyce (E)
22. We Were Tired Of Living In A House, by Liesel Moak Skorpen (R)
23. Celestial Land and Sea, by Amy McLean (E)
24. An Ice Cold Grave, by Charlaine Harris  

May
25. The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein (A) (L)
26. Third Girl, by Agatha Christie
27. Argo, by Antonio Mendez and Matt Baglio (A) (L)
28. Dark Places, by Gillian Flynn
29. Fluke: Or, I Know Why the Winged Whale Sings, by Christopher Moore
30. The Beginner's Goodbye, by Anne Tyler (A) (L)
31. Every Seventh Wave, by Daniel Glattauer  

June
32. Persuasion, by Jane Austen
33. Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
34. Grave Secret, by Charlaine Harris (E)
35. Artemis Fowl: The Graphic Novel, by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
36. The Silver Linings Playbook, by Matthew Quick  

July
37. Year of Wonders, by Geraldine Brooks (A)
38. Charleston, by John Jakes
39. Thumbelina, by Hans Christian Andersen
40. The Moon Lake, by Ivan Gantschev
41. The Happy Prince and Other Stories, by Oscar Wilde
42. A Short History of Nearly Everything, by Bill Bryson (A)
43. The Confession of Fitzwilliam Darcy, by Mary Street
44. Happiness Is A Warm Puppy, by Charles M. Schulz  

August
45. The Outsider, by Jimmy Connors (A) (L)
46. Trigger Warning, by Neil Gaiman (E) (L)
47. Slow Decay, by Andy Lane
48. Emma: A Modern Retelling, by Alexander McCall Smith (E) (L)
49. The Martian, by Andy Weir  

September
50. Till We Have Faces, by C.S. Lewis (R)
51. I Am The Messenger, by Markus Zusak
52. Attachments, by Rainbow Rowell (E) (L)  

October
53. Fangirl, by Rainbow Rowell (E) (L)
54. Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell (A) (L)
55. Wave, by Sonali Deraniyagala  

November
56. The Girl On The Train, by Paula Hawkins (E) (L)
57. Slaughterhouse Five, by Kurt Vonnegut  

December
58. Prosecco & Paparazzi, by Celia Kennedy (E)
59. Tremors In The Cloister: A Memoir, by Allan Spiegler
60. Queen of the Road: The True Tale of 47 States, 22,000 Miles, 200 Shoes, 2 Cats, 1 Poodle, a Husband, and a Bus with a Will of Its Own, by Doreen Orion

Prosecco & Paparazzi, by Celia Kennedy

Received from the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program in October 2015.

It has been a long time since I read a romance, so when I read the description of this book, "a contemporary romantic comedy about what happens when the paths of a celebrity god and a mere mortal collide," I was interested. Who doesn't wonder about what would happen if they met their ultimate celebrity crush?

It started off well. A cute meet. A dream of a night. But then it took a really weird turn that it never quite recovered from. There were too many inconsistencies in character and plot that kept distracting me from the story. I  enjoyed the glamorous settings—the French Alps, New York, London, Ireland, the French Riviera, Rome, Barbados—and the glamorous people, but I was looking for that one real thing that would make me care about these characters and I just didn't find it. I was interested in Charlotte's romance, but she was cheated by having to share her story with too many characters who were too obviously being set up for their own stories, as this is Book One in The Passport Series.

All in all, Prosecco & Paparazzi could have benefited greatly from a couple more rounds of editing. There were too many insignificant details, too much uncontrollable laughter, too much prosecco, and not enough paparazzi.