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The Best Books of 2015

Bestof2015

I hope everyone’s 2015 ended with some great reading, family, friends, and fantastic food.

Of those I read in the year 2015 — those published in 2015 and before — these are the best in these categories:

Best Series:

Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle (The Raven Boys, The Dream Thieves, Blue Lily, Lily Blue)

Best Children’s Book: (TIE)

Best Memoir:

Displacement by Lucy Knisley

Best Nonfiction:

LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair by Beth Kephart

Best Short Story Collection:

The Great War: Stories Inspired by Items from the First World War 

Best Young Adult Fiction:

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson

Best Reference:

How to Entertain, Distract, and Unplug Your Kids by Matthew Jervis

Best Women’s Fiction:

French Coast by Anita Hughes

Best Historical Fiction: (TIE)

Best Fiction:

Best Poetry: (TIE)

Here is the list of BEST BOOKS PUBLISHED in 2015:


  1. Wet Silence by Sweta Vikram
  2. The Race for Paris by Meg Waite Clayton
  3. Vessel by Parneshia Jones
  4. LOVE: A Philadelphia Affair by Beth Kephart
  5. The House of Hawthorne by Erika Robuck
  6. The Mapmaker’s Children by Sarah McCoy
  7. Miss Emily by Nuala O’Connor
  8. One Thing Stolen by Beth Kephart
  9. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson
  10. The Sound of Glass by Karen White
  11. Mistaking Her Character by Maria Grace
  12. Earth Joy Writing by Cassie Premo Steele, PhD


What were your favorites in 2015?

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater (audio)

Source: Public Library
Audiobook, 10 CDs
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The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Will Patton, is a dark tale of supernatural forces, love, sacrifice, and transformation.  Blue Sargent cannot “see” like her mother and aunts can, but she can help them in their work.  She’s lived a cloistered life under the dark cloud of a premonition that her kiss would lead to the death of her true love, whom she has yet to meet.  The Raven Boys are considered the bad boys of the town, and Blue is expected to steer clear of them, but with all things forbidden, destiny cannot be avoided.

Gansey, Noah, Adam, and Ronan have been thrust together by a mission, but this mission has long-term consequences for them all, and Blue and her family.  Blue struggles to understand these boys and their role in the supernatural happenings that have happened in their town.  Her presence among the boys increases the tension between them, as Gansey represents privelege — a privilege that Adam resents.  Ronan is the wild card who never follows rules, and Noah is the sounding board, the quiet observer, whose secret is only going to break them emotionally.

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, narrated by Will Patton, is thrilling opening book to this series.  While readers are introduced to a surreal and strange world, it quickly becomes addictive.  The Raven Boys are mostly sympathetic, but they also have dark edges, and Blue is likely in for a long ride with them — one that will be dangerous.

Other Reviews:

About the Author:

New York Times bestselling author of The Shiver Trilogy, The Raven Cycle, and The Scorpio Races. Artist. Driver of things with wheels. Avid reader.  All of Maggie Stiefvater’s life decisions have been based around her inability to be gainfully employed. Talking to yourself, staring into space, and coming to work in your pajamas are frowned upon when you’re a waitress, calligraphy instructor, or technical editor (all of which she’s tried), but are highly prized traits in novelists and artists. She’s made her living as one or the other since she was 22. She now lives an eccentric life in the middle of nowhere, Virginia with her charmingly straight-la