Hot 100: All the Books I Read in 2015

This time one year ago I made a New Year's Resolution to read more.  I've always loved to read but college, grad school, and work distracted me...a ten year black hole in which I hardly read for pleasure at all.

I set what I thought at the time was an unrealistic goal of reading 52 books in 2015 -- averaging one per week.  If you'd told me then that I'd hit my goal the first week of July I wouldn't have believed it, but here we are on December 31 and I have read 100 books.  100 books!

Below is a list of all the books I've read this year, categorized as best I can.  I've also listed my top 5 fiction and non-fiction, although I must say it was hard to choose.  I didn't enjoy all the books I read this year, but there were certainly more than 10 great ones.

(Also, I apologize for not including links/pictures on this list....I thought about it but it would take so much time.)

**I'd also like to point out that this list does not include books read to babies, textbooks, Bible study workbooks, and cookbooks.

Christianity/Religion

1. Every Bitter Thing is Sweet by Sara Hagerty

2. Breaking Free by Beth Moore

3. A Long Obedience in the Same Direction by Eugene Peterson

4. The Envy of Eve by Melissa Kruger

5. Recapture the Wonder by Ravi Zacharias

6. Depression: Looking Up From the Stubborn Darkness by Edward T. Welch

7. Jesus the King by Timothy Keller

8. He Chose the Nails by Max Lucado

9. Sabbath by Wayne Muller

10. Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis by Lauren Winner

11. United: Captured by God’s Vision for Diversity by Trillia Newbell

12. For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker

13. Grace For the Good Girl by Emily P. Freeman

14. Simply Tuesday by Emily P. Freeman

15. Out of Sorts: Making Peace With an Evolving Faith by Sarah Bessey

16. Messy Grace by Caleb Kaltenbach

17. My Name is Hope by John Mark Comer

18. Lord Willing? by Jessica Kelley (to be released in 2016)

19. Jesus in the Present Tense by Warren Wiersbe

20. The Greatest Gift by Ann Voskamp

21. Ms. Understood by Jen Hatmaker

Memoir:

22. Shakespeare Saved my Life: Ten Years in Solitary with the Bard by Laura Bates

23. A Little Salty to Cut the Sweet by Sophie Hudson

24. Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me? by Mindy Kaling

25. Yes, Please by Amy Poehler

26. Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson

27. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

28.Nobody’s Cuter Than You by Melanie Shankle

29. Interrupted by Jen Hatmaker

30. 7 by Jen Hatmaker

31. Call the Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy and Hard Times by Jennifer Worth

32. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehesi Coates

33. Cold Tangerines: Celebrating the Extraordinary Nature of Everyday Life by Shauna Niequist

34. Why Not Me? by Mindy Kaling

35. Bossypants by Tina Fey

36. Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman

Other Non-fiction:

37. Quiet: the Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain

38. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

39. Something Must be Done About Prince Edward County by Kristen Green

Self-Improvement:

40. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott

41. The Fringe Hours by Jessica Turner

42. The Nesting Place: It Doesn’t Have to be Perfect to be Beautiful by Myquillyn Smith

43. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo

44. The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You’re Supposed to be and Embrace Who You Are by Brene Brown

45. A Million Little Ways: Uncovering the Art You Were Made to Live by Emily P. Freeman

46. The Heart Led Leader by Tommy Spaulding

Historical Fiction:

47. The Invention of Wings (Sue Monk Kidd)

48. Year of Wonders (Geraldine Brooks)

49. Orphan Train (Christina Baker Kline)

50. The Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme

51. Return to the Outer Banks House by Diann Ducharme

52. The Lost Wife (Alyson Richman)

53. The Nightingale (Kristin Hannah)

54. March (Geraldine Brooks)

55. The Other Boleyn Girl (Philippa Gregory)

56. Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese)

57. Life After Life (Kate Atkinson)

58. The Dressmaker (Kate Alcott)

59. The Boston Girl (Anita Diamant)

60. Toward the Sea of Freedom (Sarah Lark) *to be released in 2016

61. Go Set a Watchman (Harper Lee)

For the Young at Heart:

62. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (Alan Bradley)

63. The Magician’s Nephew (C.S. Lewis)

64. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (C.S. Lewis)

65. The Weed that Strings the Hangman’s Bag (Alan Bradley)

66. A Red Herring Without Mustard (Alan Bradley)

67. If I Stay (Gayle Forman)

68. I am Half-Sick of Shadows (Alan Bradley)

69. Speaking From Among the Bones (Alan Bradley)

70. The Dead in Their Vaulted Arches (Alan Bradley)

71. The Curious Case of the Copper Corpse (Alan Bradley)

Christian Fiction:

72. Angels Walking (Karen Kingsbury)

73. Chasing Sunsets (Karen Kingsbury)

74. Bridge to Haven (Francine Rivers)

75. Covenant Child (Terri Blackstock)

76. One More Wish (Robin Jones Gunn)

All the Rest:

77. Big Little Lies (Liane Moriarty)

78. The Good Girl (Mary Kubica)

79. Three Wishes (Liane Moriarty)

80. The Things We Do For Love (Kristin Hannah)

81. The Next Always (Nora Roberts)

82. The Rosie Project (Graeme Simsion)

83. The Rosie Effect (Graeme Simsion)

84. Summer Island (Kristin Hannah)

85. Attachments (Rainbow Rowell)

86. Speak (Lauren Halse Anderson)

87. The Last Anniversary (Liane Moriarty)

88. The Girl of the Train (Paula Hawkins)

89. Her Husband’s Secret (Liane Moriarty)

90. Eyes on You (Kate White)

91. Still Alice (Lisa Genova)

92. What Alice Forgot (Liane Moriarty)

93. The Royal We (Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan)

94. Afterwards (Rosamund Lupton)

95. Salvage the Bones (Jesmyn Ward)

96. The Language of Flowers (Vanessa Diffenbaugh)

97. Luckiest Girl Alive (Jessica Knoll)

98. The One and Only (Emily Giffin)

99. The Giver (Lois Lowry)

100. The BIBLE (NIV) -- I'm pretty proud of this one. I know I've read the whole Bible before but I don't remember ever sticking to a one-year plan.

Top 5 Fiction (in no particular order):

The Royal We

The Rosie Project

The Invention of Wings

The Nightingale

Go Set a Watchman

Top 5 Nonfiction (in no particular order):

Still: Notes on a Mid-Faith Crisis

Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith

Just Mercy (it's going to be a movie--so pumped!)

Nobody's Cuter Than You

Jesus the King

So what's ahead for 2016? I haven't decided. I will certainly continue reading and posting about it, but I have no goals for a total. This was fun though. :)

I Forgot How Much I Like Dorothy Sayers

"Perhaps it is no wonder that the women were first at the Cradle and last at the Cross. They had never known a man like this Man -- there never has been such another. A prophet and teacher who never nagged at them, never flattered or coaxed or patronized; who never made arch jokes about them, never treated them as "The women, God help us!" or "The ladies, God bless them!"; who rebuked without querulousness and praised without condescension; who took their questions and arguments seriously; who never mapped out their sphere for them, never urged them to be feminine or jeered at them for being female; who had no ax to grind and no uneasy male dignity to defend; who took them as he found them and was completely unselfconscious. There is no act, no sermon, no parable in the whole Gospel that borrows its pungency from female perversity; nobody could possibly guess from the words and deeds of Jesus that there was anything "funny" about woman's nature."

Dorothy L. Sayers in Are Women Human? (1971), p. 47.

Sunday Song: Advent #3

Today, on this third Sunday of Advent, we light the candle of Joy.  His arrival is close -- the light is growing brighter.

Joy:: our time of rejoicing is almost here.  Jesus came that we might have JOY.  In all things, in spite of all things.

Sarah Bessey wrote about it beautifully, so please take the time to read her words here.



Today's song is from Meredith Andrews. It's a modern take on "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" that I first heard the Sunday after the Newtown shootings three years ago.

He came to redeem it all.  To bring us joy in all things, in spite of all things.  He brings light to the darkness.

The hope for all mankind.  Born to give us life.

Sunday Song: Advent #2

Today we light the second candle.  The candle of peace.

The past two weeks have yet again revealed that peace is surely missing in the world.  Yet we know that He came...He will come again...to bring peace on earth.

Isaiah 9:7 says this peace will not have an end.

So we light the candle...a glimmer a hope in this dark December,....and breathe in the promise that brings us peace.  Emmanuel.  He is with us.

He was. He is. And He will always be.

When Grace gets Messy

There's been a lot of talk in Christian circles lately about how to address issues like same-sex marriage.  For those of us who realize protests and posters of Bible verses is only creating more problems, we must walk a fine line of holding true to what we believe and loving others with the love of Christ.

Enter Caleb Kaltenbach.  Now a pastor in California, Caleb was raised by gay parents and participated in gay pride parade.  He experienced his own "coming out" when he shared with his parents that he'd become a Christian.  In his book, Messy Grace, he offers a unique perspective about how Christians should engage the LGBT community.

If you're looking for a black and white how-to, you'll be disappointed.  However, Caleb does give the reader a lot of issues to consider and pray about and always, always, returns to Scripture.

**I received this book from Blogging for Books in exchange for this review.