My Reading Year 2015

A bit late, but here's the list of the books I've read in the past year. Last December I wrote a post about the books I'd read in 2014. That year I read 32 books, which I thought was quite a lot. This year I managed 39 which I'm astounded by. It's been a busy year for the whole family. Since August we've been going through the process of buying and selling our house. Just before Christmas we moved and now we are busy decorating, drilling holes, putting down carpets... you name it! I've found a gorgeous corner in our living room for some of my books (ignore the pile of Mrs Sinclair foreign editions on the floor!):

Here's what I read in 2015, all fiction unless otherwise stated:

The Winter Ghosts by Kate Mosse
The Small Hand by Susan Hill
The Dead Wife's Handbook by Hannah Beckerman
Letters to the Lost by Iona Grey
The Eye in the Door by Pat Barker
The Night Watch by Sarah Waters
Moon Tiger by Penelope Lively (a wonderful re-read!)
The Betrayal by Helen Dunmore
The Restoration of Otto Laird by Nigel Packer
The Followers by Rebecca Wait
Rumer Godden: A Storyteller's Life by Anne Chisholm (biography)
How to Make a Friend by Fleur Smethwick
Kingfishers Catch Fire by Rumer Godden
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Our Endless Numbered Days by Claire Fuller

Song of the Seamaid by Rebecca Mascull
Academy Street by Mary Costello
Ammonites and Leaping Fish by Penelope Lively (memoir)
Because it is Bitter and Because it is My Heart by Joyce Carol Oates
Passing On by Penelope Lively
The Black Madonna of Derby by Joanna Czechowska
I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith (another wonderful re-read)
Close Range by Annie Proulx (short stories)
The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler (about writing)
Summertime by Vanessa Lafaye
The Art of Baking Blind by Sarah Vaughan
Dear Life by Alice Munro (short stories)
Save the Cat! by Blake Snyder (about writing)
Story by Robert McKee (about writing)
The Other Me by Saskia Sarginson
The Definitive Guide to Screen Writing by Syd Field (about writing)
Into the Woods by John Yorke (about writing)
Four Screenplays by Syd Field (about writing)
The Mayor of Casterbridge by Thomas Hardy (the third re-read this year)
The Summer of Secrets by Sarah Jasmon
In This House of Brede by Rumer Godden
Honeydew by Edith Pearlman (short stories)
Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush by Graeme Thomson (biography)
Heat Lightning by Helen Hull

That's 39 books, 7 more than last year, I have no idea how I managed it! Perhaps it's because I haven't been writing as much this year... or I've read in bed far too late far too many nights. Once again I've read many more women writers than men.

I've also been working on this all year, finally finishing it in October;

It's a quilt for my daughter. When she opened it on Christmas Day we both cried. Some of the fabrics were from her childhood frocks and some of the patches were made in the 1970s by my grandmother, but never worked by her into a project. It was a pleasure to use them in this quilt.

Wishing everybody a happy year of reading in 2016 

xx