My Favorite Books of 2015

Hi

Some of you asked me about my favorite books of the year and that really got me thinking. I find a question like that always very difficult to answer. I read 124 books in 2015 (as you can see here). How can anyone expect me to pick the three books I loved the most?

It took me three days to come up with this list. Three days! Literally! I’m really not good at this.

Apparently it’s ‘not done’ for blogs and booktube to include rereads and multiple books by the same author so that made it a lot easier for me (Jane Austen, Oscar Wilde, Richard Yates, Aldous Huxley, George Orwell and Muriel Barbery had to go) to narrow down my first list (26 books) to this one.

Lesson learned; in 2016 I will add a star rating to my reviews and to my Goodreads page.

So, here’s the list for those of you who are interested. I couldn't get it any smaller.
If you click on the title you will automatically be directed to the review.

• Jim Butcher: Summer Knight
• Michael Cunningham: The Snow Queen
• Joe Hill: NOS4R2
• Hugh Howey: Dust
• Shirley Jackson: We Have Always Lived in theCastle
• Stephen King: The Green Mile
• Ira Levin: The Boys from Brazil
• Richard Matheson: I Am Legend
• Terry Pratchett: Thud!
• Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter: The Long Mars
• Brandon Sanderson: The Hero of Ages
• José Saramago: Blindness
• John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath
• Junichirõ Tanizaki: Some Prefer Nettles
• Evelyn Waugh: The Loved One
• Andy Weir: The Martian

What were your favorites? Have you read any of mine? If so, how did you like them?

Happy reading and I’ll see you soon.

Helena

Andy Weir: The Martian

Hi

I couldn’t wait any longer to read The Martian.
The novel has 369 pages and I got it from The Book Depository.

“Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him & forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded & completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive—& even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. Chances are, though, he won't have time to starve to death. The damaged machinery, unforgiving environment or plain-old "human error" are much more likely to kill him first. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—& a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next. Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?”

I loved it. I just loved it.

The Martian is in essence a survival story in the most desperate situation imaginable.
So this could be a novel full of sadness, hopelessness, existential questions and anger. Which it is not. It’s quite the opposite actually.
Mark Watney is a very intelligent, wise-cracking, witty, sarcastic ‘dude’ with a snarky attitude. In short; he’s hilarious. This is one of the novels strongest features but at the same time I would have loved to see him (mentally and physically) suffer more to make it a bit more believable.

The research Andy Weir must have done for this novel is enormous. Watney describes every chemical and mathematical calculation, every bit he has to destroy and use in a different way. I liked it even though I’m sure I didn’t understand half of it.

The Martian is a brilliant novel. It is fast-paced, very real and very, very suspenseful. We’re never completely sure he’s going to survive, there’s always something that can go wrong. There’s always that little voice saying it won’t work and he’ll just die. It is very well written, there’s never a dull moment (even when there’s a rather uneventful journey), and Weir (or rather, Watney) uses hilariously colorful language.

Definitely recommended!

Happy reading!
Helena