Books Read in 2015

It pains my heart when I read statistics claiming that a quarter of American adults haven't read a single book this year.  Why would someone choose not to enrich their lives?  By reading books, you are more capable of building a robust perspective of the world and your fellow complex earthly beings who also reside here.

Whether you are reading a novel for the first time or re-reading your favorite book, there is never a better day, month or year to crack open a good read.  Listed below are all 33 of the books I've consumed in 2015:

1.  Yes Please - Amy Poehler

For lovers of: Female comedian memoirs 

2.  As You Wish: Inconceivable Tales From the Making of The Princess Bride - Cary Elwes

For lovers of: Behind the scenes tales of giants, sword fighting, and Rob Reiner as told by Westley himself

3.  Night - Elie Wiesel

For lovers of: 1st rate holocaust memoirs

4.  Scary Close: Dropping the Act and Finding True Intimacy - Donald Miller

For lovers of: Spiritual memoirs that appeal to the millennial/generation X persuasion.

5.  The Awakening - Kate Chopin

For lovers of: 19th century controversial literature

6.  David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants - Malcolm Gladwell

For lovers of: Books that teach you how your personal disadvantages can function as your ultimate advantage

7.  Bel Canto - Ann Patchett

For lovers of: Books that remind you of Breakfast Club but for held hostages 

8.  The Road - Cormac McCarthy

For lovers of: Grim, apocalyptic tales of survival

9.  The Giver - Lois Lowry

For lovers of: Children's dystopian literature

10.  The Joy Luck Club - Amy Tan

For lovers of: Mother-daughter narratives that transcend generations

11.  Gone Girl - Gillian Flynn

For lovers of: Alfred Hitchcockian marital page-turners

12.  Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless Love - Francis Chan

For lovers of: Spiritual devotionals trumpeting God's radical love

13.  Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte

For lovers of: Gothical romanticism

14.  Brave New World - Aldous Huxley

For lovers of: Satirical (and often times foreseeable) dystopian literature

15.  To The Lighthouse - Virginia Wolfe

For lovers of: Novels featuring minimal storytelling but enriching character development

16.  Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding

For lovers of: Embarrassingly candid confessional diaries 

17.  To Kill A Mockingbird - Harper Lee

For lovers of: Beloved classics that nearly restore your faith in humanity (assuming you don't continue with Go Set a Watchman)

18.  About a Boy - Nick Hornby

For lovers of: British 'man-boy' fiction

19.  Emma - Jane Austen

For lovers of: Both Jane Austen and Clueless

20.  Plunder and Deceit - Mark R. Levin

For lovers of: Political non-fiction for millennials but marketed to baby boomers

21.  Midnight's Children - Salmon Rusdie

For lovers of: (Indian) magical realism

22.  Winesburg, Ohio - Sherwood Anderson

For lovers of: Stories chronicling small-town isolation

23.  The Stranger - Albert Camus

For lovers of: Fiction that ponders and grapples with existentialism and morality

24.  Beloved - Toni Morrison

For lovers of: Post-slavery tales that will give you the hibbie jibbies 

25.  The Fault in Our Stars - John Green

For lovers of: Young Adult weepies

26.  Cannery Row - John Steinbeck

For lovers of: 'Slice of life' novels that zero in on a community's townspeople 

27.  Love Does: Discover a Secretly Incredible Life in an Ordinary World- Bob Goff

For lovers of: Inspirational memoirs that will make you re-evaluate the way you live

28.  Tuesdays with Morrie - Mitch Albom

For lovers of: Books that make you want to call up your favorite professor or spiritual mentor  

29.  The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom

For lovers of: A Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life

30.  Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

For lovers of: (Latin) magical realism

31.  1984 - George Orwell

For lovers of: Bleak and foreseeable dystopian novels that seem to always remain relevant


32.  Why Not Me? - Mindy Kaling
For lovers of: Memoirs that remind you of the conversations you share with your best friends


33.  A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickins
For lover of:  Classic Christmas tales that will lift your jaded spirits

Which books have you read (or re-read) this year?


See also: Books Read in 2014 
                How To Read Over 20 Novels a Year

Female Comedians “Getting Real” in Their Memoirs

After reading something heavy, I desperately need a hearty guffaw.  Occasionally, I love checking out the humor section at the local bookstore.  I generally don’t pay attention to the gender of any given novel, but the more I have read books by female comedians in recent years, I have realized that an unspoken sub-genre exists: the female comedian memoir.

Unlike their male counterparts, female comedians are “getting real” and sharing their life struggles and advice all the while using a witty voice.   As comical as these writers are, they bear a more sincere presence in their publication.  (Take for example Tina Fey's passion towards raising children in Bossy Pants.)  

Sometimes they will offer unsolicited advice to their female readers.  Regardless of whether or not I would ever consider taking their advice, I do enjoy their witty and self-deprecating take on childhood, rise to success/stardom, and how they choose to balance it all.  (It makes them appear somewhat relatable.) 

Quite a few male comedians, on the other hand, generally hide behind a satirical persona a la Stephen Colbert. If a male author is playing himself, he will most likely use a sarcastic or droll tone.  Either way, the content of most male comedian authors focuses more on current news than on the personal details of their lives.  I absolutely adore both approaches and writing styles, therefore, I do not have a personal preference. 

I do, however, hold a bias when it comes to celebrity memoirs.  I do prefer female comedian memoirs to female celebrity memoirs in which these celebrities hold very little writing credit or talent.  Most successful television female comedians hold writing experience on TV or during their sketch comedy salad days.  I appreciate nothing more than a memoir written by someone who is witty, intelligent and has a way with words. 

Otherwise, we have to read poetry by celebrities like Suzanne Somers:

Organic girl dropped last night
For nothing in particular

Except to tell me again how beautiful and serene she feels

On uncooked vegetables and wheat germ fortified by bean sprouts

Mixed with yeast and egg whites on really big days
She not only meditates regularly, but looks at me like I should

And lectures me about meat and ice cream

And other aggressive foods I shouldn’t eat.

            Touch Me: The Poems of Suzanne Somers