I have run out of books to read! I need a winter reading list.
Every single night of my reading life (beginning at age 3) I have read a book in bed before going to sleep. And when the winter comes there may even be time to read a book in front of the fire in the afternoons and I will be travelling to Australia and New Zealand this winter so I read in the airports and the airplanes and taxis and buses and trains and in the backyards of my children. So I need heaps of books. I know you read. What book did you read this year that you loved enough to recommend.
If you are new to the Fellowship here are the previous lists.
2012 books
2013 books
2014 (what happened to 2014?) I cannot find it. 
Anyway – it is that time again – though there is no actual time for this list except that I am out of a book and need some guidance. And you are all readers! Will you share?
To start the ball rolling I have two recommendations from The Fellowship. Books that have come out this year and I was lucky enough to read.
The first is a recipe book written by John Amici : Recipes from The Bartolini Kitchens. This is not only an extraordinary collection of one families recipes cooked by the Bartolini sisters and their families and recorded by their son and nephew but also a collection of stories about an Italian family settling and cooking and flourishing in America. This is the story of the American Dream with food.
The second book I would like to recommend is by Melissa DeCarlo. The Art of Crash Landing. It is a novel of a young woman named Mattie who finds herself pregnant and lost and launches herself out into the world with much gusto and determination and not a little trepidation. This book charges along at breakneck speed, a wonderful read. And what I liked the most about Mattie and the collection of characters that we meet as we read this book ,is how REAL they are. How easy it was for me to empathise with the people that people these pages. Loved it.
Both of these are available on Amazon. 
I have a few more that I will tell you about when I write up the list.
Now: How about you?
Do you have any books you have read lately that we might want to read? I love a good book.
From your recommendations I shall create the 2015 list of books recommended by The Fellowship of the Farmy – for us all to print and share. In the past I have given away our lists as Christmas presents to my friends and family all of whom love to read. And if you are a reader of this blog you are one of The Fellowship so everyone can join in.
What are you reading? What have you written? What should I be reading?
Love celi
PS. I will not answer the comments today so you do not have to scroll down too far to add your own. But I will be reading and compiling all day! Thank you!
The Kitchen's Garden 
113 responses to “The Winter Book List 2015”
Hi I love any books by Fannie Flagg. At the mo I’m reading Ann Cleeves books about detective inspector Vera Stanhope. They are set in the North of England and there has been a TV series based on them.
From my 2015 reading so far:
Circling the Sun, Paula McLain
Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
The Nightingale, Kristin Hanna
The Girl on the Train, Paula Hawkins
Last Night in Montreal, Emily St John Mandel
All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr
Splinters of Light, Rachael Herron
Where’d You Go, Bernadette, Maria Semple
I have do many books stuffed under my bed .. And in the throes off reading many .. Fave out of all of them ..The Luminaries 😀
The Luminaries was a beautifully written book. Epic.
It sure was 😃
The One Hundred Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared. by Jonas Jonasson. Also his book The Girl Who Saved the Kind of Sweden. Both of us loved these!
I love the one hundred year old man who climbed out the window and disappeared. I haven’t read the other one, I must.
For anyone who enjoys Fantasy/Sci-Fi, I highly recommend “The Way of Kings” by Brandon Sanderson. Getting into this book will ensure that you have plenty to read for a long time since it’s 1,000 excellent pages and has a sequel just as long… and more to come. It’s like starting on “Wheel of time” 20 years ago (Brandon Sanderson also finished the wheel of time series, in case you’ve read those).
For general bookworms, I also highly recommend “Alcatraz vs. the Evil Librarians” by Brandon Sanderson as an easy read. It’s the first in a hilarious set of youth novels that can keep kids entertained while having plenty of funny moments that the well read will appreciate.
I can’t wait to read some of these other interesting suggestions! So many books, so little time!
Journey by Moonlight by Antal Szerb, a magical realist sort of book set in Italy before the war about a man who leaves his wife on their honeymoon. Sky Time in Gray’s River by Robert Michael Pyle my favorite American nature writer. News From Tartary by Peter Fleming about an early 30’s overland journey from Peking to Kashmir. Beautiful description of a vanished world (Brother of Ian Fleming). Anything by Thomas Hardy.
I have read lots, like you Celi, must head to bed with a book in hand. At the moment, reading Crash and Burn, by Lisa Gardener. she writes psychological thrillers, but this one is different, no bodies, just a woman with a traumatic brain injury who has memories of being afraid but she doesn’t know of what…..intriguing, a great paced plot with interesting twists and turns and a little bit scary. Two biographies, both set in Tassie with a similar theme. A Table in the Orchard by Michelle Crawford, she says……whiIe living a high flying life, I dreamed of growing my own food, making cakes and jam, and wearing gumboots every day. Beautifully illustrated and some yummy recipes. The other is A Story of Seven Summers by Hilary Burden, with a similar background, who turns a a ramshackle old house – The Nun’s House – into a home and productive garden, has chooks with attitude and a couple of alpacas……….both charming reads.
I mostly listen to audio books these days so I can knit, spin or do data entry on the old computer at the same time but I have some favorites that I’ll always read over & over again!!
The Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society – Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows. Guernsey was occupied during WWII & the people had interesting coping mechanisms. A VERY good book.
The Book of Eve – Constance Beresford-Howe Eva gets her first pension check & walks away from her comfortable life with one suitcase, clock radio & new wool coat. I reread this book almost every year!!! She also wrote several other books in a series of life changing situations for women. A Population of One, The Marriage Bed & A Very Proper Widow are three of them. Also very good books.
The Shetland Series – Ann Cleeves Six books of Murder & Mystery in the Shetland Isles. Detective Jimmy Perez knows the isles intimately since he grew up there.
The Pern series – Anne McCaffrey – Science Fiction, yes, but it sure feels real when McCaffrey tells the tales. There’s about 30 in the series of books about people arriving in three star ships to settle a beautiful new world. I think you should start with Dragonsdawn. It starts at the very beginning. Then Dragonseye. My very favorite series.
Daring Greatly, Brene Brown
A Very Small Farm, William Paul Wincester (I read this every winter)
His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
I was just needing new books to read, thanks for this!
I recently read a wonderful book called The Other Side of the World — the characters seemed so real and it’s got a kind of haunting, magical quality in the writing.
Also, The Truth According to Us by Annie Barrows is very good. Small-town America during the Great Depression, secrets, family and memorable characters.
Stones from the River and Floating in My Mother’s Palm by Ursula Hegi, a brilliant book written by an American German author describing life in a small town in post- and prewar Germany. She is a brilliant author.
The Shoppenhauer Cure by Irvin d. Yalom, being confronted with mortality a psychotherapist is forced to re-examine his life.
Hi Celi…It is great that you are compiling a 2015 winter reading list!! I am in two book clubs and could use some suggestions. Some books that I have read and enjoyed are:
A Walk in the Woods – Bill Bryson (anything by B. Bryson is good)
A Prayer for Owen Meany – John Irving
My Life in France – Julia Child
The Language of Flowers – Vanessa Diffenbaugh
The Aviator’s Wife – Melanie Benjamin
The Paris Wife – Paula McLain
WILD – Cheryl Strayed
Flight of Passage – Rinker Buck
Unbroken
Thanks again,
Merridee
I love the language off flowers Great book
Amy Snow by Tracy Rees http://www.amazon.co.uk/Amy-Snow-Richard-Judy-Bestseller/dp/1784291455
Circling the Sun was wonderful as is Love in the Driest Season by Neely Tucker. People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks is phenomenal. The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester is a fabulous true story about the Oxford English Dictionary. While the idea of reading about a dictionary may sound dull, the book is captivating and based on a true story. Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese is also wonderful. Happy Reading!