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”
Wow, so many good recommendations. I loved Funny Girl by Nick Hornby about a woman comedian in the fifties; A Spot of Bother by Mark Haddon very funny family disfunction around a wedding; The Children Act by Ian McEwen about a judge’s involvement with a teenager who want to choose not to have chemotherapy. It asks what our responsibilities are to one another once we have acted. Anne Rivers Siddons’ The Girls of August, a funny and touching exploration of growth and grief among friends when some move on (sounds heavy, but isn’t). The Storied Life of AJ Fikry by Gabrielle Zevin about a crotchety bookstore owner brought into the world by a baby left in his shop. And just because another blog made me think of it last night, Penelope Lively’s perfect gem of a book, Moon Tiger about an accomplished woman and the love she lost in the Egyptian Desert in the Second World War. Sorry to be such a pig, there are so many things I love!
Soo glad to see this list for 2015…I need some new books to read myself this winter…always! Many I was going to suggest have already been mentioned but I do have a couple that I don’t see here.
The Queen’s Fool by Philippa Gregory…same author that wrote The Other Boleyn Girl.
Memory Man by Balducci…haven’t read it yet but was highly recommended by a friend.
Teardown~Memoir of a Vanishing City…..the city I grew up in Flint, Michigan but could describe many once great American cities. Author~Gordon Young
(maybe already suggested this one last year)
The sky in your photos today are beautiful…look at those clouds!
Lots of books have been suggested that I’ve enjoyed… the 2015 list will be a doozy!
Recently added to my To Read list is Organic Wesley By William C. Guerrant Jr. (blogger at Practising Resurrection), Vera: My Story by Vera Wasowski & Robert Hillman, and A Wake of Vultures by Mary Earnshaw (blogger at Memoirs of a Husk). Also on my TBR list is Recipes from The Bartolini Kitchens.
For fiction I went on a Hemingway kick this year. My favorite was For Whom the Bell Tolls. I also loved A Moveable Feast, The Garden of Eden and Ernest Hemingway On Writing (although two of these are non-fiction). I also really enjoyed several non-fiction books this year – Isaac’s Storm and Dead Wake by Erik Larson. And I loved A Spy Among Friends by Ben Macintyre. I also read and loved the Maze Runner series. It’s young adult fiction, but I loved the pace and the story line. It’s not a light subject though – disturbing and depressing perhaps.
The Crater Lake Trilogy (Disappearing in Plain Sight, The Light Never Lies, and Chasing Down the Night) by Francis Guenette. She blogs here on WordPress, too, at http://disappearinginplainsight.com/
Anything by Sharon Kay Penman, Tom Clancy, Ellis Peters, Dorothy L. Sayers, “In This House of Brede” by Rumer Godden, the three volume “The Civil War: A Narrative” by Shelby Foote, “Cold Mountain”, “The Horse Wisperer”, “Cry of the Kalahari”, “Musashi”, “Grandmother and the Priests”, “The Agony and the Ecstasy”, “Dune”, “The League of Night and Fog”, “The Name of the Rose”, “A Girl of the Limberlost”, “The House of Wings”, any of the Pern series by Anne McCaffrey.
My favorites for 2015 are, The Fifth Gospel by Ian Caldwell. A mystery set in Vatican City that kept me guessing — and the setting has its own mysteries and traditions. Monday Monday by Elizabeth Crook begins on the day Charles Whitman opens fire from the University of Texas Tower. It’s not about Whitman, but about being a mother, daughter and friend. Being Mortal by Atul Gawande is non-fiction look at how we care for our ill and dying. And although it’s not new, and not really a good ‘read,’ my go to cookbook is Ratio by Michael Ruhlman. It will change the way you think about baking and cooking.
I have just finished reading War Dog by Damian Lewis and loved it.
Oh so many good things to look for and ones to dig out of the bookshelves. Most of my book shopping is done at Value Village or the Salvation Army Thrift Store – etc. I don’t feel bad if the book is horrible and I give it away, but I’ve found some wonderful stuff too. I shall sit down tomorrow and make my list and post it. Yes, I know it will be a bit late, but I just can’t pull together a list tonight. Here’s one non-fiction for a start though – Commander Chris Hadfield – An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth. His story of what it took to get to be the commander of the International Space Station – absolutely awesome!
Chris S in Canada
So agree about the Commander Chris Hadfield book: I somehow came upon it at Roger Stowell’s great ‘Food, Photography and France’ and loved it 110%! And I have learned to do my book shopping thru’ AbeBooks [this may be an Australian ‘thing’] . . . they seem to be able to access absolutely everything at giveaway prices and reasonable postage: again a ‘gift’ from Roger . . . have two books coming at the moment: fast, honest and friendly!!
i am just reading “the garden cottage diaries, my year in the eighteenth century” by fiona j. houston. it has a chapter for each month and i read/am reading one every month. i really enjoyed this one. it has lots of recipies, small stories, garden/nature observations all under the main topic of life in the eighteenth century. she acctually lives like people in her area would have during that time period. very interesting =)
I’ve read this book 7 – 8 times and would read it again at the drop of a hat. Story of an interracial (Black/White) love affair by Ann Fairbairn. Book you don’t want to end.
Without a Net: Sojourn in Russia by Esther Bradley-deTally. Read multiple times. Also You Carry the Heavy Stuff by same author.
Anything by Robert B. Parker, Lee Child, Robert Krais
Who is Julia? by Barbara S. Harris. Couldn’t put it down so I kept re-reading it.
My Reading Life by Pat Conroy. Can’t praise enough. Also by Conroy: South of Broad Very good
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom. At a yard sale I found it. I hollered at the owners of the sale, asking them why they would want to sell this book. They said they already had a copy so I bought theres, chastised.
Peg Bracken’s The I Hate to Cook Book. “Cook until you sing The Star Spangled Banner twice.” Etc. Pretty funny.
The Widows’ Adventure by Charles Dickenson Two elderly sisters. One blind and knows how to drive. One sighted but can’t drive, drive at a snail’s pace on back roads cross-country.
The Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus GREAT read!
The Diane Mott Davidson series…female sleuth who runs a catering service. She includes recipes. Entertaining.
Anything by Larry McMurtry but especially Lonesome Dove. Great story and very funny.
May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude, House by the Sea, Kinds of Love
Anything by Anne Lamott.
Puff-puff and now to bed! Lots of love, Gayle
Book number 2: Five Smooth Stones by Ann Fairbairn
Book number ONE, not two. A little slack here. It’s almost 2 a.m. and I’m ge-pooped.
I am addicted to reading and I always have at least two books on the go. One is usually non-fiction and the other fiction but I read (happily) from most genres and I cannot imagine going a day without reading! Essentially I am an unashamed bookaholic. Here are a few books that I’ve enjoyed this year:
“Love at the Speed of Email” by Lisa McKay
“The Eye of the Sheep” by Sophie Laguna
“Only the Animals” by Ceridwen Dovey
“Hot Flashes and Cold Lemonade” by Susan Flett Swiderski
“The Night Guest” by Fiona McFarlane
“All the Birds, Singing” by Evie Wyld
“When the Night Comes” by Favel Parrett
“Burial Rites” by Hannah Kent
“Questions of Travel” by Michelle de Kretser
“Floundering” by Romy Ash
“The Light Between Oceans” by M.L. Stedman
“In the Shadow of the Banyan” by Vaddey Ratner
“A Hundred Flowers” by Gail Tsukiyama
“The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” by Rebecca Skloot
“Sarah’s Key” by Tatiana de Rosnay
“The Casual Vacancy” by J.K. Rowling
“Between Shades of Gray” by Ruta Sepetys
” A Time in Arabia” by Doreen Ingrams
“Secrets of a Lazy French Cook” by Marie-Morgane Le Moel
“A Pefectly Good Family” by Lionel Shriver
“The Fault in Our Stars” by John Green
“A Fig at the Gate” by Kate Llewellyn
“The Concubine’s Children” by Denise Chong
“The Rosie Effect” by Graeme Simsion (sequel to “The Rosie Project” which is also great)
“The Bookshop that Floated Away” by Sarah Henshaw
“Discovering Doeothea” by Karolyn Shindler
I hope you find something there that inspires you! 🙂
I see many wonderful book suggestions! Here are just a few good ones I’ve read recently.
Orphan Train – Christina Baker Kline (mentioned above)
Orhan’s Inheritance – by Aline Ohanesian
The Goldfinch – Donna Tartt as well as The Little Friend and The Secret History
Etched in Sand – Regina Calcaterra (a memoir)
Can’t wait to begin on the list! 🙂
There is an English writer, Jane Gardam, who’s writing moves your mind to places of exceptional brilliance. Each sentence to be savored again and again. Her writing lingers in your mind. Read OLD FILTH (filth – failed in London try Hong Kong), Part mystery. Part tragic/comic completely a page turner. Then go on to read Jane Gardam’s other books and pick up again the red thread of OLD FILTH.
Read the Orphan Train . Wonderful book. I was traveling yesterday- so I am a day late! Cheers!