My Year in Books: 2015 Edition

I wrote in September about how joining my street's new book club had gotten me back into the habit of reading. I'm happy to report that's still the case. I'm not at my pre-kid level of eight books per month, but I will have finished seven books this month. I'm pretty proud of that.

I knew I wouldn't be able to read 96 books this year like I used to, but this fall I did give myself a more attainable goal -- 34 books since I turned 34 years old over the summer. I have just one book to go, and it's a short one by one of my favorite authors that I'm looking forward to reading. I know I'm going to meet my goal.

This is a big deal for me. I didn't realize how much I missed reading until I largely let go of the habit and then returned to it. It's easy to turn on the TV at night after a long day with the kids -- and don't get me wrong, I still do that. I just try to stick a half hour of reading in there first.

Here are a few of my favorites from the year, in the order in which I read them:

• "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee. Had to reread the classic before our Atticus was born!

• "Here" by Richard McGuire. Largely a graphic novel, with very little text.

• "Do No Harm" by Henry Marsh. A non-fiction account of the day-to-day realities of being a surgeon, with lots of anecdotes.

• "Some Luck" by Jane Smiley. The first in a trilogy. I loved them all, but start at the beginning. Each chapter covers one year in the life of a single extended family. After the last chapter of the last book, a full century has gone by. Read this so I have someone to talk about it with!

• "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up" by Marie Kondo. This book has gotten a lot of press for good reason. Short, but it really has made me reevaluate why I keep what I do.

• "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr. A blind French girl and a young Nazi cross paths in France during World War II. 

Happy reading in 2016!