Rabbit Hole #33: Best Books I Read 2015

I'm back! January has been very busy so far, as the start of the new semester always is. Add to that the non-stop roller coaster that is our first Mardi Gras experience here in New Orleans, and time just has gotten away from me!

I read a lot of wonderful books last year, so it wasn't easy to narrow this down to my "favorite" reads of 2015. These are the ones that rose to the top, though, after a lot of consideration: 

Fiction: 

          Krik? Krak? by Edwidge Danticat

          A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
          The Fishermen by Chigozie Obioma

Nonfiction:

         On Immunity by Eula Biss

         Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

         So We Read On: How The Great Gatsby Came to Be and How It Lives On by Maureen Corrigan

         We Should All Be Feminists by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche

Poetry:

         Citizen by Claudia Rankine

         Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

Graphic novels/comic collections:

         March Books 1-2 by Rep. John Lewis

         The Wicked and the Divine Vol. 1 by Kieron Gillan

YA:

         Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodsen

         Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saénz

         Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older

2016 is already shaping up to be another fantastic reading year, and I can't wait to continue sharing my reading journey with you!

Rabbit Hole #32: 2016 Reading Goals

2015 was an interesting reading year for me. Even though we had enormous changes in our lives, I managed to read 135 books, which is a tremendous increase over my normal 50 books per year. As I've said before, I really have no explanation for it, but I'm not complaining. I'm looking forward to a rewarding reading year this year, as well.

I'm not usually one for setting reading goals, but here are my top 5 for 2016:

1. Read 75 books this year. (I know I almost doubled that last year, but I think that was an anomaly.)

2. Read 50% books written by people of color and 50% books written by women.

3. Read 30% books from non-American/British authors. Reading more works in translation will also help with this.

4. Complete three reading challenges: Book Riot's Read Harder 2016 Challenge, PopSugar's 2016 Reading Challenge, and Bustle's Women and Persons of Color Reading Challenge. Surprisingly, there are not a lot of categories that overlap between the three, so this will be a lot of fun.

5. Purge my bookshelves at least once a quarter. I am a chronic book-hoarder, and I've noticed recently that while I love a large number of the books I own, there are also books on there that I either can't remember the plot of, or that I just didn't really like (I'm looking at you, American Psycho). I'm not talking about paring down to a minimalist look, just getting rid of those 5-10 books every few months that don't mean anything to me.

These should all be easy to accomplish, especially given last year's accomplishments, and guaranteed to introduce me to some incredible reads!

(I know this is Allie Brosh's work, but not sure where it came from.
Please let me know if you do!)