A Look Back at 2015

I always like to take a look back and tally up my books. It's going to be short and sweet this year. Ever since I've decided to try to read more books written by women, I like to see how I've done.

This year, I've read a grand total of 56 books:

Male authors: 18

Female authors (not including romance genre): 27

Female authors (romance genre only): 11 

I'm not trying to be snobby by separating out the romance genre, but I do feel like they are more for entertainment. I don't want my only reading of women authors to be romance genre because there is so much else out there. To that end, my goal is to read more (or at least half and half) women authors, without counting the romance books. If I read a ton of romance novels, that's fine, I just also need to branch out now and again.

As far as my most notable books this year:

The Martian by Andy Weir is definitely my favorite of the year, and I'm not even a fan of science-fiction. Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty was a delightful surprise, and The Gift of Fear by Gavin De Becker was both fascinating and informative.

One of my least favorite books was One Second After by William Forstchen. The premise was kind of fascinating. If it wasn't for the bad writing and self-serving narrative, I could have liked it. Another one that sticks out is Highlander Most Wanted by Maya Banks. Disturbing and not romantic.

For quite a while now, I've made sure to read a book by Cormac McCarthy every year, and this year I didn't make it. Every year, I have fewer options to choose from, but I'm disappointed I didn't get around to it. I will try to do better this year. I will also probably read Gabaldon's fourth book in the Outlander series, although I'm not as excited as I was before reading Voyager. I'll have to see how it goes.