Favorite BOOKS, movies and songs of 2015 (Part 1)

I'm staring at that title and wondering if it's even possible to fit that all into one post.  Perhaps this will have a part 2?  And 3?  We'll see how far we get.

I document most of my reading over at Goodreads, and recently when I logged in, I was able to see all the covers of the books I'd read this year, which is one of the things that gave me the idea for this post/series. That, and a conversation we had around our dinner table when I mentioned we'd watched some good movies this year for Family Movie Nights.  We all talked about our favorites and I listed them on the dry erase board.... then we moved to our favorite songs. 

But before we get to those, first up: books.
I've narrowed it down to the top five books I read this past year:

The Lake House: A Novel by Kate Morton
This is the one I most recently finished, so I'll begin with this one.  I *really* like Kate Morton's writing. I've read all of her novels. This is one of those can't-put-it-down stories.  Morton begins with telling of a tragedy that happened on a large family estate in Cornwall.  Her story unfolds in two different time periods: the one in 1933 when the tragedy occurred, and one in 2003 as a detective stumbles across the unsolved mystery from 1933 and tries to figure it out.  Morton is an excellent writer, and she masterfully unravels the mystery by offering one clue at a time.
 
Own Your Life: Living with Deep Intention, Bold Faith, and Generous Love by Sally Clarkson
It's been several months since I read this book.  I love all of Sally's books.  All of them inspire me and encourage me to live intentionally- in marriage, in parenting, in my relationship with Jesus and with others.  Sally has been a steady mentor-from-afar for me through her books, blog and podcasts, and I am truly thankful for her ministry.  As I read Own Your Life, I took lots of notes and prayed through different areas of my life that I wanted to be more intentional in.

The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life's Hard by Kara Tippets
Over the past several years, I have enjoyed stopping by Kara's blog Mundane Faithfulness.  Kara Tippets: wife to her pastor-husband, and mama to her four children, battling the stage-four cancer that ended up taking her life.  This book tells her story of faith in the midst of those years of struggle, trying to live life fully while her body deteriorated.  This is such a beautiful story.  So tender.  Heart-wrenching and encouraging all at the same time.  One of Kara's gifts was kindness, and she models this in relationship with those around her, specifically her husband and children.  I wrote down all sorts of Kara Tippets quotes in my journal, and have gone back to them several times since.

For the Love: Fighting for Grace in a World of Impossible Standards by Jen Hatmaker
Jen Hatmaker is hilarious.  Period.  This book made me laugh.  My memories of this book include lying in bed next to Mark trying to read portions of it aloud to him, but unable to do so because I was laughing that hard.  I took this with us on our family vacation and read it on the beach while Mark and the kids dug their fingers into the wet sand for hours on end, which is not my favorite activity.  Laughing out loud with a good book in hand?  Absolutely one of my favorite activities.  I love Jen, and this book was refreshing and so funny and wise all at the same time. 

Swallows & Amazons by Arthur Ransome
I already rambled on and on about this book in a previous post (click here if you want to read that), but in short: this was our favorite family read-aloud this year, so it must go on the list.  We spent hours with these characters (and my kids spent hours acting out the stories from this book) and those are always the best kind of books to read-aloud, aren't they?


Do leave a comment and tell me your favorite books of the year.  It's one of the ways I get good recommendations!  ;)

*For Part 2, with emphasis on family movies, go here: Favorite books, MOVIES and songs of 2015

This post contains affiliate links