This week’s Top Ten Tuesday topic from The Broke and the Bookish was DIY, so I thought I’d use this opportunity to finally jot down the top ten books I read in 2015.

I read 68 books last year. Seven of those were audiobooks (listened to via Overdrive) and of the seven, four were re-reads. I re-read only one book in print.

Fiction: 57
Non-fiction: 9 (5 memoirs (2 of which were graphic in format), 1 picture book biography, 2 sports’ish books, 1 history)
Poetry: 2

Here are the best of the bunch:

1. Uprooted by Naomi Novik: In this retelling of a Polish fairy tale, Agnieszka and the other girls in her village have been brought up knowing one of them will be taken by their local wizard, the Dragon, to live with him for ten years when they became a teenager. And everyone knows that he will choose Kasia, Agnieszka’s best friend. But then he chooses Agnieszka instead, and neither girl’s life is ever the same. Great girl power themes and celebration of female friendship. Published as adult fantasy (and probably a decent example of the new adult sub-genre of fantasy), it’s fair game for mature teens.
2. Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer by Kelly Link: A middle-grade novel that explores what happens when 12-year-old Sophie and her parents move from their Los Angeles home to her great-uncle’s rural farm after he dies. Sophie’s dad is unemployed, leaving Sophie’s freelancer mom to write enough articles to pay the bills. Written as a series of letters to her beloved abuela, who also recently died, and, later, to her great-uncle and a local farm, Sophie shares her loneliness, her frustration with the changes in her life, and, eventually, her surprise at some rather unusual livestock she finds on the farm.
3. All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: A dual tale about two children, one a blind French girl, the other an orphaned German boy, living through World War II. Marie-Laure escapes Paris with her father, who works at the Museum of Natural History and who’s been charged with carrying a replica of one of the artifacts to safety. Werner, who is an expert at fixing radios, is sent away from his mining community to an officer training school and ultimately the French town where Marie-Laure now lives. Short, alternating chapters speed you through the narrative, but also ramp up the stress level, because, let’s face it, no one ever wrote a happy story about World War II where everyone survives. Harrowing, but excellent and well-deserving of its Pulitzer Prize.
4. The Book Scavenger by Jennifer Chambliss Bertman: Emily’s parents have a blog challenge of living in all 50 states. Emily’s a little tired of it, to be honest, but she’s happy to find herself in San Francisco, home to her hero, Garrison Griswold, the inventor of the Book Scavenger website/game. Just as they’re arriving in town, and hours short of a large planned announcement, though, he’s attacked and left in a coma. Emily, with the help of her new friend James, try to figure out what the game he was going to announce would have been, as well as who would have wanted to harm him. If you liked the Mr. Lemoncello series, The Westing Game, Roald Dahl, Greenglass House, or literary games, I recommend you pick this middle-grade contemporary up.
5. Dietland by Sarai Walker: Plum is an overweight and friendless ghost writer answering teens’ letters to the most popular fashion magazine in America. She’s nearly reached her goal of putting away enough money for weight-loss surgery (at which point she plans to start living her life) when she notices a strange woman observing her. Concurrent to her unraveling why she’s being observed, a guerrilla group known as Jennifer is attacking powerful misogynists. Could her boss be next? Feminist revenge fantasy meets Cat Grant meets social commentary. Destined to be read in women’s studies classes and feminist book clubs everywhere for decades to come.
6. The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fforde: In the penultimate book of his middle-grade quartet about Jennifer Strange, the indentured orphan manager of Kazam, a house of wizards available to hire for magical jobs, and the long-awaited last dragonslayer. In this book, Jen must travel to the neighboring Cambrian Empire to find a rare jewel and pay the ransom for one of their wizards. She’s accompanied in her task by the wizard she likes, the princess of the realm (enchanted by her mother into the body of a maidservant as a life lesson), and a 10-year-old guide. If you like Fforde’s other series (and who doesn’t) and have a young person not quite old enough for them, this charming and humorous fantasy series may be their speed.
7. The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin: A heartbreaking middle-grade story about Suzy, whose best friend recently drowned. Seeking to prove that her friend was attacked by a particularly rare and debilitating species of jellyfish in an effort to make sense of the event, Suzy stops talking, but starts planning how to make her case, starting with a rogue trip to the world’s leading expert on the species and looking back on her final months with her friend.
8. The Crossover by Kwame Alexander: A hip hop verse novel focusing on basketball phenom Josh and his equally talented twin Jordan, growing up and apart, their father’s health, and more, all told with the cadence of playing ball. A verse novel for those who don’t like verse novels, a sports book for those who don’t like sports books, and a well-crafted example of how stories are universal.
9. Ms. Marvel: Vol. 1: No Normal by G. Willow Wilson: A Muslim Pakistani-American fangirl growing up in Jersey City sneaks out to a party one night only to experience a weird mist that leaves her able to shape shift. Kamala Khan has become a superhero straight out of her favorite comics, but, with the exception of her best guy pal, no one knows she’s no longer just the slightly rebellious high school student she’d always been, but now someone who’s got to balance homework, curfews, religious education with fighting criminals, including one threatening the teens of her community. With a film version planned for later this decade, if you like The Avengers movies, Supergirl, or Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and haven’t already read this, pick up this graphic novel/comic collection now!
10. Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead: Bridge and her two best friends, Tabitha and Emily, are navigating seventh grade and all the changes it brings. Their stories, as filtered through Bridge, who’s not quite ready to grow up yet and abandon her cat-ear headband, is interspersed with those of a high school girl, skipping school and feeling desperate on Valentine’s Day. As the stories approach each other in time, we’ll find out how they connect — and how they all navigate the trials of friendship.

Summer reading continues apace. I finished three books last week while on vacation and one since returning home. These are the two I’m currently working on:

Big Magic I’m reading for the #TBRTakedown on Twitter. One of the challenges was to read a book outside our comfort zone and self-help by an author whose first book I didn’t particularly like definitely qualifies. Lots of people put it on their best-of lists last year, though, including some who didn’t love Eat, Pray, Love, so I figured I’d give it a chance. The Unexpected Everything is a recent release YA contemporary featuring the daughter of a Connecticut senator and her father the summer he experiences a scandal at the office. The first couple chapters were long and slow, possibly because my head was still wrapped up in the ending of Carry On, the book I’d just finished prior to starting it, but I hear it picks up. (It’ll count for a book from my most recent haul in the Takedown if I finish it this week.)

While I read a lot on vacation, I didn’t knit much. I’ve only got seven Hitchhiker teeth so far, but I’m approaching the end of the red, I think. I’ve got a meeting to sit through tomorrow and a film tomorrow evening if the rain holds off, though, so I should get a couple more teeth done before the weekend.

Right there you see the first two “teeth” of my new Hitchhiker shawl. I started it a month or so ago and had difficulty keeping track of which row I was on, but a tip on Ravelry about where to put a stitch marker to keep track of the stitches helped immensely, and I can now see it becoming a project I can work on while around others.

Hamilton (better known on social media as #Hamiltome) is filled with essays about the source material, actors, staff, and history of this weekend’s presumptive Tony Winner. It’s also contains an annotated libretto by Lin-Manuel Miranda with notes about where he was when he wrote particular songs, the raps and musicals that inspired certain lines, and where his version differs from the actual story (such as that there were a ton of Schuyler brothers or that the band of brothers introduced in the tavern during “My Shot” don’t actually meet that early in the story). I’m through the first act and am looking forward to reading (and listening) along into the final act in weeks to come.

I picked up Adam Shaughnessy’s The Entirely True Story of the Unbelievable Fib over the weekend and finished it tonight. It’s a middle-grade novel about Pru, a sixth-grade “detective” (whose last investigation into the Sasquatch sighted in the school parking lot gets her detention from the teacher whose new fur coat had just been publicly maligned), and her new classmate ABE, who find themselves in the middle of a Norse-god-themed mystery. Adam was a classmate and fellow English major at my alma mater and I bought the book because I was curious and wanted to be supportive. I can now say he’s written an enjoyable book, with a bunch of passages I particularly liked, such as his opening paragraph:

The envelopes arrived during the uncertain hours of Thursday morning — those dark, early hours between tomorrow and yesterday, between not-quite-yet and nevermore. It’s a time when the day is still young, still taking shape, and still open to possibility.

I liked those lines immediately when I began the book on Saturday, but having just finished it, I can see they pretty much summarize the theme of the novel. If you like kid lit fantasy, like the Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl series, or mystery, like Harriet the Spy or the Enola Holmes series, I’d recommend you pick the book up.

I look forward to reading the second one, which will be out in the fall.

Yarning along with Ginny at Small Things.

Several bookish items to check off today:

First, here’s my Yarning Along photo. I picked up Paper Girls, a graphic novel written by Brian Vaughan about a quartet of middle-school paper girls back on Nov. 1, 1988, when weird goings-on start up in their hometown of Cleveland. I was a middle-school paper girl myself on that date, and although very little supernatural happened to me at the time, I couldn’t help but pick it up when I saw it on sale at Comic Book Day last weekend.

The knitting is my vanilla sock that just so happens to match my new book. I’m through the heel decreases and back to foot knitting thanks to a work meeting and some tv time.

My Bout of Books progress is going well. In addition to my above reading, I’m also still listening to Ally Carter’s All Fall Down and reading Mansfield Park, where I just passed the halfway point today. I’m hopeful two of the three will be done by the end of the week and may check a third book off, as well.

Tomorrow’s challenge asks us to recommend a book, and I’m happy to comply. If you like light crime/crime solving with an Audrey Hepburn-like lead, a merry band of urchins, and a Parisian setting, I recommend you check out Bandette, Vol. 1: Presto, a graphic novel by Paul Tobin and Colleen Coover. The sequel was another one of the graphic novels I picked up over the weekend, and I can’t wait to see what happens next in this fun caper.

Finally, today was the first day of Armchair BEA, and organizers asked us to introduce ourselves by answering some questions:

1. What is the name you prefer to use? I go by many names, but Sprite is probably how I’m best known online.

2. How long have you been a book blogger? I have been blogging since 2005 and published my first book review in my first week of publishing.

3. Have you participated in ABEA before? This will be my fourth year.

4. Do you have a favorite book? I know it sounds trite to say Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s Stone, but I’m going to say it anyway. When I’m feeling low or am in a reading slump, I know that finding myself back on Privet Lane will get me through it.

5. If you could recommend one other book blogger, who would it be and why? Raidergirl3, who blogs from Prince Edward Island, writes An Adventure in Reading, and was probably the first book blogger I followed. She likes audiobooks and crime series and fantasy novels, so I guess I like her because we have similar taste and therefore I feel confident that if she likes something there’s a good chance I’ll like it, as well.

6. How do you arrange your bookshelves? Is there a rhyme or reason? Or not at all? Two rows of one bookshelf contain favorite series, including Alcott, Fforde, Tolkein, Montgomery, Lewis, Rowling, and Wilder. (They also contain a book that belonged to my dad’s aunt that my grandmother passed on to me as a child, my favorite Seuss, my bible, and my now ancient dictionary and thesaurus.) After that, there’s sort of a loose organization, with knitting books in one spot and poetry in another and writing books yet another. Language books are by the door. Cookbooks are on the butcher block. Fiction is everywhere. Library books are in a bag next to my chair.

7. What book are you most excited for on your TBR? What are you most intimidated by? On my overall TBR list? Good god, that’s thousands of books! Ummm… At this moment, I’m staring at Rainbow Rowell’s Carry On, which I’m excited to finally get to this spring. I don’t know that any book particularly intimidates me, but there are some that I feel like I ought to read, rather than that I want to read them, and at the top of that list is Thoreau’s Walden, which I tried reading several times several years ago unsuccessfully.

This weekend included Friday pizza dinner with a friend and a trip for the three of us to opening day of the new Captain America: Civil War. (I’m #TeamBlackWidow, if it matters.)

On Saturday, I slept in and got some chores done. I missed out on visiting the Bahamanian embassy as part of Passport DC, but did get to my local comic book shop, Fantom, for Free Comic Book Day. I also visited the French bakery that opened where the cupcake shop used to be. They make desserts based around meringues. I started reading a new graphic novel, planted some things at the garden, and bought a case for my new cell phone. I did not write a book blog post about my April reading because I had to finish a post for work about bee swarms, and it took longer than I expected. (The book post will come later this week.)

Today, Rudi and I went to the farmers market and to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival. We saw sheep and sheepdogs and ate funnel cake. I bought a skein of yarn to make Rudi a hat. He bought spices to make me dinners. We bought tomato, pepper, and basil plants to make our garden productive.

And now a look ahead, rather than backward: This week is both Armchair BEA, the book blogger version of the Book Expo of America convention, and Bout of Books 16, a weeklong readathon/reading challenge. I’ll be participating in both and blogging about them here and invite you to take part, too. I’m hoping to finish three books by the end of the week, blog at least thrice on bookish topics, and take part in at least two off-blog events (be they contests or Twitter chats or something else remains to be seen).

I took a few days off to create a long weekend that I spent up north visiting my folks and my best friend. It gave me a little perspective on work and a little head space to open up for knitting and reading projects.

Here’s what I’m currently working on:

I am not loving Mansfield Park so far, although I’m about a third of the way through it. The main character is kind of a drip thus far, and both the love interest and everyone else in the book is rather one-dimensional and mostly horrid. I’m hoping it picks up, but am not holding out tons of hope at this point. Frankly, if it weren’t Austen, I’d give up on it.

I am, however, really enjoying The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle, who also wrote Better Nate than Ever and Five, Six, Seven, Nate, about a gay teen boy falling in love the summer after his sister dies. It demands comparison to Becky Albertalli’s award-winning Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, not least because Albertalli blurbs Federle’s book.

I picked up my Lightning Shawl again tonight for the first time in forever. It felt good to work on it again, but Corey came to sit on me and demand my attention instead, preventing extensive progress. (Life is hard, right?) I also started (for the third time) a pair of vanilla socks over the weekend and, thanks to the drive home Monday and an all-staff meeting this morning, am now pretty much through the heel flap. Probably a couple more rows to go and then we turn the corner and head into foot territory.

Yarning along with Ginny.