How to use this Page

The Amazon editors have revealed their picks for Best Books of 2015. According to the press release, 22 debut authors were selected for the Top 100 Books of the Year list.  Follow this link to see the full list of 100 titles.

We’ve listed the top 10 books below. In addition to a general list, the Amazon team has also put together “top 20 lists in over two-dozen categories.” Did any of your favorites make the cut?

Amazon Editors’ Top 10 Books of 2015

1. Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff

2. Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

3. Becoming Nicole by Amy Ellis Nutt

4. An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

5. The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

6. The Wright Brothers by David McCullough

7. H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

8. Purity by Jonathan Franzen

9. Hold Still by Sally Mann

10. The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins

Night Road by Kristin Hannah

DESCRIPTION:

Jude Farraday is a happily married, stay-at-home mom who puts everyone’s needs above her own. Her twins, Mia and Zach, are bright and happy teenagers. When Lexi Baill enters their lives, no one is more supportive than Jude. A former foster child with a dark past, Lexi quickly becomes Mia’s best friend. Then Zach falls in love with Lexi and the three become inseparable. But senior year of high school brings unexpected dangers and one night, Jude’s worst fears are confirmed: there is an accident. In an instant, her idyllic life is shattered and her close-knit community is torn apart. People — and Jude — demand justice, and when the finger of blame is pointed, it lands solely on 18-year-old Lexi Baill. In a heartbeat, their love for each other will be shattered, the family broken. Lexi gives up everything that matters to her — the boy she loves, her place in the family, the best friend she ever had — while Jude loses even more.

When Lexi returns, older and wiser, she demands a reckoning. Long buried feelings will rise again, and Jude will finally have to face the woman she has become. She must decide whether to remain broken or try to forgive both Lexi…and herself.

NIGHT ROAD is a vivid, emotionally complex novel that raises profound questions about motherhood, loss, identity, and forgiveness. It is an exquisite, heartbreaking novel that speaks to women everywhere about the things that matter most.

Firefly Lane still goes down in my own personal reading history as one of my favorite novels! I read it over two days, during a summer vacation on the beach and didn’t move from my beach chair except to get water and reapply sunblock. Every time I pick up a new book, I hope that it will pull me in with the same intensity as Kristin Hannah’s Firefly Lane…maybe Night Road will be that book. Judging from the intense description, it looks like it might just have a valid chance.

Kristin Hannah --- author of MAGIC HOUR, FIREFLY LANE and TRUE COLORS --- recalls how a thoughtful Christmas gift and a nasty case of the flu introduced her to what has since become of her favorite and most important book she's ever read.


When asked to write about my memorable holiday reading experiences, the difficulty lies in choosing. I was lucky to be born into a family of readers. I started my journey of words as most children do, curled in my mother’s lap, listening to her beautiful voice and looking at pictures as she turned the pages. Every Christmas Eve, we were allowed to open one present --- always a book --- and we raced upstairs in our pajamas to read by lamplight as we listened for Santa’s sleigh. It wasn’t until I was a mother myself that I realized the true genius of this tradition: we kids stayed up late into the night…and slept in just a little bit later on Christmas morning.

Obviously, I have a string of books that mattered to me, that changed the way I saw the world. Early on, there were the Oz books by Frank L. Baum, and CHARLIE AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY. These were novels that helped me grow up, showed me that the world could sometimes be a scary and unexpected place. I felt very grown up when I read them, and if I often ran up to Mom in the kitchen afterward and stayed close, she never seemed to mind. Or perhaps she knew that that’s what books are all about --- they take us places and show us things and even terrify us, but we are stronger for it in the end.

But even with all of that, when asked to choose a most important childhood book, the answer is ultimately easy; I can do it without even thinking about it: The Lord of the Rings. When I was 13 years old --- in 1973, the “make love not war” years --- these fantasy novels were the talk of my household. My parents tried repeatedly to get me to read the trilogy. Because I was a teenager, I refused on principle alone. Several times, I attempted to read the first one, but I always put it down. Too many words, I’d say. Too confusing, too slow. And my mother would smile.

Then I got the whole hardcover set for Christmas, and on the next day, I came down with the flu. Well, without school to go to or friends to visit, I started THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RING, and that was it. Fever? Who cares. Hacking cough? Hardly noticed. I walked into Middle Earth and was never quite the same again. I fell in love with Gandalf and Frodo and Aragorn and Sam (him especially). It was the sheer heroism of the hobbits that slayed me. The friendship and the courage.

I couldn’t wait to share these novels with my son. When he was about 13, I handed him the first one and told him he had to read it. He refused, of course (him being the teenager now), and I understood. One Christmas, I gave him his own hardcover set of the novels, and I inscribed them with the same words my mother had once written to me.

I knew that sooner or later, he’d open that first volume and try again. I knew that when the time was right --- maybe on t

We get a lot of questions regarding blogs. Should you have one? Do you need one? What kind of information should be provided on your blog? Will it diminish your professionalism? How do you get traffic to your blog? Will it detract from your published writing?

For authors there are two things you want to focus on with regards to a blog, getting traffic and showing your expertise. A blog is great way to highlight your writing, bring attention to your talent in a public forum and learn new skills. Write about anything and everything that interests you. Create a Facebook page, a Myspace page and link to your blog there. Create a Twitter account and follow other writers. Provide a link to your blog on your Twitter page and consistently update it letting your followers know when you have posted new content.

Sometimes you need a newsworthy hook to gain attention and followers to your blog. Write about something current, whether it be a trend or a news topic that you are familiar with, can provide an opinion on, or somehow relates to your writing. Write about books you are reading and link to the authors. Write about being a writer, provide tips, instruction, guidance and inspiration. If your content is consistently changing, then your audience will grow. If they like your writing, then you may be building a fan base. Blogs are great way to show off your writing skills! They also have the added bonus of helping improve your writing, develop your voice, increase the speed with which you can produce quality material, and fine tune the ability to write with an audience in mind. You are your own best advocate, so use this blog as a way to stand out from the crowd and let your voice be heard.

Writers who worry that blogging will distract from their primary job, being an author, have an understandable worry. Blogging does take time. However, the blog is a wonderful way to combine both the artistic and the business side of being an author. Write about what you know, but also treat your blog like a business card. You want people looking at it! You want them bookmarking it and you want them recognizing your name on a consistent basis.

Here are a few author blogs that shine!

Brenda Janowitz

Joshilyn Jackson

Stephanie Klein

Allison Winn Scotch

Claire Cook

Ann Leary

Kristin Hannah

Barbara Delinsky

Kristin Hannah, author of FIREFLY LANE, reminisces about childhood holiday traditions that she's since passed on to her own son, and muses over just what makes the presents they share so special.In my family, books went with the holidays like turkey and cranberries. I literally can't remember a Christmas morning that didn't included a much longed-for novel waiting under the tree. It was a

Oh what a doozy of a book this was! Spanning over 30 years, this book took me close to a week to read, simply because of how intense the plot was. I could only read it in small doses, then allowing my brain to slowly soak in the depth of the relationships I was reading about. Having read Kristin Hannah plenty of times before, I was expecting mainly a romance, with a somewhat happy ending. What I actually got was a friendship unlike any other and the ability to understand just how an author can grow as he or she continues in their writing career. If I wasn't aware of who the author was, I never would have guessed it was Hannah, though as a fan of hers, I am so proud.

If you like the use and abuse of language, then here are some fun sites to browse:

Apostrophe Abuse. My favorite of the lot, because, really, what's more annoying than a stray apostrophe?

Literally, A Weblog. This one has made the rounds recently, but it's too good to pass up.

Now here's an odd one: lowercase L. Its author is concerned with inappropriate usages of lowercase l.

A new, yet utterly compelling, language blog: passive-aggressive notes from roommates, neighbors, coworkers and strangers. Really, can it get any better?

Enjoy!

Link via the always smart Bookseller Chick.