This year has been terrific for the Warbler. I decided—I believe in November of last year—to read and review one book every week. While I haven’t kept to that weekly cadence, I’m proud of what I accomplished as a reviewer and as a reader.

I read forty-three books this year. I published thirty-four posts on the blog, and am a couple books behind in my review schedule. 2,197 different people from around the world viewed the Warbler 3,525 times in 2015. It’s marvelous to see how the site has grown—turns out that regular posts bring more viewers.

Stats aside, some wonderful things have happened this year:

• The Warbler is now on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and Medium.
• I’ve developed a working relationship with two publishers, Tachyon and Inkshares
• Audible.com contacted me and began sending audiobooks for review
• I’ve begun receiving review galleys from several publishers through NetGalley, including Tor/Forge, Oxford University Press, Random House, and others
• I attempted to publish my own work through Inkshares! Your support was invaluable—I’m immensely grateful to you all
• Through that effort, I met a group of fantastically talented independent authors, which has lead to:

1. I have been brought on as an apprentice editor at Story Perfect Editing Services (see the site for your fiction-editing needs)
2. I’ve joined forces with the Epic Fantasy Writer Blog, where I’ll be a monthly contributor! My first post, a short Sci-Fi tale went up today!

Okay, that covers the business updates. Let’s go over the best books of the year:

Non-Fiction

My Struggle Volume 1 – Karl Ove Knausgaard
(Runner-Up: Between the World and Me – Ta-Nehisi Coates)

Fantasy

Shadows of Self – Brandon Sanderson
(Runner-Up: Updraft – Fran Wilde)

Science Fiction

Ancillary Justice – Ann Leckie
(Runner-Up: Ready Player One – Earnest Cline)

For what it’s worth, I loved almost everything I read this year, and these choices were actually difficult to make. I’m going to try to get two more reviews published before January first, so keep an eye on the blog over the next few days.

Thank you for visiting the blog and taking part in this experiment with me. I’m excited for the future, and I’ve got plans in the hopper for the Warbler that will lead to more reading, reviewing, and general writerly activity. I hope you’ll join me next year, too.