Winter weather beckons us to stay inside, snuggle up under blankets and dive into reading and planning for what will most certainly a grand year to experience. I can think of nothing better than enjoying a hot cup of something decadent and delightful and diving into a book that refuses to be put down.

With the end of the year near, 2015 can’t help but be pondered. What will it look like? What new adventures will it present? And how will I make the upcoming year more fantastic than the last? However, before the year ends, many of you have vacation days to enjoy which means you have some extra time for reading. Prompted by one of my readers, I have pulled together top books that caught my eye as well as the best-seller’s list this past year in a handful of different categories. I also included four favorites I enjoyed immensely during the past 12 months.

And once you are done savoring the last few moments of 2014, be sure to have a 2015 planner reader to keep your schedule win check. To help out, I hand-selected a couple of weekly, daily and desktop calendars you may want to investigate.

Cookbook

~Bar Tartine: Techniques & Recipes by Cortney Burns, Nicolaus Balla, Chad Robertson

~The Fat Radish Kitchen Diaries

Fiction

~Us by David Nicholls

History

~The Churchill Factor: How One Man Made History by Boris Johnson

~Nothing is True and Everything is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia by Peter Pomerantsev

Memoir

~Can’t We Talk About Something More Pleasant by Roz Chast

Motivational/Cultural

~The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Ask for Help by Amanda Palmer

Mystery (series)

~The Secret Place (Dublin Murder Squad) by Tana French

Oldie But Worth Reading

~A Short Guide to a Happy Life by Anna Quindlen

Short Stories

~The Other Language by Francesca Marciano

First-Hand Favorites:

~At Home with Madame Chic: Becoming a Connoisseur of Daily Life by Jennifer L. Scott

~How to Be A Parisian Wherever You Are: Love, Style and Bad Habits by Anne Berest, Audrey Diwan, Caroline De Maigret, Sophie Mas 

~Murder on the Ile Sordou: A Verlaque and Bonnet Provencal Mystery by M.L. Longworth

~Buvette: The Pleasure of Good Food by Jody Williams

2015 Planners/Calenders

~myAgenda Desktop

~Garance Doré Desk Calendar

~Henri Bendel 2015 Desk Diary

~2015 Moleskine ‘Color-a-Month’ Daily Planner Diary

~Hermes Agenda

~High Fashion Weekly Planner

~Moleskine 12 month, extra large soft cover 2015 planner