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In mid-December, Amazon announces the list of their best-selling books, both in print and Kindle editions. Just in time to help new Kindle owners pick up the best reads.
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Lest’s start with the stats. The top two authors are British. The top four authors are female. Among the top 20 titles, nine authors are female, eleven are men.
No one doubted The Girl on the Train, an addictive debut thriller by Paula Hawkins, would beat all other titles.
The book had become an instant New York Times bestseller. On Amazon, it’s not only the bestselling book, both in print and Kindle. It’s also the most wished for title.
In fact, The Girl on the Train is probably on most other bestseller lists and end-of-year selections. The novel has won in the Best Mystery & Thriller category in Goodreads Awards 2015. It was also selected as one of the best books of 2015 by Amazon editors.
One of the most anticipated book releases this year was Go Set a Watchman, the novel written by Harper Lee, the author of the classic To Kill a Mockingbird.
The draft of Go Set a Watchman was discovered years after it was written. Having in mind that To Kill a Mockingbird was Harper Lee’s only book, this discovery has become one of the most exciting publishing stories in the recent years.
It appears the story about the book is more involving than the book itself. With rather mixed reviews, it’s on the 6th place on the list of Kindle bestsellers 2015 (although it took the 1st place in print). The new book has lifted the sales of To Kill a Mockingbird. The original novel from Harper Lee is No. 23 on the list of Top 100 Kindle bestsellers 2015.
Unlike in previous years, Amazon book bestsellers 2015 overview is not divided into separate lists for Kindle and print editions.
From our experience, the Kindle bestsellers list was almost the same as the ongoing ranking of Bestsellers of 2015 in Kindle ebooks, and it’s from where we picked the top 20 titles, listed below.
In your opinion, what is the best Kindle book of 2015? Share your thoughts with our readers.
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Best Kindle books of 2015 – Top 20
1. The Girl on the Train
Paula Hawkins
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck.
She’s even started to feel like she knows them. “Jess and Jason,” she calls them. Their life — as she sees it — is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost.
And then she sees something shocking. It’s only a minute until the train moves on, but it’s enough. Now everything’s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel offers what she knows to the police, and becomes inextricably entwined in what happens next, as well as in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Compulsively readable, The Girl on the Train is an emotionally immersive, Hitchcockian thriller and an electrifying debut.
2. Grey: Fifty Shades of Grey as Told by Christian
E.L. James
In Christian’s own words, and through his thoughts, reflections, and dreams, E L James offers a fresh perspective on the love story that has enthralled millions of readers around the world.
Christian Grey exercises control in all things; his world is neat, disciplined, and utterly empty – until the day that Anastasia Steele falls into his office, in a tangle of shapely limbs and tumbling brown hair. He tries to forget her, but instead is swept up in a storm of emotion he cannot comprehend and cannot resist.
Unlike any woman he has known before, shy, unworldly Ana seems to see right through him – past the business prodigy and the penthouse lifestyle to Christian’s cold, wounded heart.
3. All the Light We Cannot See
Anthony Doerr
From Anthony Doerr comes the beautiful, New York Times bestselling novel about a blind French girl and a German boy whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II.
When Marie-Laure is six, she goes blind. Her father builds a miniature of their neighborhood so she can memorize it by touch and navigate her way home.
When she is twelve, the Nazis occupy Paris and father and daughter flee to the walled citadel of Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle lives in a tall house by the sea. With them they carry what might be the museum’s most valuable and dangerous jewel.
In Germany, the orphan Werner becomes an expert at building and fixing radio instruments. During the war, he gets a special assignment to track the resistance in France. He travels through the heart of the war and, finally, into Saint-Malo, where his story and Marie-Laure’s converge.
4. The Martian
Andy Weir
Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars.
Now, he’s sure he’ll be the first person to die there.
After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive.
But Mark isn’t ready to give up yet. Drawing on his ingenuity, his engineering skills—and a relentless, dogged refusal to quit—he steadfastly confronts one seemingly insurmountable obstacle after the next.
Will his resourcefulness be enough to overcome the impossible odds against him?
5. The Nightingale
Kristin Hannah
It’s 1939. In a small French village, Vianne Mauriac says goodbye to her husband, Antoine, as he heads for the Front.
Soon Germans invade France, and a German captain requisitions Vianne’s home. She and her daughter must live with the enemy or lose everything.
Without food or money or hope, as danger escalates all around them, she is forced to make one impossible choice after another to keep her family alive…
Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with atrocities, but also humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah’s novel will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they finish reading.
6. Go Set a Watchman
Harper Lee
Originally written in the mid-1950s, Go Set a Watchman was the novel Harper Lee written before To Kill a Mockingbird. Assumed to have been lost, the manuscript was discovered in late 2014.
Go Set a Watchman features many of the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird some twenty years later. Returning home to Maycomb to visit her father, Jean Louise Finch—Scout—struggles with issues both personal and political, involving Atticus, society, and the small Alabama town that shaped her.
Exploring how the characters from To Kill a Mockingbird are adjusting to the turbulent events transforming mid-1950s America, Go Set a Watchman casts a fascinating new light on Harper Lee’s enduring classic. Moving, funny and compelling, it stands as a magnificent novel in its own right.
7. Memory Man
David Baldacci
With over 110 million copies of his novels in print, David Baldacci is one of the most widely read storytellers in the world. Now he introduces a startling, original new character: a man with perfect memory who must solve his own family’s murder.
Amos Decker is a former professional football player whose career was ended by a terrible hit. Now a police detective, Amos is still haunted by a side effect from the accident he can never forget.
One night Decker comes home from a stakeout to find his wife, young daughter and brother-in-law horrifically murdered.
Obviously scarred and nearly broken, Decker has to use his skills as a detective and his unusual brain capacity to try and catch the monster who killed his family.
8. Big Little Lies
Liane Moriarty
The bestselling novel by Liane Moriarty follows three women, each at a crossroads:
Madeline is funny and biting. Her ex-husband and his yogi new wife have moved into her beloved beachside community. And Madeline’s teenage daughter seems to be choosing Madeline’s ex-husband over her.
Celeste is the kind of beautiful woman who makes the world stop and stare. When her twin boys are starting school, Celeste and her husband look set to become the king and queen of the school parent body.
New to town, single mom Jane is sad beyond her years and harbors secret doubts about her son.
While Madeline and Celeste take Jane under their wing, none of them realizes how the arrival of Jane and her inscrutable little boy will affect them all.
9. American Sniper
Chris Kyle
The #1 New York Times bestselling memoir of U.S. Navy Seal Chris Kyle, who recorded the most career sniper kills in the military history of the United States.
His fellow American warriors, whom he protected with deadly precision from rooftops and stealth positions during the Iraq War, called him “The Legend”.
Meanwhile, the enemy feared him so much they named him al-Shaitan (“the devil”) and placed a bounty on his head.
Kyle, who was tragically killed in 2013, writes honestly about the pain of war—including the deaths of two close SEAL teammates—and in moving first-person passages throughout, his wife, Taya, speaks openly about the strains of war on their family, as well as on Chris.
10. The Boys in the Boat
Daniel James Brown
An intimate account of how nine working-class boys from the American West showed the world at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin what true grit really meant.
With a team composed of the sons of loggers, shipyard workers, and farmers, the University of Washington’s eight-oar crew team was never expected to defeat the elite teams of the East Coast and Great Britain.
The emotional heart of the tale lies with Joe Rantz, a teenager without family or prospects, who rows not only to regain his shattered self-regard but also to find a real place for himself in the world.
Author Daniel James Brown has created an unforgettable portrait of an era, a celebration of a remarkable achievement, and a chronicle of one extraordinary young man’s personal quest.
11. Maude
Donna Foley Mabry
In 1906, I was barely over fourteen years old, and it was my wedding day. My older sister, Helen, came to my room, took me by the hand, and sat me down on the bed.
She opened her mouth to say something, but then her face flushed, and she turned her head to look out the window. After a second, she squeezed my hand and looked back in my eyes. She said, “You’ve always been a good girl, Maude, and done what I told you. Now, you’re going to be a married woman, and he will be the head of the house. When you go home tonight after your party, no matter what he wants to do to you, you have to let him do it. Do you understand?”
I didn’t understand, but I nodded my head anyway. It sounded strange to me, the way so many things did. I would do what she told me. I didn’t have a choice, any more than I had a choice in being born.
12. Make Me: (Jack Reacher #20)
Lee Child
Jack Reacher has no place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, so a remote railroad stop on the prairie with the curious name of Mother’s Rest seems perfect for an aimless one-day stopover.
He expects to find a lonely pioneer tombstone in a sea of nearly-ripe wheat … but instead there is a woman waiting for a missing colleague, a cryptic note about two hundred deaths, and a small town full of silent, watchful people.
Reacher’s one-day stopover becomes an open-ended quest…into the heart of darkness. Prepare to be nailed to your seat by another hair-raising, heart-pounding adventure from the kick ass master of the thriller genre!
13. Silent Scream
Angela Marsons
Silent Scream is the first book from a Detective Kim Stone series by exceptional new voice in British crime fiction Angela Marsons.
A headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country.
But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed. D.I. Kim Stone fast realizes she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades.
As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?
14. Rogue Lawyer
John Grisham
Gritty, fast-paced novel from the master of the legal thriller.
The main character, Sebastian Rudd, is one of John Grisham’s most colorful, outrageous, and vividly drawn characters yet.
Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. He works out of a customized bulletproof van. He has no firm, no partners, no associates, and only one employee, his driver.
Things get complicated when Sebastian agrees to represent Arch Swanger, a prime suspect in the abduction and presumed murder of Jiliana Kemp, the daughter of the assistant chief of police.
15. Gone Girl
Gillian Flynn
One of the most critically acclaimed suspense writers of our time, Gillian Flynn tells a story about a marriage gone terribly, terribly wrong.
On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s wife disappears.
Under pressure from the police and the media, Nick parades an endless series of lies, deceits, and inappropriate behavior. He is oddly evasive, and he’s definitely bitter — but is he really a killer?
With her razor-sharp writing and trademark psychological insight, Gillian Flynn delivers a fast-paced, devilishly dark, and ingeniously plotted thriller that confirms her status as one of the hottest writers around.
16. Paper Towns
John Green
The Bestselling author of The Fault in Our Stars crafts a brilliantly funny and moving coming-of-age journey about true friendship and true love.
Quentin Jacobsen has spent a lifetime loving the magnificent Margo Roth Spiegelman from afar.
So when she cracks open a window and climbs back into his life—summoning him for an ingenious campaign of revenge—he follows. When their all-nighter ends and a new day breaks, Margo has disappeared. But Q soon learns that there are clues—and they’re for him.
Embarking on an exhilarating adventure to find her, the closer Q gets, the less he sees the girl he thought he knew.
17. Outlander
Diana Gabaldon
This is the first novel in the bestselling Outlander series.
Claire Randall, a former British combat nurse, goes to the Scottish Highlands is just back from the war and reunited with her husband on a second honeymoon.
But one afternoon, Claire walks through a circle of standing stones and vanishes into 1743, where the first person she meets is a British army officer – her husband’s six-times great-grandfather.
Claire is catapulted into the intrigues of a world that threatens her life, and may shatter her heart. Marooned amid danger, passion, and violence, Claire learns her only chance of safety lies in Jamie Fraser, a gallant young Scots warrior.
18. The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up
Marie Kondo
Despite constant efforts to declutter your home, do papers still accumulate like snowdrifts and clothes pile up like a tangled mess of noodles?
Japanese cleaning consultant Marie Kondo takes tidying to a whole new level, promising that if you properly simplify and organize your home once, you’ll never have to do it again.
Most methods advocate a room-by-room or little-by-little approach, which doom you to pick away at your piles of stuff forever. The KonMari Method, with its revolutionary category-by-category system, leads to lasting results.
19. Dark Places
Gillian Flynn
Libby Day was seven when her mother and two sisters were murdered in “The Satan Sacrifice of Kinnakee, Kansas.” She survived—and famously testified that her fifteen-year-old brother, Ben, was the killer.
Twenty-five years later, the Kill Club — a secret society obsessed with notorious crimes—locates Libby and pumps her for details. They hope to discover proof that may free Ben. Libby hopes to turn a profit off her tragic history: She’ll reconnect with the players from that night and report her findings to the club—for a fee.
As Libby’s search takes her from shabby Missouri strip clubs to abandoned Oklahoma tourist towns, the unimaginable truth emerges, and Libby finds herself right back where she started—on the run from a killer.
20. The Girl in the Spider’s Web
David Lagercrantz
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is back!
Lisbeth Salander and Mikael Blomkvist have not been in touch for some time.
Then Blomkvist is contacted by renowned Swedish scientist Professor Balder. Warned that his life is in danger, but more concerned for his son’s well-being, Balder wants Millennium to publish his story – and it is a terrifying one.
More interesting to Blomkvist than Balder’s world-leading advances in Artificial Intelligence, is his connection with a certain female superhacker.
It seems that Salander, like Balder, is a target of ruthless cyber gangsters – and a violent criminal conspiracy that will very soon bring terror to the snowbound streets of Stockholm, to the Millennium team, and to Blomkvist and Salander themselves.
Best Kindle books of 2015 – infographic
Here is a visual with the biggest Kindle bestsellers of 2015. Feel free to share it with your friends and followers.
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