Number 7 on my list is:

I’m very tempted to leave it at this.

Here’s the beautiful cover photo of an elegant novel.

Read this book.

That would be too sentimental, and not at all in keeping with Kent Haruf’s works. Although his stories delved deeply into personal relationships, they were never sentimental. Still, it’s hard not to be sentimental about a book that was written while its author was dying.

Haruf’s final novel, like his others, is set in Holt, Colorado. The story centers on two elderly people, Addie Moore and Louis Waters. Both have lost their spouses, and Addie invites Louis to share her bed, to talk to her and sleep with her. Their determination to forge a relationship forms the core of the novel.

Our Souls at Night, as well as Haruf’s previous books, reminds me of Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead trilogy–spare, elegant, incisive explorations of places and people that make you feel like you’ve found home.

Number 6 on my list is:

The large, loving Turner family has lived in the same Detroit house for 50 years. In 2008, Francis,the father has died, Viola, the mother is dying, and eldest son Cha-Cha is still haunted by an encounter he had with a ghost as a teenager.

In this debut novel, Flournoy presents a rich history of Detroit as well as rural Arkansas. She moves the story back and forth in time, exploring the lives of the family members, to finally uncover the secret behind Cha-Cha’s otherworldly experience. The complex story never flags, and the finely drawn characters will stick with you for a long time.

Sitting mid-list at number 5 is a novel published in 2014:

Evocative and atmospheric, this story is set in the town of Yuneetah, due to be flooded out by the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1936. Its residents have been preparing for the annihilation; many have demonstrated at least a grudging willingness to accept the perks of relocation and the chance to start life anew.

But Annie Clyde Dodson, a young wife and mother, refuses to give up her land. She is rooted on her family farm, which she intends to pass on to her daughter Gracie. When the three-year-old goes missing just as the flood waters are about to consume the entire area, Annie shows she is willing to do anything to save her child.

In the search for Gracie, Greene unravels the generations-old secrets of the people living in Yuneetah and offers up a fascinating slice of Depression-era America.

American and British nationals were rounded up and deposited on the campus of Santo Tomas University. Though occupation authorities assured them this was a temporary situation, designed to facilitate the registration of enemy aliens in the city, the Japanese had no intention of allowing these civilians to live freely in Manila. Once the Americans and Brits arrived at Santo Tomas, they remained there, behind guarded walls.

Gladys Savary witnessed some of the roundups from the windows of her Manila restaurant. She packed a bag, opened a bottle of champagne, and waited for the Japanese to come for her. Since Gladys’s papers identified her as the wife of a Frenchmen, she wasn’t required to submit to internment after all. Still, she used her freedom to help those inside Santo Tomas, who endured chronic food shortages and cramped living conditions.

When Peggy Utinsky saw Japanese soldiers registering American civilians in Manila, she had no illusions about what would follow. Determined not to be stuck in an internment camp for the duration of the war, she holed up in her A. Mabini Street apartment until the roundups had been completed. Peggy spent time observing the enemy, thinking about her next move. Her top priority: to find out what happened to her husband Jack.

Coming in at number 4 on my top ten list for 2015 is:

This novel was recently given the Costa novel award (the third Costa Atkinson has won), the judges labeling it “utterly magnificent.” And it is.

A companion piece to the spectacular Life After Life, Atkinson returns to the Todd family, this time focusing on Teddy, Ursula’s younger brother.  During World War II, Teddy becomes a bomber pilot, an exciting and terrifying tour of duty. After the war, he settles down with his wife Nancy and their only child Viola.

The novel’s non-linear chronology is handled masterfully, propelling the story at a breathless speed. Though Teddy seems to be leading a fairly ordinary life, there are undercurrents of melancholy and dread. You find yourself reading with your heart in your throat, waiting for the final resolution. And it’s a stunner.