2015 in books
Unlike last year, I made my goal explicit: 50 books in 2015. Goodreads posted a lovely Year In Books page, which shows what I did this year, but I tend to capture this sort of thing for my own memory: (raw list here)
(The 2014 list is archived here.)
Observations:
- I'm not enthralled, over all, by the idea of digging into series books. I tried on several first-in-series books this year, and only one (N.K. Jemisin's) made me go back and read the second book in the series. Apparently I prefer narratives that are encapsulated in a single novel.
- I stuck to my goal of reading one Culture novel this year. Thanks to Banks' untimely demise, there are no more books coming, and I like the idea of parceling them out. I have the rest of my life, and I enjoy the thought of having more Culture novels to read.
- I have a bit of breathing room if I set a goal of 50 books for 2016. It's clearly a reachable goal, given my bus commute. I do have a few YA novels on my to-read list, and they should make up for reading a few heftier novels.
- For 2016, I should have a goal of finishing one of the big, chewy books on my list. Maybe Infinite Jest, or A Team of Rivals. Something that, while it only counts as one book in the per-book tally, should count for more if you look at raw page count. I want to ensure I'm reading a mix of fun, fluffy books as well as books that challenge me intellectually.
- I did a pretty good job of reading broadly. There's a good mix of fiction and non-fiction here.
- I think Between the World and Me will be the book that sticks with most people from 2015.
- I'm seeing a trend of the five-star books not always correlating with the most memorable books. While I didn't give them five stars, the books I've found myself recommending to others have been Station Eleven and A Brief History of the Dead.
In text format for searchability, here are the books of 2015:
- My Boyfriend Barfed in My Handbag … and Other Things You Can't Ask Martha by Kerr, Jolie
- City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1) by Bennett, Robert Jackson *
- The Brief History of the Dead by Brockmeier, Kevin
- Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened by Brosh, Allie
- Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Wright, Lawrence
- Pure (Pure, #1) by Baggott, Julianna
- Wonder by Palacio, R.J.
- Red Families v. Blue Families: Legal Polarization and the Creation of Culture by Cahn, Naomi R.
- Landline by Rowell, Rainbow
- Dept. of Speculation by Offill, Jenny
- The Three-Body Problem (Three-Body, #1) by Cixin, Liu
- California by Lepucki, Edan
- The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry by Zevin, Gabrielle
- Alif the Unseen by Wilson, G. Willow
- Beautiful Darkness by Vehlmann, Fabien
- The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing by Jacob, Mira
- The Paying Guests by Waters, Sarah
- A Discovery of Witches (All Souls Trilogy, #1) by Harkness, Deborah
- Frog Music by Donoghue, Emma
- Station Eleven by Mandel, Emily St. John
- Declare by Powers, Tim
- If on a Winter's Night a Traveller by Calvino, Italo
- Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life by Nagoski, Emily
- Dubliners by Joyce, James
- The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle, #1) by Rothfuss, Patrick
- The Book Thief by Zusak, Markus
- Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery by Marsh, Henry
- The Dirtiest Race in History: Ben Johnson, Carl Lewis and the Olympic 100m Final by Moore, Richard
- The Grace of Kings (The Dandelion Dynasty, #1) by Liu, Ken
- Soulless (Parasol Protectorate, #1) by Carriger, Gail
- The Phoenix Project: A Novel About IT, DevOps, and Helping Your Business Win by Kim, Gene
- Angels on Toast by Powell, Dawn
- Raw Spirit: In Search of the Perfect Dram by Banks, Iain
- The Secret Language of Sacred Spaces: Decoding Churches, Cathedrals, Temples, Mosques and Other Places of Worship Around the World by Canon, Jon
- Let Me Be Frank With You by Ford, Richard
- Euphoria by King, Lily
- Seveneves by Stephenson, Neal
- Servants: A Downstairs View of Twentieth-Century Britain by Lethbridge, Lucy
- The Impresarios by Brand, Noah
- White Teeth by Smith, Zadie
- Finnikin of the Rock (Lumatere Chronicles, #1) by Marchetta, Melina
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms (Inheritance, #1) by Jemisin, N.K.
- The Broken Kingdoms (Inheritance, #2) by Jemisin, N.K.
- Between the World and Me by Coates, Ta-Nehisi
- Desert Solitaire by Abbey, Edward
- Surface Detail (Culture, #9) by Banks, Iain M.
- Newt's Emerald by Nix, Garth
- American Elsewhere by Bennett, Robert Jackson
- The Distance by Giltrow, Helen
- The Bone Clocks by Mitchell, David
- Seeing Voices by Sacks, Oliver
- The Girl with All the Gifts by Carey, M.R.
- Delilah Lane by Brand, Noah