The 2015 Books
Dec. 31st, 2015 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
leahbobetI don't think I'm finishing that Hemingway book tonight, so without further ado, THE 2015 BOOKS raaaah yessss:
#1 -- Virginia Woolf, Orlando
#2 -- Patrick Ness, More Than This
#3 -- Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
#4 -- Rainbow Rowell, Landline (ARC)
#5 -- Ross MacDonald, The Name is Archer
#6 -- Ross MacDonald, Sleeping Beauty
#7 -- Lish MacBride, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
#8 -- Patrick Ness, The Crane Wife
#9 -- Tamara Faith Berger, Maidenhead
#10 -- Katharine Addison, The Goblin Emperor
#11 -- Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
REREAD -- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
#12 -- Jo Walton, My Real Children
#13 -- Maggie Stiefvater, Sinner (ARC)
#14 -- Deborah Coates, Strange Country
#15 -- Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
#16 -- David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (ARC)
#17 -- Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue (ARC)
#18 -- Bryan Lee O'Malley, Seconds
#19 -- Brenna Yovanoff, Fiendish
#20 -- Megan Crewe, Earth and Sky
#21 -- R.S.A. Garcia, Lex Talionis
#22 -- Genevieve Valentine, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club
#23 -- Diana Wynne Jones, Charmed Life
#24 -- Jo Walton, The Just City (ARC)
#25 -- Sarah Rees Brennan, Unmade
#26 -- Cristina Moracho, Althea and Oliver
#27 -- Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
NOT #28 -- Robin McKinley, Shadows
#1 -- Tessa Gratton, The Lost Sun
#2 -- Francesca Forrest, Pen Pal
#3 -- Hope Larson and Tintin Pantoja, Who is AC?
#4 -- Jo Walton, The Philosopher Kings (ARC)
NOT #5 -- Karen Lord, The Galaxy Game
#5 -- Tessa Gratton, Strange Maid
NOT #6 -- Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant
#6 -- Eva Darrows, The Awesome
#7 -- Gwenda Bond, Lois Lane: Fallout
#8 -- Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules (ARC)
#9 -- Paolo Bacigalupi, The Water Knife
#10 -- Patrick Ness, The Rest of Us Just Live Here (ARC)
#11 -- Rae Carson, Walk on Earth a Stranger (ARC)
#12 -- John Green, Paper Towns
#13 -- E.K. Johnston, A Thousand Nights (ARC)
#14 -- E.K. Johnston, Exit, Pursued by a Bear (ARC)
#15 -- Emil Sher, Young Man With Camera
#16 -- Kate Blair, Transferral
#17 -- Amy Alward, Madly
#18 -- Sean Michaels, Us Conductors
#19 -- Rainbow Rowell, Carry On
#20 -- Cassandra Rose Clarke, Our Lady of the Ice
#21 -- Sarah Rees Brennan, Tell the Wind and Fire (ARC)
#22 -- David Mitchell, Slade House
#23 -- Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (ARC)
#24 -- Saladin Ahmed, Throne of the Crescent Moon
#25 -- Christopher Barzak, Wonders of the Invisible World
#26 -- Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice
#27 -- Robert Charles Wilson, The Affinities
#28 -- Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Illuminae
#29 -- John Lorinc et al, The Ward
#30 -- Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light
Notes on which: I was working way too workaholically to read very much this year, but definitely made up for it in the back half -- #18 onwards is just from the beginning of November. I've found the part of my brain that can focus on a book again, and missed it pretty desperately.
Trends! A lot of this is YA, which seems to be what's interesting me lately. There's an ability to layer -- to speak to the 14-year-old reader, double-voiced with something for the 35-year-old reader -- that I'm finding really craft-interesting and rewarding lately. It also seems to be where the science fiction that moves me right now is showing up. SF is fairly trope-bound; the YA-directed stuff is just different enough to make me not feel like I've seen this song and dance before.
Stuff I loved and will handsell at work, or have been handselling: Illuminae, Transferral, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Scorpion Rules, The Awesome.
The Ward collection I ate in bits and pieces, but I'm finding myself valuing it very much. It's a good shot of perspective about how our city works and has always worked in some ways, and lent some serious perspective for tackling the Hemingway letters.
I wanted more from Slade House but I understand why, and that's between me-the-reader and that book and what I generally get out of Mitchell novels. I wanted more from The Philosopher Kings but I'm still going to pick up the third book and see how it all comes out.
Best read of the year? I'll reserve special mention for Pen Pal, which absolutely astonished me. It is the best self-published piece of writing I've ever seen: inventive without being self-conscious, hushed, kind, spilling off the page, diverse, vivid, relevant, real. It is rough and special. 99% of you probably haven't read it, but: seriously consider doing so.
#1 -- Virginia Woolf, Orlando
#2 -- Patrick Ness, More Than This
#3 -- Rainbow Rowell, Attachments
#4 -- Rainbow Rowell, Landline (ARC)
#5 -- Ross MacDonald, The Name is Archer
#6 -- Ross MacDonald, Sleeping Beauty
#7 -- Lish MacBride, Hold Me Closer, Necromancer
#8 -- Patrick Ness, The Crane Wife
#9 -- Tamara Faith Berger, Maidenhead
#10 -- Katharine Addison, The Goblin Emperor
#11 -- Gabrielle Zevin, The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
REREAD -- Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn
#12 -- Jo Walton, My Real Children
#13 -- Maggie Stiefvater, Sinner (ARC)
#14 -- Deborah Coates, Strange Country
#15 -- Maggie Stiefvater, The Scorpio Races
#16 -- David Mitchell, The Bone Clocks (ARC)
#17 -- Maggie Stiefvater, Blue Lily, Lily Blue (ARC)
#18 -- Bryan Lee O'Malley, Seconds
#19 -- Brenna Yovanoff, Fiendish
#20 -- Megan Crewe, Earth and Sky
#21 -- R.S.A. Garcia, Lex Talionis
#22 -- Genevieve Valentine, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club
#23 -- Diana Wynne Jones, Charmed Life
#24 -- Jo Walton, The Just City (ARC)
#25 -- Sarah Rees Brennan, Unmade
#26 -- Cristina Moracho, Althea and Oliver
#27 -- Jill Lepore, The Secret History of Wonder Woman
NOT #28 -- Robin McKinley, Shadows
#1 -- Tessa Gratton, The Lost Sun
#2 -- Francesca Forrest, Pen Pal
#3 -- Hope Larson and Tintin Pantoja, Who is AC?
#4 -- Jo Walton, The Philosopher Kings (ARC)
NOT #5 -- Karen Lord, The Galaxy Game
#5 -- Tessa Gratton, Strange Maid
NOT #6 -- Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant
#6 -- Eva Darrows, The Awesome
#7 -- Gwenda Bond, Lois Lane: Fallout
#8 -- Erin Bow, The Scorpion Rules (ARC)
#9 -- Paolo Bacigalupi, The Water Knife
#10 -- Patrick Ness, The Rest of Us Just Live Here (ARC)
#11 -- Rae Carson, Walk on Earth a Stranger (ARC)
#12 -- John Green, Paper Towns
#13 -- E.K. Johnston, A Thousand Nights (ARC)
#14 -- E.K. Johnston, Exit, Pursued by a Bear (ARC)
#15 -- Emil Sher, Young Man With Camera
#16 -- Kate Blair, Transferral
#17 -- Amy Alward, Madly
#18 -- Sean Michaels, Us Conductors
#19 -- Rainbow Rowell, Carry On
#20 -- Cassandra Rose Clarke, Our Lady of the Ice
#21 -- Sarah Rees Brennan, Tell the Wind and Fire (ARC)
#22 -- David Mitchell, Slade House
#23 -- Charlie Jane Anders, All the Birds in the Sky (ARC)
#24 -- Saladin Ahmed, Throne of the Crescent Moon
#25 -- Christopher Barzak, Wonders of the Invisible World
#26 -- Ann Leckie, Ancillary Justice
#27 -- Robert Charles Wilson, The Affinities
#28 -- Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, Illuminae
#29 -- John Lorinc et al, The Ward
#30 -- Naomi Mitchison, Travel Light
Notes on which: I was working way too workaholically to read very much this year, but definitely made up for it in the back half -- #18 onwards is just from the beginning of November. I've found the part of my brain that can focus on a book again, and missed it pretty desperately.
Trends! A lot of this is YA, which seems to be what's interesting me lately. There's an ability to layer -- to speak to the 14-year-old reader, double-voiced with something for the 35-year-old reader -- that I'm finding really craft-interesting and rewarding lately. It also seems to be where the science fiction that moves me right now is showing up. SF is fairly trope-bound; the YA-directed stuff is just different enough to make me not feel like I've seen this song and dance before.
Stuff I loved and will handsell at work, or have been handselling: Illuminae, Transferral, The Rest of Us Just Live Here, The Scorpion Rules, The Awesome.
The Ward collection I ate in bits and pieces, but I'm finding myself valuing it very much. It's a good shot of perspective about how our city works and has always worked in some ways, and lent some serious perspective for tackling the Hemingway letters.
I wanted more from Slade House but I understand why, and that's between me-the-reader and that book and what I generally get out of Mitchell novels. I wanted more from The Philosopher Kings but I'm still going to pick up the third book and see how it all comes out.
Best read of the year? I'll reserve special mention for Pen Pal, which absolutely astonished me. It is the best self-published piece of writing I've ever seen: inventive without being self-conscious, hushed, kind, spilling off the page, diverse, vivid, relevant, real. It is rough and special. 99% of you probably haven't read it, but: seriously consider doing so.
