My Reading Year 2015

Hey, I've done a couple of these reading wrap-ups now, haven't I? Come to think of it, I’m still not sure why. But other people who read also post year-end lists, and it makes me feel obliged to toss my own hat in the ring. 

Anyhow, the usual disclaimers about most of these being audiobooks applies. And as always, I welcome friendship on Goodreads if you want to compare notes. 

As you can see, there was a strong Meghan Daum and Phillip Roth trend in 2015:  

Best Books I Read in 2015

  1. My Misspent Youth: Essays, by Meghan Daum 
  2. The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects of Discussion by Meghan Daum. One of my favorites. You know it's a good book when you buy an extra copy to lend out to friends. 
  3. Career of Evil (Cormoran Strike, #3)  by Robert Galbraith. Still loving the new incarnation of J.K. Rowling. 
  4. Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates  
  5. Here and There: Collected Travel Writing, by A.A Gill 
  6. Stoner by John Williams. 
  7. The Patrick Melrose Novels (The Patrick Melrose Novels, #1-4) by Edward St. Aubyn
  8. Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers on The Decision Not To Have Kids edited by Meghan Daum. The essay by Lionel Shriver still haunts me. Mostly this passage.
  9. So You've Been Publicly Shamed, by Jon Ronson
  10. The Human Stain (The American Trilogy, #3), by Phillip Roth
  11. Dataclysm: Who We Are (When We Think No One's Looking) by Christian Rudder. Fascinating! And more than a little horrifying. 
  12. American Pastoral (The American Trilogy #1), by Phillip Roth

Books I Abandoned in 2015

  1. Funny Girl, by Nick Hornby.  It broke my heart to put this down, but all of the insight and wisdom and humor that makes Nick Hornby novels so good was somehow lacking in it. 
  2. Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail, by Cheryl Strayed. 
    Maybe it's just me—everyone else seems to like this one. But I always thought stories that blatantly attempt to be inspirational seldom are.
  3. Purity by Jonathan Franzen. Couldn't get into it myself, but curious to know what Obama thinks of it. 
  4. Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I might go back to this eventually. I started it just after finishing Career of Evil when I was craving another whodunit. 

Best Comics I Read in 2015

  1. Killing and Dying: Stories, by Adrian Tomine
  2. Rosalie Lighting by Tom Hart. This completely blew me away. "Turning pain into art" takes on a whole new meaning after finishing it. 
  3. Mama Tried: Dispatches from the Seamy Underbelly of Modern Parenting by Emily Flake.  I don't have kids, nor am sure if I ever will or want to, but I will happily read anything Emily Flake writes on any subject.
  4. Exploring Calvin and Hobbes: An Exhibition Catalogue by Bill Watterson. Read it because it was rumored to have some of the best interviews with Bill Watterson ever published, and it did not disappoint.