I’ll be honest…I’m always a little uncomfortable about “Lists of Best Books”. There is no way anyone could ever read all the books published in a year (though I am tempted to try…), and there is also no way to measure how a book will affect all readers, or if a certain book will arrive at the right time to save you, as so many of the best books do.
Nevertheless, Publisher’s Weekly can give you an idea of what books made headlines, made waves, changed the way people think, or changed the ways in which people saw each other. And those are some pretty neat accomplishments. So have a look at this list and then stop by and check them out. And let us know what you think should be a top-picks list for 2015!
Publisher’s Weekly Top Ten Books of 2015:
Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates: In this book, written as a letter to his teenage son Samori, Atlantic writer Coates reflects on just what it means to be black in America, from a historical, as well as a personal perspective. “I love America the way I love my family — I was born into it.” Coates said in an interview with NPR. “…But no definition of family that I’ve ever encountered or dealt with involves never having cross words with people, never having debate , never speaking directly. On the contrary, that’s the very definition in my house, and the house that I grew up in, of what family is.”
The Invention of Nature : Alexander Von Humboldt’s New World, by Andrea Wulf: Prussian-born naturalist, explorer, and writer Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) may not be a household name today, but his work was quite a mover and shaker during his time, not only for his diplomatic work, but for his “Humboldtian science”, which held”nature is perfect till man deforms it with care”. As a result, he has been recognized as the first scientist to consider the possibility of climate change and human influence on the planet. Andrea Wulf’s biography makes great strides into putting Humboldt’s name back in the books, and making readers realize for just how long humans have been compromising their world.
The Story of the Lost Child, by Elena Ferrante, trans. from the Italian by Ann Goldstein: Ferrante’s Neapolitan Novels have grown wildly popular, and this is the second time that PW has listed them amongst their favorite books of the year. In this installment, the brilliant, bookish Elena uses details from her own life, and friendship with the dazzling Lila in her work, and recalls all the vagaries, fights, reconciliations, and escapades that have brought them to this point in their lives.
Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life by William Finnegan: A writer for The New Yorker, and a lifelong surfer, Finnegan recounts his love for–and addiction to–the art of surfing, along with all the friends he’s met and wild adventures that he’s had in pursuit of his love, as well as his struggle to balance all those adventures an encounters alongside a family and successful career. This book is also being hailed as brilliant travel memoir, as Finnegan recounts the incredible and the mundane places that he’s explored in his drive to find the next big wave.
Delicious Foods, by James Hannaham: This is one of those books that is downright impossible to sum-up briefly, but here goes…Hannaham’s book is a metaphor for addiction (Scotty, one of the narrators, is the actual embodiment of crack), a southern gothic/horror novel (the titular farm that holds the characters captive is simply chilling), and a deeply emotional tale about love, family, and recovery. To truly get into the complexity of this novel–you’re simply going to have to read it for yourself!
Imperium, by Christian Kracht, trans. from the German by Daniel Bowles: These are the kind of “based on a true story (no seriously, this actually did happen)” books that I love to read: In 1902, a German named August Engelhardt fled his homeland, and founded a sect of sun worshippers that were lived as cocoivores–coconut eaters. As in, they ate nothing but coconuts. Kracht envisions this island paradise (located on an island in what was then German New Guinea known as Kabakon, to which Engelhardt brought about 1,200 books), the idealism, and the inevitable disaster that befalls Engelhardt’s attempts to reinvent society in a way that is both haunting and touchingly funny.
Beauty Is a Wound, Eka Kurniawan, trans. from the Indonesian by Annie Tucker: A native Indonesian herself, Kurniawan’s debut novel tells the tale of a prostitute named Dewi Ayu, who rises from her grave after twenty-one years. Though the tale is bound up in the lives of Dewi and her four daughters, this is also a novel about the destruction, violence, and lasting scars of colonialism in Indonesia’s history, and a love letter to a place, a time, and a culture that is sure to surprise and entrance American readers.
Crow Fair, by Thomas McGuane: PW is hailing this McGuane’s newest release the best collection of short stories to come out this year, and it they are not alone. This compendium of sixteen stories set in the rugged Montana wilderness, and full of characters who are shaped by its terrain, are by turns terrifying, funny, mysterious, and wonderfully realistic. Best of all, McGuane is a master at redeeming even the most rascally characters, providing readers with plenty of emotion, in addition to his wonderful landscapes and plotlines.
The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson: There are lots of intellectually, jargon words thrown around in regards to Nelson’s memoirs…it is a work of ‘autotheory’, it challenges ‘homonormativity’….but at its heart, Nelson’s story is about finding love, and a language to talk about it. Her life and love with queer film-maker Harry Dodge is full of far-flung adventures, and also deeply personal moments of self-realization, and wonderfully sympathetic tales of making and raising a family.
Black Earth : The Holocaust as History and Warning, by Timothy Snyder: While Snyder’s book is a story of the Holocaust, it is also about the circumstances that created it, the environmental, the interpersonal, and the political. And his book is also a warning…that the various climates that we are creating around us today are perilously close to that which existed in the 1920’s and 1930’s, forcing us to confront not only where we have been, but where, precisely, we are headed as a ‘civilization’.
So what do you think, beloved patrons? Any books you would add to this list?