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Best Books of the Year2015
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Books on at least 5 of the Best of the Year book lists for Fiction and 3 for Nonfiction. You can comment on the titles you've read on our Pinterest Board. The only usual newspaper we're missing so far is the Providence Journal. I'll update this list and the Pinterest page when that's published.
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A God in Ruins : a novel by Kate AtkinsonFollows the experiences of Ursula's younger brother Teddy, who, throughout the decades after wartime service he never expected to survive, struggles with family life against a backdrop of a changing world.
Bookpage, Goodreads, Hudson, Kirkus, Seattle Times, St Louis Post Dispatch, Telegraph, Time |
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The Sellout : a novel
by Paul Beatty
A biting satire by the author of The White Boy Shuffle traces a young man's isolated upbringing and a racially charged trial that sends him to the Supreme Court. Boston Globe, Buzzfeed, Denver Post, Kirkus, New York Times, Publisher's Weekly |
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A Manual for Cleaning Women : selected stories
by Lucia Berlin
Taking place in the American Southwest, an anthology of short stories, celebrating the author's trademark blend of humor and melancholy, finds miracles in everyday life and uncovers moments of grace in cafeterias, laundromats, homes of the upper class and hotel dining rooms. Boston Globe, Buzzfeed, Kirkus, New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, Washington Post |
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Did You Ever Have a Family
by Bill Clegg
Surviving a disaster that kills everyone else in her family, June relocates West and settles into a directionless existence while other people impacted by the tragedy struggle with new circumstances. A first novel by the best-selling author of Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man. Amazon, Goodreads, Kirkus, Library Journal, St Louis Post Dispatch |
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The Story of the Lost Child : The Fourth and Final Neapolitan Novel
by Elena Ferrante
In the final volume in a four-book saga, the brilliant bookish Elena and the fiery, uncontainable Lila, now friends as adults, reflect and deal with life's great discoveries, as well as its vagaries and losses.
Amazon, Boston Globe, Buzzfeed, Kirkus, New York Times, Oprah, People, Publisher's Weekly, Readings.com, Telegraph Time, Washington Post |
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The Turner House
by Angela Flournoy
Learning that after a half-century of family life that their house on Detroit's East Side is worth only a fraction of its mortgage, the members of the Turner family gather to reckon with their pasts and decide the house's fate. A first novel. Bookpage, Buzzfeed, Denver Post, Kirkus, Oprah, Publisher's Weekly |
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Purity
by Jonathan Franzen
Struggling with identity issues and student loans as the daughter of a mother who hides a mysterious past, Pip takes an internship with an illicit activist group and falls for its charismatic fugitive leader. By the author of Freedom. Amazon, Bookpage, Denver Post, Goodreads, Kirkus, Readings.com, Seattle Times, St Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Post |
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Fates and Furies
by Lauren Groff
Marrying in a glamorous whirlwind amid predictions of future greatness, Lotto and Mathilde are shaped throughout a subsequent shared decade by complications, secrets and powerful creative drives. 100,000 first printing. Amazon, Bookpage, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, Kirkus, Library Journal, Readings.com, Seattle Times, St Louis Post Dispatch, Time |
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Delicious Foods : a novel
by James Hannaham
A young widow with an addiction is lured away to a remote farm by a shady company called Delicious Foods, where she is held captive and forced into hard labor while she struggles to become reunited with her young son. Bookpage, Buzzfeed, Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Washington Post |
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The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins
Obsessively watching a breakfasting couple every day to escape the pain of her losses, Rachel witnesses a shocking event that inextricably entangles her in the lives of strangers. Amazon, Barnes&Noble, Denver Post, Goodreads, Kirkus, Publisher's Weekly, Readings.com |
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The Sympathizer
by Viet Thanh Nguyen
Follows a Viet Cong agent as he spies on a South Vietnamese army general and his compatriots as they start a new life on 1975 Los Angeles. Amazon, Buzzfeed, Globe&Mail, Library Journal, Publisher's Weekly, Seattle Times, Washington Post |
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Seveneves
by Neal Stephenson
When a catastrophic event dooms the planet, nations around the world band together to devise an ambitious survival plan in outer space 5,000 years before their progeny organize an audacious return. By the best-selling author of Cryptonomicon. Amazon, Goodreads, Hudson, Seattle Times, Time |
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A Spool of Blue Thread
by Anne Tyler
The changing needs of aging parents impact a family gathering during which Abby Whitshank relates how her husband and she fell in love during the summer of 1959 and shared decades of marriage impacted by children and long-held secrets. Amazon, Goodreads, People, St Louis Post Dispatch, Telegraph, Washington Post |
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A Little Life : a novel
by Hanya Yanagihara
Moving to New York to pursue creative ambitions, four former classmates share decades marked by love, loss, addiction and haunting elements from a brutal childhood. Amazon, Bookpage, Buzzfeed, Goodreads, People, Readings.com, St Louis Post Dispatch, Telegraph, Washington Post |
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Between the World and Me
by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Told through the author's own evolving understanding of the subject over the course of his life comes a bold and personal investigation into America's racial history and its contemporary echoes. Amazon, Boston Globe, Bookpage, Denver Post, Globe&Mail, Hudson, New York Times, Oprah, People Publishers Weekly, RC Seattle Times, Time, Washington Post, |
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Dead Wake : the last crossing of the Lusitania
by Erik Larson
The #1 New York Times best-selling author of In the Garden of Beasts presents a 100th-anniversary chronicle of the sinking of the Lusitania that discusses the factors that led to the tragedy and the contributions of such figures as President Wilson, bookseller Charles Lauriat and architect Theodate Pope Riddle. Includes two maps. Amazon, Bookpage, Kirkus, Library Journal, St Louis Post Dispatch, Washington Post |
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Ghettoside : a true story of murder in America
by Jill Leovy
A Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for the Los Angeles Times discusses the hundreds of murders that occur in the city each year, and focuses on the story of the dedicated group of detectives who pursue justice at any cost in the killing of Bryant Tennelle. Amazon, Boston Globe, Globe&Mail, Hudson, Washington Post |
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H is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
An award-winning best-seller from the UK recounts how the author, an experienced falconer grieving the sudden death of her father, endeavored to train for the first time a dangerous goshawk predator as part of her personal recovery. Amazon, Boston Globe, Kirkus, Library Journal, New York Times, Oprah, Publishers Weekly, Seattle Times, Time, Washington Post |
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Hold Still : A Memoir With Photographs
by Sally Mann
A renowned photographer tells her family's history in photos and words, after sorting through a box of old papers that revealed scandals, alcohol and domestic abuse, affairs, family land ownership, large amounts of money earned and lost and racial complications. Amazon, Bookpage, Publishers Weekly |
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Dreamland : the true tale of America's opiate epidemic
by Sam Quinones
An explosive true account of addiction, marketing and the making of an epidemic weaves together the story of Purdue Pharma's campaign to market OxyContin, while, at the same time, a massive influx of black tar heroin took the county by storm through an almost unbreakable marking and distribution system. Amazon, Boston Globe, Seattle Times, St Louis Post Dispatch |
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The Givenness of Things : essays
by Marilynne Robinson
In a collection of essays, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Gilead delivers an impassioned critique of our contemporary society while arguing that reverence must be given to who we are and what we are: creatures of singular interest and value, despite our errors and depredations. Globe&Mail, Publishers Weekly, Time |
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On the Move : a life
by Oliver W Sacks
Recounts the author's life and career, sharing his experiences as a neurologist in the early 1960s, his obsession with motorcycles and speed, and finding a long-forgotten illness in the wards of a New York chronic hospital. Amazon, Bookpage, Globe&Mail, St Louis Post Dispatch |
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The Witches : Salem, 1692
by Stacy Schiff
The Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra analyzes the Salem Witch Trials to offer key insights into the role of women in its events while explaining how its tragedies became possible. (United States history). Boston Globe, Bookpage, Globe&Mail, Time, Washington Post |
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One of Us : the story of Anders Breivik and the massacre in Norway
by Åsne Seierstad
An account of the 2011 massacre in Norway delves into the killer's troubled childhood to trace his descent from a privileged and gifted youth to a terrorist, offering insights into his radical beliefs against a backdrop of the country's famously peaceful politics. Boston Globe, New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Time |
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M train
by Patti Smith
Reflections on the inner life of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee and National Book Award-winning writer is presented from the unique perspectives of the cafés and cultural haunts she has visited and worked in around the world. Readings.com, Seattle Times, Washington Post |
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My Life on the Road
by Gloria Steinem
A feminist activist and co-founder of "Ms." magazine presents a memoir comprised of reflections on definitive events in her career, from her time on the campaign trail and interactions with political leaders to her visits to India and her encounters with"civilian" feminists. Amazon, Publishers Weekly, St Louis Post Dispatch |
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