Now that we are officially done with 2015, it's time for me to list my favorite books in the second half of 2015. Overall in 2015, I blew my original goal of 50 books out of the water but did not reach my second goal of 150 books. I successfully read 118, of which I'm fairly proud. On the other hand, this may just be a sign that I need to get out more. I kind of hit a book slump towards the end of the year. I found many of the books I was looking forward to reading somewhat disappointing. However, there were some definite jewels in the rough.
Best Books of 2015 Part II
The Adult
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick. Probably my favorite in this set of books, and ties with Never Let Me Go as favorite of the year (and they are both science fiction - imagine that!). Now I paid a lot more attention to this book than normal because I was using it for class, so that may have influenced my opinion. This is just great science fiction though. It asks the age-old question: what does it mean to be human? But in the futuristic sense of being compared to androids. Dick is able to bring up all sorts of serious topics - technology, religion, animals, government, love, disabilities, etc - while still writing an exciting, suspenseful, and humorous novel. I enjoyed every second of it.
What We Talk About When We Talk About Love by Raymond Carver. Carver's work is somewhat of an acquired taste. The language is very sparse and understated with a lot of questionable endings to very short stories. Carver also presents an incredibly bleak outlook on love of all sorts - romantic, familial, friendly, and even violent. This collection mainly focuses on the aftermath of love, and it was hard to get into at first. However, by about halfway through I was completely invested. These will stick in my mind for quite awhile. It's definitely worth reading - though maybe not right before walking down the wedding aisle.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I loved this book. This is traditional storytelling at its best. It's a totally immersive experience in that you feel like you really are in 1940s Barcelona, walking down dark and foggy streets with mystery around every corner. The characters, particularly Fermin, are great and it's also all about book love and the act of storytelling, which gets me every time. Both the writing and the story can get a bit melodramatic, but that doesn't actually bother me. I would love to sit in front of a fire on a dark winter night and have someone read this novel to me (see I'm melodramatic too).
The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. What a
wonderful little book. Like Carver's work, this is also a series of very short
stories - vignettes - but they are not nearly as bleak. Cisneros provides a
look at Esperanza, a young Latina girl, and her community in Chicago. Through
tiny windows in her life, we see Esperanza mature and come to understand both
the beautiful and harsh realities of life. Cisneros' writing reminds me a lot
of Amy Tan's in that the most emotional and heartbreaking moments are
understated. You'll miss them if you don't look carefully, but they are
incredibly important.
The Youthful
The Legend series by Marie Lu. When I binge read a
series, it's hard to separate the books, so I'm grouping them together here.
It's another young adult dystopian series in a long line, but it has engaging
characters and tons of fast-paced action. They are simply a lot of fun to read.
This series actually gets better as it goes along, and I liked the third book
best because we start to see the characters mature into adults. The characters
and situations gain complexity over time, and Lu even managed to surprise me at
the end. And make me cry.
To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han. Just adorableness. I'm not always a big fan of contemporary young adult novels, but this one is super cute and low on the sob story/tragedy scale. This story has the feel of an 80's teen rom-com movie. To get over each of her adolescent crushes, Lara Jean wrote each one a love/hate "letter" she never intended to send. When they accidentally get sent out, she must do damage control, including adopting a fake boyfriend. It's silly and fun - plus it focuses on the sister relationship as much as the romance. I did not like the sequel nearly as much, but you need to read the first 20 or pages or so for the real ending to To All the Boys I've Loved Before.
The Raven Boys series by Maggie Stiefvater. I
actually read this first earlier in the year, but since I reread most of the
series again a couple months ago, I'm going to count it in this list. Here we
have a cursed townie girl, Blue, who befriends a group of boys from the nearby
private school who are on a quest to find a supernatural king. This is another
series that gets better as it goes along, and each book gives us further
insight on each member of the group. I particularly like Stiefvater's wit and
that she provides a look at the complex friendships between boys, which I don't
think we see nearly enough in young adult literature. I'm excited for the final
book in the series, The Raven King, to come out this year.
The Thousand Dollar Tan Line and Mr. Kiss and Tell by Rob Thomas and Jennifer
Graham. For the novelized continuation of Veronica Mars, these books are
surprisingly good. It helps that they are written by the creator of the show,
and this book series actually relates back to the tv show better than the movie
did. Both books get back to the base of Veronica Mars: the class disparity and
corruption of Neptune that Veronica tries to crack away at one small victory at
a time. There are also some great call backs to events in the original series,
and Thomas does a nice job bringing in several of our favorite characters
without it feeling too forced. I haven't seen anything about a third book, but
I would certainly read more!
Cheers to a happy new year of reading in 2016!
