2015 Reading

I've been keeping better track of my reading the last couple of years. Here is (most of) what I gobbled up in 2015!  For reference, here is 2014 and a partial list from 2013.

Linked books are my top ten recommendations. What do you recommend for 2016?

Fiction

Queenpin, Karen Abbott.  Contemporary writer doing the 1950's noir thing.  Very well done, good writing, quick, fun.

Boy, Snow, Bird, Helen Oyeyemi.  Exquisite.  Gorgeous story-telling, lovely recasting of some of our deepest fairy tales and a damn fine writer overall.  Best book I've read in a long while.

All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr. Best thing I've read in years and maybe ever. The structure, momentum, story, characters, imagery and writing were all independently brilliant and then woven together and played off each other so beautifully.

Still Life with Breadcrumbs, Anna Quindlen.  Lovely work and some fascinating things with story timelines.

The Patron Saint of Liars, Ann Patchett.  Great book. Love Ann Patchett.

Cat's Eye, Margaret Atwood.  Excellent.  Layers and layers.

A Wizard of Earthsea, Ursula LeGuin.  The first in a series of fantasy, magic-y young adult novels pre-dating Harry Potter by a few decades.  Super fun read.

The Tombs of Atuan, Ursula LeGuin.  The second Earthsea novel and very well done.  Dark, earthy, feminine power.

Reykjavik Nights, Arnaldur Indridason. Set in Iceland by an Icelandic author.  Didn't really do much for me but was fun to read as we prepared for our trip to the land of ice and fire!

Beloved, Toni Morrison. Finally got around to reading this Pulitzer winning amazing work. Like reading a poem.

Taft, Ann Patchett. Lovely.

Olive Kitteridge, Elizabeth Strout. I like short stories in theory more than I find I actually enjoy them. This was, essentially, a collection of short stories but added together for a portrait of a woman, a town, a life. I didn't like it after the first few stories but then it grew on me.

You Suck, Christopher Moore. I love Christopher Moore and this is him in his element. It can be hard to find quality writing that is fun and funny. Christopher Moore is one of my go-to's for that. This is the second of the Bloodsucking Fiends SF vampire trilogy.

Skin Tight, Carl Hiaasen. An oldie but goodie, fun and funny. Classic Hiaasen if you are into that, which I am.

Death in Holy Orders, PD James. Classic PD James.  Loved it, love her.

The Cartel, Don Winslow. So so good. Fiction inspired by the real-life doings of Mexican drug cartels and our War on Drugs.

Lucky You, Carl Hiaasen. Not my favorite Hiaasen but entertaining.

Bite Me: A Love Story, Christopher Moore. The final installment of the Bloodsucking Fiends trilogy and solid Christopher Moore ridiculousness.

Two Years, Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights, Salman Rushdie. A rift on 1,001 nights and hectic, weird and so much fun. A bizarre combination of timelines, perspectives and stories within stories within stories. Didn't quite work but I enjoyed it.

Enchantress of Florence, Salman Rushdie. Intricate story lines and a fascinating mixture of cultures, histories, fantasies and more. So odd in some ways and I liked it but am not sure everyone would.

Non-Fiction 
Smart and/or useful stuff (or at least that is the hope)

Manage Your Day-To-Day, Jocelyn Geil. A collection of very short essays by really smart people on how to be and work in this world.  Some real gems.  Also the physical design of the book was truly lovely.

You Can't Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike in a Seminar, David Sandler. A book for work about sales and while I didn't love the tone or some of the approaches he has a lot of really great perspectives and approaches.

The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg.  It was everywhere in 2014 and was really well done.  Interesting, useful, engaging. Very highly recommend.

Give and Take, Adam Grant.  Very interesting and useful.  Strongly recommend, especially for all of you inclined toward "giving" who sometimes think you need to be tougher.

Play: How it Shapes the Brain, Opens the Imagination and Invigorates the Soul, Stuart Brown.  Meh.  I've loved interviews with him and dig the basic concept but found the book very flat.  An annoying combination of unsubstantiated (or at least un-referenced) science-ish stuff and stories that felt more like "proof by example" than "illustrative."

Being Mortal, Atul Gawande.  A surgeon writing about the inadequacies of our medical systems to address end of life.  Very lovely writing, incredibly helpful perspectives and some real solutions for all of us.

Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us, Dan Pink.  I saw the RSA whiteboard talk, the TED talk and listened to several interviews before I finally got around to reading the book.  It was super great and useful.  I'm making encouraging my staff read it now too.

To Sell is Human, Dan Pink. Precursor to Drive and much of the content is familiar from other books I've read and TED talks I've seen. Great.

Follow Your Gut, Rob Knight.  Soooooooooo cool.  If you are a dork about how bacteria help your health, which I totally am (and have been since before it was such a thing.)  In a parallel universe I'm a microbiologist.

Stoned, A Doctor's Case for Medical Marijuana, David Casarett. Interesting and timely. Definitely a doctor writing a book (vs. a writer writing about doctor-y stuff) but that was part of the interest.

Furiously Happy, Jenny Lawson. I loved her first book and this one was great too. Hilarious and also a helpful glimpse at what it is like to live with mental illness; a combo you don't see every day.

Anything you Want, Derek Sivers. Short and sweet and timely.

A Short Guide to a Happy Life, Anna Quindlen. Lovely little snack.

Brain Candy
It's important to turn your brain off and just be entertained sometimes.

Alibi Man, Tami Hoeg.  Entertaining and probably better for my brain than television.  Maybe.

Sweetheart, Chelsea Cain.  Twisted, sick, murder mystery.  2nd in a series featuring a lady serial killer and set in Portland, which is fun.  Good writing too.

From Doon with Death, Ruth Rendell. Despite my great consumption of quality murder mystery books somehow I missed Ruth Rendell.  This one was fun but the ending, while delighting me with a twist, annoyed me politically.

9th Girl, Tami Hoag.  Loved it.  Like crap TV but much more delicious.

The Brass Verdict, Michael Connolly.  A Micky Haller (Lincoln Lawyer) novel with Harry Bosch co-starring.  Super fun.

The Lady of the Rivers, Philippa Gregory.  One part soap opera, one part historical fiction and a dash of magic, this is the first of six books focused on the women of the the War of the Roses from the author who brought us The Other Boleyn Girl.  She is no Hilary Mantel but an interesting, imaginative and connected enough to the history that it is actually semi-educational.

The Red Queen, Philippa Gregory.  Pretty crap but I... can't... stop.

The White Queen, Philippa Gregory. So terrible.  Why do I read them?

Trunk Music, Michael Connelly. Harry Bosch again. This time it is Las Vegas, the mob and all sorts of layers of intrigue.

The Last Coyote, Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch solves the decades-old crime that led him to be a cop in the first place: the murder of his mother when he was a child. CA politics, corruption and cover-ups. A must-read for Harry Bosch fans.

One Kick, Chelsea Cain. Portland writer who does the lovely, twisted, sick Sweetheart murder series has another character, Kick Lannigan, and the start of another great series.

Partial Reads 
There are too many books on my list to take time with ones that don't grab me.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, David Shafer. Big data and conspiracy theories.  Neither of which interest me but it is a Portland writer and highly recommended from a number of people.  Writing was engaging, characters amusing but I just couldn't get interested.  I made it about 60% of the way through and was relieved I had to return it to the library.

Think a Little, Change a Lot, David Wiseman.  A Readers Digest of sorts covering all the self-help, positive psychology stuff out there.  Nice that it sifted through a huge volume of work to somewhat "curate" what really works and doesn't but it was a bit too much like a highlight reel for me.

Middlemarch, George Elliot. One of the great classics.  I'm a fan of 18th, 19th and early 20th century writing but this one did not captivate my attention despite valiantly plugging along with it for weeks.

Tourist Season, Carl Hiaasen. I usually love this guy but this early book didn't do it for me and some of the dated stereotypes were just offensive, not funny.

Live Right and Find Happiness, Dave Barry. Dave Barry has been on my radar for a while but I've never read anything by him. It was fine but I'd rather take time with something else.