The Best of 2015

I read more - and more widely - in 2015 than any year in my life. Looking back through this year's blog entries, I've documented 100 books since January 1. Many have been wonderful, a greater number have been informative, and a few have been downright forgettable. I have read more highly-anticipated new releases this year, from Go Set a Watchman (which, I'm sorry, I hated) to In the Unlikely Event...(which made me want to find my Judy Blume collection from childhood and read it all over again) to Dead Wake and the Wright Brothers, titles by two of my favorite non-fiction writers that delivered exactly what I expected.

Given the extent of this year's reading list, I've decided to shake it up a bit from past years. Rather than providing a straight list of books with a date of review and synopsis, I've decided to categorize this year. So, without further ado, my favorite books of 2015:

Non-fiction:

Despite declaring two years ago that I should read less of war and disease, I seem to have read plenty of war books, if not disease. The war genre seems to encompass primarily the American Civil War, World War I, and World War II. The best Civil War book I read this year was easily They Fought Like Demons, which tells the story of female soldiers in the war, including one who gave birth while on picket duty. This is an aspect of the war about which I knew virtually nothing, and was deeply interesting to learn about.

Moving chronologically, the best World War I books were easily The Last of the Doughboys, which I read in January, but was in fact one of the very best books I read the entire year, and Over the Top, which one could argue belongs more to the memoir category. Arthur Guy Empey captures the language and atmosphere of the trenches so thoroughly, though, that I would be remiss not to call this a book of war, and give it its due here.

As for World War II, in the European theater, The Last Jews in Berlin is the amazing and moving story of a handful of Jews who managed to go underground right under Hitler's nose and survive the war by dint of wit, luck, and frequently the goodness of strangers. It is simultaneously heartbreaking and heartening. Moving to the other side of the world, Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors provides a compelling glimpse of the last major naval engagement of the war - and, thus far, in history. It is one of the most riveting, explosive accounts of the war I've read. Like They Fought Like Demons, it also gave me new perspective on an aspect of the war about which I knew very little before reading this book.

Anyone who has followed this blog for the past few months knows that I've also read a heady dose of memoirs. I have said it before, but James Herriot and the Gilbreths are a balm for the soul. Herriot's anecdotes of life as a country vet in England from the 1930s to the 50s transport the reader to a time and place that no longer exists. They're also frequently hilarious. As for the Gilbreths, they, too, provide a window into a lost world, both in terms of time and place, but also in terms of a lifestyle. Does anyone have 12 children anymore??

Fiction:

Readers of this blog will know that, one, I read far less fiction than non-fiction and, two, that what fiction I do read is almost without exception of the historical variety. Having said that, I read a handful of truly excellent novels this year. They range from I Shall Be Near You, the tear-jerking tale of a new wife who goes off to fight alongside her husband in the Union Army (and, yes, this book inspired my reading of the previously mentioned Demons), to the much-acclaimed All the Light We Cannot See (which is as good as advertised). In the same vein, I enjoyed The Paris Architect as much as any novel I read this year. Lucien Bernard begins as a coward and ends as a hero, which is the most a reader can ask of a character whose success they're rooting for, even if, at times, against their better judgment.

Moving away from war-time fiction, Under a Dark Summer Sky set in the Jim Crow-era Florida Keys against the backdrop of the most powerful hurricane to ever strike the United States, combines the suspense of a natural disaster with the mystery of an attempted murder, spun around larger questions of morality. I also very much liked Ahab's Wife. Sena Jeter Naslund has envisioned a lively history for the wife of Captain Ahab (yes, he of Moby Dick fame). This story sees Ahab's wife, Una, through numerous adventures, a few of which veer just the other side of believable, but ultimately this is an excellent story filled with some of the finest prose I encountered all year.

Finally, I would be remiss not to include Meely LaBauve here, as the single most light-hearted and fun book I read all year. Light-hearted may be a bit of stretch given that Meely is a motherless boy with an alcoholic, absentee father, and his own share of troubles with the law. Still, Meely's spirit infuses this book, and I remember it fondly as perhaps the most entertaining book I read in 2015.

Happy New Year and Happy Reading!