2015 Books in Review
In 2015 I read 56 books, 22 graphic novels and one poetry collection. Although that was fewer total books than 2014, I read more real** books than in 2014 with a lot fewer graphic novels. Since I only wrote a little bit about this year's books, I'll summarize a few highlights, but first the list.
* = graphic novel
^ = poetry
Italics = favorites
Lewis Grizzard - The Last Bus to Albuquerque - R 1/01
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.1: Hollow Earth & Other Stories - Su 1/04
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories - Su 1/04
Erik Larson - Thunderstruck - R 1/08
Daniel Okrent - 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game - Su 1/11
*Will Eisner - Fagin the Jew - M 1/12
*Mike Mignola & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.3: Plague of Frogs - S 1/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.4: The Dead - S 1/17
James Ellroy - American Tabloid - S 1/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.5: The Black Flame - S 1/24
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.6: The Universal Machine - S 1/24
Stieg Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Su 1/25
Rob Neyer - Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends - F 1/30
William Nicolson - The Romantic Economist: A Story of Love and Market Forces - M 2/02
Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library - M 2/09
James Ellroy - The Cold Six Thousand - R 2/12
Lawrence S. Ritter - The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It - T 2/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.7: Garden of Souls - W 2/18
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.8: Killing Ground - W 2/18
Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book - S 2/28
Randall Munroe - What If? - T 3/03
*Neal Adams & Denny O'Neill - Superman vs. Muhammad Ali - R 3/05
Theodore Thomte - Battles of the Frigate Constitution - Su 3/08
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire - Su 3/15
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.10: The Warning - Su 3/15
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - F 3/27
*Christopher Baldwin - Little Dee Anthology, v.1 - Su 3/29
Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box - T 3/31
Michael Pollan - Food Rules: An Eater's Manual - R 4/02
Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men - R 4/02
Brandon Stanton - Humans of New York - F 4/03
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood - S 4/04
Laura Hillenbrand - Unbroken - Su 4/05
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.11: The Black Goddess - W 3/08
Neil Gaiman - Trigger Warning - Su 4/12
Leo Tolstoy (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) - War & Peace - R 4/30
Ferrett Steinmetz - Flex - F 5/08
*Christopher Baldwin - Little Dee Anthology, v.2 - Su 5/10
Jim Benson - Why Plans Fail - F 5/22
*Scott McCloud - The Sculptor - Su 5/24
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler - Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High - M 5/25
*Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart, Garbriel Ba, Fabio Moon - B.P.R.D. - 1947 - S 6/13
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.14: King of Fear - S 6/13
William Shakespeare - The Merry Wives of Windsor - Su 6/14
William Manchester - Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - Su 6/28
David Halberstam - The Best and the Brightest - T 6/30
Neal Bascomb - Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Makings of a City - R 7/09
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.15: Being Human - M 7/20
Zach Weinersmith & Boulet - Augie & The Green Knight - S 7/25
--- In Europe ---
J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling - R 8/13
Graham Green - The Quiet American - R 8/13
James Lee Burke - Wayfaring Stranger - W 8/19
Louis L'Amour - Tucker - Su 8/23
Louis L'Amour - Over on the Dry Side - Su 8/23
Louis L'Amour - The Shadow Riders - M 8/24
Dennis Danvers - The Fourth World - F 8/28
Clive Cussler - Raise the Titanic! - S 8/29
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest - M 8/31
Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses - R 9/03
Washington Irving - Tales of the Alhambra - S 9/05
Cormac McCarthy - The Crossing - M 9/07
Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain - W 9/09
--- Back From Europe ---
Ferrett Steinmetz - The Flux - Su 10/11
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.1 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.2 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.3 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! 1987-1991: The Complete Black & White Collection - T 10/13
J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm - T 10/27
*Mike Mignola & Dave Stewart - Hellboy in Hell, v.1: The Descent - W 10/28
James Ellroy - Blood's A Rover - R 11/12
Mark Essig - Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig - S 11/14
John Helyar - Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball - W 11/18
Bill Bryson - The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way - Su 11/22
Frank Warren - PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God - M 11/23
Leo Tolstoy (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) - Anna Karenina - Su 11/29
Stephen King - Revival - T 12/01
Bill Bryson - At Home: A Short History of Private Life - M 12/14
Ira Levin - This Perfect Day - F 12/18
^Garrison Keillor - Good Poems - Su 12/20
John F. Kennedy - Profiles in Courage - Su 12/20
You may recall that in 2014 I read my way through Hellboy. In 2015, I moved on to the follow up B.P.R.D.. I'm not going to claim they are the best thing ever, but I enjoyed them enough to read essentially all of them (I think I've missed one the library doesn't have), and I intend to move on to the Hell on Earth series.
After theferrett lent me Scott McCloud's The Sculptor (which made me cry, something that doesn't happen much), he found out I hadn't read Zot! so he forced those on me too. I liked them too.
Speaking of theferrett, he published his first two novels. The 'Mancer series is more or less urban fantasy with a heavy dose of pop culture and a Breaking Bad vibe. I liked them both a great deal, and not just because I got thanked in the credits.
There was the usual run of baseball books. All of the following are worth your time:
- 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game breaks down the business of baseball circa 1982.
- The Glory of Their Times is an oral history of the early days of baseball by the players of the dead ball era.
- The Lords of the Realm is the definitive history of the MLB Player's Union, at least through its release in 1994. I hope there is one day a follow up by the same author about the 1995 strike.
I really enjoyed both War & Peace and Infinite Jest, and discussed them both earlier.
I also read a very large amount of Cormac McCarthy. First I read No Country For Old Men at my sister's house. I'm a little surprised at how faithful the movie was to the book. Then in Europe I picked up a copy of the The Border Trilogy while I was drinking with bart_calendar. I liked all three, but particularly enjoyed All the Pretty Horses. I've now ready seven of McCarthy's ten novels, and found some merit in all seven.
bart_calendar also turned me on to James Ellory. This year I read the Underworld USA Trilogy, which I found to be rather disappointing in comparison to the LA Quartet.
I'm not normally a huge fan of crime fiction, but I read both of JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike novels and found them quite worthwhile. I really like the way his assistant Robin is portrayed. In a similar vein, I was more than a little late to the party, but I knocked off Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which I greatly enjoyed. I understand why they sold so well, but I have no desire to read the new ones that came out.
My unexpected find of the year was a random scifi novel by Dennis Danvers I found in a swap pile in Europe called The Fourth World. I feel the novel's prediction of the future of the internet / virtual reality was is probably prescient while still telling an entertaining story. My other major scifi read was Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, about a seemingly utopian world where everything is planned by a computer. But what happens if you don't fit in and go looking for the people who programmed the computer?
I returned to Bill Bryson. I read his old book The Mother Tongue about the history of the English language, and his new book At Home which uses a tour of Bryson's house as the framing story for a quick jaunt through the history of the home, with all the delightful tangents one expects from Bryson.
Continuing in the pop history vein, Mark Essig's Lesser Beast is a sadly brief history of the man's relationship with the pig. It was fun, and I would have personally enjoyed a more in depth coverage.
I've already read eight books this year, and have many more cued up. As long as there are books, not to mention my subscriptions to The Economist and Smithsonian, I will never be bored.
**Graphic novels are obviously real books, but I don't have a good word to distinguish non graphic novels from graphic novels. Suggestions gratefully accepted.
* = graphic novel
^ = poetry
Italics = favorites
Lewis Grizzard - The Last Bus to Albuquerque - R 1/01
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.1: Hollow Earth & Other Stories - Su 1/04
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.2: The Soul of Venice & Other Stories - Su 1/04
Erik Larson - Thunderstruck - R 1/08
Daniel Okrent - 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game - Su 1/11
*Will Eisner - Fagin the Jew - M 1/12
*Mike Mignola & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.3: Plague of Frogs - S 1/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.4: The Dead - S 1/17
James Ellroy - American Tabloid - S 1/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.5: The Black Flame - S 1/24
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.6: The Universal Machine - S 1/24
Stieg Larsson - The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo - Su 1/25
Rob Neyer - Rob Neyer's Big Book of Baseball Legends - F 1/30
William Nicolson - The Romantic Economist: A Story of Love and Market Forces - M 2/02
Haruki Murakami - The Strange Library - M 2/09
James Ellroy - The Cold Six Thousand - R 2/12
Lawrence S. Ritter - The Glory of Their Times: The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who Played It - T 2/17
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.7: Garden of Souls - W 2/18
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.8: Killing Ground - W 2/18
Neil Gaiman - The Graveyard Book - S 2/28
Randall Munroe - What If? - T 3/03
*Neal Adams & Denny O'Neill - Superman vs. Muhammad Ali - R 3/05
Theodore Thomte - Battles of the Frigate Constitution - Su 3/08
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Played With Fire - Su 3/15
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.10: The Warning - Su 3/15
Stieg Larsson - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest - F 3/27
*Christopher Baldwin - Little Dee Anthology, v.1 - Su 3/29
Joe Hill - Heart-Shaped Box - T 3/31
Michael Pollan - Food Rules: An Eater's Manual - R 4/02
Cormac McCarthy - No Country For Old Men - R 4/02
Brandon Stanton - Humans of New York - F 4/03
Truman Capote - In Cold Blood - S 4/04
Laura Hillenbrand - Unbroken - Su 4/05
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.11: The Black Goddess - W 3/08
Neil Gaiman - Trigger Warning - Su 4/12
Leo Tolstoy (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) - War & Peace - R 4/30
Ferrett Steinmetz - Flex - F 5/08
*Christopher Baldwin - Little Dee Anthology, v.2 - Su 5/10
Jim Benson - Why Plans Fail - F 5/22
*Scott McCloud - The Sculptor - Su 5/24
Kerry Patterson, Joseph Grenny, Ron McMillan, Al Switzler - Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When Stakes Are High - M 5/25
*Mike Mignola, Joshua Dysart, Garbriel Ba, Fabio Moon - B.P.R.D. - 1947 - S 6/13
*Mike Mignola, John Arcudi & Guy Davis - B.P.R.D. v.14: King of Fear - S 6/13
William Shakespeare - The Merry Wives of Windsor - Su 6/14
William Manchester - Goodbye Darkness: A Memoir of the Pacific War - Su 6/28
David Halberstam - The Best and the Brightest - T 6/30
Neal Bascomb - Higher: A Historic Race to the Sky and the Makings of a City - R 7/09
*Mike Mignola & Others - B.P.R.D. v.15: Being Human - M 7/20
Zach Weinersmith & Boulet - Augie & The Green Knight - S 7/25
--- In Europe ---
J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith - The Cuckoo's Calling - R 8/13
Graham Green - The Quiet American - R 8/13
James Lee Burke - Wayfaring Stranger - W 8/19
Louis L'Amour - Tucker - Su 8/23
Louis L'Amour - Over on the Dry Side - Su 8/23
Louis L'Amour - The Shadow Riders - M 8/24
Dennis Danvers - The Fourth World - F 8/28
Clive Cussler - Raise the Titanic! - S 8/29
David Foster Wallace - Infinite Jest - M 8/31
Cormac McCarthy - All the Pretty Horses - R 9/03
Washington Irving - Tales of the Alhambra - S 9/05
Cormac McCarthy - The Crossing - M 9/07
Cormac McCarthy - Cities of the Plain - W 9/09
--- Back From Europe ---
Ferrett Steinmetz - The Flux - Su 10/11
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.1 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.2 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! v.3 - M 10/12
*Scott McCloud - Zot! 1987-1991: The Complete Black & White Collection - T 10/13
J.K. Rowling as Robert Galbraith - The Silkworm - T 10/27
*Mike Mignola & Dave Stewart - Hellboy in Hell, v.1: The Descent - W 10/28
James Ellroy - Blood's A Rover - R 11/12
Mark Essig - Lesser Beasts: A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig - S 11/14
John Helyar - Lords of the Realm: The Real History of Baseball - W 11/18
Bill Bryson - The Mother Tongue: English and How It Got That Way - Su 11/22
Frank Warren - PostSecret: Confessions on Life, Death, and God - M 11/23
Leo Tolstoy (translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky) - Anna Karenina - Su 11/29
Stephen King - Revival - T 12/01
Bill Bryson - At Home: A Short History of Private Life - M 12/14
Ira Levin - This Perfect Day - F 12/18
^Garrison Keillor - Good Poems - Su 12/20
John F. Kennedy - Profiles in Courage - Su 12/20
You may recall that in 2014 I read my way through Hellboy. In 2015, I moved on to the follow up B.P.R.D.. I'm not going to claim they are the best thing ever, but I enjoyed them enough to read essentially all of them (I think I've missed one the library doesn't have), and I intend to move on to the Hell on Earth series.
After theferrett lent me Scott McCloud's The Sculptor (which made me cry, something that doesn't happen much), he found out I hadn't read Zot! so he forced those on me too. I liked them too.
Speaking of theferrett, he published his first two novels. The 'Mancer series is more or less urban fantasy with a heavy dose of pop culture and a Breaking Bad vibe. I liked them both a great deal, and not just because I got thanked in the credits.
There was the usual run of baseball books. All of the following are worth your time:
- 9 Innings: The Anatomy of a Baseball Game breaks down the business of baseball circa 1982.
- The Glory of Their Times is an oral history of the early days of baseball by the players of the dead ball era.
- The Lords of the Realm is the definitive history of the MLB Player's Union, at least through its release in 1994. I hope there is one day a follow up by the same author about the 1995 strike.
I really enjoyed both War & Peace and Infinite Jest, and discussed them both earlier.
I also read a very large amount of Cormac McCarthy. First I read No Country For Old Men at my sister's house. I'm a little surprised at how faithful the movie was to the book. Then in Europe I picked up a copy of the The Border Trilogy while I was drinking with bart_calendar. I liked all three, but particularly enjoyed All the Pretty Horses. I've now ready seven of McCarthy's ten novels, and found some merit in all seven.
bart_calendar also turned me on to James Ellory. This year I read the Underworld USA Trilogy, which I found to be rather disappointing in comparison to the LA Quartet.
I'm not normally a huge fan of crime fiction, but I read both of JK Rowling's Cormoran Strike novels and found them quite worthwhile. I really like the way his assistant Robin is portrayed. In a similar vein, I was more than a little late to the party, but I knocked off Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy, which I greatly enjoyed. I understand why they sold so well, but I have no desire to read the new ones that came out.
My unexpected find of the year was a random scifi novel by Dennis Danvers I found in a swap pile in Europe called The Fourth World. I feel the novel's prediction of the future of the internet / virtual reality was is probably prescient while still telling an entertaining story. My other major scifi read was Ira Levin's This Perfect Day, about a seemingly utopian world where everything is planned by a computer. But what happens if you don't fit in and go looking for the people who programmed the computer?
I returned to Bill Bryson. I read his old book The Mother Tongue about the history of the English language, and his new book At Home which uses a tour of Bryson's house as the framing story for a quick jaunt through the history of the home, with all the delightful tangents one expects from Bryson.
Continuing in the pop history vein, Mark Essig's Lesser Beast is a sadly brief history of the man's relationship with the pig. It was fun, and I would have personally enjoyed a more in depth coverage.
I've already read eight books this year, and have many more cued up. As long as there are books, not to mention my subscriptions to The Economist and Smithsonian, I will never be bored.
**Graphic novels are obviously real books, but I don't have a good word to distinguish non graphic novels from graphic novels. Suggestions gratefully accepted.