Let’s face it: there’s no way this is going to be a definitive list of the best books of 2015. There were too many books that came out this year and too few reviewers to read them all. Plus, there are some books you’re just more interested in reviewing than others, either because you have definite preferences in authors or genres or because you’re more willing to accept certain recommendations than others.
Was 2015 an unusually good year for books? Or is our reluctance to trash too many books a sign of the ongoing decline of literary culture, a sad reversal of the days when writers and critics would get into fistfights at cocktail parties? Or so I’ve been told. I cannot imagine people who sit behind desks all day are very adept at fisticuffs, especially if there’s alcohol involved.
FICTION
Captain Underpants and the Sensational Saga of Sir Stinks-a-Lot by Dav PilkeyFear of Dying by Erica JongThe Ghost Network by Catie DisabatoThe Girl in the Spider’s Web by David LagercrantzIn the Unlikely Event by Judy BlumeI Will Love You for the Rest of My Life: Breakup Stories by Michael CzyzniejewskiMarvel and a Wonder by Joe MenoThe Physics of Sorrow by Georgi GospodinovSingle, Carefree, Mellow by Katherine Heiny
POETRY
Breakbeat Poets: New American Poetry in the Age of Hip Hop ed. by Kevin Coval, Quraysh Ali Lansana, and Nate Marshall
