by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
The lists of the best books of 2015 have been coming out
this month. I love to compare the lists
to our library’s collection, and this year we seem to have most of them. I think it’s especially important to notice
those books that are included on more than one list, because it’s all so
subjective. Following are some of the
books that have made more than one best-of-2015 list that we have in the
Litchfield Library collection.
The novel Did You Ever Have a Family was included on
Library Journal’s and Amazon’s lists of the best books of the year. This is the first novel from author Bill
Clegg, although he has published two memoirs previously. This book about a horrible family tragedy on
the day of a wedding, and the aftermath, was long-listed for the Man Booker
Prize and widely praised. It was also
criticized by a few reviewers. It appears
that whether you appreciate the book depends on whether you want much of a
plot, and whether you find the writing style profound or clichéd. It is certainly a very dark and sad novel
about loss.
Between the World and Me is a memoir by Ta-Nehisi Coates, written
as a letter to his teenage son. It was
included on at least four major lists of this year’s best, and it won the National Book Award for nonfiction. It has also
been a number one bestseller and in demand in our library system. Coates writes about what it means to be black
in America. He addresses the legacy of
slavery, tells stories about his growing-up years, and shares the development
of his opinion that race is an artificial construct. Coates is a national
correspondent for The Atlantic.
Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff has been chosen by Amazon
as its book of the year. It was a finalist
for the National Book Award for fiction, and it is on other lists of the best of 2015. This novel is a complex portrait of a
marriage gone wrong, told by both parties.
The pair are glamorous, talented, and passionately in love, but not
everything is as it appears.
Erik Larson’s newest book is Dead Wake: The Last Crossing of the Lusitania. It has been included
on a couple of the major best-of lists this year, which is no surprise for a
book by Larson, the bestselling author of The Devil in the White City and In
the Garden of Beasts. This one is
narrative nonfiction like the other two, telling a piece of history like a
dramatic story instead of like a textbook.
You probably remember that the Lusitania was a passenger ship sunk by
the Germans during World War I, but you probably don’t know the story like it
is told in this book.
H is for Hawk is a book that blends memoir and nature
writing in a way that has reviewers lavishing praise on it, calling it
“breathtaking,” “captivating,” and “dazzling.”
It has been included on a number of those year-end lists of the best
books. British author Helen MacDonald
lost her father suddenly and turned to her love of falconry to deal with her
grief. She decided to train a dangerous type
of bird, a goshawk, using The Once and Future King author T.H. White’s book The Goshawk to guide her. National Geographic says it is “one of the
most riveting encounters between a human being and an animal ever
written.”
When you’re trying to find something wonderful among the hundreds
of thousands of traditional print books published each year (not counting
self-published and e-books), these best-books lists can be a helpful way of finding
something of quality. So many books, so
little time!
