Books of the Year lists 2015

And now, our annual round-up of Books of the Year features in the press and on some blogs, for your reading delectation.

This list will be regularly updated in the lead-up to Christmas, and build up steadily.


Previous lists are here: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014. 

1.  The Irish Times has The Year in Books - what have the writers been reading in 2015?  Colm Tóibín’s excellent On Elizabeth Bishop (a poet we often study for the Leaving Certificate) is mentioned by Eavan Boland and Neil Hegarty. Joseph O'Connor includes in his selection Louise O'Neill's Asking for It (see below, passim) and Donal Ryan's new books of short stories, A Slanting of the Sun (we will be studying The Spinning Heart with Fifth Form in January).
2. Eileen Battersby in the IT has 30 Highlights in Fiction for the year, with a lot of translated novels, including June by the excellent Gerbrand Bakker and one of our own books of the year, A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler. In her non-fiction selection there is A Stranger in my Country by the interesting Hans Fallada.
3. Also in the Irish Times, that long-serving expert Robert Dunbar recommends '30 great books for children and teenagers'. He mentions the latest from John Boyne, The Boy at the Top of the Mountain, as 'chilling and intense.
4. In the Irish Independent, John Boland recommends fiction, starting with strong books from Irish authors, including the amazing Edna O'Brien, who at 85 has written The Little Red Chairs. 'The great and the good' choose their best books of the year as well, with Keelin Shanley at the top of the list for one of our own choices, the slim but resonant A Whole Life by Robert Seethaler.
5. The go-to list of children's books of the year is the annual round-up by Susan Thomsen in Chicken Spaghetti.
6.  The New York Times's 'Notable' books of the year are here for children and adults, including in the latter the latest from the spectacularly talented Irish writer Kevin Barry, Beatlebone, winner recently of the Goldsmiths' Prize.
7.  The New York Times Sunday Book review chooses its Ten Best Books of 2015, including the much-noticed selection of short stories by Lucia Berlin, A Manual for Cleaning Women.
8. The NYT also asks 'What's the best book, new or old, you read this year?' Zoe Heller goes for the terrific Mafia story Excellent Cadavers by Alexander Stille.
9.  The Guardian's authors books of the year is in two parts: in the first, Julian Barnes is "still puzzling over why Colm Tóibín’s fine novel Nora Webster failed to win a major literary prize in 2015" and in the second Mariella Frostrup recommends Barnes's own collection of essay about art, Keeping an Eye Open. Tóibín recommends one of our own favourites, James Shapiro's 1606: Shakespeare and the Year of Lear.
10. The Guardian's Best Books of the Year lists are in many categories, gathered together on this page: Music, Politics, Science Fiction and Fantasy, Crime and Thrillers, Fiction, Food, Paperbacks. Nicholas Lezard, who compiled the last of these, always has interesting choices, and this year he notes the promising-sounding Wake Up, Sir! by Jonathan Ames, a (reprint) modern update of Wodehouse, which is 'either extremely funny or extremely sad'.
11. The Guardian's publisher feature is always worth reading: books 'they loved, missed or envied', with Paul Baggaley of Picador wishing he had published Irish writer Sara Baume's much-praised Spill Simmer Falter Wither (best title of the year)? from Tramp Press.
12. The Daily Telegraph's Best Young Adult Books by Martin Chilton seems to feature a lot of 3/5 star books but rightly gives five stars to a recent visitor to SCC, Louise O'Neill, whose Asking For It is "a brave and important book about rape culture, sexism and victim-blaming in modern society", and which has "an ending that is as pititful as it is honest."
13. The School Library Journal 'Best of' page is always one of the best guides to children's literature. It is divided by age, with sections also for Apps, Latino books, audiobooks, graphic novels and more.  Best Adult Books for Teens is a useful list, including Joyce Carol Oates's The Sacrifice, which shares some concerns with Louise O'Neill's Asking For It.
14. The Washington Post's lists include mystery, graphic novels, poetry, romance,audio and science/fiction fantasy. In their top 10 picks are the much-noted novel A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. There is also notable non-fiction (Henry Marsh's fascinating Do No Harm was the first pick of our recent staff book club meeting) and notable fiction, including Kazuo Ishiguro's A Buried Giant, which has puzzled some.
15. The Herald in Scotland has lots of lists for younger readers, such as best picture books, and adult reading choices by 50 leading Scottish literary figures. The poet Liz Lochhead goes for Don Paterson's 40 Sonnets, which 'blow the whole form apart'. This overlaps with another list from Scotland's 'most influential people'. 
16. In the Observer's Best Novels of 2015 Alex Preston says that Marlon James's Booker Prize-winning A Brief History of Seven Killings is 'the best winning novel since Alan Hollinghurst's A Line of Beauty in 2004'. In Best Biographies Robert McCrum identifies Charles Moore's superb Margaret Thatcher biography, now in its second volume, excellently-titled Everything She Wants, which McCrum is 'even more impressive than its predecessor' and 'spellbinding'.
17. The Times Literary Supplement has a selection online of choices by critics and writers: Clive James goes for Niall MacMonagle's Windharp: Poems of Ireland since 1916 (just arrived in our Library), calling it 'a landmark book'.
18. Largehearted Boy has a huge annual aggregation of lists here.
19. The Boston Globe's Best Books of 2015 are in six categories. In fiction, a favourite: Keny Haruf's last short novel, Our Souls at Night. Irish novelist Paul Murray appears with his banking comedy The Mark and the Void.
20. The Seattle Times critics' best books of 2015 features 16 works in both fiction and non-fiction, including Don Winslow's 'brutal, bloody and horrifying' The Cartel, which appears in several other lists. American readers are just catching up on Helen Macdonald's award-winning H is for Hawk, too.
21. The Sunday Times in South Africa has a selection by their own reviewers, with more recommendations for the Macdonald.
22. The Australian Huffington Post's Best 18 Fiction Books of 2015 has an interesting selection, with few predictable choices. Joy Williams's short story collection, The Visiting Privilege, sounds promising.
23. Huffington Post has 10 Best Young Adult Books; 'best debut novel' is First & Then by Emma Mills, with 'Jane Austen references' in a football town. And also 20 Notable Non-Fiction Books You Might Have Missed, such as Yo, Miss, a (literally) graphic telling of a teacher's time at a 'New York City second chance school'.
24. Regular reviewers from The Spectator look at both the best and most over-rated books of 2015, including Ian Thomson on Neurotribes, 'a superb amalgam of social history and contemporary reportage', which is just right. The great Jan Morris goes for another of the also-great Joseph Roth's writings, The Hotel Years.
25. Time magazine has various lists, counting down its fiction list with an author not much-mentioned elsewhere, Louis de Bernieres, with The Dust That Falls from Dreams. Kamel Daoud's The Meursalt Investigation, a response to Camus, is getting a lot of positive notice. And in non-fiction, Stacy Schiff's The Witches sounds really good. Top Young Adult and Children's Books (a dubious lumping together) includes Jennifer Niven's popular novel All the Bright Places.
26. Quill and Quire from Canada have 2015: Kids' Books of the Year, such as Alan Stratton's 'intricate and truly creepy' psychological thriller The Dogs. Their Books of the Year feature includes The Social Life of Ink by Ted  Bishop, a history of ballpoint pens. Yes, please. There are 13 more 'notable books' on another list.
27. The World Travel Guide's best books of the year extend beyond travel, but Down to the Sea in Ships by Horatio Clare, winner of the Stanford Travel Book of the Year Award, looks promising.
28. The San Francisco Chronicle has Writers' Favorite Books. Anthony Doerr, writer of the much-acclaimed All The Light We Cannot See, recommends Jim Shepherd's The Book of Aron, calling it 'distressing, moving, absorbing' and more besides. 
29. Atlantic Magazine has The Best Book I Read in 2015. Lauren Cassani Davis goes back to an earlier book by the late Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars, and makes you want to start re-reading this distinguished author.
30. The New Statesman has best children's books, selected by Amanda Craig. Emerald Fennell's Monsters sounds fun. 
31. Vanity Fair goes for Best Books for Gifting ... and Hoarding (in other words, for others or for yourself). Patti Smith's much-noticed M Train gets there in the category 'best books to give someone you've never met' (interesting, buy why?).
32. Printers' Row in the Chicago Tribune selects ten from what it calls 'a great year for books'.
33. The Vancouver Sun book reviewers' choice is yet another to include Elena Ferrante's The Story of the Lost Child, the fourth in her Neapolitan series, which might well be the most-mentioned book of the year.
34. The Wall Street Journal has top fiction and non-fiction of the year, neatly presented by cover, and also Who Read What, such as Gillian Anderson (Helen Garner's gripping House of Grief, which is indeed like the podcast Serial).
35. The London Independent, as usual, has many lists, such as Literary Fiction of the Year (such as the much-mentioned and apparently puzzling The Buried Giant by Kazuo Ishiguro, a real 'Marmite-book', it seems), Poetry Books of the Year, Sci-Fi Books of the Year and Paperbacks of the Year.
36. The Daily Beast has Best Fiction of 2015: the first one, Finale by Thomas Mallon, a novel of the Reagan years, looks good value.  Also, Best Photograph Books.
37. Books and Culture has a selection from John Wilson, including Stacy Schiff's book on the Salem witch trials.
38. The New Yorker's annual feature, Books We Loved, is always a contender for Pseud's Corner, and there are a few giggles this year again - but also, of course, plenty which is of genuine interest. Alexis Okeowo goes back to Barbara Demmick's powerful account of North Korea, Nothing to Envy.
39. The English and Media Centre has a good list of 40ish Great Reads, for pupils and for teachers, including The Fisherman, Chigozie Obiama's well-received novel.
40. The indefatigible Maria Popova of Brain Pickings has Best Science Books (including her favourite, the late Oliver Sacks), Best Children's Books (with fabulous illustrations - see JooHee Yoon's stunning-looking Beastly Verse) and Best Art Books.
41. The Sydney Morning Herald has Children's Books of the Year and A Year of Reading Wonderfully: what writers recommend for the holidays, with plenty of interesting choices: Alexis Wright has delved deep into the excellent nature writer Robert Macfarlane.
42. Scott Pack always has interesting choices: his 2015 Top Five has at Number 1 Our Souls at Night by the late great Kent Haruf: "It is a masterpiece of restraint. A novel with space and absence within its very prose. It is also a most beautiful love story. A short novel that is as close to perfect as you are likely to get."
43. The Millions has a great series of 'The Year in Reading' by lots of writers. Nick Ripatrazone is an English teacher, and recommends New American Stories.
44. For nature and general science books, no better place to go than Nature magazine, with its Top 20: a year of reading immersively (the best way).
45. Paste magazine has 30 Best Fiction Books of 2015, such as The Rocks, a novel set in Mallorca by Peter Nicholas, and also 30 Best Young Adult Books.
46. Electric Literature's Best Non-Fiction Books of 2015 include the much-noticed Ta-Nehisi Coates's Between the World and Me, his 'reflections on social and systemic racism' and they also have Best Short Story Collections, including The Visiting Privilege by Joy Williams, which 'might have been the best book of the year'.
47. The Economist's list's prime focus is non-fiction, such as the excellent Mary Beard's new history of Rome, SPQR.
48. GQ magazine's choice includes Maggie Nelson's much-mentioned The Argonauts, and a photo essay by Doug DuBois of adolescents in 's southern Irish town, My Last Day at Seventeen.
49. Schools Week's Books of the Year include one of our own, John Tomsett's This Much I Know About Love Over Fear.
50. Hypable's selection, made by staff, includes Jon Ronson's scary So You've Been Publicly Shamed, 'a must-read for the majority of us who are now, whether we like it or not, citizens of the internet'.
51. The Houston Chronicle has 15 Notable Books of 2015, such as the year's big noise, Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman.
52. The excellent Poetry Foundation has a staff choice, with lots of interesting ideas.
53. John Self's Asylum blog has 'Twelve from the Shelves', such as Claire-Louise Bennett's Pond, and Gavin Corbett's Green Glowing Skulls: 'in a year of strange books, this is the most cracked of the lot'.
54. David Hebblethwaite at David's Book World shares John Self's enthusiasm for Han Kang's The Vegetarian, 'an extraordinary experience'. Per Olov Enquist's The Wandering Pine sounds interesting, too.
55. The Chicago Reader has All the Books We Liked in 2015, with The Breakbeat Poets the only choice in the Poetry category.

Books of the Year 2015

And now for our own selection of top books of interest published this year. Click here for our annual summary of all those other lists in newspapers, magazines, blogs and more.

• Louise O'Neill came to the College in October to read from her latest novel, Asking for It, and had a big impact, prompting much discussion in the weeks following her visit. Asking For It is important, gripping and (understandably) depressing in its examination of the intersection of misogyny, sexual assault and the online world. Read it.
• Robert Seethaler's very different A Whole Life is just out in paperback in English, translated from German. Rooted in a vividly-recreated Alpine valley over decades, it does just what the title promises, covering the entire life of a man with tenderness and respect.
• One for (mostly) teachers: John Tomsett's This Much I Know About Love Over Fear: creating a culture of truly great teaching is full of profoundly good sense, a tonic in an educational world which can seem shadowed by utilitarianism and excessive measurement. And it's also full of human interest and great stories.
• Anthony Wilson's collection Lifesaving Poems really comes from the same humane well as Tomsett's book. Read our review here of this wonderful selection with a wonderful commentary on each poem.
• And finally, our book of the year, not too surprisingly from a blog which has Shakespeare as its 'branding' is ... James Shapiro's 1606: William Shakespeare and the Year of Lear. Shapiro wears his deep learning lightly: this is a stunning account of an amazing year (Lear, Macbeth, Antony and Cleopatra, plague, Gunpowder Plot!), and Shapiro does it full justice as a literary critic, historian and story-teller. He's 'done' 1599 already: there are plenty more years, James...

Guys and Dolls

 The recent excellent production of Guys and Dolls, this year's College Musical, is here reviewed by Fifth Former Courtney McKee:

Walking into the BSR, all that greeted the audience was a silhouette of a city skyline on a plain white sheet. The empty stage seemed to yearn for colour, for the hustle and bustle of New York streets. Where was the noise, the chaos, the yellow cabs? This was Guys and Dolls, right? However, the simplicity of the stage did not foreshadow what was to unfold. The set, it soon became clear, was mere respite from the vibrancy of the costumes, music, and of course actors.

Guys and Dolls has delighted audiences since its premiere on Broadway in 1950, and SCC Drama’s production was no exception. Under the skilful stage direction of Ronan Swift and Tristan Clarke, a handsome collection of put-together, well-dressed, shirt-tucked-in boarding school students were transformed into a ragtag band of petty innercity criminals. Fedoras and Brooklyn accents abounded. The actors pulled off 1940s gangsters well, led by Harry Oke-Osanyintula and Alex Russell as Nicely-Nicely Johnson and Benny Southstreet respectively. Playing off each other’s energy, the pair elevated each scene with their vigour and near Broadway-esque musicality.

It seemed to be the songs, directed by musical producer Geraldine Malone Brady, which really captured the audience’s heart. Tunes like ‘Sue Me’ and ‘Sit Down, You’re Rocking the Boat’ echoed through St Columba’s halls for days. A particular favourite was ‘I’ve Never Been in Love Before’, a duet between the gambler Sky Masterson, played by Max Hillery, and Mission Leader Sarah Brown, played by Robyn Brady. It wasn’t only the romance of the scene, which would’ve made the strongest of men go ‘aww’, it was also the execution of the notes and compatibility of their voices that really struck. It sounded beautiful, with just a touch of rawness that added to the sentiment of the scene.

Far from the nervous uncertainty of blossoming love was the fourteen year-old engagement of Nathan Detroit, played by MJ McCullough, and Miss Adelaide, played by Ciana Taylor. They were the picture of domestic discord. The ‘reluctant boyfriend trying to appease his eager girlfriend without actually doing what she wants’ thing was down pat. Shrill, nasal, and yet endearing, Ciana Taylor’s portrayal of the eccentrically desperate Miss Adelaide earned her the deserved spot of standout performer of the production.

It doesn’t matter how it’s dressed up. It could be a white sheet or an entire replica of 42nd Street. However one chooses to do it, Guys and Dolls is good pure entertainment. Witty dialogue, droll characterization, and Big Jule from Chicago (James O’Connor) never fail. The right amount of opportune one-liners and dance numbers makes any play enjoyable, it’s a straight fact. Since 1950, Guys and Dolls has been a great way to spend a Saturday night and it sure is now.

Claire Keegan on writing

TY Book recommendations: Hesse & Dicker

Pia Zulauf recommends Hermann Hesses's Siddhartha:

"Hermann Hesse represents in the legend of Siddhartha a man, who frees himself from family and social conventions, but also rejects any dogma and finds its own way. This leads away from his scholarly father through a long time of searching and getting lost and ends up in nature - at a river as the symbol of permanence and change. The book is a plea against slavery and adaptation. Siddhartha was really impressive for me and gave me a lot of stuff to think about. I would recommend it to anybody who is interested in the sipiritual topic of self discovery."

Ivan Moffitt recommends Joel Dicker's The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair:

"This book is a thoroughly enjoyable read. With over a thousand pages some may be quite skeptical to start with but I managed to read it in three days, just to give you an idea of its quality. It is about a journalist who decides to investigate his life-long friend's murder case because he believes him when he says he's innocent. He ends up caught in the whirlpool of the Somerset murder case. The story follows three or four intertwined smaller stories that seem to have no connection but end up with complete relevance to each other with so many twists."

Digital Platform for Contemporary Irish Writing

An article in the Irish Times on Saturday highlights an excellent new website and resource for students, the Digital Platform for Contemporary Irish Writing from the School of English at UCD. Margaret Kelleher, Chair of Anglo-Irish literature and Drama at UCD, explains: 

"As our team members write on our blog, this is a “platform” and not simply a website or a resource, because we intend it to act as a springboard for interested parties – writers, publishers, academics and readers – to discuss how the richness and diversity of contemporary Irish writing can best be made known at home and abroad"

So worth checking out are the pages on two of the texts we are studying for the Leaving Certificate comparative module:

• Foster by Claire Keegan
• The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

and much more.

TY Books: Green, Picoult

Sasha Cole recommends Looking for Alaska by John Green, which she has read for her Extended Essay:

"Looking for Alaska is about a teenage boy named Miles who moves to a boarding school in Alabama. He soon falls for Alaska, one of his best friends who is mysterious and has a unfortunate past. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because I think it showed what young people can get up to, how they pull pranks on each other, and relationships in a boarding school. I found I could relate to some of the characters in this book especially since I have been in a boarding school since I was 11. I would recommend this book because the characters are interesting as they all have different sides to each of them. I couldn't put this book down, it made me laugh and there was always something happening."

And Kate Bewley recommends My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult:

"I would recommend this book because it is not like my other book that I am doing, It has a twist to it. It is about a girl called Sarah  who sues her parents for the rights of her own body because she donates her organs to her sick sister Kate, but one of the twists is that  Kate asks her to because she feels bad.  And the book is about how the parents deal with being sued. I think that it is such a great book because it is very different to all the other cancer books. I would definitely recommend it."

TY books: Winman, Christie

This morning we resumed term, and Transition Year have two weeks of intense writing ahead of them for their Extended Essays. Here are two more short recommendtions based on their reading.

Sofiya Finageeva has read When God was a Rabbit by Sarah Winman:
"I was really impressed with this book. The author wanted to show us different sides of love, and  the different ways to express it. It shows us that friendship, family relationships, having a pet - they are all kinds of love, and we have to work on them, to make these relationships stronger. It tells us about what the friendship can be, and, in my opinion, should be. The girl's story in the book was funny, sweet and sometimes really sad. It tells us about her attempts to overcome difficulties. I was crying a few times while I was reading this book. It is a beautiful book and there are lots of things to think about. I would recommend this book".

Eva Perez Sanchez read Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie:
"Do you like detective, crime, and mystery novels? Then you should read this novel. Also, if your first language is not English, like me, then this is also a good book for you.

The book is set in England, in the early nineteen hundreds, most of the time in a train. From the moment you start to read it, you can appreciate a mysterious atmosphere, with a couple of strange glances between characters. The novel tells of an adventure with Hercule Poirot as the main character, during a trip to England by train, where he found a very strange death, with a lot of suspects with very strong alibis, and it seems that anyone could have committed the crime.

I really recommend this book because I think it is one of the best books I have ever read, and you can get into the story as if you were there. All the characters, alibis, unexpected problems, make you see what is happening. I really like the end, because you would never imagine how it would turn out. And also, the brilliance of Agatha Christie to write this kind of novels and the intelligence of Poirot just make you love this book."