KN Reads: Best Books of 2015

Last year I did a challenge on Goodreads to read 52 books: one a week for the entire year. I ended up reading 61. The thought of having a timeline to read a book made me hurry on and sparked the biggest year of binge-reading I’ve had since university.

I read some great books and some truly terrible ones, but here’s my list of the best books I read in 2015. These are in no particular order since I couldn’t do a countdown – I love them all for very different reasons.

Let’s Pretend This Never Happened

by Jenny Lawson

People have been telling me to read The Bloggess’s books for a long time so I popped one on my Amazon wishlist and out it came on Christmas eve. I read it within a couple of days, laughing out loud every few pages. Jenny Lawson is funny and clever, unique in the way she writes and illuminates the various bizarre moments in her life.

Even better, she portrays her struggle with mental illness in a way I haven’t seen before: compassionate and understanding, yet still starkly funny. Having a mental illness isn’t fun but there are moments that, with the right retelling, can be amusing. Jenny Lawson does this without mocking anything for a moment.

Moloka’i

by Alan Brennert

The tale of a young girl sent to what was then known as a leper colony in Hawai’i, Moloka’i is a quiet sort of epic. It follows the girl through her lonely childhood and her strange, confusing teenage years. It takes us right up to her old age, all the while introducing a cast of sparkling characters whose tales are just as important.

See my full review here.

Welcome to Night Vale

by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

If you haven’t listened to the Welcome to Night Vale podcast, well, you’re missing out. I don’t know how many more times I can say it. WTNV is smart, funny, and completely surreal. My favourite!

The book is different to the podcast; it doesn’t follow Cecil’s life or the town’s bizarre circumstances. Instead it follows two other characters through a small but touching tale that unfolds into some excellent backstory for the podcast. It’s dark and weird.

See my full review here.

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel

Oh, this book. How to find the words for something written so beautifully you can forget you’re following the apocalypse? Station Eleven is on a whole range of best-of lists this year and so it should be. The only problem is explaining what the story is about without misrepresenting it.

When I’ve mentioned it to others they’ve said “oh, that’s the book about the travelling musicians after the apocalypse, isn’t it?” which, yes, it is. Sort of. It’s also about the virus that wipes out humanity and how people survived it (or didn’t). It’s about how so many lives can tangle in the most unusual ways until they converge around an unlikely thing: a spoiler, but it’s related to the title of the book. It’s full of beauty and quiet horror, and I’m already tempted to re-read it just from writing this.

See my full review here.

Paladin

by Sally Slater

One of the earlier books I read this year, but it still sticks in my mind. Paladin follows Sam of Haywood who dresses up in masculine clothing to achieve her ambitions of becoming a Paladin. Not a new plot, no, but it is executed in a fun and touching way.

Though it’s not the deepest read you’ll find on this list, it definitely earned its place on the top ten books last year. I can’t wait for the sequel.

See my full review here.

Dead Wake

by Erik Larson

I’ve recommended this book to everyone who stands still long enough. The only non-fiction on this list, it’s about the Lusitania, a ship that was sunk by German submarines during the First World War. Sounds boring? You’d be surprised. Dead Wake takes an old tragedy and turns it into an excellent snapshot of the world of the time, while still keeping it personal as you see the lives of those involved.

Unsurprisingly this book has been popping up on best-of lists all over the place. It’s sharp and fascinating, and not nearly as dry as many books focusing on the Great War. You don’t need to care about military history to read this book: all you need is compassion for those involved.

The Book of Speculation

by Erika Swyler

Simon Watson, a librarion, finds a fascinating old book documenting the life and times of a circus troop. As his life begins to unravel he finds a link to his past between the books and hunts it down to save the life of his sister: he believes a curse will cause her to drown on her next birthday, as many generations of women in his family have done before.

A complicated, beautiful story, The Book of Speculation is especially apt for someone (like me) who grew up with the sea spray battering their windows. The touch of magic just makes it even better.

See my full review here.

Americanah

by Chimimanda Ngozi Adichie

Whenever I try to explain what I love about Adichie’s writing I never know where to start. She creates fully-realised, three-dimensional characters who walk through the world as clear as you or I, then forces you to watch as they struggle to find their sense of self in a mixed up world. Alongside her tendency for cutting lines that stick with you for a long time, Adichie is a talented storyteller.

Americanah is a long book, and it is dense. It took me a long time to read it. Yet at no point did I want to stop, even as I read other books between chapters to lighten the load. Following Ifemelu as she struggles to fit in both in her native Nigeria and her adopted homeland of America, you never want her story to end, even when the harsh light shone on race relations make you flinch.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Not much happens in this book. At least, no grand disasters hit, no end-of-the-world, no meteorites or magic. Yet the scope of this coming of age tale is enormous. Ari and Dante meet at a pool as teenage boys, both uncertain and growing too fast. They become best friends and share the strange adolescent time together, trying to find their places in the world.

Soon it becomes clear that their place is together, but that’s not an easy realisation for any couple, let alone two young men. The way their lives combine is touching and sometimes sad, and I’ve already re-read parts of this book for the beauty of the prose.

The Mirror Empire/Empire Ascendant

by Kameron Hurley

Okay, okay, I cheated! This is two books. Yet they share a spot on the list because I read them both this year and they’re the same series so it totally counts. Plus they are amazing, important books and I get a little twist of excitement every time I think of them.

Kameron Hurley crafts a world where the powerful magic is dependent on which star sits in the sky. When things begin to go wrong, people begin talking of the most dangerous star, Oma, which hasn’t been seen for thousands of years. As it rises it draws the worlds too close together and people begin to pass between them, bringing war and chaos in their wake.

Trying to narrow down why these books are so impressive is difficult, but the way Hurley dismantles and rebuilds our understanding of gender and sexuality so effortlessly is a big part of it. Instead of sticking to our narrow social perception of gender she creates a world with endless and sometimes uncomfortable variety, and at no point is that the focus of the plot. There’s something special about that.

See my full review of Empire Ascendant here.

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There! Ten (okay, eleven) books that meant a lot to me this year. I’m not including any re-reads, otherwise there would be at least five Harry Potter books on the list (and at least one Discworld).

Have you read any of the books on the list? What’s the best book you’ve read this year? Seriously, tell me. I’m trying to read 75 books in 2016 so I’m going to need the inspiration.

KN Reads: Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley

Empire Ascendant

by Kameron Hurley

There is something about picking up the second in a series. You already know you like the concept or you wouldn’t bother to continue, but this time it’s different. The story has to hold up not only to its internal standard but to your memories of the first book and it takes a skilled author to manage that. Luckily Kameron Hurley counts as a skilled author and in Empire Ascendant she unravels the story into something even bigger without once dropping the thread.

For you poor souls who haven’t picked up the first of the Worldbreaker series (The Mirror Empire), it is set in a multiverse where the worlds are dominated by stars in the sky that switch and change over time. Each one brings changes with its ascent and each one gives power to a certain group of people. When the most destructive and rarest star, Oma, begins its ascent the worlds are drawn closer together and the barriers grow thin. Those in dying worlds begin their attempt to conquer another to keep their kind going past all odds. Through a select group of varied characters we are shown through the complexities of war and loyalty from people trying to achieve their conflicting goals.

That’s what sets this book apart: complexity. Whether you’re talking about the unusual gender constructs between the different cultures or about the many motivations for slaughter and mercy, Empire Ascendant has you covered. Nothing is dumbed down. No morality is considered superior to another; they merely exist and are portrayed through the struggles of characters that cannot truly be taken as good or bad.

In other words, it feels real. Even with the stars and the magic and the windows between worlds, the characters are believable, though they are not comfortable.

Take Zezili. By far the most interesting character in the books so far, she is a horrible person. She abuses her husband in her chauvinistic entitlement. She is sexist to the lesser gender of men (brutally portrayed as weak in her culture, and even forced into girdles to keep their narrow hips). She has slaughtered countless slaves and others with no qualms. Yet although you may not agree with her methods, you understand her reasoning and want her to survive. Though I would hate to meet her down a dark alley she is an excellent mirror into a person twisted by circumstance and privilege.

Zezili and her husband twist ordinary fantasy sexism on its head. With a strong, violent wife and a weak, submissive husband it would be easy within the context of our culture to play them for laughs, but Kameron Hurley never does. The characters are not caricatures. They have motivations and conflict within themselves and are both doing the best they can in a rigid gendered society.

Though some people have decried the first book as sexist I believe that’s too narrow a view. Nothing in these books is given a moral judgment; it is portrayed as it would be in reality, often giving you some insight into how we in our own world view gender without shoving it too far down your throat. It’s a fascinating way to get new viewpoints across and never in my life would I have thought a gender neutral character might get hir own chapters. It is refreshing and should be celebrated, especially when it is done so well.

Usually I would have problems keeping up with so many characters; like A Song of Ice and Fire by George R. R. Martin the chapters switch between characters and cities and worlds, but it’s never hard to follow. It is always a smooth transition even with the added characters of the second book. If you’re a fan of intense fantasy with an impressive death toll, Empire Ascendant by Kameron Hurley is the book for you.  Good news! It’s out in October, so preorder it now.

KN Reads: Welcome to Night Vale

Welcome to Night Vale

by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor

One of the famous features of the WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE podcast is that the weather (always a song) interrupts the climax of the plot, meaning we see the lead up and hear the aftermath but rarely the conflict in the middle. It’s a device that works well on the podcast and it made me wonder how a book would work with our limited technology that does not allow a song to surge out from the paper at just the right moment.

Another thing I was worried (No. Not worried; concerned.) about was how it would feel to follow the characters of Night Vale without Cecil’s dulcet tones. The narrator is a huge part of the popularity of the Welcome to Night Vale podcast so it was unclear how it would carry across without his sinister enthusiasm.

Turns out neither of those worries (concerns) were rooted in reality, much like Night Vale itself.

Cecil makes an appearance between chapters, meaning the story never feels lacking his presence even if he is not directly embroiled in the drama. The story builds up and up without ever feeling deflated, and the aftermath is wonderful.

The story follows the separate and then not-so-separate lives of Diane and Jackie who become tied up in a mystery around an omnipresent man named Troy and, of course, the man with the deer-skin suitcase. As they both attempt to claw their way to some kind of sense in a nonsensical existence they grow and learn

Just like the podcast there are strange moments that make you want to crawl beneath your bed entwined with moments of poignancy which subtly shift the way you see your own world. If this seems too much for a silly drama about a time-confused town and its bizarre residents, you obviously haven’t been listening to the podcast. It’s the only fictional universe I’ve found that accurately represents that eerie, off-centre feeling of a bad dream and makes you enjoy it.

For those unlucky few who haven’t had the chance to listen to the WELCOME TO NIGHT VALE podcast, here is your chance to delve into the surreal world that has captured imaginations everywhere. If you are one of the many who has already discovered the podcast, the book is a wonderful companion piece. Either way you need to get this book.

Originally posted here on Goodreads.