Review of 2015

Bibliodyssey managed to continue to produce a post most weeks in 2015, including reviews of 48 books read, my choices only slightly skewed by attempting, and with a few minutes to spare achieving, the Popsugar reading challenge for the year. From the titles reviewed the following dozen are picked out as the books of my reading year and so are particularly recommended (full review in bracketed month).

General Fiction:

Heart Shaped Box – Joe Hill (May) – Well constructed horror where the action only pauses to heighten the next twist in the spiral of terror.

The Girl with a Clock for a Heart – Peter Swanson (Aug) – Impressive debut novel where a blast from the past puts the hero in unfamiliar and violent territory.

A Day at the Office – Matt Dunn (Sep) – Frothy and funny account of Valentine’s Day as experienced by six work colleagues each with issues to resolve.

Raven Black – Ann Cleeves (Oct) – Atmospherically set in Shetland where the local DI tries to unravel two murders, one current and one historic.

Books for serious readers:

Bring up the Bodies – Hilary Mantel (Feb) – Thomas Cromwell’s career continues in this follow-up to Wolf Hall, equally brilliant and with less confusing pronoun usage.

Started Early, Took My Dog – Kate Atkinson (May) – Richly layered mystery featuring the familiar but still incompletely charted Jackson Brodie.

Harvest – Jim Crace (Jun) – Lyrical tale set in a village undefined in space and time as the microcosm undergoes seismic change.

Cloud Atlas – David Mitchell (Aug) – Ingeniously strung together set of six stories written in different styles/genres to produce a masterpiece of writing.

Short Stories:

Stone Mattress – Margaret Atwood (Aug) – Mature work from the author, with the focus on men and women in their later, but darkly fascinating, years.

Nonfiction:

The Railway Man – Eric Lomax (Apr) – Understated but heartrending account of one man’s PoW experience and its legacy of withdrawal, rediscovery and redemption.

Persepolis – Marjane Satrapi (Dec) – Graphic (literally) account of a spirited young girl’s experience of growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran.