It’s January, it’s finally cold, it’s time to get a new read with those book tokens you just got for Christmas. In what amounts to my best of 2015 reads – without limiting myself to books released last year – here is a list that you could do worse than pick up from. Of course, once you’ve picked them up and read them, feel free to proceed to tell me I was wrong, that they’re terrible, that they’re way too niche and that you’ll never trust me again. I can take it.
A Little Life – Hanya Yanagihara
This is no obscure pick, it’s been up at the top of the bestsellers charts all year and after reading it you’ll probably see why. What at first starts off as your everyday group of New Yorkers struggling with their friendship dynamics and career paths turns into a story focusing on one character and his horrific past. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry… actually, you’ll just cry.
Think Like an Artist – Will Gompertz
If you’d met a filmmaker who told you that he has bought countless copies of this book to give to his filmmakery, artistic friends, then you might have been tempted to pick up a copy of Think Like an Artist too. Written by BBC arts editor Will Gompertz, it’s about as inspirational as you’d want your first book of 2016 to be. So read it and take all those tales of creativity from the geniuses Will Gompertz has encountered over the years, and get your artistic thought process rolling.
Fourth of July Creek – Smith Henderson
Out of nowhere, this dark, introspective, paranoid story set deep in a backwater American town filled with people more fearful and distrustful of their own government than anything as abstract as 'the rest of the world', hits with everything you’d want from a debut novel. Smith Henderson took a while to write Fourth of July Creek and that’s a shame because that means there's a chance his next is going to be a while.
Ametora: How Japan Saved American Style – W. David Marx
It may go a little over the top with that hyperbolic title, but Ametora: How Japan Saved American style is one of the most interesting reads on American Ivy style - the beginnings and evolution of – that you could come across. While obviously not for everyone, with a title as niche as that, this is a great book for those who find the history of fashion as fun as the wearing of it.
Ready Player One – Ernest Cline
I'm coming to Ready Player One about four years too late but I’m not going to apologise because the film is in production, which automatically makes it totally relevant. In the safe hands of none other than Mr. Steven Spielberg, this is your last chance to read the book before the movie hype drowns out the written word. A mixed up dystopian fantasy adventure novel with more nods to 80’s pop culture than even the biggest John Hughes fan will be able to handle, it’s just a whole lot of fun to read.
* An honourable mention goes to Joshua deWitt for Under Major Domo Minor because I'm only part way through it but it's great and so is everything else he's written.
