{"id":5177,"date":"2016-01-14T06:42:47","date_gmt":"2016-01-14T11:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5177"},"modified":"2016-01-14T06:47:59","modified_gmt":"2016-01-14T11:47:59","slug":"best-reads-of-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5177","title":{"rendered":"Best Reads of 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_4576\" style=\"width: 379px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4576\" class=\" wp-image-4576\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/2015-07-04-14.28.09.jpg?resize=369%2C280\" alt=\"books, reading\" width=\"369\" height=\"280\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-4576\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">5-star books of 2015 (photo: Vicki Weisfeld)<\/p><\/div>\n<p>The books in my \u201cbest of\u201d list are not necessarily published in 2015, just read last year. Of the 71 print and audio books reviewed here in 2015, I gave five stars to 10.<\/p>\n<p>What are the criteria for awarding stars? <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4575\">In general,<\/a> because I try to avoid books likely to be poor, most receive three or more. In my &#8220;system,&#8221; a three-star book is a good book, a four-star book is an excellent book, and those that earn that last star have something special in terms of language or character or can\u2019t-put-it-downness.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=3907\">City of Thieves<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by David Benioff \u2013 During the siege of Leningrad, two young men are on a quest to find a dozen eggs (and save their lives). Full of adventure and humor.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4219\">The International: A Novel of Belfast<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Glenn Patterson \u2013 Set just before the start of the Troubles, the patrons and doings in this hotel bar reveal what Northern Ireland was then and lost forever.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4339\">Grand River and Joy<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Susan Messer \u2013 In the months before the 1967 Detroit riots, a Jewish shopowner must decide whether to stay in the city or flee to the suburbs like so many friends and family already have. A Michigan native, I know many places mentioned.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4401\">The Orphan Master\u2019s Son<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Adam Johnson \u2013 Set in North Korea and filled with both pain and wry humor, this Pulitzer-winner shows how people must accommodate under a regime of total oppression. I didn\u2019t expect to like it and did!<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4506\">Against a Darkening Sky<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Lauren B. Davis \u2013 I was thrilled to see her bring 7th century England alive, when the advent of Christianity was rooting out the old polytheistic ways and being a traditional healer became dangerous.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4593\">Elsewhere<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Richard Russo \u2013 Not a particular fan of memoir, I found this first-person exploration of a son\u2019s relationship with his feckless mother as absorbing as any novel.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4676\">Seveneves<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Neal Stephenson \u2013 What if the moon blew up? Would humans survive? Written with the author\u2019s usual engaging characters, nail-biting situations, and deep humor. He understands people as well as science (860 pages).<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4717\">Ghost Fleet<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by P.W. Singer &amp; August Cole \u2013 This near-future thriller shows how dependence on wireless communications networks, GPS, and other technologies make the U.S. military vulnerable. Such an important book and a good read!<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4749\">The Children Act<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Ian McEwan \u2013 Moral dilemmas when law and religion collide in disputes over children\u2019s fate. First-rate writing.<\/li>\n<li><em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vweisfeld.com\/?p=4951\">Clockers<\/a><\/em> \u2013 by Richard Price \u2013 set in the fictional New Jersey town of Dempsey, the seesawing interactions of police and street drug dealers in this 1992 novel were one inspiration for <em>The Wire.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Happy Reading!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The books in my \u201cbest of\u201d list are not necessarily published in 2015, just read last year. Of the 71 print and audio books reviewed here in 2015, I gave five stars to 10. What are the criteria for awarding &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=5177\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Best Reads of 2015 - my 10 favorites of 71 books reviewed","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[122,126,60],"tags":[89],"class_list":["post-5177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book","category-reading-2","category-storytelling","tag-reading"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1lv","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5177"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5179,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5177\/revisions\/5179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}