Year-End Lists

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: 50 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2021]

Fiction

• Ancillary Mercy
  Ann Leckie
• Brush Back
  Sara Paretsky
• Did You Ever Have a Family
  Bill Clegg
• Eyes

  Novellas and Stories
  William H. Gass
• Fates and Furies
  Lauren Groff
• Finale

  A Novel of the Reagan Years
  Thomas Mallon
• The First Bad Man
  Miranda July
• Fortune Smiles

  Stories
  Adam Johnson
• Girl Waits with Gun
  Amy Stewart
• God Help the Child
  Toni Morrison
• A God in Ruins
  Kate Atkinson
• Golden Age
  Jane Smiley
• A History of Loneliness
  John Boyne
• In the Unlikely Event
  Judy Blume
• Inside the O’Briens
  Lisa Genova
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• Marry, Kiss, Kill
  Anne Flett-Giordano
• Our Souls at Night
  Kent Haruf
• Purity
  Jonathan Franzen
• The Secret Chord
  Geraldine Brooks
• Shanghai Redemption
  Qiu Xiaolong
• A Spool of Blue Thread
  Anne Tyler
• The State We’re In

  Maine Stories
  Ann Beattie
• Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
  Salman Rushdie
• The Whites
  Richard Price (as Harry Brandt)

Nonfiction

• Anonymous Soldiers

  The Struggle for Israel, 1917-1947
  Bruce Hoffman
• The Art of Memoir
  Mary Karr
• Black Man in a White Coat

  A Doctor’s Reflections on Race and Medicine
  Damon Tweedy
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Children of the Stone

  The Power of Music in a Hard Land
  Sandy Tolan
• Custer’s Trials

  A Life on the Frontier of a New America
  T.J. Stiles
• Dead Wake

  The Last Crossing of the Lusitania
  Erik Larson
• Destiny and Power

  The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
  Jon Meacham
• Dreamland

  The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
  Sam Quinones
• F.B. Eyes

  How J. Edgar Hoover’s Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature
  William J. Maxwell
• The Ferguson Report

  Department of Justice Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department
  United States Department of Justice Civil Rights Division
• The Great Leader and the Fighter Pilot

  The True Story of the Tyrant Who Created North Korea and The Young Lieutenant Who Stole His Way to Freedom
  Blaine Harden
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• Katrina

  After the Flood
  Gary Rivlin
• Lesser Beasts

  A Snout-to-Tail History of the Humble Pig
  Mark Essig
• My Life on the Road
  Gloria Steinem
• On the Move

  A Life
  Oliver Sacks
• Once in a Great City

  A Detroit Story
  David Maraniss
• The Oregon Trail

  A New American Journey
  Rinker Buck
• Our Kids

  The American Dream in Crisis
  Robert D. Putnam
• Pitch by Pitch

  My View of One Unforgettable Game
  Bob Gibson and Lonnie Wheeler
• The Unsubstantial Air

  American Fliers in the First World War
  Samuel Hynes
• Washington’s Revolution

  The Making of America’s First Leader
  Robert Middlekauff
• Winter Is Coming

  Why Vladimir Putin and the Enemies of the Free World Must Be Stopped
  Garry Kasparov
• Young Eliot

  From St. Louis to "The Waste Land"
  Robert Crawford

The San Francisco Chronicle: Top 10 Books of 2015

[see also Favorite Books of 2022 • 100 Recommended Books of 2018 • Top 10 Books of 2018 • 100 Recommended Books of 2016 • Top 10 Books of 2016]

Fiction

• Fortune Smiles

  Stories
  Adam Johnson
• A Manual for Cleaning Women

  Selected Stories
  Lucia Berlin
• The Sellout
  Paul Beatty
• The Story of the Lost Child
  Elena Ferrante
• The Tsar of Love and Techno

  Stories
  Anthony Marra

Nonfiction

• Barbarian Days

  A Surfing Life
  William Finnegan
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Ghettoside

  A True Story of Murder in America
  Jill Leovy
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• Spectacle

  The Astonishing Life of Ota Benga
  Pamela Newkirk

Harper’s Bazaar: 15 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2020 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Between the World and Me
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. Purity
   Jonathan Franzen
3. M Train
   Patti Smith
4. God Help the Child
   Toni Morrison
5. Go Set a Watchman
   Harper Lee
6. My Life on the Road
   Gloria Steinem
7. Fates and Furies
   Lauren Groff
8. Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
   Salman Rushdie
9. City on Fire
   Garth Risk Hallberg
10. My Journey
    Donna Karan
11. Beauty Is a Wound
    Eka Kurniawan
12. The Book of Lost and Found
    Lucy Foley
13. A Manual for Cleaning Women

    Selected Stories
    Lucia Berlin
14. The Girl On The Train
    Paula Hawkins
15. The Folded Clock

    A Diary
    Heidi Julavits

Maria Popova: 15 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2018 • 2016]

1. On the Move

   A Life
   Oliver Sacks
2. H Is for Hawk
   Helen Macdonald
3. Consolations

   The Solace, Nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words
   David Whyte
4. M Train
   Patti Smith
5. The Light of the World

   A Memoir
   Elizabeth Alexander
6. Ongoingness

   The End of a Diary
   Sarah Manguso
7. Felicity
   Mary Oliver
8. The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage

   The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer
   Sydney Padua
9. Rising Strong
   Brené Brown
10. Enormous Smallness

    A Story of E. E. Cummings
    Matthew Burgess
11. Big Magic

    Creative Living Beyond Fear
    Elizabeth Gilbert
12. Negroland

    A Memoir
    Margo Jefferson
13. Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs

    The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
    Lisa Randall
14. Selfish, Shallow, and Self-Absorbed

    Sixteen Writers on the Decision Not to Have Kids
    Meghan Daum
15. Hurry Up and Wait
    Maira Kalman and Daniel Handler

David L. Ulin: Top 10 Books of 2015, as published by The Los Angeles Times

• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• The Brothers

  The Road to an American Tragedy
  Masha Gessen
• Eventually Everything Connects
  Loris Lora
• Honeydew

  Stories
  Edith Pearlman
• Killing and Dying
  Adrian Tomine
• The Meursault Investigation
  Kamel Daoud
• M Train
  Patti Smith
• The Odd Woman and the City

  A Memoir
  Vivian Gornick
• Then Comes Marriage

  United States V. Windsor and the Defeat of DOMA
  Roberta Kaplan with Lisa Dickey
• Wide Awake

  Poets of Los Angeles and Beyond
  Suzanne Lummis

Maureen Corrigan: 11 Best Books of 2015 (as aired on NPR’s Fresh Air)

[see also 2023 • 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016 • 2011]

• The Tsar of Love and Techno

  Stories
  Anthony Marra
• Honeydew

  Stories
  Edith Pearlman
• A Manual for Cleaning Women

  Selected Stories
  Lucia Berlin
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• The Light of the World

  A Memoir
  Elizabeth Alexander
• M Train
  Patti Smith
• Bettyville

  A Memoir
  George Hodgman
• The Mare
  Mary Gaitskill
• The Buried Giant
  Kazuo Ishiguro
• The Story of the Lost Child
  Elena Ferrante
• No Better Friend

  One Man, One Dog, and Their Extraordinary Story of Courage and Survival in WWII
  Robert Weintraub

Entertainment Weekly: 11 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2022 • 2021 • 2020 • 2010s • 2019 • 2018 • 2017 • 2016]

1. Between the World and Me
   Ta-Nehisi Coates
2. A Manual for Cleaning Women

   Selected Stories
   Lucia Berlin
3. Dreamland

   The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic
   Sam Quinones
4. Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl
   Carrie Brownstein
5. Dietland
   Sarai Walker
6. The Turner House
   Angela Flournoy
7. Trashed
   Derf Backderf
8. The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume One

   At the Edge of Empire
   Daniel Kraus
9. Home Is Burning

   A Memoir
   Dan Marshall
9. Bettyville

   A Memoir
   George Hodgman
10. The Kind Worth Killing
    Peter Swanson

The Washington Post: 10 Best Books of 2015 (presented alphabetically by title)

[see also The 10 Best Books of 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2023 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2022 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2022 • The 10 Best Books of 2022 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2021 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2021 • The 10 Best Books of 2021 • 10 Best Books of 2020 • 50 Notable Works of Nonfiction in 2020 • 50 Notable Works of Fiction in 2020 • Best Books of 2019 • 10 Best Books of 2018 • 100 Notable Books of 2018 • 10 Best Books of 2017 • The 10 Best Books of 2016 • The Ten Best Books of 2014 • Top 10 Books of 2013 • The 10 Best Books of 2012]

• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Black Flags

  The Rise of ISIS
  Joby Warrick
• The Book of Aron
  Jim Shepard
• Destiny and Power

  The American Odyssey of George Herbert Walker Bush
  Jon Meacham
• Fates and Furies
  Lauren Groff
• Future Crimes

  Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It
  Marc Goodman
• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• Negroland

  A Memoir
  Margo Jefferson
• Purity
  Jonathan Franzen
• Welcome to Braggsville
  T. Geronimo Johnson

Vogue: The 10 Best Books of 2015

[see also 2023 • 2020 • 2019]

• A Little Life
  Hanya Yanagihara
• Hold Still

  A Memoir with Photographs
  Sally Mann
• Between the World and Me
  Ta-Nehisi Coates
• Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl
  Carrie Brownstein
• The Story of the Lost Child
  Elena Ferrante
• City on Fire
  Garth Risk Hallberg
• The Love Object
  Edna O’Brien
• H Is for Hawk
  Helen Macdonald
• Outline
  Rachel Cusk
• The Visiting Privilege
  Joy Williams

Jane Ciabattari: The 10 Best Books of 2015 as published by BBC Culture

[see also 2016 • 2014 • 2013]

1. Gold Fame Citrus
   Claire Vaye Watkins
2. Fortune Smiles

   Stories
   Adam Johnson
3. The Story of the Lost Child
   Elena Ferrante
4. Golden Age
   Jane Smiley
5. The Complete Stories
   Clarice Lispector
6. Thirteen Ways of Looking
   Colum McCann
7. The Sunken Cathedral
   Kate Walbert
8. The Tsar of Love and Techno

   Stories
   Anthony Marra
9. Ordinary Light
   Tracy K. Smith
10. M Train
    Patti Smith