Busy K’s 2015 Booklist
The Baron in the Trees, book sculpture by Su Blackwell
It’s that time of the year again. Time for Busy K’s 2015 book list. I’m realizing that most of these stories have been adapted for the screen. Hmmm, interesting.
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
Set in the near future, Cline asks the question: What happens when a billionaire tech entrepreneur dies and leaves the key to his fortune and empire hidden within a virtual reality video game? You get a pulpy blend of science fiction, pop culture, and gaming in this dystopian future. Stephen Spielberg is adapting the film version.
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
Slow clap for this author who always breathes new life into history and makes me feel like I’m witnessing it anew. Based on glowing recommendations, I had given this book to my dad on 2 separate Christmases before I had read it myself. Special thanks to my dad who politely accepted it each time. Leonardo DiCaprio has optioned the film rights.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Weighing in at a hefty 880 pages, this is a sci-fi-time-traveling-page-turner. It’s been a long time since I’ve read King, perhaps since high school, so picking up this book was like reconnecting with an old friend. If you can’t handle the book’s girth, it’s coming to Hulu as a miniseries in 2016.
Department Q series by Jussi Adler-Olsen
This Danish crime series has all the suspense and dark twists of Nordic Noir, minus the misogyny. And refreshingly, the hero detective Carl Morck is not a drunk or a drug addict; he’s just grumpy, and his unlikely sidekicks add much needed humor to these dark and twisted stories. The first book is The Keeper of Lost Causes.
Seabiscuit by Laura Hillenbrand
I don’t know how I missed this story 14 years ago. It was a best-selling book and then an award-winning film. Never the less, I’m enjoying the audiobook version. If I could offer one suggestion, it would be that it seems like a missed opportunity not to hear the descriptions of the horse races read with the energy of a race unfolding on the track. But that’s a minor note to a grand story, and the first book of the masterful Laura Hillenbrand.
I loved Seabiscuit too! Love your end of the year list, I look forward to it every year.
Thanks for checking it out, Annetta!