Best of 2015 – These are a few of our favorite things!
We asked and you responded! Here are your favorite things from 2015:
Mikki Janower ’16:
Bookstores: The Last Bookstore, in Los Angeles. They have a LITERAL labyrinth made of books, an impressive rare books collection, an art gallery and an enormous vinyl selection. I could literally get lost in it, and I usually do. James Welch ’17: The whole Justin Bieber Album “Purpose” is the best album of the year/my favorite. I enjoy all of the songs not for for any specific reason, but they are all very good. English Teacher Vicky Seelen: I read eight or nine novels by Julie Macomber that center around a knitting store in Seattle. One of my “guilty pleasures.” Great characters, great store as background and a bakery appears as well so there are luscious details of croissants and coffee shared among friends. My Life on the Road, Gloria Steinem: her memoir about her life as an activist and the meaning that she finds through traveling. She says that she did not have “a home” until she was in her 50s and still, at 81, travels the world. The Life of Riley: an inspiring documentary about B.B. King’s life and that path that led him to perform and become the genius that he was. The Wrecking Crew: a documentary on the sessions players of the ’60s and ’70s who played with/for all the great recording artists of that time. Muscle Shoals: a documentary about a place and recording studio in rural Alabama that attracted and recorded many of the great such as Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, etc.” Japanese Teacher Aya Anderson: My sons and I enjoyed the Pixar movie Inside Out this summer. The boys had good laughs throughout, but it was a great story for adults, too–it cleverly taps into our curiosity for science and resonates with our experiences in parenthood. Director of Academic Support Gia Batty: I loved The Secret History of Wonder Woman by Jill Lapore. The audiobook was wonderful because Jill Lapore narrated it, and you could hear the passion and enthusiasm in her voice as she shared the amazing story of this superhero. It was so surprising to find out how the history of Wonder Woman follows the history of women’s rights in America. I loved it. Purity, Jonathan Franzen’s latest novel, was definitely a journey. First, it’s a 25-hour audiobook… so it took a while to finish it. Second, the book is this wonderful map of plots and subplots and sub-subplots that, of course, get tied up in this incredible way. The story never got too convoluted, but always was so interconnected and layered, and I loved that about it. Third, the book took me from East Germany to Bolivia to Oakland to Denver to my favorite setting of the small cabin in the woods of Felton, California. Franzen is so good at establishing place and I found myself fully immersed in each of his many settings. While this wasn’t my favorite Franzen novel, I really liked it and was sad for it to end. Fun fact: the main character, Purity Tyler, goes by the nickname of Pip–just one of the many nods Franzen makes to Charles Dickens. Performing Arts Department Chair Dan Halperin: The Orphan Master’s Son by Adam Johnson…a very enjoyable work of genius! Your Father’s Where Are They? And the Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers…a quick, easy read that’s actually a play pretending to be a novel! How to Start a Fire by Lisa Lutz…a smart, fun mystery! The New Yorker magazine…a weekly chance to learn about what’s happening in the city and around the world in politics, science, art, culture, and more! Alex Halaby ’21 Hamilton. History Teacher E.B Bartels: I read so many things that I loved in 2015, it’s hard to choose. I spent the year trying to read only books by women, and I read a lot of really fantastic things. (If you’d like to see a complete list of everything I’ve read so far, check out my blog: ebbartels.wordpress.com.) Of everything I read in 2015, here are the ones that I adored that were also all published in 2015 or 2014: Negroland: A Memoir by Margo Jefferson The Big Green Tent by Lyudmila Ulitskaya The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson Citizen: An American Lyric by Claudia Rankine We Should All Be Feminists by Chimanda Ngozi Adichie Hammer Head: The Making of a Carpenter by Nina MacLaughlin (Nobles ’97!) The Empathy Exams by Leslie Jamison Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay Associate Director of Academic Support Sara Masucci: I am enjoying “The Man in the High Castle.” It’s an Amazon series set in post-WWII America…except the Nazis and Japanese won the war. The story focuses on an underground American resistance movement and these mysterious films (I don’t know what role they play yet) connected to the man in the high castle.” Victoria Casado ’17: I really enjoyed the movie, The Age of Adaline. It took me on an emotional roller coster, where I loved every second of it! The producers and cinematographers did an amazing job taking us through multiple decades in less then two hours! AMAZING!” The Game by Terry Schott was an interesting sci-fi/fantasy book that I recently finished. I don’t like science fiction, or fantasy, but this book had an incredible story line that really drew me in. The game within the book is very intricate, and detailed. Great read that I would recommend to anyone looking for something different. Looking for Alaska by John Green. The story of Miles and Culver Creek really intrigued me, and I was able to feel all of the emotions that the characters went through including an important event leading to the rest of the book. Jennifer Do-Dai ’21 I enjoyed Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan because it was suspenseful and interesting. Classics Teacher Meghan Glenn: I have been loving The Happiness Journal. It is based on the book (which I loved), but the act of writing something good down (especially now during this tragic time) can be helpful. Classics Teacher Mark Harrington: Movie: DVD – Rocket Science (2007): A stuttering boy joins a high school debate team. I was fascinated by the fast-talking debaters, and was thoroughly amused throughout. Painful and fun at the same time. Theater: Unbroken. Actually, I saw it on DVD, but it’s basically as new a movie as I routinely see. A student recommendation; some didn’t like it, but I thought it was great. TV: Tough call. I binged on “Being Erica,” a Canadian show where the protagonist goes back in time to take care of past poor judgments. The family, though, enjoyed “Mother Funders” this summer; our guilty pleasure lasted eight episodes, following the conflicts of the members of a PTO in a small town in Georgia. Book: The Martian by Andy Weir was the “mainstream” book I enjoyed the most. In lesser-known books, I found Back Channel by Steven L. Carter interesting, because it dealt fictionally with the Cuban Missle Crisis. I was really young when this event happened, and so it filled in a lot of holes for me. Fiction, though…probably shouldn’t take it too seriously. Assistant to the Dean of Enrollment Management Milena Pirint: Book: I loved The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins. If you’re looking for a thriller this is it! I could not put this book down and I loved the surprise ending too! TV Show: “Once Upon A Time” is a great TV series that incorporates all the classic fairy tale characters such as Snow White, Prince Charming, Rumpelstiltskin, The Evil Queen and many many more. Very family friendly. Each week we can’t wait to see who will show up next in Storybrook, Maine!
Information Services and Systems Librarian Talya “Crisp Apple Strudel” Sokoll: In my yearly attempt (at which I will most definitely fail) to read 200 books, I read a bunch of amazing things. My favorites were: 1. The Marvels by Brian Selznick – an amazing tale, told partly through illustrations, of a boy in London finding his true home. 2. You’re Never Weird on the Internet (Almost) by Felicia Day. Day’s memoir of her love of nerd culture, as well as her struggles with mental health was a brilliant, funny and empowering tale. 3. X: a Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz. Written by his daughter, X is based on the true life story of Malcolm X before he became the Civil Rights Activist. Very powerful and engaging and it takes place partly in Boston!
Collection Development and Technical Services Librarian Emily “Brown Paper Packages Tied Up with String” Tragert Some of my favorite books this year were: The Family: Three Journeys into Heart of the Twentieth Century by David Laskin–the phenomenal and heartbreaking true story of the author’s family throughout the twentieth century. Saga by Brian K. Vaughn and Fiona Staples–this gorgeously-illustrated comic book tells the story of a family on the run during an intergalactic war.
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