Rather late to report, but here's what I read in 2015:
Station Eleven, Emily St John Mandel
This book explores the lives of a few people during a pivotal moment in human history: the contemporary outbreak of a flu strain that wiped out the vast majority of humans worldwide. It was written with much more of a human-interest angle than I'm used to - in that way it reminded me of the books Heidi loves so much that are about people and their lives, without any storyline. But while this book was at times overly poetic and lacking a sufficiently clear narrative for my tastes, it's been the book I've recalled the most, by far. It haunts me. It was a beautiful story of human suffering, fear, and triumph... and really what more do you need?
All Quiet On the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque
A vivid portrayal of life on the German side of the Western Front in WWI. It was raw, eye-opening and heartbreaking. It was written so true to life I thought I was reading a nonfiction until the very end. Every war is certainly terrible, but I believe WWI was unique in its ability to destroy life indiscriminate to any sort of merit or reason.
The Man in the High Castle, Philip K. Dick
An alternative history where Germany and Japan won WWII, set in the carved up former-USA. Fascinating world, great characters. It's currently an show being produced by Amazon, I'd recommend checking either or both out. Turns out I love alternative histories... They raise some fascinating questions.
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, Charles C. Mann
What were American peoples and cultures like before Columbus? How did the flora and fauna change? Apparently a lot. Fascinating and sobering study... The loss in culture, skills, and human lives is staggering - literally incomprehensible to me, even more so after reading this book. Facing that loss also raises deep questions for me, as someone who directly benefits from living in North America. Perhaps this is why I enjoyed Orson Scott Card's
Pastwatch so much in 2014 - it bears the subtitle "The Redemption of Christopher Columbus" - as that paints a picture (albeit unrealistic) of how things might have turned out differently.
The Lean Startup, Eric Reis
I was recommended to read this when I first joined
NerdWallet.com, covering the fundamentals of startup product design. Great stuff in this book but definitely in the breed of most business-related books where the entire thing could have been summarized in 5 pages. Everything else is just tons of examples, self-congratulations, and fluff.
Star Wars: Darth Vader and the Ghost Prison, Haden Blackman
Graphic novel set before "A New Hope" where Darth Vader is the protagonist, working to save the Emperor's life and shut down a rebellion in the Empire's ranks. We all instinctively fear Vader, this story shows why he deserves that fear.
Pax Romana, Jonathan Hickman
My brother, Brenden, shared this graphic novel with me while at Lake Tahoe this summer. I devoured it. The premise: the modern (near-future) Catholic Church sends people back in time to alter its founding principles to enable a stronger/more relevant future Catholic Church. These time travelers arrive in ancient Rome. The juxtaposition of ancient and modern ideas and technology was delightful, the artwork gorgeous. Highly recommended.
Ready Player One, Ernest Cline
A popcorn sci-fi, set in a dystopian future following a teen who escapes his miserable life into a highly immersive virtual reality. This book leans heavily on 80s pop culture - I bet if I were 5-10 years older and a lot geekier I would have enjoyed this more, as it was it was just fun.
The End of All Things, John Scalzi
If you've actually read these reports, you know that I love sci-fi. And out of sci-fi John Scalzi is one of my favorite authors. Out of Scalzi's work, I've especially enjoyed his
Old Man's War series - and this book was the most recent installment. Despite my love for the author and series, this book fell flat for me. It was procedural with few new ideas, lots of talking, and generally lacking the fun that makes Scalzi so great.
Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis, Thomas Wirthlin McConkie
I've had a good deal of soul searching over the last year or so on my faith. This book helped a great deal to understand how questioning and doubts fit into my progression as a person and disciple of Christ. If I had to recommend one book to someone struggling with their faith, however, I'd suggest Givens'
The Crucible of Doubt (see below).
Navigating is written by an adult-development researcher (there's been tons of research on kid's cognitive development, he's researching the adult analogy which is a relatively new field) who applied his research to his own faith crisis. It's not very spiritual but helped me understand how my questions fit into my own development stage, helping me better understand my doubts and exactly why those doubts are so important.
The Crucible of Doubt, Terryl Givens and Fiona Givens
Highly recommended to anyone struggling with a faith crisis or otherwise seeking to better understand doubts - why we have them and how we can learn from them. This book was much more spiritual than
Navigating Mormon Faith Crisis and also more tangible and applicable. They discuss high level doctrine and ideas while also spending time addressing common causes for doubts in the Mormon faith today.
The Surrogates, Robert Venditti and Brett Weldele
Graphic novel, again shared by Brenden. Set in a near-future world where most people have purchased life-like robots to represent them in real life (hence the title). I thought this book shone the most when it explored how those surrogates affected individual relationships, especially between spouses/lovers, and how people viewed themselves.
Podcasts
Lots more history podcasts. Favorites include The British History Podcast (by Jamie Jeffers), Revolutions (by Mike Duncan), and Hardcore History. Other podcasts I occasionally enjoy listening to are Freakonomics and Radiolab. I'd include Invisibilia on here if they ever published new work. I tried a few other podcasts this year but I discovered I have a very, very low tolerance for levity in this medium. Case in point: Neil De Grass Tyson's Startalk Radio should be perfect for a science-fan nerd like me, right? No way. Way too much joking around, radio DJ-like nonsense. I can't stand it. 100% useful stuff all the time, or you're off. (I know this is rather harsh, I've really tried to make myself budge on this but so far it hasn't worked).
